October 26 Disabilities Awareness Item

Hi Friends

The point of this month’s email exercise is disabilities awareness so I am not displeased just to be able to pull in things that my usual information streams deliver to my desktop. The info is a slice out of time. I am making occasional effort to be comprehensive. Probably there is plenty I am missing including a number of hidden disabilities and cognitive and mental health issues. In general, I am including a mix of things I really need Friends to be aware of about me in particular including a capacity for foam at the mouth reactions and information I think it is extremely valuable for lots of people to be aware of even if some of it seems like weird minutia.

I am aware these posts include many, many topics and many points that could be discussed. Mostly I have not been posting queries or reflection questions and perhaps it would be helpful to do so. In general, although I am not interested in deleting people from the email list, I am interested in your reactions: what stands out? What questions come to your mind? Are there things you wish you knew more about? Does anything especially resonate from your experience?

Friends are again reminded of my offer to take the day off if someone else posts to this email list an item that meets my sort of arbitrary criteria for sufficient disabilities-related content.

Today’s offerings started out from an item about a test of fair housing issues in Seattle as reported in the newspaper. Also included are some links to local resources and then some more material about a spate of Fair Housing cases filed around the US, many related to service dogs. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Property-owners-victimized-black-renters-city-2229188.php


Another item about domestic violence caught my eye, or actually my screen reader. This item reminded me that October is also National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and I decided to check out current offerings on the website for Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services, http://www.adwas.org/
 . ADWAS is a pioneering agency specializing in services for Deaf and Deaf-Blind people experiencing domestic violence. Their Resources page has a number of VERY valuable offerings including some about supporting a friend or loved one in such circumstances. I have not looked a the actual item but ADWAAS resources tend to have both good deafness content and good content in general. There is another page that lists similar programs in several other cities around the US. I think Seattle is very lucky to have ADWAS though there are some specific reasons for need in our community. There is a concentration of deaf-blind people many of whom work for the Lighthouse for the Blind.

For those of you who like videos, there is a really fun video about the apartments at the ADWAS transitional housing program. The video is in ASL with captioning in English which I consider imperfectly accessible to me for instance. Nevertheless I expect it will speak to others; again Youtube offers a number of other interesting items.

One element of the apartments that caught my eye is the strobe light fire alarms / smoke detectors. Current housing codes do not, I believe, require strobe light smoke detectors and a homeowner would have to pay extra to have them installed. Most public buildings with modern equipment have both audible and strobe light alarms. This is important for deaf people, but strobe lights can cause seizures or headaches in some people.

A funny aside about modern apartment buildings with electronic entry systems: some buildings just require a person to punch in a resident’s apartment number on a keypad at the entry. Then the apartment dweller’s phone rings and the person at the front door can get buzzed in. I really have no idea what deaf people do with such things. The keypads may or may not be at a height accessible to people in wheelchairs. There might or might not be a readable directory, but my mom’s building has a funny feature that I am not sure her building staff even realize. Often with these systems a person can just punch in an apartment number but that is really not best practice as far as confidentiality of addresses. My mom’s building actually uses individual codes unrelated to apartment numbers.

I figured this out one time by bending over because the door panel is at waist level for someone tall who walks and then peering very close at a display with very poor contrast while scrolling through the directory. Now, though, I just key in the code and do not even bother about the directions to scroll through the directory. One of these days maybe I will play dumb and see whether the staff have been trained about this feature.

Other important local resources
The Alliance for People with Disabilities
http://disabilitypride.org/

The term “independent living center” has a whole bunch of specific legal and service concepts connected with it. For more detail, feel free to use your search engines. The more important point: the Alliance Resources page has information about a whole bunch of different trainings.

The Sight Connection
http://www.sightconnection.org/

This organization has a retail store near Northgate Mall and a whole page full of resource links. I THINK they also offer some trainings but I did not find them in fast poking around.

In the Light

(RantWoman)



PS As a guage of public awareness, this further item about housing discrimination also came in. There are a large number of cases about service animals, an area where Fair Housing law is different and broader than the ADA. To read it one might think there has been a sudden outbreak of discrimination against people with service dogs under the Obama administration; I think it’s more likely that the Obama administration is just making a concerted effort to address widespread problems.
These items are from the White House website. I am unclear why I am unable to reproduce the links.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has recently made several important announcements regarding housing for persons with disabilities. Below you will find the links to each of HUD’s press releases, followed by a brief summary of each announcement.

If a friend forwarded you this email and you'd like to be added to the White House disability distribution list, email us at disability@who.eop.gov .

Hud Charges Philadelphia Condominium Association with Discriminating against Residents with Disabilities Association required residents needing assistance animals to use service elevators, failed to address harassment and intimidation

HUD Charges Florida Property Owner, Managers with Disability Discrimination Management refused to relocate resident hospitalized by neighbors’ second-hand smoke

HUD Charges Utah Homeowner Association, Condo Owners with Discriminating Against a Veteran with a Disability Association and owners refused to accommodate veteran’s emotional support animal Association and owners refused to accommodate veteran’s emotional support animal The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is charging a Park City, Utah homeowner association, property management company, and a group of condominium owners with violating the Fair Housing Act for refusing to accommodate a tenant who required an emotional support dog because of a disability. HUD brings the charges on behalf of the tenant, a Gulf War veteran with a disability. HUD is alleging Fox Point at Redstone, a multifamily housing complex, assessed illegal fees and fines against the tenant and the owners of his condominium unit for the presence of the assistance animal. HUD is also charging the condominium owners for their refusal to renew the tenant’s lease unless he paid the charges. The Fair Housing Act requires landlords to make reasonable accommodations to no-pet rules for renters with disabilities who need emotional support animals.

HUD Charges University of Nebraska at Kearney with Discriminating against Student with Disabilities. University denied student's request to have therapy dog live with her on campus
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is charging the University of Nebraska at Kearney and five of its employees with violating the Fair Housing Act when they refused to grant a student permission to have a therapy dog live in her University-owned apartment and illegally inquired into the nature and severity of the student’s disabilities. The student, who required the dog in order to cope with depression and anxiety, was seeking an exception to the University’s no-pet policy as a disability-related “reasonable accommodation” under the Fair Housing Act.

HUD Charges Housing Providers with Discrimination for Evicting Tenants Over Visitor’s Support Dog The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it is charging the owner and landlord of an apartment building in Reno, Nevada, with violating the Fair Housing Act for evicting two tenants after a friend with a disability visited the tenants with his emotional support dog. HUD brings the charge on behalf of the tenants, alleging that the DeAngeli Family Trust and Peter DeAngeli, the respective owner and landlord of the property, engaged in unlawful discrimination by refusing to make a reasonable accommodation to the building’s “no pets policy” for a person with a disability. HUD also alleges the housing providers retaliated against the tenants by evicting them when they protested the housing providers' refusal to grant the accommodation.

HUD Charges Washington State Property Owner with Disability Discrimination

Lakewood Mobile Home Park Operator Refused to Accommodate Applicants with Service Dogs The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged the owner and manager of a Lakewood, Washington trailer park with discriminating on the basis of disability. HUD brings the charge on behalf of the Fair Housing Center of Washington, alleging that Deidra Miller, the owner of Terrace Trailers, and property manager Claudia Welch refused to make a reasonable accommodation to their “no pets” policy for testers posing as applicants with disabilities who needed service dogs.