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Jan., ARCHIVES Sept., '01 |
As part of the settlement, Ptarmigan Village will publish a statement in its next homeowner's newsletter that "the Court has determined that Ptarmigan Village includes some 'public accommodations' and that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Act (FHA) apply to the common areas" and that "the applicable areas of the Village will be made compliant with the ADA and FHA within six months and will be a consideration in all future common area projects." Oscar Home Not Accessible, Group Claims by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. LOS ANGELES, Mar. 22, 2002 Sunday night, the Motion Picture Academy hosts the 74th Annual Oscar Awards in a new $615 million home -- a home that a group of disability rights advocates say is not accessible for people who use wheelchairs. The Western Law Center for Disability Rights is suing Hollywood's new Kodak Theater alleging that it violates the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Elizabeth Bancroft, who uses a wheelchair, and her friend Joyanna Wendt, say they went to see a concert at the newly completed theater in December. The two claim they requested accessible seating in advance, but instead were put behind a row of other seats. They were not able to see most of the performance because other audience members in front of them stood up. "We were completely shocked that a brand-new theatre would have no real wheelchair access," Bancroft said. Those filing the suit claim that only 28 of the 3,300 seats in the Kodak Theater are accessible to wheelchair users. British Court OKs Suicide for Paralyzed Woman March 23, 2002 -- A British court has ruled that a paralyzed woman is mentally competent to "refuse consent to life sustaining medical treatment" and may have assistance in turning off her ventilator, committing suicide.More. Community Living Leads To Longer, Better Life For Those With Down Syndrome by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. ATLANTA, Mar. 21, 2002 In 1982 a person with Down syndrome in the United States could expect to live to an average age of 25. By 1997, the average life span had nearly doubled to age 49, new research shows. The National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studied information from 17,900 death certificates of people with Down syndrome dated from 1983 to 1997. The results are published in the March 23 edition of the British medical journal Lancet. The researchers also found that people with Down syndrome had higher than average rates of leukemia and testicular cancer, but remarkably lower rates of the more common cancers that affect individuals who do not have Down syndrome. Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a researcher with the CDC, said people with Down syndrome may have a gene that suppresses certain cancers. "(Also), they don't smoke and drink and they aren't exposed to a large number of environmental factors that cause cancer," she told United Press International. The emphasis on community living has also lead to improved quality of life and longer life, because people living in the community usually eat better and receive more attention than in institutions, the researchers concluded. "Today, most children with Down syndrome live with their families ... those are healthier situations for them than living in an institution," Rasmussen said. "It's not just (about) longevity, but for how well they do in terms of quality of life, and in their daily living and in their work," said Dr. Priya Kishnani, an assistant professor of pediatrics and director of the Down syndrome center at Duke University in Durham, N.C. "You know some of those things were never available to individuals in the past." Rasmussen's team also found "significant racial disparities" between white people with Down syndrome and those from other races, although the study notes that the gap began to close in 1992. The researchers are currently looking into the causes for these racial differences in life span. IA nursing homes want cheap workers, less scrutiny by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. DES MOINES, Mar. 5, 2002 -- With ongoing reports of resident abuse and neglect it is clear that nursing homes across the country are in crisis. Many of those in the nursing home industry say the problems exist because the government is not paying the facilities enough to hire and keep good nursing assistants. So why is Iowa's nursing home industry pushing a plan that would limit the amount nursing assistants could earn? According to the Des Moines Register, the shortage of health-care workers has led nursing homes to turn to temporary employment agencies for nursing assistants. These agencies usually have plenty of qualified employees because they offer better pay and more flexible hours than nursing homes. In fact, many workers quit their nursing home jobs so they can be hired by "temp agencies". Nursing homes then contract with those agencies, often having the same "temp" workers that used to be employed by the facilities themselves. Read the Des Moines Register story In a related story, advocates in Iowa are fighting a proposal that would keep certain nursing home records sealed from public view -- even for lawsuits filed against the homes for resident abuse and neglect. "This bill robs Iowa's elderly and disabled of their rights and provides unjustified secrecy protections to the providers that care for them," said Debi Meyers, Iowa's ombudsman for long-term care. Read this Des Moines Register story. Violent Nursing Home Abuse not reported, says GAO by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion Daily Express Email News Service. Mar. 4, 2002 -- Violent crimes against nursing home residents are not handled the same way as those against people outside such facilities, a congressional investigation revealed Monday. The Senate Special Committee on Aging conducted the 18-month investigation into physical and sexual abuse cases in nursing facilities. The committee found that local law enforcement are seldom called and few cases are prosecuted. Their report, entitled "More Can Be Done To Protect Residents From Abuse" also revealed that serious penalties are rarely given. ''A crime is a crime whether in or outside of a nursing home, where residents should not spend their days living in fear,'' said committee chairman Senator John Breaux of Louisiana. CNN ran this Associated Press article on March 4: http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/03/04/nursing.home.abuse.ap/index.html This CNN webpage includes an interview with committee chairman Breaux: http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/03/04/breaux.cnna/index.html The committee's entire 45-page report can be downloaded as a PDF file from this address: http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/gao/gaonurshmabusemar02rpt.pdf |
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