Hey Able bodied Car owners, think you can steal disabled parking spaces? think again meet the The American Alliance to End Handicapped Parking Abuse

Good morning all, well the ongoing ignorance of the able bodied car owning communty never ceases to amaze me. You steal disabled parking spaces and you know it’s wrong, you skulk away from your car like a cat burglar climbing out a wndow.  When your confronted you get angry or you get violent, or my favorite is when  your language changes from english to an unintelligible foreign dialect hoping your ethnicity will earn you a free pass guess again.

If you think I when I write  I get up in your grill (excuse the pun) welcome to my new fighters in the war against disabled abuse,  THE AMERICAN ALLIANCE TO END HANDICAPPED PARKING ABUSE. Below is a E-mail i just recieved  from them, and this is one fight I will gladly accept my commission into their army .

Handicappe​d Parking Reforms
Sharon Clark swoodclark@gmail.com
1:18 PM (27 minutes ago)

to me

Hello (disabledaccessdenied):

A photo of you concerning non-access to restrooms appeared in my Facebook Feed.  Your Email address in the caption is what caught my attention, because it reveals you are a disability rights activist. I wonder if you would take a few minutes to view the website of the organization formed to fight for Handicapped parking reforms?  The organization is The American Alliance to End Handicapped Parking Abuse, and the link is:  http://aaehpa.org/
I would like to read more about your activities, but haven’t found a link to do that yet.  In June, I released a petition in search of supporters to send a message to the White House requesting an Executive Order for Handicapped Parking Regulations Reforms, because the parking problems result from flawed directives by the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Please view the materials on the website and consider joining us.  I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,

 
Sharon V. Clark

Wheelchair Riders Getting Stuck At Accessible Subway Stations

Re-Posted from a story on NY1 By: Tina Redwine

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/transit/165624/ny1-exclusive–wheelchair-riders-getting-stuck-at-accessible-subway-stations

Some disabled New Yorkers say many subway stations that are supposed to be accessible actually aren’t. They say that puts their lives at risk. NY1′s Tina Redwine filed the following report.

Michele Kaplan says her wheelchair frequently gets stuck in the gap between the platform and the subway car at stations that the MTA has spent millions making wheelchair accessible. The most recent time was about two weeks ago at the Dekalb Avenue station in downtown Brooklyn.

“I was terrified,” she says. “I would get dragged or the door would close on me or, you know, I would fall in the gap.”

She says three passengers stepped off the train and rescued her. Now, every time she’s ready to board, she prays a higher power will intervene in what she says feels like a game of Russian Roulette.

“It’s very, very stressful,” she says. “It shouldn’t be. I’m not diving out of a plane here. I’m just trying to take the subway.”

Kaplan isn’t alone. Others say they also frequently need to rely on the kindness of strangers to get on the subway at what’s supposed to be an accessible station platform.

“I just ask somebody to assist me and if I can’t, I just have to wait or leave I guess,” says subway rider Alicia Guy.

The federal government says the gap between the platform and the subway can’t be more than four inches wide and two inches high at ADA-accessible station platforms like those at Dekalb.

The MTA says its special boarding areas comply. But NY1 measured the gap in the designated area on four different trains and found three where the vertical gap was higher than the maximum two inches.

Kaplan says she’s started a petition in protest after writing the MTA several times.

“Nothing changes after a while,” she says. “It feels like it’s a form letter that everybody gets. They’re not really taking it seriously.”

The MTA says the height requirement only applies to subway cars that are half full and the height of the car shifts depending on how many people are on board, which the MTA has no control over.

The MTA says the designated boarding areas it’s built are more level with the subway cars and they’re also within sight of the conductor, so riders who need extra help can ask for it.

Mia’s reply to the MTA-

Point 1: MTA, if I move away from the door to find the conductor the door closes and I miss my train.

Point 2: MTA, all 80% of conductors do is scream at us. Make up your mind, in 7 years as a wheelchair using disabled person I have never been offered help. I have however been threatened, abused, cursed at and trapped on a train.

See this story for just a taste of what disabled subway riders face daily:

http://disabledaccessdenied.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/trapped-on-the-7-train-abused-yelled-at-threatened-thankyou-new-york-mta/

Point 3:  When I am kicked, jostled, abused and mistreated openly on trains, not only am I not helped the conductor claims it’s none of his business.

So for you to claim everything is fine is as much a lie as your website that claims your service is 100% accessible.

See story below about my experience last week when, once again I was forced to crawl up three flights of stairs on my belly because there was no elevator at any station with in miles of where I was.

http://disabledaccessdenied.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/mta-doesnt-care-for-new-yorks-disabled/

And as if all the above wasn’t bad enough the story above by the rider who measured the gap is scary for her, the gap she measured is actually one of the least dangerous we face. See my story below where the gap swallowed the front of my chair and was actually wide enough for a small child to simply drop into:

http://disabledaccessdenied.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/as-if-disabled-transportation-wasnt-impossible-enough-on-nyc-subways/

Go to my home page and type in MTA. I have dozens of stories about the failures of their system. This is an abomination and it must change.

Man in wheelchair beaten, robbed in Philadelphia

Mia’s thoughts on the story below-  When I was a kid in Australia and we heard about a some animal hurting the elderly the weak or the disabled we had a name for them “MONGREL”  A mongrel is what old english call a “cur” a mongrel or a cur is a street dog so rabid so hungry so wild it will hunt the weakest because it has to eat. It preys on the easy and those that can’t defend themselves. We had a way of dealing with mongrels back then, but the law and P.C. today would frown on our solution but it worked. I was followed from a duane read by 6 African American and Hispanic youth and thrown from my chair and kicked because i wouldnt give up my bag and purse a bunch of mongrels for sure. I have been threatened with death because I got on an elevator provided for the disabled that an large African American man and woman thought was for them screw everyone else. This is not an isolated incident this is an epidemic in our society, we have produuced a generation of youth who raised themselves the parenting has been phoned in or in most cases left to a computer or smart phone via earbuds. They want everything but  you cant buy it  so they take. The problem they face is others like them would beat them down in a second, so we the disabled and otherwise abled become easy target. Well to my wheelie and otherwise abled friends you don’t have to take it, if you are in New York I teach adaptive self defence, and there are groups like mine everywhere and it’s not bs karate kid stuff. What i teach puts the monster back under his rock while we stay safe in our chair. be safe folks.

 

 

For Original Story & Video Go Here: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news&id=8755994

 

UPPER DARBY, Pa. – July 30, 2012 — Police have arrested one person and are looking for another after a man in a wheelchair was beaten and robbed inside his home in Upper Darby.

 

The attack was caught on video, which was released at a news conference on Monday.

 

“It’s cruel and inhumane. If they get caught and convicted they should throw them away forever,” said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood. “They’re bad guys.”

 

 

Upper Darby police say it all began around 5:30 a.m. Thursday when the victim, a 37-year-old man suffering from muscular dystrophy, received a telephone call.

That caller turned out to be a cousin who claimed he’d been in an accident and wanted to borrow some oxycodone pills, police said.

The victim agreed to his cousin’s request, police said, but was also suspicious. So, he set up a video camera in his living room at the Lansdowne Towers Apartments at 772 Providence Road.

 

A short time later he was greeted at the door by two strangers, not his cousin. Those men were later identified by police as 23-year-old Dominic Henderson and 21-year-old Keenan Smith.

 

“Smith and Henderson look around for a while. We don’t see it on film but they allegedly punch the victim in the face and drag him out of his wheelchair,” Chitwood said.

 

On video, police say it is Smith who can be seen dragging the victim back into the living room. Police say it is Henderson who pinned the victim on the floor with his foot while Smith walked about with a 50-inch television.

 

Henderson is then seen leaving with an Xbox 260 and some games. Police say the men also stole 35 oxycodone pills.

Before leaving, police say the men also threw the victim’s cell phone behind the couch.

 

The victim was able to crawl to his door and lock it. He then crawled to his phone and dialed 911, a process that took more than half an hour.

 

Henderson, of Upper Darby, was arrested the same day during a traffic stop. He has been charged with robbery, assault, recklessly endangering another person and related offenses, and remains jailed on $50,000 bail.

 

Smith remains at large. He lives on 67th Street in Southwest Philadelphia.

 

Police believe the victim was set up by his cousin, but so far have not released that cousin’s identity. That person is under investigation, police said.

 

The victim is said to be ‘scared’ and in hiding.

Anyone with information is asked call Upper Darby police at 610-734-7684

Why is it so hard to comprehend that if I’m in a wheelchair I actually can achieve?

Today I went to a specialized gym to meet a sports nutritionist while I was there I showed her the pic of me three hundred pounds heavier, she knew my sporting curriculum she knew I climb I race I swim and so much more. While she took a call I was sitting waiting for her and a large African American body builder came up bent all the way over to my face spoke like he was talking to someone with Alzheimer’s and asked first “are you waiting for someone?” I replied no I am an Athlete I have a meeting with the nutritionist. He replied “Oh wow you do can do sports in a chair that’s so nice is it fun for you or is it hard?” my reply was to bench press 400lbs and then watch him struggle to push 300lbs and I said “not as hard as it was for you to lift that warm up weight”  he Asked what kind of sports can you people do?.When I told him 20 mile races, and  10 mile races a half marathon in a month  and full marathon by october and a 3,400 mile solo endeavour next year he replied “with someone pushing you right?” I annoyingly replied no you push my patience enough, and cancelled the nutritionist appointment and left.

Last week I was at Brooklyn boulders and some newbies, not the regular climbers they all know I love rock climbing and they all encourage me.  Some Newbie’s told me “you shouldn’t be back here it’s for climbers only” I replied “yes I know I climb” they replied “you can’t you’re in a chair” to which I told them “no not when I climb it is trained to wait at the bottom”

Get over yourselves folks, just because you have all limbs still attached and working doesn’t make you Supreme Being. Which of you abelists elitists got up Sunday and did a quick two miles in a chair then  swam two more in a pool non stop and went home? No not on play station in real actual life?. Which of you has  Ever climbed a seven storey rock wall? Ever defended yourself from a 6ft4 inch NYPD officer with a knife with only the use of your upper body from a wheelchair and thrown him to the floor while teaching self defence for the disabled? Oh wait sorry my bad, that’s my day not yours and yes I have wheels under my ass.

You who want us in our place coined the phrase angry gimp, be careful what you wish for because the so called gimps I know when they get angry they don’t take over the world they build a new one and they just might not include those who can’t keep up.

Highline Decides only Able-Bodied Folks Deserve a Restroom

Its sad when a place you have enjoyed for years that has always gone out of its way to make itself not only wheelchair accessible but wheelchair inviting, like the Highline in NYC (was once an abandoned, drug ridden, raised subway line and now a eco-friendly and free park/haven), decides to backtrack and leave the disabled high and dry.

This is Ella writing. I just got a call from Mia, who came into the city to have lunch with a dear friend and figured she would go up to the Highline for a couple of hours of peace and beauty. She then went to use the disabled bathroom and came to find a nice size sign alerting disabled folks that the bathroom has been taken perminently out of use, leaving folks in wheelchair with no option but to leave the Highline should they need the use of the facilities. Mind you, although the Highline is complete with elevators they are 10 blocks apart and so if you have to go, you better get moving, quickly because otherwise you out of luck. When a staff member was approached their response was that “people like you” don’t use the highline often so they don’t really care and it won’t be fixed.

Not ok, Highline!

I’m Impressed.. Again

Hi all,

Yep, its me again.. Ella.

Today Mia, after not having been in the pool for a week, due to an injury, kicked ass. I, on the other hand, wimped out. Aside from rock climbing and wheelchair racing, Mia recently found a way of getting back into something she did well before life in a wheelchair, and thats swimming. As a partner of someone in a wheelchair, I have shared here over and over my personal struggles with both keeping Mia safe but also not standing in her way from doing what makes her happy like swimming.

Today we went over to The Avery Aquatic Center here in Flushing, Queens. Mia said she was giong to do two miles in the water and well, she kicked ass and finished. I on the other hand wimped out and just hung out in the water. Here is a picture of Mia coming down the lane:

By the time she was done I was already checking twitter and chilling out. What was really awesome was that I got to see all the fellow swimmers watching in amazement as Mia made her way back and forth up and down the lane. No stopping. No resting. No wimping out.. Since I was already on the sidelines I figured I’d take this video of Mia finishing her last lap:

http://youtu.be/Fzz5iL1FG-c

What lifts me when I’m down clears my head when I’m thinking and inspires me to never give up

Living with wheels under my ass, for me at least is a rollercoaster ride.

On my good days I tell the world the wheels just make me faster stronger and smarter. Why smarter you say? Well with wheels permanently under you every doorway becomes an extreme sport,

and crossing a street is a crap shoot whether the other corner has a ramp.

And a simple thing like eating at a diner can involve an entire removals crew, because the owner can’t spell accessible.

On my bad days if it wasn’t for my Buddhist faith I would be digging a black hole so deep my mandarin would need polishing just to apologize for the mess to the down stairs neighbor.

On days when I just need solace my newly acquired 5 month old trainee service dog ZEUS fits the bill, I need something innocent and quiet to hold and he lives for a pat so were the perfect fit.

On days when I need to climb out of that hole and keep climbing My beloved sport of Rockwall climbing takes me to the top.

and if that top isn’t high enough I Google friends like Car los from Brooklyn boulders

Or research some of my other friends like mark Edwards, or some of the other rock monsters I know. Their antics would scare the crap out of some, but for me they give me dreams of solitude just me and a belaying rope tied to my black diamond rig.

And when I need to clear my head, I either get myself in my local Olympic pool for my daily 2 miles

Or I put myself on the starting line of the rockaway running series, and go for my goal of 6 minute miles over a marathon distance. At that speed crap flies out of my head quicker than bullshit out of mitt Romney and Sarah palin sharing their deepest thoughts.

Or I teach Martial arts from the chair,

 So sure everyone had bad days and they have their systems to handle it, whether able bodied or not. But when were dis or otherwise abled the process is always twice as involved, but also my dear Readers twice as rewarding check out my pictures they speak for them selves.

Community living British Columbia’s exectutives take bonuses while services disappear!

 

 Bosses paid bonuses as CLBC lost way

 

 Reposted from a story By Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist July 26, 2012

 

 Senior executives at Community Living B.C. each received bonuses of more than $13,000 last year while the agency was under fire for closing group homes and cutting services to adults with developmental disabilities, documents show.

Three executives earned the bonuses – nearly the maximum of what each was allowed – despite the government’s promise last fall to scrap the incentive pay program “as quickly as possible.”

“In a people-first organization like CLBC, an incentive plan performance based on targets and measures is, quite simply, not appropriate,” Minister of Social Development Stephanie Cadieux said in a statement last October.

The government and Community Living B.C.’s board of directors, however, quietly opted to keep the incentive pay system in place until the 2011-12 fiscal year ended March 31.

Under the system, vice-presidents could earn up to 10 per cent of their base salary for achieving goals and hitting targets.

Financial statements released Wednesday show that three vice-presidents earned almost the full amount in 2011-12, at a time when the agency admitted losing its way.

Doug Woollard, vice-president of organizational development, earned a base salary of $146,028 and an extra $13,434, or 9.2 per cent of his base salary, in incentive pay. Woollard took over as interim chief executive officer when Rick Mowles left in the midst of the scandal.

Richard Hunter, vice-president of corporate services, earned $137,977 in salary and an additional $13,591, or 9.6 per cent, in incentives.

Carol Goozh, vice-president of policy and program development, earned $137,842 and $13,591, or 9.9 per cent, in incentive pay.

Cadieux has said that when she initially called for an end to the incentive pay program last fall, she was under the impression that executives were receiving bonuses over and above their salary. She said it was only later that she learned the bonus money was actually part of an executive’s salary that was held back until they met certain goals.

Cadieux said the money was a “legally binding part” of each employees’ compensation package and could not be easily eliminated without inviting possible lawsuits. The government did not clarify the situation with the public until the Times Colonist learned last month that the bonuses were still in place.

NDP critic Carole James said it was “unbelievable” that the executives received almost their full bonuses during a disastrous year for the agency.

“Government admitted they it had failed and even then they still paid the bonuses out,” she said Wednesday. “What a slap in the face, what a real insult to families.”

James said the situation raised questions about what, if anything, executives had to achieve in order to earn their bonuses.

“The criteria could not have been good performance, because even the minister and premier admitted they failed at CLBC,” she said.

The government replaced the incentive pay system with a new compensation package on April 1. The money that managers previously received as incentive pay is now rolled into their salary. They no longer have to achieve certain goals and their overall compensation is slightly less than it was in the past.

The vice-presidents get a permanent 9.66 per cent lift in salary once pension contributions are included. Directors and managers, who earned up to five per cent of their salary as incentives, got salary increases of 4.9 per cent including pension contributions. lkines@timescolonist.com

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/business/Bosses+paid+bonuses+CLBC+lost/6992511/story.html#ixzz21w1VUItm

disabled access denied is read in hundreds of countries and dozens of languages

	Many have called me a liar when  I tell them My blog is read in hundreds of countries and dozens of languages every day, so below is a cut and paste of all the countries reading my blog just since midnight mind blowing isn’t it? and to the abelists take notice we the disabled are getting organised globally
United States	1618
Australia	96
United Kingdom	45
Canada	39
India	17
Philippines	14
Netherlands	10
Singapore	8
Brazil	7
Russian Federation	7
New Zealand	6
Iraq	5
Malaysia	5
Germany	5
Mexico	3
France	2
Turkey	2
Italy	2
Spain	2
Ireland	2
Ghana	2
Puerto Rico	2
Ukraine	2
Colombia	2
Indonesia	2
Czech Republic	2
South Africa	2
Thailand	1
Belgium	1
Mauritius	1
Hungary	1
Guatemala	1
Bangladesh	1
Paraguay	1
Finland	1
Hong Kong	1
Serbia	1
Argentina	1
Slovenia	1
Jamaica	1
United Arab Emirates	1
Republic of Korea	1
Pakistan

‘Important win’ for disabled, Gillard says

Published: July 27, 2012 – 5:49PM

Originally from SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

 

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says deals struck with NSW and Victoria to conduct National Disability Insurance Scheme trials are an “important win” for disabled people in those states.

 

Ms Gillard on Friday received letters from Liberal NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell and his Victorian counterpart Ted Baillieu promising state funding for the trials.

 

“It’s a big win for people with disabilities because we are seeing the politics swept aside,” she told reporters on Canberra on Friday.

Ms Gillard said she was now confident launch sites would be set up next year in NSW and Victoria, ahead of the establishment of the $15 billion a year scheme in 2018/19.

 

“I’m very optimistic now that we will see the NDIS trialled in the Barwon region of Victoria,” she said.

 

There was still some work to do with NSW, but the federal government was “optimistic we will get there”.

 

Ms Gillard said NSW and Victoria had agreed to a federal benchmark funding figure of $20,779 per person, per year.

 

The NSW government has promised to contribute $35 million for a trial in the state, while Victoria has offered $42 million to fund its own.

 

Ms Gillard said Queensland Premier Campbell Newman had let down disabled people in his state by refusing to find extra money for its NDIS trial.

 

“Premier Newman has decided that he is not prepared to put any extra money into people with disabilities,” she said.

“This is to be deeply regretted, particularly in circumstances where premier Newman presides over a state that spends the least per person in a state on disabilities in Australia today.”

 

Ms Gillard said she acknowledged efforts by West Australian premier Colin Barnett to take steps for a disability scheme under his state’s My Way package.

 

“I believe there are some things we can learn for the National Disability Insurance Scheme from the rollout of My Way in Western Australia,” she said.

 

Mr Barnett said WA had not signed up to the NDIS due to differences on the structure of the scheme, not because of money.

Before Friday, the only states to sign up for the trials were the Labor-held states of South Australia and Tasmania and the ACT.

A spokesperson for Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said Queensland was not rethinking upping its funding to secure a trial site.

 

“Our position is the same as it always has been, we’re in no financial position to fund a NDIS trial,” he said.

 

Ms Gillard said she was not surprised by a public backlash in Victoria and NSW when the states said they wouldn’t join the scheme after a leaders meeting in Canberra on Wednesday.

 

She said people right across the country cared passionately about what happened to those with disabilities.

 

“So I’m not surprised, given everybody cares, that when people saw the results of the meeting this week and they worried that people in Victoria and people in NSW were not going to benefit, they stepped up to have their say,” she said.

 

“It’s saying to all of us very loudly how much people care about the fortunes and futures of those with disability in our community. That’s a great thing.”

 

 

This story was found at: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/important-win-for-disabled-gillard-says-20120727-22y98.html