| Got Mobility?
Patrick, my significant other, and I park in the handicap zone at the grocery store. We limp to the entrance, where he climbs laboriously into an electric cart, only to realize that it is attached to the wall – two carts over. Patrick solves the problem by hooking the cord with his crutch, but not before I have tried various acrobatics to slip between, climb over, or move another cart to reach the plug. This is a last straw. In the eighteen months that Patrick has suffered knee problems (he recently had a knee replacement and is on the mend), I’ve learned a lot about the accommodations our society makes for the disabled, and how far we still have to go. For example, designers tend to think of mobility impairment as having to do with wheelchairs. They place the handicapped parking slots a long distance from the door, sometimes, as at the new Stapleton theater, around the corner and down the block.
Dating website for the mentally ill
The Israel Mental Health Association, Enosh , has recently launched the "Makshivim " (listening) website - a virtual club designed to fill the social void many mentally handicapped people experience. "We realized that come 8 p.m. many of our members have no one to talk to," says Sinai Mitkin a volunteer at Enosh's Netanya branch. "One woman, for example, did not come to the meetings because she is in a wheelchair. Through the site she connected with other people and managed to go out to the theater with them." The man behind the project is Eitan Ben-Yitzhak Klotsch, a human resources expert. .
Ealing: Blog sparks pass fury
AN Ealing councillor's blog has caused shockwaves in City Hall, with London mayor Ken Livingstone becoming embroiled in a debate over Freedom bus passes for pensioners. Cllr Phil Taylor, deputy portfolio holder for finance and performance, argued on his personal website that the Freedom Pass should be "re-targeted" away from most pensioners to the "very old". But in a surprise move Mr Livingstone has this week joined the debate saying the scheme should be "defended from the escalating attacks". .
Curb ramps liberate Americans with disabilities - and everyone else
WASHINGTON - The barricades that quadriplegic Ed Roberts and his comrades stormed 40 years ago were a few inches high. Yet today millions of Americans pass daily through the breaches they created. Curb cuts, the breaches are called. Or curb ramps. Since 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act has required them on new construction, renovations and wherever a city does major street or sidewalk work. All this curb-ramp building has helped the United States lead the world when it comes to providing public access for people with disabilities. "For all this country's many faults, one thing we do better than anybody is architectural-barrier removal," said Mary Lou Breslin, the co-founder and senior policy adviser of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, based in Berkeley, Calif.
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