NEWLY REVISED “WINDMILLS” TRAINING: This internationally acclaimed disability awareness training program has been recently revised and will be taught on March 30 through April 1at the Universal Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles, California. This program is presented by Friends of Californians with Disabilities, Inc. For more information visit the website or contact Marc at (805) 604-9017 (Voice/Relay) or Damon Brooks Associates.

AIRLINE PASSENGER RIGHTS: A new consumer rights group called the Association for Airline Passenger Rights (AAPR) has been formed to educate policymakers on travel-related information important to airline passengers, improve accessibility for passengers with disabilities, and protect the consumer rights and responsibilities of airline passengers. Membership is $10 per year. For more information, go to

NCIL ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: The National Council on Independent Living recently announced that Kelly Buckland has been appointed as NCIL’s New Executive Director. Mr. Buckland will replace NCIL’s current Executive Director, John Lancaster, who will retire on May 15, 2009.

LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS: Life Without Limits (formerly the Big Sky Project) is a national effort to create a new vision of the future for people with disabilities and is being lead by UCP. The project is designed to raise public awareness about the serious challenges that remain for people with disabilities and develop strategies, initiatives, programs, and public policy to address them.

Projects and events include Ruby’s Bequest and an annual Gala. Ruby’s Bequest, in partnership with AARP, will utilize new media to engaging the general population in a discussion on the future of care giving. The 2009 Gala will be held on September 30, 2009.

Got more news? Send me an e-mail and I’ll post it!

Because fine art and craft have long been considered a luxury for an audience with a disposable income, visual artists, like many self-employed creatives are susceptible to icky, economic downturns.  Right now everyone is hesitant to spend to drop cash on what seems to extravagance, even the very wealthy.  But collectors and dealers know this is the best time to buy and fine art and craft is one of the safest places to “park” their moola. But, they are looking to invest in  established artists with proven and verifiable sales and exhibition histories.

This is not good news for most emerging and mid-career artists. I’ve gotten e-mails from creative friends asking for ideas about how and where to sell work during a time when many galleries are struggling to make ends meet. Galleries are way more likely to exhibit the work of artists they feel confident they can sell right now. So, if you are thinking about approaching galleries any time soon here are five things to consider:

Know your stuff. Do your research and keep up the news- art, culture and business. Keep an eye on trends in your community. Watch which galleries are advertising and who they are showing. This will be a strong indication of which galleries will survive. Know which galleries accept outside proposals and when, keeping in mind most schedule exhibitions months or years in advance. Understand that, like the business world, the gallery world ebbs and flows and you need to move with it.

Become a little geeky. Aside from having an organized electronic (email) database of collectors, fans and people interested in your work, as well as an accurate inventory system, take a little time to research web sites (if you don’t have one) and blogs. Determine whether you are better served with a blog that you can easily update or a static website that is updated quarterly or annually. Check out social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn to find out how networking online with other artists and people of a like mind can
benefit you. It’s easy to let these things slide and find reasons for not having enough time, energy or resources…but, there is never a better time than now to get this stuff done.

Find creative weirdoes. Face it: being a visual artist can be a not only a weird but solitary profession, so in surrounding
yourself with other creative weirdoes you can help one another remain positive and upbeat. So find other artists and creative people you can talk to and/or meet on a
regular basis. It’s always important to keep creativity flowing but
especially during economic downturns. Nothing does that better than talking to other artists about their work and discussing yours.

Get out of the box. Be willing to think out of the box and explore non-traditional venues to
exhibit work and be willing to lower prices and/or barter for goods and services if you can. Look into local outdoor and weekend farmer’s markets and other similar venues. Look into renting space in an antique mall. Many people looking to decorate their homes with antiques also collect fine art and craft.

Curate yourself. Create your own exhibition of your existing work and approach local non profit exhibition spaces, small museums and college and university galleries with your ideas. Since many are coping with budget cuts, they are often more open to an exhibition that is already prepackaged and ready to hang. Use the distance you are willing to drive as your geographical radius and send proposals to everyone within that area.

Do stuff for yourself. Everyone is under a tremendous amount of stress in this uncertain economic climate. The world seems chaotic right now. Money, career and family responsibilities can feel overwhelming. For many visual artists and fine crafters, it is our art that centers us and in an intrinsic part of who we are. We will all get through this, so continue to make the best possible art you can make and you will continue to thrive.

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

Woot woot!

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.

Matthew Morreale, 24, could help answer a question that vexes advocates, politicians and parents of autistic children: Can we help these adults be more than a tax burden? Matthew is thought to be the first local example of a statewide trend. He runs a microenterprise, a small niche business that can be launched with minimal funding yet make a steady profit.

There are adults with developmental disabilities running mall kiosks and selling hand-made bags. They own floral businesses and they stage puppet shows for children’s parties.

Matthew runs the Matthew James Co., a shredding business that began this year with a single client but is already looking to hire additional employees. His brochure promises that he’ll “shred the competition.”

Matthew is one of a growing number of disabled entrepreneurs who are successfully running their own business. By focusing on his abilities and interests, his job coach, Cassandra Novak at Goodwill of Orange County helped him craft a self-employment plan that could help Matthew live independently.

While I’m annoyed by the default assumption that people with disabilities = tax burden, I’m delighted to read about another case of successful self-employment. This is the type of outcome we designed Active Gray Matter to support, because everyone deserves the opportunity for self reliance and independence.

Well done, Matthew!

This was necessary because although access to sports, education and community have greatly improved in the 20 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities act, meaningful and fulfilling full-time employment remains tricky and fleeting for more than 7 million people with disabilities. There are another 4 million Americans with disabilities living at or below the poverty line and for them success seems like a pipe dream.

There are advances in technology creating new options for people with disabilities who want gainful, purposeful employment doing what they are passionate about. It can be done but finding the correct resources and supports is elusive at best. Human services organizations are often pressed for time, staff and resources and state agencies created to assist people with disabilities are, in general, often woefully limited in the assistance they can offer.

So when I began looking to re-enter the workforce again two years ago after eight years of healing from spinal surgeries and learning how to be disabled after an on-the-job injury, I was optimistic but unsure.  I knew more about what I didn’t want to do than what I did, largely because I didn’t know what was available to me.

I had spent considerable time in learning about self-employment and entrepreneurship. As a freelance writer and visual artist, I certainly had skills and talents that most any organization or company would benefit from. I had the opportunity to volunteer and later work for a non-profit arts organization whose mission was to make the Arts accessible to people with disabilities.  Fortunate enough to spend my time in programming and fund development during my tenure there, I was able to work doing what I love and am passionate about.

I knew I was not alone in my struggles to find employment doing what I was passionate about because in working with other artists with disabilities, I discovered most of us had an entrepreneurial spirit but lacked the support and resources to help ourselves toward more financial independence and freedom. I mined the Internet for resources and communities that seemed to address my needs. And while the Internet does indeed allow for full and balanced economic participation by removing many of the barriers that people with disabilities face in the workforce, very few community and resource sites came close to addressing what I was looking for.

Active Grey Matter (AGM) is the first Internet-based community business incubator designed by and for people with all kinds of chronic or disabling conditions who want to work for themselves but lack the tools, community, support, resources and services to launch their own businesses and determine their own futures.

More than just another social networking site, Active Gray Matter is also a community of people who love to learn, collaborate, teach and share knowledge to assist new self-owned businesses take flight and thrive. Sue Cline, AGM’s founder and visionary, designed AGM as a sustainable community, able to function independently with or without her and independent of grants, government or venture funding. Every person in the AGM community is vital and important. They are the cheerleaders and the coaches; the teachers, mentors and students; the friends and family; the supporters and broadcasters that are vital to any thriving and independent community.

If you are an emerging entrepreneur or interested in self-employment or know, love or work with people with disabilities who are interested in owning their own businesses, you are invited to become a part of the Active Grey Matter community.  Just pop over to the community site and register for free to meet other like-minded people and AGM community members and see what Active Gray Matter is all about!

Sue Cline
Sue has over 22 years of professional experience in business operations, team building, turnaround management, marketing, business strategy, coaching and training. Sue has provided business, information technology and marketing strategies for family-owned businesses in the construction, manufacturing, hospitality, tourism and technology industries. A successful serial entrepreneur, Sue has owned three of her own companies and served in an advisory capacity for numerous start-ups.

Jane Riley Peterson
Jane completed her undergraduate degree in economics at the University of Michigan and continued her studies, receiving her M.A. in Architecture and Urban Planning from The University of California, Los Angeles. She has held research positions for the Sierra Club and for Alternatives, where she focused on environmental impact statements for indigenous cultures in Guatemala. Jane’s research abilities translated into work as a Quantitative Analyst for the RAND Corporation. In addition, she performed grant writing and evaluating for the criminal justice system, child abuse services, and Richmond Hill Ecumenical Retreat Center. Her grasp of various research methodologies informed her consulting for the Institute for Industrial Relations, University of California, and the Southwest Institute for Research on Women at the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Jane has worked with children through teaching and coordinating creativity-enriching activities for them. Her research articles have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Health Services Research and Women and Environments.

Darlene Greene
Darlene Greene has more than 10 years of real estate and mortgage experience both as an industry professional and investor. She holds a degree in English and Communications from Clemson University with a minor in journalism. Darlene’s diverse professional experience includes long stints in the trenches as director of marketing and project management in business to business marketing. Moving from marketing to operations, Darlene transferred her skills to training and development, becoming certified in program design, delivery and sales. She is a certified trainer for Zenger-Miller, Kaset International and Professional Selling.

Krishanna Spencer
A self-motivated and flexible creative professional with strong leadership skills with over 10 years experience in program management, organizational development, proposal and grants development with particular expertise in arts education, administration and management within the nonprofit sector and the arts community. Krishanna’s talents include collaboration and strategic partnerships; Internet and electronic communication, community building and social media; print, web and blog content development and editorial expertise; art and human services programming for people with disabilities and chronic conditions, and other under-served populations; and creative, practical troubleshooting and innovative issue resolution.