BAC Rutland

VCDR Bills H.524 (Service Animal)  H.66 (Walk with Class)

H.524 Service Animal Protections was passed by the House of Representatives and sent along to the Senate. The House Judiciary Committee had amended the bill to narrow the focus specifically to “Guide Dogs.” The bill now goes over to the Senate. Senator Dick Sears, Chair of Senate Judiciary will take up the bill after the March town meeting break.
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MONTPELIER – Proposed cuts to human services contained in the Governor’s fiscal year 2011 budget plan represent an “assault” on the dignity and welfare of Vermonters with disabilities, advocates said Wednesday.

About 300 Vermonters piled into the Statehouse Wednesday to decry cuts they say will dial back home-based services and other programs that allow them to enjoy independent lives in their communities. As the 20th anniversary of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act draws near, they say, the latest budget plan threatens to undo decades of progress.
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A warehouse worker’s job has gone with the wind – after he was sacked for excessive farting.  Daniel Cambridge, 27, was dismissed from Waterstones’ warehouse after 35 complaints to management about him breaking wind.
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Professor and author Christopher M. Fairman ["The case against banning the word 'retard,' " Outlook, Feb. 14] made good arguments about the limits of language to effect change in behavior and attitude, as well as about the nuanced ways in which words such as “retard,” “queer” and “gay” can carry multiple meanings, some of which intend no insult or humiliation.
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MONTPELIER – Proposed cuts to human services contained in the Governor’s fiscal year 2011 budget plan represent an “assault” on the dignity and welfare of Vermonters with disabilities, advocates said Wednesday.

About 300 Vermonters piled into the Statehouse Wednesday to decry cuts they say will dial back home-based services and other programs that allow them to enjoy independent lives in their communities. As the 20th anniversary of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act draws near, they say, the latest budget plan threatens to undo decades of progress.
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Summary: Wednesday, February 17, is Disability Awareness Day.  Begins at 9:00am in Room 11 with a meeting with Deborah Lisi-Baker.   On Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning the House Appropriations committee will take testimony from advocates on the FY2011 Budget.  On Wednesday House Corrections and Institutions is looking at mental health protocol in corrections and taking testimony re:S.2,a bill signed into law last year that codified protocol relating to those with mental health or cognitive impairment entering the corrections department.  (more…)

CHICAGO (AP) — In the autism world, “Aspies” are sometimes seen as the elites, the ones who are socially awkward, yet academically gifted and who embrace their quirkiness.

Now, many Aspies, a nickname for people with Asperger’s syndrome, are upset over a proposal they see as an attack on their identity. Under proposed changes to the most widely used diagnostic manual of mental illness, Asperger’s syndrome would no longer be a separate diagnosis.
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Many worried and angry parents of an autistic child believe that vaccines may cause the disease. But it’s pure myth – disproved by numerous studies and now a final slap from a British journal disowning a report that started the dangerous nonsense.

Will these parents accept reality – and allow their children to receive shots against a dozen or more illnesses? And will fringe groups that play to fears of autism give up their indefensible claims?
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Of all the variations of human behavior actors portray on screen, autism may be one that the movies find easiest to signal.  Fill a refrigerator with identical boxes of microwaveable macaroni and cheese, have your leading man rock back and forth, repeat phrases, and occasionally bang his head against something, and audiences will get the message.  Do that with any sense of nuance, and you just might get nominated for an Academy Award, like Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, and Dustin Hoffman did for their portrayals of characters with autistic traits in weepies like Forrest Gump, I Am Sam, and Rain Man, the most famous pop culture document on autism.
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Brooke Weckwarth doesn’t know of a life without the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Born in May 1988 with cerebral palsy, Brooke was 2 when the groundbreaking legislation was enacted. The pair have grown up together, with the ADA in the supporting role as Brooke made her way through the K-12 system and matriculated into the world of higher education.
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