BAC Rutland

Public Assets Institute Executive Director Paul Cillo kicked off “Facts to Action” with a lucid presentation explaining how the recession hits with a double whammy: more people in need, and a government less able to help them. He showed how the downturn comes on top of decades-long economic trends and policies that undermine the state’s ability to create sustainable prosperity for all Vermonters and that threaten the government’s resiliency in responding to crises. He called for a balanced approach that includes new revenues to address this crisis and for a thorough study of the long-term economic forces that are pushing the state budget into deficit.
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SAN DIEGO — An estimated 18 million Americans are either blind or visually impaired, and in San Diego County that number is around 105,000. Now, a local company’s special device is helping improve sight for many visually impaired people, including a teacher in Imperial Beach, 10News reported.

Watching her move around the classroom at Imperial Beach Elementary School, one would never know Erin Goodwin-Allen is visually impaired. She has had retinitis pigmentosa since birth.  “It’s a challenging disease because I look completely normal,” said Goodwin-Allen.  She sees her third-grade class through a narrow field of vision, a kind of tunnel vision. She recognizes her students by where they sit.
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It was a chance to consort with the enemy—a powwow with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And everyone wanted in.

That’s how Linda Burwell of Detroit’s Nemeth Burwell described her clients’ reactions when she invited them to have breakfast on Oct. 17 with the EEOC. Burwell said her clients were eager to “see what the EEOC is doing and why they are doing it.”
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Justice Department announced today the release of a new video aimed at educating employers about
the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Ten Employment Myths: Information about the Americans with Disabilities Act uses a
question-and-answer format to express common misconceptions, fears and false assumptions that many employers have about employees with disabilities. The
video refutes these unfounded myths, explains the ADA in common sense terms and highlights the advantages of hiring qualified persons with disabilities.
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BRATTLEBORO — For Dan Unwin, who is a co-owner of Taylor for Flowers on Elliot Street, hiring people with disabilities is good for his business and good for the town.

Working with the Vermont Association of Business and Industry Rehabilitation, or VABIR, earlier this year, Unwin hired a woman whose disability prevented her from communicating clearly with strangers.  Unwin started her on handling flowers when they came into the shop. After a while, she was helping with arrangements.
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