The next Disability Blog Carnival is at Barriers, Bridges and Books. The theme is “Capacities and Capabilities”. On that blog, Terri recently posted a reminder about the blog carnival, in which she said:

“What have you learned or become that you might not have without and encounter with disability? Have you become a medical expert, education specialist, behavioral manager, mechanic, efficiency expert, law specialist, problem-solver, activist, interpreter, ambassador, poet? Or something else that I haven’t thought of….Has your faith, creativity, determination, efficiency, patience, impatience, techno-savviness, assertiveness, connectedness, sensitivity, sense of humor or some other trait grown or been changed? Any of the above? All of the above? None of the above, but something else entirely??”

We’re participating, are you?

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what I’m reading when I’m not posting to the blog?  Check out what sites and blogs we visit at Active Gray Matter’s Shared Items on Google Reader! Take a look and you can even subscribe to the feed!

You can also find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace!

Woot woot!

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The news these days is mostly way crappy or tiring. So it’s great that we can depend on The Onion to show us that no situation is so icky that it can’t be laughed at - even if it’s pained and cynical.

TUCSON, AZ—After reviewing his client’s income, assets, and personal budget Tuesday, Morgan Stanley financial adviser Henry Dalton determined that Jason Hutchinson, 43, could make the best use of his portfolio by dropping dead at the age of 62. “Taking account of inflation and the rising cost of living versus the projected direction of the economy in the coming decade, I told Mr. Hutchinson that he could significantly reduce his spending by simply living less,” Dalton said. “After looking at his investments, I calculated that he really shouldn’t live a day over 62—or 59 if he wants a funeral.” In order to help his client plan for his financial future, Dalton presented Hutchinson with several of the company’s comprehensive suicide packages.

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From Government Executive (Oct 1):

Hidden Talent

By Alyssa Rosenberg

Removing obstacles for workers with disabilities is about more than ramps and readers - it’s about tapping the skills agencies need.

The National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., is one of the most buttoned-down facilities in the nation. …But for people with disabilities seeking jobs, the complex might be one of the most accessible places in government.

NSA is working to reverse a troubling trend in federal hiring. Despite agencies’ access to hiring authorities and funding for computer accommodations to bring employees with disabilities on board, their numbers have declined steadily for more than a decade. Advocates in government say those statistics are an embarrassment…

Read the rest of the article…

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VIA NY Times: Washington Section

Bailout Provides More Mental Health Coverage

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — More than one-third of all Americans will soon receive better insurance coverage for mental health treatments because of a new law that, for the first time, requires equal coverage of mental and physical illnesses.

Representative Patrick J. Kennedy speaking at a rally in March on Capitol Hill. Mr. Kennedy and Representative Jim Ramstad, third from left, led the fight in the House for mental health parity.

The requirement, included in the economic bailout bill that President Bush signed on Friday, is the result of 12 years of passionate advocacy…

Continue

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Via Newswire

WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — Landmark Disability Legislation Reverses Supreme Court Decisions

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the largest cross-disability membership organization in the U.S., commends the signing into law of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 Thursday by President George W. Bush.

“Today President Bush has followed in his father’s footsteps and taken a stand for equal opportunity and full participation for all Americans. I deeply appreciate the bipartisan leadership in the Congress that brought us to this point, and I thank President Bush for his leadership in signing this critical civil rights law that will make a real difference in the lives of millions of Americans with disabilities and chronic health conditions,” said Andrew Imparato, President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities.

The law, which was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and by voice vote in the House earlier this month, restores civil rights to Americans with disabilities in the workplace. The legislation also overturns four Supreme Court decisions that have inappropriately narrowed the protections of the ADA.

AAPD hails this monumental event as a civil rights landmark that brought together the disability and business communities to work on this historic bipartisan legislation.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990. However, in the eighteen years since its passage, decisions made by the Supreme Court have so narrowed the definition of disability under the ADA as to effectively shut out scores of people with a variety of disabilities from the civil rights protections in the workplace.

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the country’s largest cross-disability membership organization, organizes the disability community to be a powerful voice for change - politically, economically, and socially. AAPD was founded in 1995 to help unite the diverse community of people with disabilities, including their family, friends and supporters, and to be a national voice for change in implementing the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). To learn more, visit the AAPD website: www.aapd.com

Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved End of Story

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via Gimp Girl

If you missed this:

This form is for U. S. people who have outstanding student loans and are permanently disabled. If approved, their loans can be forgiven, which would wipe out their student loan debt, without it hurting their credit. This is a real gem for those who need it. It’s worthy of a bookmark.https://www2.eac-easci.org/resources/totaldisCan.pdf

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VIA GoBlueRidge.net

Written by Adam Hicks

A free workshop series will be offered to entrepreneurs in the High Country starting next month.

Watauga County, the Appalachian Regional Development Institute, and other partners have joined together to promote entrepreneurship and small business development.

The program is called the Watauga Entrepreneur Development Partnership, or W.E.D.P. and is designed to develop a local business-owner and small business support system.

The W.E.P.D. is also designed to assist people with business ideas to start their own enterprises and establish a culture of entrepreneurship and self-employment in the region.

According to the Deputy Director of the A.R.D.I., Chilton Rogers, participants will assess their interests and skills and discuss the pros and cons of entrepreneurship and self-employment.

Rogers explained this is the ninth workshop series offered to aspiring entrepreneurs in the region and the previous workshops have been very successful.

This is a free workshop and members of the public are encouraged to attend.  It will be held on October 28th, November 11th, and December 2nd from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. in the Appalachian Enterprise Center at the corner of Kin Street and Poplar Grove Connector.

Interested parties can visit www.ardi.appstate.edu for more information.

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WASHINGTON — Congress gave final approval on Wednesday to a major civil rights bill, expanding protections for people with disabilities and overturning several recent Supreme Court decisions.

The voice vote in the House, following Senate passage by unanimous consent last week, clears the bill for President Bush.

The White House said Mr. Bush would sign the bill, just as his father signed the original Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990.

The bill expands the definition of disability and makes it easier for workers to prove discrimination. It explicitly rejects the strict standards used by the Supreme Court to determine who is disabled.

The bill declares that the court went wrong by “eliminating protection for many individuals whom Congress intended to protect” under the 1990 law.

Read more

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VIA ABA Journal & Reuters

By Debra Cassens Weiss

The Senate passed a bill yesterday to expand workplace protections for people with disabilities.

The legislation is similar to a bill passed in June by the House, Reuters reports. Minor differences between the two bills are expected to be ironed out quickly so a final version can be sent to President Bush.

The bill, S. 3406, provides that a person may be disabled even though measures such as medication, prosthetics and assistive technology are used to mitigate the disability, report Reuters and Washington Labor & Employment Wire, a blog sponsored by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

The legislation was intended to override Sutton v. United Airlines, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that mitigating measures should be considered when determining whether a disability exists, according to an analysis of the bill by the Heritage Foundation.

However, the bill provides that ordinary eyeglasses and contact lenses may be considered in determining disability, recognizing that mild visual impairments are not disabilities, the Heritage Foundation analysis says.

Both the House and Senate bills again define a disability as a physical or mental impairment that “substantially limits” one or more major life activities, the Reuters story says. They increase the number of activities covered, add a category of bodily functions and continue to allow lawsuits for employer violations.

The bill’s chief sponsor, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said the Supreme Court had through a series of rulings interpreting the ADA cut down on protection for the disabled.

“The erosions of rights created by these court cases have created a bizarre Catch 22 where people with serious conditions like epilepsy or diabetes could be forced to choose between treating their conditions and forfeiting their protections under the ADA, or not treating their conditions and being protected,” Harkin said.

The Heritage Foundation contends the bill will increase the regulatory burden on employers. It prefers the Senate measure to the House bill, which would define “substantially limits” to mean “materially restricts.” The foundation contends that definition is unclear and could sweep minor impairments into the law’s protections.

Andrew Imparato, head of the American Association of People with Disabilities, applauded the Senate’s passage of the bill. “This is the most important piece of disability legislation since the enactment of the ADA in 1990,” he told Reuters.

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