Daphne Wright found guilty of murder; death penalty decision yet to come

I recently wrote about Daphne Wright, the Deaf black lesbian charged with a brutal murder in South Dakota. This week the jury found her guilty after eight hours of deliberation. Story here.

On the penalty phase of the trial, coming this next week:

"The door is wide open for the defense putting on any kind of evidence that the defense believes might sway a juror to opt for life in prison rather than the death penalty," [South Dakota Attourney General Larry Long] said.

One possibility for the defense is to show how her deafness may have been an issue in the case.

At a pretrial hearing, a defense witness who is an expert on the deaf testified that it's borderline whether Wright could understand what's going on in the courtroom.

McCay Vernon of Florida said Wright reads at the third-grade level but either was deaf at birth or at 10 months of age, when she came down with rubella.

The rubella also may have caused some brain damage, though Wright has above-average intelligence, Vernon said.

She understands sign language well but may miss some things because it takes two to four times longer to say something through signing as normal speech, he said.

And Wright doesn't easily grasp the definition of some legal terms, such as Miranda rights, Vernon said.

"When you use the term 'rights,' they mean right like to the right hand or right like correct," he said at the time.

Commentary by Chuck Baldwin, the Argus Leader South Dakota journalist who live-blogged the event, includes further discussion about the possibility of fair trials for people not remotely demographically represented by the jury, specifically D/deaf individuals:

Deaf people feel out of place and discriminated against in the hearing world. American Sign Language, after all, is their first language. English is, at best, a second language. And they are Americans.

But how many of us try to learn their language? Who even thinks that communication might be our responsibility, too?

Add to that - Wright is black and a lesbian in mostly white, Bible-thumping South Dakota - and there was a real concern. Could she get a fair trial here?

Could she get a fair trial with no blacks, no lesbians, no deaf people on the jury?

Could she get a fair trial when Judge Brad Zell rejected a defense motion for consecutive translation, which is more accurate than the simultaneous translation used?

Could she get a fair trial when Zell rejected a defense motion to allow a certified deaf interpreter in the courtroom with her?

This isn't about guilt or innocence. It's about a fair trial. And many deaf people around the country have been absolutely certain South Dakota was trampling on Daphne's rights - guilty or not.

Headlines like this one illustrate why that is an important question.

Deaf blogger Ricky Taylor at RidorLIVE.com offers a racist, misogynist link (you can go to his site for it, I'm not linking here) further showing the kind of prejudices that exist out there and talks about the Wright case and verdict himself:

I do not care if it was Daphne or Jane Doe as long as she is Deaf. Why? Because it sets the precedence for others to follow in the future trials. What we see in Sioux Falls may set a tone for others to follow by saying, “Well, they did not use deaf peers on the jury, why should we?” in the future trials.

It is all about the right to be JUDGED by HER/HIS peers. It has nothing to do with accomodations (It is good that they are doing a good job on it!).

More on fair trial concerns here.

Disability Carnival #12 at From Where I'm Sitting

It's on crip culture of all kinds. Go. Enjoy. Tokah has done a remarkable job!

The next carnival is scheduled to be at Ballastexistenz on Thursday, April 26. Deadline, I expect, is the Monday before, as usual. Amanda has set the theme as "What Box?"

Also, I've just volunteered to host a carnival in May but I'm not sure of the exact date yet. The theme will be "Firsts" in whatever way you'd like to interpret that. I'd especially like to see our nondisabled allies contribute, as well as disability bloggers who haven't been heard from yet or feel they might not be qualified to post. More details later.

New to the blogroll

Although some of these used to inhabit my blogroll before the great sidebar catastrophe of January, I've just added the following under "More Gimp Parades":

40 Million, Blind Bookworm, Chewing The Fat, Croneway, Diabetes Mine, Disability Culture Watch, Eschara, Funky Mango's Musings, Lisa Bufano, Modus Vivendi, Screw Bronze!, Selectively Bossy, The Adventures of a Paperback Princess, Peter Tan's Digital Awakening, The Future Doc Wilson, The Opposite of Tragic, The Rettdevil's Rants, and Wordgathering.

I learned recently from Skippy's posting about the technical side of blogrolling that my vast list of disability bloggers will rank lower on Google the more I add to it. That's unfortunate if it makes it harder for people to find each other, but it doesn't change my plan to add any gimp blogger to my roll who writes on the social aspects of living with impairments. Actually, I judiciously add sites that are not blogs too, and there are several new examples of that above.

Mini-Slumgullion #35

Lots of people think politics don't really matter,
but if you're one of the poor and disabled people
who have to rely on the government,
politics can kill you.

Nick Dupree -- "I Feel messed Up":

This country has been slashing programs for the poor and disabled for over a decade like it has no consequences, or worse, as I detailed in Fighting Cuts, Demanding Universal Health Care, they think that cutting off services benefits them--that it is a great thing. It isn't. It doesn't benefit you. It is evil. I believe this is the fifth 21 cut-off death in the city of Mobile alone, that I know of. The disability community in the South feels under siege. Know that there's still a developing, worsening situation with home care policy in America as more and more people turn 21 and find the supports they need just aren't there.

Politics is not a game. The disregard (or outright cruelty) of politicians can kill.

The latest news on Baby Emilio Gonzales:

A judge granted a family's request to keep their critically ill baby alive, ruling Tuesday that the boy should not yet be removed from life support as the hospital planned.

Children's Hospital of Austin has been caring for 17-month-old Emilio Gonzales since December, but it says its medical efforts are futile and the child is suffering. It invoked a state law that allows hospitals to end life-sustaining treatment in such cases with 10 days notice to the family.

Emilio's mother, Catarina Gonzales, 23, challenged the decision, and the judge agreed to block the hospital's move for at least nine more days.

"He may not live that long, but that's nobody's choice. That's my choice. And that's God's choice. Nobody can say, 'No we're going to take him off, that's it,'" she said. She says her only son isn't unresponsive, and that he smiles and turns his head toward voices.

Probate Judge Guy Herman set another hearing for April 19 to consider Emilio's case.

The boy has health coverage through Medicaid, and the hospital contends money is not part of its decision. Its concern, hospital officials said, is the boy.

Michael Bérubé at Pandagon on "Testing, testing":

There are people who oppose abortion except when the fetus has a significant disability; there are people who support a woman’s right to abortion but oppose prenatal screening on the grounds that it will lead to a revival of eugenics. And, as I point out in the essay (by way of the work of Rayna Rapp, who’s written a terrific book on the subject):

the ultra-orthodox Hasidim in New York are strenuous promoters of prenatal genetic screening because Tay-Sachs disease — a genetic disability so excruciatingly debilitating that it sometimes seems as if it were invented by bioethicists as an extreme limit case — occurs disproportionately often in Ashkenazi Jews.

You can learn more about Tay-Sachs here, if you like — and then you can think about whether you would seek to bar prospective parents from screening for it. Interestingly, Rapp points out that while otherwise politically and culturally conservative Jewish groups (one of which advocates prenatal screening and conducts arranged marriages) have embraced screening for Tay-Sachs, the Catholic Church (OK, folks, here it comes) in New York City owned the airspace rights to a new hospital building under construction and demanded that “genetic counselors be barred from working in the new maternity service to be located there.” So while some religious traditions can be downright extremist, it’s not as if all religious conservatives agree about this kind of thing. Nor is it the case that all opponents of screening are conservative; some of them are disability-rights activists whose politics are generally feminist and socialist.

It's a weird choice of quote just above since Bérubé's post has lots of thoughtful aspects to it, but I just felt compelled to highlight that last sentence: "Nor is it the case that all opponents of screening are conservative; some of them are disability-rights activists whose politics are generally feminist and socialist." Those of us who are feminist disability-rights activists possessing impairments/disabilities are often disbelieved or dismissed when our political opinions appear to align with conservative beliefs. I say "appear" because I think that's a failing of those liberals who can't see the politics of choice in all its incarnations, particularly the ones that don't directly concern them. But anyway.

Another interesting aspect of the discussion Bérubé starts with this post at Pandagon is that the comments are overwhelmingly about gayness being something one is born with. As a topic, that's intriguing, I suppose. As a topic shift, it's tiresome and irritating. I haven't added to the conversation over there yet (so I've little excuse to complain, perhaps), but I invite everyone to do so.

A musical interlude

"Girl Anachronism" by The Dresden Dolls

the lyrics by Amanda Palmer:

you can tell
from the scars on my arms
and cracks in my hips
and the dents in my car
and the blisters on my lips
that i'm not the carefullest of girls

you can tell
from the glass on the floor
and the strings that're breaking
and i keep on breaking more
and it looks like i am shaking
but it's just the temperature
and then again
if it were any colder i could disengage
if i were any older i could act my age
but i dont think that youd believe me
it's
not
the
way
i'm
meant
to
be
it's just the way the operation made me

and you can tell
from the state of my room
that they let me out too soon
and the pills that i ate
came a couple years too late
and ive got some issues to work through
there i go again
pretending to be you
make-believing
that i have a soul beneath the surface
trying to convince you
it was accidentally on purpose

i am not so serious
this passion is a plagiarism
i might join your century
but only on a rare occasion
i was taken out
before the labor pains set in and now
behold the world's worst accident
i am the girl anachronism

and you can tell
by the red in my eyes
and the bruises on my thighs
and the knots in my hair
and the bathtub full of flies
that i'm not right now at all
there i go again
pretending that i'll fall
don't call the doctors
cause they've seen it all before
they'll say just
let
her
crash
and
burn
she'll learn
the attention just encourages her

and you can tell
from the full-body cast
that i'm sorry that i asked
though you did everything you could
(like any decent person would)
but i might be catching so don't touch
you'll start believeing youre immune to gravity and stuff
don't get me wet
because the bandages will all come off

and you can tell
from the smoke at the stake
that the current state is critical
well it is the little things, for instance:
in the time it takes to break it she can make up ten excuses:
please excuse her for the day, its just the way the medication makes her...

i dont necessarily believe there is a cure for this
so i might join your century but only as a doubtful guest
i was too precarious removed as a caesarian
behold the worlds worst accident
I AM THE GIRL ANACHRONISM

Poetry Monday: The Knife of Language

Helen Takes the Stage
by Kathi Wolfe

(Helen Keller starred in a vaudeville show The Bluebird of Happiness in 1924.)

Here I am,
playing,
like a well-trained
seal, for you,
between the clowns
and singing dogs.
Your surprise
at seeing me in the flesh
in a room smelling like cigars,
makes my skin prickle with heat
more than the stage lights.
Did you know
that Mark Twain taught
me to play pool and spit tobacco?
Annie, my teacher, hates
my being here.
"It's so undignified
to tell jokes to drunks
and traveling salesmen," she says.
I crave applause
more than scotch, cigarettes
or hot dogs swimming in mustard.
With the knife of language,
I've carved out the best life
an icon can.
But, being a saint
is as difficult
as getting a drink during Prohibition.
Yet, until the curtain falls,
I am tethered, like you,
to the laughing
muck and mire of the earth.


And from The Washington Post in July of 2001, an article by the above poet on heroes and inspiration: "He's Your Inspiration, Not Mine":

Don't get me wrong -- I like to readnews reports on disabled people, at least when they're about issues -- health insurance, discrimination, education -- that concern me and my peers.

Just keep us in some kind of real context. Occasionally, show us not as main characters but as background characters -- like a story about a Metro delay or the Smithsonian Folklife Festival that includes, but doesn't necessarily feature, the folks with white canes and wheelchairs stuck on the subway or sitting in the audience. And on TV and in movies, give us some roles as regular characters -- like Marlee Matlin's deaf political consultant on "The West Wing." There's been progress on this front in the last few years; I'd like to see more.

And I'd like to see stories about some of the peoplewho really are heroes to those of us with disabilities. Like those who found a sudden demand for their previously unwanted services during World War II, and rose to the challenge. While able-bodied men were away fighting, disabled people worked in factories and offices and served as volunteers. Reporting for a 1995 article, I talked to Norma Krajczar of Morehead City, N.C. As a visually impaired teenager in Massachusetts, Norma was a volunteer aircraft warden; the thought was that her sensitive hearing would give her an advantage over sighted wardens in listening for enemy planes. And I learned that Akron, Ohio, became known as the "crossroads of the deaf" because of all the deaf people who came to work in tire factories converted to defense plants -- making more money than they had ever been able to before. Yet, even with all the reporting that's been done recently about the Greatest Generation, you don't hear much about those folks.

If Skippy or Sarahlynn sent you: Welcome!

Thanks for coming, and thanks to Skippy and Sarahlynn.

If you want to read a couple things I've written recently (as opposed to Things That Crack Me Up and Slumgullions) go here here or here.

As it should be, of course

The Gimp Parade is the number one result of a Google search for:

"she is a very sexy vent dependent quadriplegic"

How I love that someone typed in this particular search, regardless of who they were hoping to find.

"Autism Speaks" creator on Oprah

Kristina Chew at Autism Vox reports that Oprah will feature "The Faces of Autism" on April 5 (tomorrow), except those faces will be filtered through the lens of guest Suzanne Wright, co-founder of Autism Speaks. For those unfamiliar, Wright's organization is responsible for the video "Autism Every Day," which will also be featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The video was released in May 2006 and features a mother saying in the presence of her autistic child that she thinks about killing that child.

You can read about the reactions of autistic folks to this video here, here, and here.

Oh, Oprah.

Things that crack me up, #23

From Flickr contributor giginger

Visual description: A window display with five different wheelchairs among green and warm reddish-orange curtains. A big sign reads "Don't you wish your wheelchair was HOT like me?" and three smaller signs by different wheelchairs reading "Don't cha?" "Don't cha?" "Don't cha?"

Medical professionals who are excellent, asses and part of a failing system

My posse and I trekked into the Twin Cities this morning (despite threats of dangerous weather that have come true all around Minnesota over the day) because of a malfunctioning G/J feeding tube that needed immediate replacement. The balloon part that inflates in my stomach to hold it all in place had deflated itself and the damn thing was trying to come out, which it cannot really do without also pulling away from where it enters my upper intestine (jejunum).

This deflation and migration caused me some discomfort but not any intense pain, the hospital that installed it worked me into the schedule this morning and it was easily replaced. I returned home before people started sliding off the icy roads and all is mostly well with my world.

But there's this little drama that plays out each time I get the tube replaced and I've only just today discerned the pattern among the cast of medical professionals I spend about a half hour with -- usually every three months. The nurse who comes to get me in the radiology recovery room (for outpatient procedures I am unfamiliar with) is always male, which is fine, but curious since nursing is a predominantly female profession. He's also always incredibly personable and relaxing to be around, which I appreciate since he is my host to Events That Thus Far Have Gone Smoothly But Do Involve Medical Risk. This host has been several different specific guys in the past year, all kind and competent.

The x-ray techs are also mostly male in this high tech procedure, though today there was one woman present other than myself and the nurse I brought with me from home. These x-ray techs do non x-ray-ish things like sterilize my stomach with Betadine and arrange the surgical drapes. I expect the specialization of the nursing and x-ray tech requirements somehow explains the male predominance I've observed, but I don't know exactly how or why.

The nurses and x-ray techs have all always been reassuring, professional, caring, kind, responsive -- everything you want in medical people. The doctor shows up for five minutes to yank the old tube out and thread the new one in. The guy I usually get calls me "sweetheart" and comes and goes rather politely but quickly. He seems skilled, and I appreciate that.

But here's the thing: He's a total ass to the other people and, in subtle ways, to my nurse. It's not one isolated incident. He's displayed asshattery on several occasions now, belittling the employees under him at the hospital and treating my nurse like she and others like her are either negligent or incompetent. Today's deflated balloon and faulty tube, he asserted to my nurse, was the fault of her and others in my employ who just won't leave it alone and must have manually deflated the balloon.

The doctor discussed this with my private nurse out of my hearing, basically giving her professional chiding and advice without ever once consulting me about my care. It didn't dawn on me until today that not only am I just a body on the table that he does a quick procedure to and then leaves, but he doesn't even consider me a partner in my own care of the equipment he installs in my body. Perhaps because I have a nurse, I don't know. Maybe it's part of his abrupt pragmatism and crowded schedule, but I doubt it's as simple as that.

Meanwhile, the other employees of the hospital that he seems to consistently belittle and treat like dirt continue to shower me with thoughtful care. It's unlikely he's like that just when I'm around once every few months, right? This is a working condition for these other professionals that serve me well and might someday decide that they don't deserve this crap and move on to another job.

There's gender, ableism and a kind of professional classism at work in these dynamics I observe, and it's taken me a year of quarterly encounters and some quizzing of my nurse to get a fuller picture of it, since I'm not privy to all of it that occurs even in my specific interests. And this is an example of medical competence, really. In all ways medical, it's basically a successful encounter. And yet that successful-ness seems precarious to me because of all the power dynamics involved with this one doctor, and that's been on my mind all day.

Genni McMahon, who blogs at Ilyka Damen's, has had much more dramatic, critical problems with medical care on her mind today. Read it all, but here's a taste:

My mother became very ill the night before last with a high fever, extreme body aches, and weakness. She’s 62, swims three times a week and uses her Nordic Track everyday. She’s a partner in an accounting firm, takes no prescription medicine, and is a health nut. She couldn’t get out of bed, so my sister and I went to her house and called her doctor; he’s a skilled physician, but like most of the system, he’s a doc for profit. His office told us to take her to the ER. There, we had a really bad experience and they managed to nearly kill her, which I’ll share in a moment.

First, though, let me say that in spending the entire day in an ER, with momentary breaks to go get things from my mom’s house and take a kid from one caretaker to another, I noticed what I think is the absolute cornerstone of What’s Wrong With Healthcare In America. I’m sure you’re curious as to my discovery, so I’ll let you experience it as I did.

Mini-Slumgullion # 34

Joshua Kors at The Nation -- "How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits":

Jon Town has spent the last few years fighting two battles, one against his body, the other against the US Army. Both began in October 2004 in Ramadi, Iraq. He was standing in the doorway of his battalion's headquarters when a 107-millimeter rocket struck two feet above his head. The impact punched a piano-sized hole in the concrete facade, sparked a huge fireball and tossed the 25-year-old Army specialist to the floor, where he lay blacked out among the rubble.

"The next thing I remember is waking up on the ground." Men from his unit had gathered around his body and were screaming his name. "They started shaking me. But I was numb all over," he says. "And it's weird because... because for a few minutes you feel like you're not really there. I could see them, but I couldn't hear them. I couldn't hear anything. I started shaking because I thought I was dead."

Eventually the rocket shrapnel was removed from Town's neck and his ears stopped leaking blood. But his hearing never really recovered, and in many ways, neither has his life. A soldier honored twelve times during his seven years in uniform, Town has spent the last three struggling with deafness, memory failure and depression. By September 2006 he and the Army agreed he was no longer combat-ready.

But instead of sending Town to a medical board and discharging him because of his injuries, doctors at Fort Carson, Colorado, did something strange: They claimed Town's wounds were actually caused by a "personality disorder." Town was then booted from the Army and told that under a personality disorder discharge, he would never receive disability or medical benefits.

Town is not alone. A six-month investigation has uncovered multiple cases in which soldiers wounded in Iraq are suspiciously diagnosed as having a personality disorder, then prevented from collecting benefits. The conditions of their discharge have infuriated many in the military community, including the injured soldiers and their families, veterans' rights groups, even military officials required to process these dismissals.

They say the military is purposely misdiagnosing soldiers like Town and that it's doing so for one reason: to cheat them out of a lifetime of disability and medical benefits, thereby saving billions in expenses.

Journalist Stuart Hughes, who blogs at Beyond Northern Iraq, writes for the BBC News on Heather Mills -- "Heather: Amputee Inspiration or Irritation":

Even when I had two legs I was no dancer, so the idea of fox-trotting, tangoing or cha-cha-cha-ing in front of an audience of millions is unthinkable to me.

And aside from the issue of whether she is merely trying to rebuild her tarnished image after her bruising separation from Sir Paul McCartney, I admire her determination to take on the bipeds at their own game.

One gambling website is taking bets on whether Mills' leg will fall off during the series, pointing out her prosthesis "must fall off, not be purposely taken off, during a dance routine for all Yes wagers to be graded a win". If you want a betting tip from me, put a tenner on her prosthesis staying firmly attached.

The current generation of prostheses are secured with tightly-fitting silicone liners fitted with pins or suction seals, which roll onto the skin like a sock. The chances of Heather's flying into the audience during a high kick are precisely zero.

Jean Chambers at Philosophy Now reviews Martha Nussbaum's Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership:

The ‘frontiers’ of Frontiers of Justice are three social frontiers at the edge of the political community as it has been defined by social contract theorists such as Rawls. The early social contract theorists Thomas Hobbes,John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau posited free and independent men, roughly equal in power, living at first in a pre-social ‘state of nature’. Such men would have had little reason to form a society and submit to the authority of laws unless they could individually benefit from giving up their absolute liberty. Therefore the only social contract they could rationally agree to would be a mutually advantageous one. But this familiar scenario has tended to exclude from the resulting polity anyone who it might not be mutually advantageous for such men to cooperate with – anyone who is not free, not equal, or not independent. Nussbaum claims that people with disabilities, citizens of other nations, and non-human animals have thereby been banished by contract theorists to the frontiers of social justice.

People with disabilities may not be free or independent; and those with severe mental disabilities may be unequal. Nussbaum argues that such people should nevertheless be considered full citizens entitled to dignified lives, even if no one could gain from cooperating with them. She notes that the social contract tradition has always denied the reality of dependency, despite the obvious fact that everyone is dependent on others during infancy, old age, injury, and illness. Historically women have done most of the largely unpaid work of caring for dependents, so by ignoring women, the social contract theorists conveniently evaded the thorny issue of justice for dependents and caregivers. Nussbaum argues that justice for people with disabilities should include whatever special arrangements are required for them to lead a dignified life, and the work of caring for them should be socially recognized, fairly distributed, and fairly compensated.

Things that crack me up, #22

I know this is a serious search engine query (Yahoo this time instead of Google), and it's such a general question that I have no advice, but the specific wording of it cracks me up:

"What steps can I take if I'm Disabled in a WheelChair in 2007"?

Accessibility here, just somewhere else

Flickr credits: Lee Bennett, ekai, and Isgphoto, respectively.

Visual descriptions of the three photos above: 1) A simple sign that reads "Wheelchair Ramp Available, Inquire Within," 2) A simple sign reading "Accessible Restrooms On The Second Level," and 3) A door with a sign at door handle level reading "Disabled WC" and a piece of paper posted about a foot above reading "POLITE NOTICE: This toilet is out of order. Please use the facilities upstairs. Sorry for any inconvenience caused."

More writing on Ashley X

As people incorporate the Ashley Treatment into their thinking about disability or just spend a little time with the ethics of it all, more continues to be written about the case and the precedent it creates:

Patricia Williams for The Nation, posted at AlterNet:

This was also very wrong as a matter of ethics and public policy. There seems to be, in the national debate about this case, a popular consensus that the parents were well motivated, so who are the rest of us to judge? That sentiment is expressed loftily, as in Peter Singer's New York Times op-ed ("she is precious not so much for what she is, but because her parents and siblings love her and care about her"), and crudely, as in an anonymous online posting to the disability rights organization FRIDA ("I think your group is a pain in the neck ... if and when something happens to the caregiver, who will take care of the disabled person ... your group or the state who really does not give a hoot.")

Dave Reynolds at Inclusion Daily Express asks the question "Should 'Ashley X' be at the Center of Community Living Debate?":

Frankly, however, I haven't been able to make that link between community supports and Ashley's parents. I don't think one has much to do with the other.

For one thing, I found nothing in statements by Ashley's parents to suggest that an increase in community supports would have kept them from surgically changing their daughter to fit what they wanted her to be, an eternal "Pillow Angel". To the contrary, they said that they had tried in-home services but were not happy with them. Not that their satisfaction with the services would have mattered; even if they had the best in-home supports for Ashley, they still would have chosen their radical procedure.

"We would never turn the care of Ashley over to strangers even if she had grown tall and heavy," they wrote.

And because we knew this would never be just about Ashley X, Today's Zaman, a Turkish news site reports:

Two families with children suffering from cerebral palsy voiced support on Friday for another family’s plea to stunt the growth of their son, 13-year-old Umut Mert, who suffers from the same disorder. Füsun Evren, Umut Mert’s mother, earlier this week announced she was looking for a doctor who would stunt her son’s growth, in an operation now referred to as “Ashley’s treatment,” so named after a 9-year-old Seattle girl whose parents opted to stunt her growth with high-dose estrogen.

.... Professor Saim Yeprem from the Religious Affairs Directorate said that Ashley’s treatment was unacceptable. Yeprem said: “Umut Mert would be castrated if he received Ashley’s treatment. Castration is opposed by all religions, not only Islam.”

Dr. Güler Saygun from the Turkish Disabled Persons Administration said that applying such a treatment would require approval from the Ministry of Health’s Ethics Council. The head of the Turkish Association for the Disabled, Zülfikar Akar, said: “We don’t think it’s the right choice, but the mother’s situation is indeed difficult. These situations happen because care centers don’t offer long-term care for people with disabilities.”

Big badass slumgullion #33

Blog posts and news reports all mixed together... slumgullion-like:

The Gray Panthers of San Fransisco blogs about managed care and assisted-suicide:

...The California Association of Physicians Groups, an organization that represents Northern and Southern California Permanente Groups and lobbies for “groups practicing in the managed care model” (http://www.CAPG.org), have recently come out with letters to the Legislature and press statements strongly advocating for assisted suicide in California.

Will assisted suicide proponents finally admit that a quick hundred dollar lethal prescription is vastly cheaper than offering extended care over the long haul?

Diebold sues Massachusetts for selecting a competitors voting machines over theirs. Judge denies Diebold's request to block bid. --Via Sara

Merge of schools for blind and deaf students opposed in Oregon. Also in Ohio. I've been following the controversy about this on a listserv, but Stephen Kuusisto of Planet of the Blind weighs in here.

In the NYT: Trafficker of Healer? And Who's the Victim? -- On pain treatment

From NPR, artist Lisa Bufano finds creative inspiration for dance in being a double amputee. Video of some dance segments also available at the NPR link. Visual description of photo at left by Gehard Aba: Caption from NPR "This 2005 piece, Fancy, was commissioned by the University of Linz. In it, Bufano wears stilts fashioned from red, Queen Anne-style table legs."

Also from NPR, the Healing Waters Project, which provides fishing as a therapy for wounded war vets.

At Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac (I know, but the poem he presents is somebody else's, not by his bigoted self) -- "How to Tell If You're a Participant or a Staff (A Handy Guide for Day Programs)" by David Moreau

Diary of a Goldfish on "As no questions, hear no lies" -- Goldfish weighs in on strangers' questions about impairments.

Bioethicist Arthur Caplan and Michael A. Devita (whom I don't know anything about) write about a transplant surgeon being investigated for "hasten[ing] the death of a 26-year-old patient in order to harvest his organs more quickly to ensure they would be transplantable."

On how the relay phone service for the deaf is used by con artists and the people hired to do the relay cannot legally interfere:

Operators vary in their estimates of scamming prevalence, but most agree that con artists chew up roughly a third to half of their workload, at times even more. Because of confidentiality rules set down by the FCC, relay companies say they can't monitor or estimate the number of abuse calls.

"If we did just legit calls, our office would be closed. The managers tell me, 'if it weren't for those calls, you wouldn't have a paycheck,' " says one operator in New Castle, Pa., who wished to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job. She has worked at an AT&T relay center for more than a decade and is putting her children through college on her wages.

At TomPaine.com, "Cutting Native People's Health Care":

American Indians have access to federally-paid health care based on hundreds of treaties the United States signed with Indian nations, under the accepted federal practice of more than 100 years and as a requirement of the trust responsibility the U.S. owes the Indian nations to care for their welfare. Indians have not, however, received their fair share of federal health care, especially in light of this heightened duty. In fact, a July 18, 2003 study by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights entitled “A Quiet Crisis” found that

... the federal government’s rate of spending on health care for Native Americans is 50 percent less than for prisoners or Medicaid recipients, and 60 percent less than is spent annually on health care for the average American.

Clearly, the United States is not fulfilling its treaty and trustee responsibility to provide health care to American Indian people.

From the NYT: "Can You Live With the Voices in Your Head?" -- On auditory hallucinations

From The New York Review of Books: "A Track All His Own" -- On "outsider" artist Martín Ramírez. The image just above, created in 1954, is a drawing by the artist of a horse and rider in profile, with both the horse and some lines drawn around them in box-like progression to create an illusion of depth in shades of purple. The rider seems to be wearing chainmail and I find the drawing reminiscent of ancient Greek drawings on pottery and murals. The horse has one front leg kicked up high. More on the artist and his history as a schizophrenic and immigrant from Mexico here and here.

Simi Linton at Disability Culture Watch offers a heads-up that next week's Law & Order: Criminal Intent on NBC Tuesday evening will feature some Deaf actors:

I know that they hired many Deaf actors and that their process (of development, casting and production) was extraordinary.

From The Stranger, an anonymous column on the Iraq war and disability fetishism:

And thanks to George W. Bush—and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice and corrupt Republicans and ineffectual Democrats—there are going to be a lot more amputees around for me to see as sexual beings. During the Vietnam War, two American soldiers were wounded for every fatality. Now, thanks to advances in body armor and battlefield medicine, 16 U.S. soldiers are wounded for every fatality. That means fewer depressing military funerals and more sexy disabled vets, more Bryan Andersons and Marissa Strocks.

From the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, and article about local Muslims trying to balance culture and faith. Among several other conflicts, some devout Muslim taxi drivers refuse to transport people with service dogs:

Airport commissioners have expressed concern about cabbies refusing to pick up fares because of Islamic prohibitions against carrying alcohol. They also worry that Islamic rules about dogs might prompt drivers to decline rides when 300 visitors with guide dogs attend the American Council of the Blind convention in Minneapolis this summer.

Abdinoor Ahmed Dolal, a Muslim cab driver from Kenya, was stunned by the commissioners' concerns. The Qur'an places high value on assisting the disabled, he said. So Dolal says Muslim cabbies have offered to give blind conventioneers free rides to Minneapolis, forgoing the $30 fares as a sign of good will.

"The issues we have are so simple and have nothing to do with extremism or fanaticism," Dolal said. "We are Muslims and we are Minnesotans and if we sit down and listen to each other, we can work things out."

The cover story of the latest Weekly Standard: "Identity Politics Gone Wild: The Deaf Culture Wars at Gallaudet University" -- The tone of this conservative piece seems partly to be that taxpayers don't need to pay for this school, but it's also very critical of Deaf culture as an identity.

Texas guidelines for interpreters for the deaf

This 59-step guide on how to provide interpretaton for deaf defendants in the Texas court system came across on a listserv I observe.

The full diagram viewable at this .pdf file. Visual description of the full chart at the link is difficult without spending an hour or two writing out the complexity of this huge flow chart. The image below shows only about a dozen steps, from a green circle that reads "1. Contact between person and court." with arrow to a yellow shape that reads "2. Is person arrested and taken to judge acting as a magistrate?" If the answer is yes, an arrow leads to number three, if no, an arrow leads to number 12. In several places along the process, the question is whether or not the judge learns the person is deaf, hard of hearing, or doesn't speak English. An answer of "no" at these points presumes the person can hear or understand English.

Molski and the Ninth Circuit

I've written about Jarek Molski before. He's the paraplegic Californian who has sued hundreds of businesses for Title III ADA violations (public accommodations access). Under the California Unruh Act, which is a state civil rights law, he has also sued for damages -- something the ADA won't allow but that defendants like Clint Eastwood have in the past claimed of the ADA.

Molski is known as a serial litigant, and last week the Ninth Circuit reversed Molski v. M.J. Cable, Inc. in his favor. Sam Bagenstos of Disability Law blog was cited in the opinion and describes the case and outcome:

The case the court decided today, Molski v. M.J. Cable, Inc., involved Molski's suit under the ADA and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act against a restaurant in Woodland Hills. The evidence at trial made clear that the restaurant was inaccessible in violation of Title III of the ADA, but the jury found no violation. Rejecting a motion for a new trial, the district judge concluded that the jury could have properly found that Molski was not an "individual" entitled to protection under the ADA but instead was a business (who makes money bringing accessibility suits).

In today's opinion by Judge Ferguson, the Ninth Circuit reversed. The court concluded that the evidence compelled a finding that the restaurant violated the ADA. As for the notion that Molski wasn't an "individual," the court found no basis in the statute for that reading.

The opinion, available as .pdf file here, is interesting reading for a number of reasons.

First, it rejects the defendant's claim that Molski is a "business" and not an "individual" with standing under the ADA because of his history of ADA litigation and the money he has been awarded through the damages provided by the Unruh Act. Not only that, the opinion interprets the ADA as not requiring a disabled individual to be an actual client or customer to have standing under the ADA's Title III since choice among businesses, whether a person uses a business or not, is part of the law's intent.

This is an important point because it means, for one thing, that an individual with future hopes of using a business has legal recourse to work toward that day. Imagine, for example, not physically being able to enter and become a customer, but being denied standing because of that lack of access. Or imagine some large event like a family wedding or political convention with an upcoming date when disabled people want to be present. The Ninth Circuit's opinion seems to account for those sort of situations.

Second, there's some gratifying crip awareness to the opinion illustrated particularly in the eighth footnote, which notes the ableism of the defendant's argument:

The defendant’s analogy that “[Molski] was no more a customer at [Cable’s] on that day than he would be had he been sitting at the counter waiting for the restaurant’s cashier to turn his or her back so [Molski] could steal the money from the cash register” is simply wrong, not to mention puzzlingly insensitive in its imagery, given that Molski is confined to a wheelchair.

I can forgive the "confined to a wheelchair" perspective given there's recognition that the defendant in court refused to really assess or give credibility to what the plaintiff's accessibility needs might actually be.

The third thing that interests me is the opinion's description of the inaccessibility Molski experienced at the defendant's restaurant. Remember, Molski has been vilified for being a "vexatious litigant" and the ADA attacked routinely in the media because of serial litigants like him. Here's the description:

Upon entering the restroom, Molski noticed numerous architectural barriers to his accessing the facilities. The door pressure on the bathroom door was too heavy, and the door lacked a handicap accessible sign. Inside, the stall doors could not close with Molski’s wheelchair in the stall. The stall lacked grab bars on both the rear wall and side wall, which prevented Molski from maneuvering from his wheelchair to the toilet. The toilet seat cover dispenser was unreachable. The pipes underneath the sink were not insulated, and therefore, according to Molski, posed a special risk to those without feeling in their legs, as hot pipes could burn them without their realization. The sink also lacked levered hardware, a type of fixture that is easily moveable without strong grip strength. Molski was unable to reach at least one of the paper towel dispensers. Molski testified that the hygienic violations were especially important in his case because, due to his chest-down paralysis, he uses a catheter and a urine bag that must be emptied frequently. He explained that failure to empty the urine bag can cause autonomic dysreflexia, a condition that can result in whole body spasms and even cardiac arrest. Handling the bag with unwashed hands can also lead to bladder infections.

With the exceptions that I don't have any urine bag to empty and rarely even see a toilet cover dispenser anywhere, this description describes just about every inaccessible restroom I have ever been in -- and found I literally could not use. I want to go through it line-by-line.

The heavy door. Most restroom doors push inward, which means that a heavy door that requires one to pull toward them to open and exit the room is almost impossible for someone on wheels or on crutches, particularly given the cramped architecture of most restroom entrances. Yes. I have been trapped in public restrooms with heavy doors, unable to exit and unsure if anybody would find me there for hours.

The stall door would not close with Molski and his chair inside it. For many women I know, this is a security issue as well as a matter of equal access. Besides, usually leaving the door open while transferring and peeing means that you face the public mirror and everyone who enters and leaves the restroom (and sometimes those in the hall just outside) cannot help but look at you while you use the toilet.

The stall lacked grab bars. This is the main problem that would make this restroom completely unusable for me. This is the reason why, hundreds of times, I have left a business I have already spent money at to go look desperately for somewhere else to pee.

The exposed pipes under the sink. Insulation of exposed pipes prevents legs from being burned by hot water. Since I haven't used a manual much in the past decade and my scooter pulls alongside rather than up and underneath the sink, this isn't a special problem for me now, but it used to be an issue of serious safety when I did.

The sink lacked lever hardware. This makes a sink completely unusable for many of us.

No towel dispenser was reachable. This is especially a problem where sinks are part of vanity-type counters because those counters are almost always covered with water from previous sloppy users. If I can't reach the towels, I can't use the sink from my seated position without soaking my arms and the front of my top with someone else's used water. This is gross and unsanitary and requires me to choose between washing my own hands or keeping my top clean and dry.

The defendant didn't dispute any of these violations Molski listed. In fact, Anthony Dalkas, the vice president of the company owning the restaurant, testified that they hadn't addressed these access issues because they hadn't been required to (italics mine):

In his testimony, Dalkas acknowledged that the company had not attempted to identify barriers to the disabled. He admitted that Cable’s had not made the renovations because “[w]e weren’t compelled to do it.” Dalkas testified that Cable’s could afford each of the repairs but stated, “once you start down that path[,] you’re opening a can of worms that will cost a lot of money.”

I stand by what I said two years ago about ADA compliance and serial litigants like Molski:

...15 years on the books hasn't been enough to encourage thousands upon thousands of businesses nationwide to install even simple ramps. Like any law, the ADA and other disability nondiscrimination statutes can surely be abused, but I have a difficult time finding sympathy for inaccessible businesses I could never patronize that gripe about complying with a law passed in 1990.... Like other mobility-impaired individuals, when I consider going somewhere new -- when friends or family discuss a social outing with me -- the first consideration we must have is whether or not the place we wish to go is accessible. If it complies with the law. As often as not, we must alter our plans. If I decided to sue every business I came across that was truly violating the law just by failing to give me entrance into their front door (never mind restroom accessibility, which is equally important, really), I would not have to exert myself to become a serial plaintiff too. Noncompliance is everywhere.

Things that crack me up, #21

It's just so mysterious.

Restroom signage somewhere in Orleans, France.















From Flickr by bananeman

Visual description: It's a simple drawing of a woman in a manual wheelchair at right and a washroom sink at left. There's a giant green arrow leading from the sink and pointing to the woman. I suppose this is somehow meant to indicate the sink is accessible, but there are no accompanying words, and really, it looks like you're supposed to douse the woman with water or pry the fixture loose and whack her with it. Or something.

Poetry Monday: Their Sudden Tongues

Tulips
by Sylvia Plath

The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.
I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.
I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the anaesthetist and my body to surgeons.

They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff
Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.
Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.
The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble,
They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps,
Doing things with their hands, one just the same as another,
So it is impossible to tell how many there are.

My body is a pebble to them, they tend it as water
Tends to the pebbles it must run over, smoothing them gently.
They bring me numbness in their bright needles, they bring me sleep.
Now I have lost myself I am sick of baggage ——
My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,
My husband and child smiling out of the family photo;
Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.

I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat
Stubbornly hanging on to my name and address.
They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations.
Scared and bare on the green plastic-pillowed trolley
I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books
Sink out of sight, and the water went over my head.
I am a nun now, I have never been so pure.

I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted
To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free ——
The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,
And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.
It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them
Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.

The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me.
Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe
Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.
Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.
They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,
Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their colour,
A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.

Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.
The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me
Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,
And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow
Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,
And I have no face, I have wanted to efface myself.
The vivid tulips eat my oxygen.

Before they came the air was calm enough,
Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.
Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise.
Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river
Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.
They concentrate my attention, that was happy
Playing and resting without committing itself.

The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves.
The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;
They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,
And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes
Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.
The water I taste is warm and salty, like the sea,
And comes from a country far away as health.

Slumgullion #32

Some bloggy goodness:

Funky Mango writes about the "One Million for Disability" campaign across the European Union. There's a petition too, aimed at collecting at least one million citizens’ signatures because, as stated in the draft European Union Constitutional Treaty, the EU must respond to a call from a million or more citizens demanding action.

A review from the archives of Autism Diva on Mozart and the Whale. I recently saw the movie about a romance between two people with Asperger's, and as I wrote elsewhere:

One of the things that struck me is that it is a film about people with Asperger's and it's not mediated by someone without autism. You know, there's no Tom Cruise to Dustin Hoffman's Rainman. There's no nondisabled character within the story interpreting or analyzing the main characters. I thought that was important and refreshing.

Mark Siegel at The 19th Floor writes in "Its Capital is Cripopolis" about a new study that shows disabled people hold the same prejudices about other disabled folks as the nondisabled do. The study itself is interesting too.

Ricky Taylor at RidorLIVE.com covers the radio show where comedian Lisa Lampanelli ridiculed Deaf people. Yep, on radio, where they couldn't immediately respond:

Lisa Lampanelli: I was always [wondering] if God would maybe think my act was awful and make me deaf so I cant do comedy no more, ’cause that’s why people are deaf; ’cause god hates them.

Male DJ: Now, listen, Lisa.

LL: God hates deaf people, what is wrong with you?

Male DJ: There are gonna be a lot of deaf people there.

LL: Oh, I hope so.

Female DJ: Well there will be. There’s a college within RIT [Rochester Institute of Technology] that’s specifically for deaf students.

LL: Don’t you think deaf students, could be maybe just retarded, and they’re trying to sneak by saying they are deaf?

Male DJ: Lighten up a little bit.

Liberal Catnip on "The Politics of Powerlessness":

It seems that unless you have a large, visible wound or a tumour you can flash on an x-ray, they simply cannot accept that you might actually suffer from pain and other equally annoying symptoms every day. And, even if we did have those things to show them, they seem to always come up with a story - either theirs (which is not similar) or someone else's (like Lance Armstrong's amazing feats, for examples) as proof that you should just get over it, rise up and live a normal life. You're either a loser or a hero. There is no middle ground. Oh, and the fact that you can write a few words on a blog is apparently proof of your power to have a career in journalism or professional writing. (Little do people know about the agony that intermingles those blog posts).

They're wrong.

The effect that sort of attitude has is the infliction of oppression. That's the broader topic here - that there will always be those with more power who use it to demean and attempt to control others.

Liz at The Trouble with Spikol on "Intent to Kill?" about mental illness, intent to kill, and an insurance company refusing to pay on a murdered woman's policy.

Charles Dawson at The Meanderings of a Politically Incorrect Crip writes "Sitting on the horns of a dilemma is painful and not only if you have piles" about a disabled woman in the UK who won a court case against a personal care company that refused to lift her in and out of her wheelchair.

Katya at Broken Clay often travels for business and always has accessibility adventures to share.

Red Robin and Armadillos at the Gimp Compound

It's warm today, and while the morning began with miserable fog that didn't bother me at all because I slept through its evil opaqueness, the rest of the day's weather has been slowly less dreary. There's still patches of snow a few inches deep in sheltered spots around the neighborhood, and, I imagine, gigantimous piles yet in local parking lots that I haven't visited lately.

I've been observing the flowers and birds.

There's been a robin in the backyard deciding how much of this neighborhood will belong to him. Yes, the first robin of spring. Or maybe he's pondering the embarrassing lack of privacy of last year's nest, on the light fixture next to the back garage door, unfortunately placed so we humans could all gather in the bathroom and gawk out the window at their precariously perched abode and its contents anytime we chose. We saw the nest building, some of the domestic negotiations resulting in three perfect blue eggs, the babies within hours of hatching, and the sibling rivalry just minutes before their first flights.

And I'm missing my blind junco bird friend who has not appeared at the sunflower seed feeder at all this past week. He was a loner, a bit unkempt, and his left eye had been tormented terribly by disease or injury. It was bald and featherless all around the little unseeing eye, which he kept toward the kitchen window so the other could see the world as he ate. He seemed perfectly competent in flight, ending up precisely where he aimed to go. So I'm hoping he decided to go elsewhere as the weather has warmed. I hope he'll be back here next year.

A lot of birds have little impairments if you take the time to observe. There's a grackle with a club foot, and another with some hip issues that give him a funny gait. Maybe they were injured in the vicious scraps they get into fighting over food. In any case, from what I can see they seem to manage well enough.

On flowers. Earlier this week I saw the orchid exhibition at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I find orchids fascinating and particularly enjoy the varieties that have little arms outspread (like in this photo just above) because they're showy, but when the flowers get old the arms sag despondently. It's sort of human and sweet.

And then there are the amaryllises, or as my finely-bred family like to call them, the "armadillos." These are magnificent flowers that you can keep in a dark closet for most of the year, bring out and water in late winter, and watch them send up enormous stalks topped by blooms the size of dinner plates. Exhausted afterwards, they like to sit in the closet again. I had one on my windowsill at the rehab hospital last spring and recall in particular how one nurse's assistant who had just helped me onto the commode insisted on standing there next to me admiring the flower while I thought mean thoughts about her in hopes of driving her away.

We have five or six armadillos. I don't know why so many except that when you keep things in your closet, they sometimes tend to multiply.

(Visual description of three photos: The first is of a Phalaenopsis orchid, a bough of blooms in white petals with pink lines radiating from the center out toward the edges. The second photo is of a bough or orchid blossoms that have the nose and arms like the Lady Slipper orchid but bloom many at once on a branch -- the arms of the flower sag after the bloom ages a bit. The third photo is of two "armadillos" with big sturdy stalks and giant buds about to open.)

Montes de Oca

I had several fantastic social studies and history teachers when I was in high school in suburban Chicago, and one of them arranged a fieldtrip into the city one day to hear from teens displaced from war-torn countries. Because of this I read The Little School by Alicia Partnoy when it came out in 1986. It's about the disappeared of Argentina in the late 1970s, those kidnapped and tortured by the violent military regime, most of them never to be heard from again.

Until a notice of this upcoming event at UC Berkeley, I was unaware that the mentally disabled were special targets of this government violence too. Here's the info for the event:

The Ghosts of Montes de Oca: Naked Life, Torture and the Medically Disappeared

Lecture on April 2, 2007 at 4-5:30 p.m.
Doe (Main) Library, Morrison Library

Speaker/Performer: Nancy Scheper-Hughes, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: Latin American Studies, Center for

Between 1976 and 1991, 1400 patients at Montes de Oca, Argentina’s national mental asylum for the profoundly “mentally deficient,” disappeared. Another 1350 died, many inexplicably. Cecilia Giubileo, a young psychiatrist who planned to expose the institutional abuses related to the disappearances and deaths, was among the disappeared. Nancy Scheper-Hughes will discuss the asylum’s recent history and address the question of how medical personnel entrusted with the care of the most vulnerable patients could justify a regime of malignant abuse in one of the most psychiatrically sophisticated countries in the world.

Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. She is best known for her award-winning books Saints, Scholars and Schizophrenics: Mental Illness in Rural Ireland and Death without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil.

Can a deaf black lesbian charged with murder get a fair trial?

Does your answer change if you learn the trial is in South Dakota? How about if she's up for the death penalty?

From the March 6 article in the Argus Leader of South Dakota:

[Daphne] Wright, 43, was indicted in February 2006 on kidnapping and first-degree murder counts in the disappearance of 42-year-old Darlene Vander-Giesen of Rock Valley, Iowa.

Vander-Giesen's body was dismembered, and searchers spent days at a landfill west of Sioux Falls searching for her body parts. Some human remains also were found in a ditch in Minnesota....

Wright's minority status as deaf, black and homosexual have been considerations in pretrial motions and have brought national attention to the case.

Ricky D. Taylor, a deaf Washington, D.C., blogger who runs RidorLIVE.com, said by e-mail that he's received several e-mails about Wright's case. He said it's of particular interest on the East Coast, where Wright used to live.

Taylor said he's interested in the makeup of the jurors and would like to see a deaf person among them.

"As much as the crimes are heinous to us all, I am concerned about the jury selection. For one, Daphne is (a) woman, lesbian, deaf and African-American. Will she be fairly judged by her peers in the state of South Dakota? In my opinion, I doubt that," he wrote.

Courtroom discussion over the methods used to make sure Wright has adequate interpretation of court events has already been extensive:

Wright's deafness has necessitated as many as five American Sign Language interpreters to be in court at a time.

The weeks leading up to Monday's start of jury selection have featured lengthy pretrial testimony and argument about what else should happen to guarantee Wright a fair trial.

[Judge Brad] Zell already had granted a defense motion that in-court translation be videotaped and reaffirmed it Monday after hearing new arguments. The defense wants the recording to make sure what is being signed to Wright is the same as what witnesses are saying.

[Minnehaha County State's Attorney Dave] Nelson argued in court Monday that other steps the court has already taken will ensure a fair trial and that the video would draw out the appeals process if Wright is convicted.

"I don't think the state or county should have to bear this really remarkable expense," he said, assigning an $80,000 price tag to the argument.

Assistant public defender Traci Smith insisted it's crucial that the court record is accurate.

She noted that the chosen company, Midwest Litigation Services, would charge the county $60 per hour, which for a 30-day trial at eight hours per day is less than $15,000.

From ABCNews coverage:

Prosecutors say Wright got caught up in a whirlwind of lesbian drama which drove her to commit murder. The motive was jealousy. Wright says VanderGeisen, who was heterosexual, was trying to break up her lesbian relationship with a woman identified as Sallie Collins, a close friend of the victim. The two reportedly had a heated argument over the relationship shortly before the murder took place.

While prosecutors are talking about the "whirlwind of lesbian drama" others are discussing the very real complications of providing adequate ASL interpretion in real time in the courtroom of complex legal issues:

Professor Jeff Braden, an expert in deafness and development, says that Wright should not face the death penalty, even if an ideal interpreter were available. "She is at more of a disadvantage than, say, if you or I were arrested and taken to court in Pakistan, where we'd be at the mercy of a court interpreter. Having an interpreter still doesn't change the fact that deaf people don't have a native language."

The problem, Braden says, is that it is not uncommon for a woman like Wright — deaf since early childhood and born to hearing parents — to get a late start in her exposure to language. In those critical early years, Braden says, critical communication skills are lost.

"There are a number of barriers that deaf people face that would put them at a severe disadvantage in a legal proceeding. … She'd be at a significant disadvantage, even with an interpreter." Braden told ABC News.

"Battery or manslaughter may be signed the same way. An individual is not getting info they need because American Sign Language doesn't [those symbols]," Braden added. He also notes that tone of voice and other nuances that convey meaning in the courtroom would get lost in interpretation.

Other disability and Deaf activists fear any special concerns given to Wright because of her deafness would signal that Deaf people are not responsble for their actions or capable of participating in society as equals. Of course, the death penalty eligibility complicates everything, not only raising the stakes but adding a level of legal complexity.

And there's this, from a March 7 article by Keloland television:

[Public Defender Jeff] Larsen pointed out that Wright is the only african american in the courtroom. He asked the all white jury panel about race. Although some acknowledged race issues have made them uncomfortable at some point in their life, all potential jurors said race won't be a factor in how they find the verdict. Jurors answered the same way when asked questions about Wright being a lesbian.

So, no black or deaf people on the jury, for sure, it seems. Any gay folks? Can this be fair under these circumstances?

More on Emilio

I posted about baby Emilio Gonzales on Wednesday, but here's a petition to sign for him. It does appear that public attention and involvement has had an effect so far.

Emilio has not gotten much national mainstream media attention so far, but for further info on the Texas futile care law, which was signed into law by then-Governor George W. Bush, you can check out the ever-dubious Wiki as a starting point. It lists several cases that have come under the Texas law since it was signed: Sun Hudson, Tirhas Habtegiris, Andrea Clark, and Baby Emilio.

Sun was the infant of a mentally ill woman and the first American child to be refused medical care against his parent's wishes. Habtegiris was an African immigrant woman who couldn't pay her medical bills, and Clark was a 54-year-old heart patient.

It's fairly clear that this law is principally applied to people without resources, since there have been no cases of people dying under this law who were, for example, adult white males or terminally ill people who can better pay their bills or access adequate insurance. This is euthanasia for the poor.

Things that crack me up, #20

It's not that there's accessible diving advertised on a giant sign at the beach in Valenciana that amuses me. It's that the huge universal symbol of accessibility is dressed up in a snorkel and little polka dot swim trunks. Like the chair is going in with him, or something. Like he's ready to barrel right off the end of the pier. He's ready!

Photo on Flickr by Krätze

Just don't bitch about it

From the Joplin Globe of Missouri:

Official lashes out after report

By Roger McKinney
COLUMBUS, Kan. — Information from an advocate for people with disabilities that the Cherokee County Law Enforcement Center may not meet all the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act elicited an angry reaction Monday from county Commissioner Pat Collins.

“People go too far,” Collins said during a meeting. “They carry this s--- too far.”

Gwain January, disability advocate for the Southeast Kansas Independent Living Resource Center, presented the county commissioners with information about nine possible violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act at the exterior of the law-enforcement center. He said the agency had not been granted access inside the building.

The law-enforcement center includes the sheriff’s offices and the county jail. It opened in 2005 and cost about $6 million to build.

The report from the resource center said, among other things:
— The ramp to the employee entrance is too steep.
— Entrances for the public and employees need a 5- by 5-foot landing.
— A curb ramp needs to be installed at both ends of a sidewalk that is divided by a driveway.
— An 8-inch step needs to be removed.

“Hopefully, these things should take care of the outside,” January said. He said the cost of the work should be paid by the architect or the contractor, not the county.

“It just makes me mad,” Collins said before making his statement about people taking things too far.

January said the resource center would be conducting sensitivity training for Columbus city officials, and that he plans to invite the county commissioners to participate, if they wish. January said part of the training involves spending time in a wheelchair.

Collins said he had no interest in participating.

“If I got in a wheelchair, I wouldn’t b---- about it,” Collins said.

Collins said he would be self-reliant if he were to become disabled, and he wouldn’t expect access to every building.

“I was raised different,” he said.

Commissioner Charlie Napier said people with disabilities pay taxes and have the same right to access to public buildings as everyone else.

Collins asked Napier if that were the case no matter what the cost.

Napier said it upsets him that the law-enforcement center apparently was not built according to the standards of the federal access law.

January was asked outside the meeting what he thought of Collins’ remarks. He said the law states that governments had until January 1995 to make all their buildings accessible, but many still have not done so. He said the resource center is not seeking immediate repairs.

“Mr. Collins has a right to his opinion,” January said. “We’re just trying to make a better world with equal access to all.”

Commissioner Rodney Edmondson said the county would provide a copy of the recommendations to county counselor Kevin Cure, and also provide copies to the law-enforcement center’s architect and contractor.

After January left the meeting, Collins was asked about his comments. He said his remarks were directed at agencies representing people with disabilities rather than the people with disabilities.

“I’m sick of it,” Collins said. “We’ll take care of these items, but what next?”

Sensitivity training

Columbus city employees will take part in sensitivity training as part of a lawsuit settlement agreement with the Southeast Kansas Independent Living Resource Center.

Disability Carnival #11

Trying out a new icon for the latest Disability Blog Carnival at All About aBILITIES. This is the sculpture of Alison Lapper that resides in Trafalgar Square.

The betrayal of ability

So here's some YouTube video of a Brazilian Candid-Camera-type show where pranks are pulled on unsuspecting passersby. This five-and-a-half minute clip shows a man in a clunky manual wheelchair at the corner of a busy urban intersection. After enlisting someone to help push him across the street, the man stages a tumble out of his chair in the middle of the crosswalk. People rush to help, dragging him fully across the street and attempting to help him into the chair again. At that point the man stands up on his own, revealing that the whole drama and his disability are a prank. Over and over again, throughout the clip, these tricked pedestrians turn violent with the actor, and several times he runs to avoid real injury and assault.



There are several voices in Portuguese commenting during the course of this, laughing at the events, but all I can think of is the anger of these nondisabled people assuming they are helping, assuming things about some stranger that turn out not to be true. There isn't enough time in these encounters for the actor to reveal much of his true intent and the violence is instantaneous upon learning the man can stand and walk. I can't help wondering how someone with legitimate impairments would be treated in the exact same situation, given that we sometimes get assistance thrust upon us unwanted, and given that not all people in wheelchairs are completely unable to stand or even walk.

Little Emilio and the Texas Futile Care Law

The AP story here:

A dying toddler facing removal of his life support system received a reprieve Tuesday when hospital officials agreed to keep his breathing device running until at least April 10.

The decision came hours after attorneys for Emilio Gonzales, a 16-month-old who doctors believe has Leigh's disease, filed a temporary restraining order request to prevent removal of his life support. Gonzales, who has been at Children's Hospital in Austin since December, was scheduled to be taken off life support Friday.

The deadline extension also came hours after Catarina Gonzales, Emilio's mother, appeared at the Capitol with lawmakers who support a bill that would prohibit hospitals from stopping life-sustaining treatment while a family pursues a transfer or other care.

Under the current law, doctors are obligated to give only 10 days notice before withdrawing treatment when further care is deemed medically futile, even over the wishes of the patient and family.

From the letter FRIDA (Feminist Response in Disability Activism) wrote to Texas Governor Rick Perry:

.... It is not the severity of Emilio's illness that is at issue here. Rather, we are opposed to the state-sanctioned removal of Emilio's life support and the violation of his human and civil rights and protections. We also join his mother, Catarina Gonzales, in her condemnation of doctors "godlike position," and believe her fight for the right of Emilio to live is life-sustaining and life-affirmative. Counter to the perspective of doctors, we do not believe it is undignifying to be on life support....

Compare Texas' law and the hospital's decision to this recent NYT story on hospice for infants and the comfort and closure it provides for family.