[nfbmi-talk] Fw: [organizersforum] Murphy's Bill - Mental Disability

[joe harcz Comcast]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "joe harcz Comcast" <joeharcz at comcast.net>
To: <organizersforum at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 8:08 PM
Subject: Re: [organizersforum] Murphy's Bill - Mental Disability


> hello all. I did not know this lady personally but she was a hero of mine 
> nonethelless for she stood or sat, or otherwise confronted the 
> establishment in the longest takeover of federal buildings in all time in 
> America. Longer than all in Vietnam. Longer than in other civil strife.
>
>
>
> She fought for the establishment of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act 
> which fools thought irrelevent as our rights as PWD are now and were then 
> irrelevent and thought of then and now as "charity".
>
>
>
> Yet this warrior fought for us all.
>
>
>
> What has happened to America today when we PWD don't get the promisse of 
> 504 in our daily lives in any meaningful fashion? What happens when all 
> the warriors are gone?
>
>
>
> God bless this civil rights leader and her memory and let us all gather 
> our collective historical memories and put them in to renewed action today 
> regardless as to disability.
>
>
>
> Joyce Ardell Jackson: A fighter for disability rights
>
> February 17, 2014 1:00 pm by
>
> Guest contributor
>
> Joyce Ardell Jackson
>
>
>
> Joyce Ardell Jackson, who died on Dec. 29. 2013.
>
>
>
> Joyce Ardell Jackson departed this life on Sunday, December 29, 2013, in 
> San Pedro, California, following a decades-long struggle with juvenile 
> rheumatoid
>
> arthritis.
>
>
>
> Born June 2, 1947, in Berkeley, California, Joyce was a spirited 
> youngster, adventurous and friendly. At the age of 12, she contracted 
> arthritis, a defining
>
> period in her life. Over the years she faced many challenges because of 
> her condition, enduring more than 50 operations. Yet she rarely succumbed 
> to self-pity.
>
> At one point she even called herself “The Bionic Woman,” a moniker she had 
> borrowed from a popular 1970s TV series.
>
>
>
> After attending public schools in Oakland and Hayward, California, Joyce 
> attended Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, graduating in 
> 1973.
>
> Determined to be independent, she worked for a number of firms in the Bay 
> Area, including McDonnell Douglas, British Telecommunications, The San 
> Jose Mercury
>
> News, and Community Resources for Independent Living.  At times, she found 
> it necessary to juggle two part-time jobs with her full-time job.
>
>
>
> Early in her career, soon after accepting a job with the Center for 
> Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, Joyce began a second defining period 
> in her life.In
>
> April of 1977, she took part in a disability rights sit-in that lasted 
> nearly a month. Led by disability rights advocate Judy Heumann, some 150 
> severely
>
> disabled demonstrators and their supporters occupied the San Francisco 
> regional offices of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 
> (HEW), demanding
>
> enforcement of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  Similar 
> demonstrations were held in several other cities across the country.
>
>
>
> As the nationwide protests continued, Joyce was one of 20 activists sent 
> to Washington, D.C., to meet with Carter administration officials. While 
> in D.C.,
>
> the activists convinced HEW officials to implement Section 504 – the 
> landmark civil rights legislation prohibiting federally funded agencies, 
> programs,
>
> and activities from discriminating against the disabled. From that point 
> on, all agencies and programs receiving federal funds had to find ways to 
> accommodate
>
> people with disabilities, ensuring accessibility to opportunities in 
> education, employment, housing, and other areas.
>
>
>
> The “504” victory brought about life-changing improvements for the 
> disabled, including architectural accommodations ranging from 
> handicapped-accessible
>
> restrooms to curb cuts, wheelchair ramps, and bus transit lifts.
>
>
>
> Later, Joyce would serve three terms on the national board of the American 
> Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, attending board meetings at the 
> ACCD
>
> home office in Washington, D.C., and traveling around the country to 
> answer questions about the new law. She also continued working as a 
> disability counselor
>
> for nonprofits and as a telecommunications support representative in the 
> private sector. By the mid-90s, however, her physicians had intervened and 
> urged
>
> her to retire.
>
>
>
> Joyce will be dearly missed by her family members. Among her survivors are 
> siblings Thelma Stiles of Napa, California, LeRoy Charles Jackson, Jr. of 
> Phoenix,
>
> Arizona, Gail (Frank) Harris of San Pedro, California, and Raymond (Lilia) 
> Jackson of Fairfield, California; nieces Pamela Stiles of San Francisco, 
> Monica
>
> (Jose) Blanco of San Pedro, and Ashley (Paul) Turek of San Francisco and 
> Beverly Hills; nephew Vincent Jackson of Fairfield; grandnephew Dominic 
> Blanco
>
> of San Pedro; and grandnieces Sophia Turek and Vanessa Turek of Beverly 
> Hills.
>
>
>
> Joyce’s survivors also include first cousins James (Gretchen) Peters III 
> of Storrs, Connecticut, Donna (Cyril) Burke of Norristown, Pennsylvania, 
> Kimberley
>
> Bourne-Vanneck of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Brenda Williams of New 
> Orleans, and Richard (Andrea) Jackson Jr. of New Orleans; and second 
> cousins
>
> Joy Jackson of New Orleans, Elizabeth (Greg) Howes of Iowa City, Iowa, 
> Allison Bourne-Vanneck of St. Thomas, and Richard Bourne-Vanneck II of St. 
> Thomas.
>
>
>
> Joyce will be missed as well by her close friends and former colleagues in 
> the San Francisco Bay Area and by the many friends she made while living 
> with
>
> her sister Gail and brother-in-law Frank in San Pedro, Miami, Florida, and 
> Frankfurt, Germany.
>
>
>
> Joyce was preceded in death by her parents Bernice and LeRoy Charles 
> Jackson, brother-in-law Patterson Stiles, Jr., aunts Marie Peters and 
> Modess Jackson,
>
> uncles Richard Jackson and James Peters, and second cousin Richard Jackson 
> III.
>
>
>
> Donations in her memory can be sent to the Center for Independent Living, 
> 3075 Adeline Street, Suite 100, Berkeley, CA 94703. Her burial niche rests 
> at
>
> Mountain View Cemetery, 5,000 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, California. Plans 
> for a celebration commemorating her life will be announced this spring.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Source:
>
> http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/02/17/remembering-joyce-ardell-jackson/
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Joyce Ardell Jackson: A fighter for disability rights
>
> February 17, 2014 1:00 pm by
>
> Guest contributor
>
> Joyce Ardell Jackson
>
>
>
> Joyce Ardell Jackson, who died on Dec. 29. 2013.
>
>
>
> Joyce Ardell Jackson departed this life on Sunday, December 29, 2013, in 
> San Pedro, California, following a decades-long struggle with juvenile 
> rheumatoid
>
> arthritis.
>
>
>
> Born June 2, 1947, in Berkeley, California, Joyce was a spirited 
> youngster, adventurous and friendly. At the age of 12, she contracted 
> arthritis, a defining
>
> period in her life. Over the years she faced many challenges because of 
> her condition, enduring more than 50 operations. Yet she rarely succumbed 
> to self-pity.
>
> At one point she even called herself “The Bionic Woman,” a moniker she had 
> borrowed from a popular 1970s TV series.
>
>
>
> After attending public schools in Oakland and Hayward, California, Joyce 
> attended Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, graduating in 
> 1973.
>
> Determined to be independent, she worked for a number of firms in the Bay 
> Area, including McDonnell Douglas, British Telecommunications, The San 
> Jose Mercury
>
> News, and Community Resources for Independent Living.  At times, she found 
> it necessary to juggle two part-time jobs with her full-time job.
>
>
>
> Early in her career, soon after accepting a job with the Center for 
> Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, Joyce began a second defining period 
> in her life.In
>
> April of 1977, she took part in a disability rights sit-in that lasted 
> nearly a month. Led by disability rights advocate Judy Heumann, some 150 
> severely
>
> disabled demonstrators and their supporters occupied the San Francisco 
> regional offices of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 
> (HEW), demanding
>
> enforcement of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  Similar 
> demonstrations were held in several other cities across the country.
>
>
>
> As the nationwide protests continued, Joyce was one of 20 activists sent 
> to Washington, D.C., to meet with Carter administration officials. While 
> in D.C.,
>
> the activists convinced HEW officials to implement Section 504 – the 
> landmark civil rights legislation prohibiting federally funded agencies, 
> programs,
>
> and activities from discriminating against the disabled. From that point 
> on, all agencies and programs receiving federal funds had to find ways to 
> accommodate
>
> people with disabilities, ensuring accessibility to opportunities in 
> education, employment, housing, and other areas.
>
>
>
> The “504” victory brought about life-changing improvements for the 
> disabled, including architectural accommodations ranging from 
> handicapped-accessible
>
> restrooms to curb cuts, wheelchair ramps, and bus transit lifts.
>
>
>
> Later, Joyce would serve three terms on the national board of the American 
> Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities, attending board meetings at the 
> ACCD
>
> home office in Washington, D.C., and traveling around the country to 
> answer questions about the new law. She also continued working as a 
> disability counselor
>
> for nonprofits and as a telecommunications support representative in the 
> private sector. By the mid-90s, however, her physicians had intervened and 
> urged
>
> her to retire.
>
>
>
> Joyce will be dearly missed by her family members. Among her survivors are 
> siblings Thelma Stiles of Napa, California, LeRoy Charles Jackson, Jr. of 
> Phoenix,
>
> Arizona, Gail (Frank) Harris of San Pedro, California, and Raymond (Lilia) 
> Jackson of Fairfield, California; nieces Pamela Stiles of San Francisco, 
> Monica
>
> (Jose) Blanco of San Pedro, and Ashley (Paul) Turek of San Francisco and 
> Beverly Hills; nephew Vincent Jackson of Fairfield; grandnephew Dominic 
> Blanco
>
> of San Pedro; and grandnieces Sophia Turek and Vanessa Turek of Beverly 
> Hills.
>
>
>
> Joyce’s survivors also include first cousins James (Gretchen) Peters III 
> of Storrs, Connecticut, Donna (Cyril) Burke of Norristown, Pennsylvania, 
> Kimberley
>
> Bourne-Vanneck of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Brenda Williams of New 
> Orleans, and Richard (Andrea) Jackson Jr. of New Orleans; and second 
> cousins
>
> Joy Jackson of New Orleans, Elizabeth (Greg) Howes of Iowa City, Iowa, 
> Allison Bourne-Vanneck of St. Thomas, and Richard Bourne-Vanneck II of St. 
> Thomas.
>
>
>
> Joyce will be missed as well by her close friends and former colleagues in 
> the San Francisco Bay Area and by the many friends she made while living 
> with
>
> her sister Gail and brother-in-law Frank in San Pedro, Miami, Florida, and 
> Frankfurt, Germany.
>
>
>
> Joyce was preceded in death by her parents Bernice and LeRoy Charles 
> Jackson, brother-in-law Patterson Stiles, Jr., aunts Marie Peters and 
> Modess Jackson,
>
> uncles Richard Jackson and James Peters, and second cousin Richard Jackson 
> III.
>
>
>
> Donations in her memory can be sent to the Center for Independent Living, 
> 3075 Adeline Street, Suite 100, Berkeley, CA 94703. Her burial niche rests 
> at
>
> Mountain View Cemetery, 5,000 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, California. Plans 
> for a celebration commemorating her life will be announced this spring.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Source:
>
> http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/02/17/remembering-joyce-ardell-jackson/
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Adrienne Lauby" <adrienne at sonic.net>
> To: <organizersforum at yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2014 7:38 PM
> Subject: [organizersforum] Murphy's Bill - Mental Disability
>
>
>> [Sorry for the duplicate- better subject line]
>>
>> Could one of the organizers of today's call send us basic
>> information about the Murphy bill?
>>
>> The proposed 80% cut to Protection and Advocacy
>> certainly got my attention. Other provisions are equally
>> horrid.
>>
>> Adrienne
>> =================
>> Adrienne Lauby
>> Host & Producer
>> (707) 795-2890
>> adrienne at sonic.net
>>
>> "Pushing Limits"
>> KPFA’s Disability Program
>> http://www.pushinglimits.org
>> www.kpfa.org/pushing-limits
>>
>>
>> On 2/18/14 9:10 AM, joe harcz Comcast wrote:
>>> Intellectually disabled face job struggles . by Sam Hananel. Most 
>>> Americans with intellectual or
>>> developmental disabilities remain shut out of the workforce,
>>>
>>> despite changing attitudes and billions of dollars spent on government 
>>> programs to help them. Even
>>> when they find work, it's often part time, in a dead-end
>>>
>>> job or for pay well below the minimum wage. Employment is seen as 
>>> crucial for improving the quality
>>> of life for people with these disabilities and considered
>>>
>>> a benchmark for measuring the success of special-education programs. Yet 
>>> the jobs picture is as
>>> bleak now as it was more than a decade ago. Only 44 percent
>>>
>>> of intellectually disabled adults are in the labor force, either 
>>> employed or looking for work, while
>>> just 34 percent are actually working, according to
>>>
>>> a survey by Special Olympics and conducted by Gallup and the University 
>>> of Massachusetts at Boston.
>>> That compares with 83 percent of non-disabled, working-age
>>>
>>> adults who are in the workforce. "The needle has not changed in more 
>>> than four decades," said Gary
>>> Siperstein, a professor at the University of Massachusetts
>>>
>>> and one of the authors of the study. "We just can't move the barometer. 
>>> And we've invested a lot of
>>> resources with lots of good programs around the country.
>>>
>>> Intellectual disability can include conditions such as autism or Down 
>>> syndrome. But the vast
>>> majority of cases are those with limited intellectual capacity
>>>
>>> - generally an IQ of about 75 or less - and limitations in handling 
>>> basic life skills, such as
>>> counting money or taking public transportation. About 28
>>>
>>> percent of working-age adults with intellectual disabilities have never 
>>> held a job. Even those who
>>> do find jobs often end up working only part time and
>>>
>>> get lower pay than workers without disabilities, the study found. On the 
>>> positive side, 62 percent
>>> of disabled people who work in a competitive setting
>>>
>>> have been there three years or more, showing they can work and stay with 
>>> it. "A lot of the problem
>>> has to do with low expectations," said Lynnae Ruttledge,
>>>
>>> a member of the National Council on Disability, an independent federal 
>>> agency that advises the
>>> government on disability policy. "Schoolteachers don't have
>>>
>>> high expectations, and parents tend to be very protective of their 
>>> children. But attitudes are
>>> changing, she said. There are now more programs to help
>>>
>>> disabled children gain work experience while in school, making it easier 
>>> to find a job. Many
>>> intellectually disabled people work in fast food, and retail
>>>
>>> chains such as Walgreens, Best Buy and Safeway have stepped up to hire 
>>> them. Another hurdle is that
>>> about 30 percent of intellectually disabled people
>>>
>>> who work do so in sheltered workshops, where they perform basic tasks 
>>> but are segregated from
>>> non-disabled workers. They can legally be paid less than
>>>
>>> the minimum wage under a 1938 federal law that allows wages to be based 
>>> on comparing their
>>> productivity level with that of a non-disabled worker. Disability
>>>
>>> rights advocates call these workshops outdated and say it's 
>>> discriminatory to pay them less than
>>> other workers. Critics say they don't do enough to build
>>>
>>> skills or help transition intellectually disabled workers into a 
>>> mainstream work setting. Defenders
>>> argue that thousands of severely disabled people would
>>>
>>> be left sitting at home without the carefully structured environments. 
>>> Of the 420,000 disabled
>>> people who work at sheltered workshops, only 5 percent ever
>>>
>>> leave for other jobs alongside non-disabled workers. Matthew McMeekin, 
>>> 35, of Bethesda, Md., has
>>> spent 14 years working at Rehabilitation Opportunities,
>>>
>>> a nonprofit sheltered workshop where he and other disabled workers are 
>>> bused each workday to stuff
>>> envelopes, collate files or shrink-wrap products - all
>>>
>>> for far less than Maryland's minimum wage of $8.25 an hour. "He's not 
>>> working there for the money,"
>>> said his mother, Bebe McMeekin. "He has a job to go
>>>
>>> to every day for eight hours a day, five days a week. On Fridays he 
>>> brings home a paycheck. He has a
>>> work environment with his friends that he's gotten
>>>
>>> to know there. Asked whether he would ever consider working anywhere 
>>> else, McMeekin answered an
>>> emphatic "No! and rattled off the names of all his work
>>>
>>> friends. His mother said that it would be hard for him to get another 
>>> job considering his
>>> limitations and vision problems. The National Council on Disability
>>>
>>> has called on the federal government to phase out sheltered workshops, a 
>>> move that some states are
>>> already making. Vermont became the first state to end
>>>
>>> the use of sheltered workshops and sub-minimum-wage employment in 2003. 
>>> "Sheltered workshops at
>>> least give them some social context and self-esteem, but
>>>
>>> it is still segregating, not really mainstreaming them," said Stephen 
>>> Corbin, senior vice president
>>> of community impact at Special Olympics. "We prefer
>>>
>>> a competitive employment situation. Disability rights groups won a 
>>> victory when President Obama
>>> signed an executive order raising the minimum wage to $10.10
>>>
>>> an hour for federal contract workers. The order includes several 
>>> thousand disabled workers at
>>> sheltered workshops run by federal contractors. At the other
>>>
>>> end of the spectrum is Ken Melvin of Crawfordsville, Ind., a truck 
>>> driver who is among the few
>>> intellectually disabled people living independently and
>>>
>>> working full time at a regular job. Melvin, 45, earns about $50,000 a 
>>> year making deliveries and
>>> pickups. He's married with four children, has been a member
>>>
>>> of the National Guard and even served in Afghanistan. "My biggest 
>>> disability is reading," Melvin
>>> said. "I can read something and not understand it until
>>>
>>> I've read it 18 or 19 times. Even simple tasks such as putting his shoes 
>>> on can be hard. He was 11
>>> years old before he learned to put on his clothes correctly.
>>>
>>> One of his teachers, who had a farm, helped him learn to drive a 
>>> tractor, then a truck. He got his
>>> commercial driver's license at 19 and has been driving
>>>
>>> for a living ever since. "Anyone looking to hire someone with a 
>>> disability, they are going to get
>>> someone that's more determined and more focused, because
>>>
>>> they've got to be," Melvin said. - Associated Press
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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>