Many disabled people are missing out on sex, fun and spontaneity in their lives, according to the results of an independent living “quiz”.

The magazine-style quiz, carried out by Scope and supported by Disability Now, issued respondents with an “independent living score” ranging from 1 to 100.

Nearly a third scored between 30-49 points, which falls in the “not very independent” category.

A comparative follow-up quiz of non-disabled people showed that, by comparison, disabled people are worse off in their ability to act spontaneously, plan for the future, access information and enjoy a good lifestyle.

Disabled people were less likely to be able to try new things, with 55 per cent answering “not very often” or “rarely/never” compared to 19 per cent of non-disabled people. And 48 per cent of disabled people were rarely or never able to enjoy sexual relationships versus 17 per cent of non-disabled respondents, who were also three times as likely to feel happy and content (46 to 14 per cent).

Andy Rickell, an executive director at Scope, said: “It isn’t really surprising that these results show that disabled people don’t feel happy very often and are having relatively little fun. If you don’t get the support you need…then life is going to be frustrating.”

The news has prompted campaigners to renew calls for the government to support the independent living bill originally proposed by Lord Ashley.

Rachel Hurst, director of Disability Awareness in Action, says the findings show that “independent living for disabled people is a lovely dream that hasn’t even remotely become a reality”.

Disabled protesters at a rally to promote independent living were “appalled” by the findings. Chris Killick, 45, from Bermondsey, said: “A lot of disabled people will need support to go to the pub or cinema but social services don’t have the resources to implement it. That means being stuck at home.”

Another protester, Sue Elsegood, 41, from Greenwich, said the results showed the “indignity” that disabled people often face in their daily lives. “The fact that I can employ a PA to assist me here today makes a huge difference and I’d like that enshrined in new legislation.”

Officials unveiled the prototype of the first American coin with readable Braille characters, a silver dollar commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, creator of the alphabet for the blind. The president of the National Federation of the Blind, Marc Maurer, and the director of the United States Mint, Edmund C. Moy, unveiled the design. The heads side of the coin depicts Louis Braille with the word “Liberty” above it. On the back, the Braille code for the word Braille, or Brl, is inscribed, above a depiction of a boy reading a Braille book. Coins distributed by the Mint are distinguishable to the blind by size and weight, but the Braille silver dollar is the first to have Braille characters that can be read, Mr. Moy said. The commemorative coin will be available in spring 2009.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Association of Dystrophics of Zlatibor County started the realisation of project „Roads to integration“ funded by Uzice municipality.

Project will be realised in the next six months in cooperation with Association of CP and Centar for Wocial Work Uzice.Target groups will be organisations of PWDs, PWDs themselves, institutions which are working with PWDs as direct users, as well as media.

Major aim of the project implementation of the program of Informative Centre, creation the unique data base, joined web site, educational programs all them to build capacities of DPOs and maintain different forms of mutual and intersectoral cooperation as well as improve the status of all direct users. 

Three disabled athletes could be competing among non-disabled counterparts at this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

South African swimmer Natalie du Toit has now been confirmed in her country’s swimming squad for the Olympics, where she will compete in the 10km open water event. It is believed she will be the first person to compete in both the Paralympics and Olympic Games.

In May, a court ruled that Oscar Pistorius could compete against non-disabled athletes. He now has until 30 June to meet the qualifying time for the 400m.

Single arm amputee Natalia Partyka will also be competing at the Olympics, representing Poland at table-tennis in the team category.

By Paul Carter

Center for Independent Living Serbia organised one day workshop on Media and disability in Nis 20 of June 2008 within the SHARE SEE project implemented by Handicap International. Eleven representatives of DPOs and media from Nis, Leskovac and Vranje participate at this workshop facilitated by Vesna Nestorovic and Frederik Stokhaus.

ROME, ITALY – AN Italian bishop has told a young paraplegic he  cannot have
a church wedding because he is impotent, despite his fiancée being aware of
the problem, media here reported.

The 26-year-old groom, who took part in a civil marriage ceremony on
Saturday in Viterbo, has been paraplegic since he was involved in a car
accident. The curate of the parish who was banned from marrying  the couple
was present at the ceremony. – AFP

U.N Issues Stamps to Commemorate Disability Treaty  

From the United Nations Postal Administration:

On 6 June 2008, the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) will issue six commemorative stamps in the denominations of US$ 0.42, US$ 0.94, CHF 1,00, CHF 1,80, € 0,55 and € 1,40 on the theme “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted on 13 December 2006 during the sixty- first session of the General Assembly, by resolution 61/106. In accordance with its article 42, the Convention was opened for signature by all States and by regional integration organizations at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 30 March 2007.

The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. It clarifies and qualifies how all categories of rights apply to persons with disabilities and identifies areas where adaptations have to be made for persons with disabilities to exercise their rights effectively and areas where their rights have been violated, and where protection of rights must be reinforced.

June 2, 2008

Beijing Olympics organisers have apologised for offending disabled people and scrapped a training manual for volunteers which sparked a wave of protest.The offending guide has been pulled while authorities revise “inappropriate language” applied to the disabled: “Some mistakes were made in describing people with disabilities,” said a website statement from the organising body BOCOG.

“We would like to express our sincere apologies to those organisations, athletes with disabilities and friends who were offended by our publication.” The manual had met with foreign and domestic criticism, the statement said. “As such BOCOG has decided to recall and rewrite this booklet.”

Zhang Qiuping, director of Beijing’s Paralympic Games, had attributed the problems last week to poor translation. “Probably it’s cultural difference and mistranslation,” Zhang told the Associated Press in Beijing. The Chinese-language version of the text, however, was nearly identical to the English, using essentially the same clumsy stereotypes to refer to the disabled. “For the problems … that the guide used inappropriate language to describe people with disabilities, we’ve already asked the author to modify the relevant content.”

“If it (language) was deliberate, than it’s unforgivable,” said Patrick Ng, secretary of the Hong Kong Paralympic Committee. “But if it’s just a mistake then it needs to be amended or changed so it doesn’t cause more offence.”

“The language used in this guide is certainly not ideal,” said the British Paralympic team. “However, the existence of such a guide shows that attitudes towards disability in China are developing and therefore should be seen as progress.”

About 70,000 volunteers have been recruited for the August 8-24 Olympics, with 30,000 more being trained for the September 6-17 Paralympic Games. But many others will work in unofficial capacities as guides at the city’s bus stops and subway stations. All told, volunteers are expected to outnumber the 500,000 foreign visitors expected for the Olympics.

Their scrapped instruction guide had told them that disabled people “show no differences in sensation, reaction, memorisation and thinking mechanism from other people, but they might have unusual personalities because of disfigurement and disability”. “For example, some physically disabled are isolated, unsocial, and introspective; they usually do not volunteer to contact people,” it said. “They can be stubborn and controlling; they may be sensitive and struggle with trust issues. “Sometimes they are overly protective of themselves, especially when they are called crippled or paralysed.”

China‘s treatment of the disabled has in the past angered Australian swimming great Dawn Fraser, who cited it as one reason she won’t be going to Beijing. She said in April she had seen disabled athletes spat on in the streets in Beijing during university games in the mid-1990s.

© 2008 AAP

The government has unveiled a range of measures designed to improve services for disabled children and teenagers.The measures are part of its Aiming High for Disabled Children strategy.

The package includes advice for schools to tackle the bullying of disabled children, a new body to help local authorities and primary care trusts provide short breaks for families with disabled children, a new “core offer” which outlines the service provision families can expect from local authorities and primary care trusts, and a £35 million series of pilot projects to enhance childcare for disabled children.

Children, schools and families secretary Ed Balls said: “Bullying children with special educational needs and disabilities has to be the cruellest expression of cowardice. Singling out a child because they are different is unacceptable and wrong. We all need to look beyond the disability and see the young person.”He also acknowledged that “many parents of disabled children feel that the support they need hasn’t always been there”.

Commenting on the childcare pilot project, children’s minister Beverley Hughes said that ensuring parents of disabled children have access to good, high quality childcare was a key part of the government’s work on social justice, as it lifts children and their families out of poverty, and gives disabled children equal opportunities.

Steve Broach, campaign manager at Every Disabled Child Matters, welcomed the package of support.But he said services for disabled children were falling short in some areas of the country. He said: “Aiming High for Disabled Children must bring an end to the postcode lottery. It should not be too much to ask that families with disabled children, wherever they live, should have the same right to an ordinary family life as other families.”

Sunil Pek

Posted May 27 2008

AAP
May 26, 2008

Disabled people can be unsocial, stubborn, controlling, defensive and have a strong sense of inferiority, according to an official Beijing Olympics guide set to spark outrage in the disabled community.

The Olympic manual for volunteers in Beijing is peppered with patronising comments, noting for example that physically disabled people are “often” mentally healthy.

Volunteers at the Olympics and Paralympics are instructed not to call Paralympians or disabled spectators “crippled” or “lame”, even if they are “just joking”.

The document, which indicates the Chinese hosts could use a swift education in political correctness, says the optically disabled “seldom show strong emotions”.

“Physically disabled people are often mentally healthy,” adds a copy of the guide, obtained by AAP.

“They show no differences in sensation, reaction, memorisation and thinking mechanism from other people, but they might have unusual personalities because of disfigurement and disability.

“For example, some physically disabled are isolated, unsocial, and introspective; they usually do not volunteer to contact people.

“They can be stubborn and controlling; they may be sensitive and struggle with trust issues.

“Sometimes they are overly protective of themselves, especially when they are called crippled or paralysed.”

Volunteers are instructed never to “stare at their disfigurement”.

“A patronising or condescending attitude will be easily sensed by them, even for a brain damaged patient (though he cannot control his limbs, he is able to see and understand like other people).

“Like most, he can read your body language,” says the 2008 volunteer guide.

“Show respect when you talk with them.
“Do not use cripple or lame, even if you are just joking.

“Though life has handed many difficulties to them, disabled people are often independent and self-reliant.

“Volunteers should offer assistance on a basis of equality and mutual respect…

“Disabled people can be defensive and have a strong sense of inferiority.”

China’s treatment of the disabled has in the past angered swimming great Dawn Fraser, who cited it as one reason she won’t be going to Beijing.
She said in April she had seen disabled athletes spat on in the streets in Beijing during university games in the mid-1990s.

Volunteers at the Beijing Games are also given some very specific instructions on how to sit, stand, walk and talk properly.

Coalition of 13 DPOs organised meeting of solidarity on 28 of May in Smederevo. Coalition was formed through SHARE SEE program with aim to include disability issues in local policy, as disability is social and political issue of human rights.The final goal of the Coalition is forming the Working group which will consist of representatives of local authorities, DPOs and other relevant stakeholders to make the draft of local action plan in area of disability.There were about 100 persons from Smederevo, representatives of Handicap International, Center for Independent Living Serbia and Association of Students with Handicap and after the meeting there was a press conference.