Ms. Wheelchair Connecticut

Dear Ms. Bunn,

We would like your help in publicizing a new nonprofit organization that highlights the achievements of women who utilize wheelchairs in Connecticut . A committee formed during the summer of 2007, anticipating a contest that would be held in late winter 2008. In the meantime, the group had to start establishing a new nonprofit from the ground up. While a national competition honoring the achievements of wheelchair-bound women was founded in 1972, this year will be first that Connecticut women will have the official opportunity to take part. Recognizing the need for a well-spoken advocate, Ms. Wheelchair Connecticut strives to hold an annual contest, selecting an accomplished woman to represent the state at the U.S. level. This is, under no pretext, a beauty contest. Regardless of whether Ms. Wheelchair Connecticut wins the national title, her duties are numerous. Responsibilities include traveling extensively, networking with other wheelchair-bound individuals and various organizations, striving to end misconceptions about the disabled and promote awareness of architectural and attitudinal barriers within society. We are now seeking women across the state who are interested in becoming contestants, as well as volunteers and donors. If you could share the word about Ms. Wheelchair Connecticut with anyone who might be interested, we would be most appreciative! If you wish, we can email or mail a poster to hang in your office. For more information, go to www.mswheelchairct.org . Sincerely,Joanna MechlinskiSecretary/PR liaison

Wasabi Fire Alarm for deaf in Japan

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Wake up and smell the wasabi.
Japan has developed a smoke detector for deaf people that is based on the pungent smell of Japan's spicy green horseradish, an eye-watering condiment more typically found tucked under fish in a piece of sushi.
If it detects smoke, the alarm sprays out a synthesized wasabi smell that wakes up people who might have slept through a conventional fire alarm.
Assistant professor Makoto Imai from the Shiga University of Medical Science, who built the alarm in collaboration with Seems, a company that makes perfume, says the smoke detector may save lives among the hard of hearing.
"The proportion of the elderly among fire victims was nearly 50 percent. So, the staff at Seems ... thought that the decline of hearing ability may be one of the causes for delay in noticing and getting away when a fire breaks out," he told Reuters in an e-mail.
He said the Wasabi smoke detector was tested on 14 people, including four deaf people. Except for one person with a blocked nose, all woke up within two minutes of the smell reaching them.
Imai said trial production of the Wasabi smoke detector would be completed in a year and the product would be sold in shops within two years.
(Reporting by Sophie Hardach; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

DNEC listed in GoodSearch

The Disabilities Network of Eastern Connecticut is now a listed charity with GoodSearch. When you do an internet search through this search engine, they donate money to the charity of your choice. I have just downloaded the GoodSearch toolbar to my web browser, and have begun using it. The actual search engine is running Yahoo! SEARCH. If you would like to support the Disabilities Network of Eastern CT, please go to GoodSearch.com, put our name in the charity search box, and then download the toolbar. Everytime you do a search with this search engine, DNEC will get a penny. This doesn't sound like a lot, but the average person does 2 searches a day. Over the course of a year, and with only ten people, that equals about seventy-five dollars. Imagine what we can do if everyone who is affiliated with DNEC downloads it?!

Bob's House

"Bob's House" was a commercial made by Pepsico and EnAble. It aired during the pregame of the Superbowl 2008.

Drop in Center

DNEC has applied for a grant from General Mills, Hamburger Helper, to create a Drop in Center for Veterans with Disabilities. Please use the link below to go directly to the website and comment on it.

http://www.myhometownhelper.com/ViewProject.aspx?tell=2&id=36177

February 11, 2008

The Evening activities scheduled for tonight are cancelled due to the inclement weather! This means: the Board of Directors meeting is cancelled, and the ASL class is cancelled.

DEAF KFC

This is a KFC in Eygpt owned by a person who is deaf. All of his staff are deaf except for one worker who is hearing and answers the phone.

Irony at DNEC

The irony of working for an ILC in Connecticut is profound. Advocates spend all day helping people with disabilities to live independently, achieve their goals, get jobs, and remain in the community. This is a difficult, and specialized job which requires a great deal of specialized knowledge. While we provide many services (check out the website for more details on our services), and save the state of Connecticut a large sum of money each year through our Nursing Facilities Transition Project, and by keeping people OUT of Nursing Homes, the ILC's have not seen an increase in their funding in years, and have, in fact, lost some funding.

At the risk of sounding like a complainer, I will state, unequivocally, that most of the people working for an Independent Living Center are not paid a living wage. We have employees, WORKING in our centers who qualify for food stamps, and are having their electricity shut off because, with the increase in the cost of everything, and no COLA for the centers, they cannot afford to pay their bill.

The services we provide are incredibly important-- not just to the people who receive them. Businesses get good workers, tax payers save money by having our consumers in the community and paying sales tax, property tax, income tax etc, and the cost of state covered services are less when provided in the community, yet the people who are instrumental in helping people recieve these services cannot afford to live independently.

Please call your senator or Representative today, and ask them to include Independent Living Centers in the 3% COLA for non-profits.

Is "disability" dying?

In the January 28th issue of Time Magazine, Nancy Gibbs pens an essay which questions the idea of "disability". What is at the heart of the essay is a question that we are just beginning to be able to conceive of; forget answer! Is disability dying? As technology advances and we move toward a weird Sci-fi movie version of the 21st century, is "disability" something which is disappearing? Is it becoming a misnomer?

Nancy Gibbs briefly tells the story of a young man, Oscar Pistorius, who was born "without major bones in his legs and feet" and had both of his lower legs amputated as an infant. Oscar grew up using prostheses to pursue a passion for running, and now science has given him the ability to compete and win in the 200m at the Paralympics in Athens three years ago. Pistorius is now trying to make the Olympic team, but the International Association of Athletics Federation has disqualified him due to his super-ability (okay, I made that word up). Pistorius can run faster than the lesser-abled individual running on his own two feet. Apparently there is a physiological reason why the human ankle slows runners down, and, by not having one, Pistorius can run like the wind without using as much energy. This, the IAAF says, gives him an unfair advantage.

An unfair advantage? Why is it that when someone has a "disabling condition" that limits their ability, we are ever so amazed by them, and hold them up as heroes and paragons of American virtue, but when their "disabling condition" helps them to succeed, we say they can't play with the other kids? Does anyone, for a single moment, think that Oscar Pistorius is somehow "lucky" to have been born without leg bones? If we think about the conviction and determination it took for him to pursue this dream in the first place, we would put him on a pedestal. "That he won the Paralympics in Greece is, an incredible achievement" we say to each other, but when it comes to competing against, and possibly beating, Olympic quality athletes, suddenly it is no longer a "pick yourself up by your bootstraps" story, but rather, it is akin to the doping scandals overtaking professional sports-- it becomes cheating.

To be honest, I think that he does have an unfair advantage, but this post isn't really about whether or not he can compete. The point of this post is that as technology hurtles forward at an incredible rate of speed, these stories are going to become more and more common. Do we need to think of a new term to describe people who have disabilities, but are super-abled due to the aid of technology? How do we come to terms with this new idea of "disability"? As the Olympic committee inspires us to think outside the box by creating new rules that bar people like Pistorius from competing, can we honestly say that we know what disability means anymore?



Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows. --Ambrose Bierce

Advocacy Training

The Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut is holding a grassroots advocacy training titled "What's in Your Pill Bottle?" The EFCT says that "[t]his conference will provide you with an update on EFCT's legislative priorities; encourage you to become involved in public policy; and teach you how to take action on issues of importance to people with epilepsy." Senator Mary Ann Handley will be one of the speakers, and lunch will be served.

The Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut can be contacted at 800-899-3745, or by email at efct@sbcglobal.net