Re: [Ai] querry about mobile on subsidise rate

[bhawani shankar verma via Ai]

why subsidy is required?


-Original Message- 
From: Santosh Gandigude via Ai

Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2017 10:37 AM
To: Share, empower &Enrich
Cc: Santosh Gandigude
Subject: Re: [Ai] querry about mobile on subsidise rate

I am also not getting such subsidies phone since birth. Can I get any
phone from any NGO or Government? What is procedure?

On 7/29/17, Navneet Dubey via Ai  wrote:

dear friends ,
i want to purchase a android mobile on subsidise rate .can any body
tell me  please is there are any n g o other than saksham who can
provide me android mobile on subsidise rate.
navneet dubey
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of 
the

person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails
sent through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai




--
Help Ever,Hurt Never.

Gandigude Santosh Sanjay,
At Post.Kalambar(Devache),
Tq.Mukhed,Dist.Nanded-431715,
Maharashtra,India,
Mobile:9764766459,
Email:gandigudesant...@gmail.com
Facebook:www.facebook.com/santosh.gandigude
Disability Type:Visual Impairment(Blindness),
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;


2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails 
sent through this mailing list..




To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai 


Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

Re: [Ai] querry about mobile on subsidise rate

[Jeegar Pithava via Ai]

cell phones are quite cheaper now a days.

there might be NGOS DISTRIBUTING.




On 7/30/2017 10:37 AM, Santosh Gandigude via Ai wrote:

I am also not getting such subsidies phone since birth. Can I get any
phone from any NGO or Government? What is procedure?

On 7/29/17, Navneet Dubey via Ai  wrote:

dear friends ,
i want to purchase a android mobile on subsidise rate .can any body
tell me  please is there are any n g o other than saksham who can
provide me android mobile on subsidise rate.
navneet dubey
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails
sent through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai





--
Regards Jegar Pithava Cell no. 9924796432 Email- jeegarpit...@gmail.com 
"SENT FROM MOZILA THUNDERBERG CLIENT"

Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

[Ai] Please unsubscribe me on this email subscription list.. Inbox

[Chenna Reddy via Ai]

Hi all,
 please unscribe me from this mailing list.

-- 
Thanks,

Chenna Reddy
5th Year, B.A.LL.B
National law University Odisha
Ph: +91 9177997566, 9439902934
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

Re: [Ai] How to hide the display

[Akashdeep Bansal via Ai]

Hi,

You can you the projector mode only option to hide the screen. It will give
a warning message that no projector is detected, then select keep changes.

Best Regards
Akashdeep

On Sun, Jul 30, 2017 at 5:40 AM, ketan modi via Ai <
ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in> wrote:

> Hi friends,
> As subject line says, I would like to know how to hide the display
> screen while working on laptop.
> I'm using window's 8.1 version.
> would appriciate your help.
> Thank you!
> Disclaimer:
> 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of
> the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;
>
> 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails
> sent through this mailing list..
>
>
>
> To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.
> html
> ___
>
>
> Ai mailing list
> Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
> http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai
>



-- 
Thanks and Regard
Aakash Bansal
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pwsav/
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

Re: [Ai] querry about mobile on subsidise rate

[Santosh Gandigude via Ai]

I am also not getting such subsidies phone since birth. Can I get any
phone from any NGO or Government? What is procedure?

On 7/29/17, Navneet Dubey via Ai  wrote:
> dear friends ,
> i want to purchase a android mobile on subsidise rate .can any body
> tell me  please is there are any n g o other than saksham who can
> provide me android mobile on subsidise rate.
> navneet dubey
> Disclaimer:
> 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the
> person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;
>
> 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails
> sent through this mailing list..
>
>
>
> To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
> ___
>
>
> Ai mailing list
> Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
> http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai
>


-- 
Help Ever,Hurt Never.

Gandigude Santosh Sanjay,
At Post.Kalambar(Devache),
Tq.Mukhed,Dist.Nanded-431715,
Maharashtra,India,
Mobile:9764766459,
Email:gandigudesant...@gmail.com
Facebook:www.facebook.com/santosh.gandigude
Disability Type:Visual Impairment(Blindness),
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

[Ai] How to hide the display

[ketan modi via Ai]

Hi friends,
As subject line says, I would like to know how to hide the display
screen while working on laptop.
I'm using window's 8.1 version.
would appriciate your help.
Thank you!
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

Re: [Ai] Are Visually impaired allowed to study MBBS or medicine?

[Santosh Gandigude via Ai]

No. That is Bachelor of Physiotherapy(B.PTh.) Course. MCI rules states
only less 70% disability allowed

On 7/29/17, Santosh Singh via Ai  wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> Does anyone came across any case where visually inspired person was allowed
> to study MBBS?
>
> I read on a website that one visually impaired person got admission to MBBS
> on the court's order .
>
> I am pasting the link where I read this story.
>
> http://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/others/health-lifestyle//articleshow/16107910.cms
>
> Santosh
>


-- 
Help Ever,Hurt Never.

Gandigude Santosh Sanjay,
At Post.Kalambar(Devache),
Tq.Mukhed,Dist.Nanded-431715,
Maharashtra,India,
Mobile:9764766459,
Email:gandigudesant...@gmail.com
Facebook:www.facebook.com/santosh.gandigude
Disability Type:Visual Impairment(Blindness),
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

[Ai] querry about mobile on subsidise rate

[Navneet Dubey via Ai]

dear friends ,
i want to purchase a android mobile on subsidise rate .can any body
tell me  please is there are any n g o other than saksham who can
provide me android mobile on subsidise rate.
navneet dubey
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

[Ai] Are Visually impaired allowed to study MBBS or medicine?

[Santosh Singh via Ai]

Dear list,

Does anyone came across any case where visually inspired person was allowed
to study MBBS?

I read on a website that one visually impaired person got admission to MBBS
on the court's order .

I am pasting the link where I read this story.

http://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/others/health-lifestyle//articleshow/16107910.cms

Santosh
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

[Ai] Issues Faced by VI's with Railways

[Shaswat Jena via Ai]

Hello All,

I'm happy to share that Eye-D is among the winners of NCPEDP-Mphasis
Universal Design Awards'17. Special thanks to Ankit Jindal(from Bangalore)
for nominating us. We will be meeting the Honourable Minister of Railways
Mr. Suresh Prabhu at the award ceremony.

It seems to be a great chance to put forward your problems associated with
railways that you want to be solved. Please fill your phone number and
problem faced in the google form 
by following the link below. We will call you for more details if required.

Form link: https://goo.gl/forms/ahEj00BlnO1ntYLH3

Regards,
Shaswat
Operations & QA || Eye-D 
+91-8095722300

Facebook  || Twitter
 || #SupportEyeD

Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

Re: [Ai] Emily Rapp Black writes in the New York Times: "Why Is Our Existence as Humans Still Being Denied?"

[r k sarin via Ai]

Good posting but ... where is the issue of accessibility of the persons with 
blindness that is why the NFB of USA keeps on showing its resentment to 
these steps as it fails to address the isses of the accessibility of the 
visually challenged persons.
- Original Message - 
From: "avinash shahi via Ai" 
To: "ai" ; "jnuvision" 


Cc: "avinash shahi" 
Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2017 12:46 PM
Subject: [Ai] Emily Rapp Black writes in the New York Times: "Why Is Our 
Existence as Humans Still Being Denied?"




https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/opinion/why-is-our-existence-as-humans-still-being-denied.html
Credit Dadu Shin

In Denver in 1978, just after the July 4 holiday, 19 men and women
with disabilities positioned themselves in front of public buses at
the busy intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway. They chanted “We
will ride!” until city transportation officials were willing to hear
their complaints: Namely, that lack of access to public transportation
led to disenfranchisement and discrimination, which led to
joblessness, homelessness, despair and misery.

These pioneers, known now as the “Gang of 19,” were not simply
irritating commuters by blocking the intersection all day and into the
night — they were demanding to be heard, and, perhaps most important,
to be seen. They are praised now as important activists, although news
coverage at the time was far from celebratory. The protest was an
early sign of progress to come, including the passage of the Americans
With Disabilities Act in 1990, which established the fundamental
rights of access and equal opportunity that had so long been denied
this marginalized group of human beings.

Yet in late June, nearly 40 years after the Gang of 19 protests, I
experienced a troubling moment of déjà vu as I watched disability
rights activists being hauled out of their wheelchairs outside the
Denver offices of Senator Cory Gardner. The sit-in was a protest
against the Republican Party’s proposed drastic cuts in Medicaid, cuts
that would certainly push millions of people with disabilities out of
sight and into the neglect and despair of institutions, home
confinement, joblessness and poverty. I was saddened, bewildered and
angered that a movement that gave so many so much more life could have
come so far, only to be forced to protest the same issues all over
again — basically, our right, as people with nonnormative bodies, to
basic access, to our very existence.

In 1978 my parents watched live footage of the Gang of 19 protests on
their television (my father remembers getting up to turn up the sound)
in the weeks before my amputation, the first of six operations I would
have in the next five years, from ages 4 to 9. I was born with a
congenital birth defect that required amputation so that I might be
fitted with a prosthetic limb; this was considered, in my case, the
best shot I had at a “normal” life — which my parents viewed as an
ability to work, make an impact, have mobility, be considered equal to
others, even if my body was built differently. They desperately wanted
this for me, and were willing to change jobs and move across the
country to make it happen. It was a propitious move, as I would later
become an early student in the adaptive ski program in the Rocky
Mountains, an experience that, more than any other in my childhood,
changed my life.

My parents had moved us close to Denver to be near Children’s
Hospital, and their widely respected orthopedic surgeons on staff —
one in particular, who performed every one of my many surgeries,
including two of the “do-overs” when the operation didn’t yield the
desired results. We were not rich by any standards — a
lower-middle-class family with good health insurance — which, even so,
never covered all of my operations or devices or in full. Both my
parents worked two jobs on and off throughout my childhood to close
the gap. My father even drove a school bus, a fact I vividly remember
made me feel ashamed.

My parents must have sensed what a person — in this case, their
daughter — would face, given her nonnormative body. It must have been
a mix of hope and fear, of anger and elation.

Now, as a parent myself, I can imagine the mixed emotions my parents,
decades younger then than I am now, must have felt watching the
standoff between the wheelchair users asserting their rights and
demanding respect and dignity, and the official forces brought in that
showed how thoroughly that respect was, in fact, denied.

I’ve always known that discrimination against those with nonnormative
bodies runs deep. My great-aunt once announced that I was “made wrong”
to a room full of people when I was in my late 30s. On another
occasion, while I was talking about what the A.D.A., passed just that
year, meant to me, a relative said, “When we knew people who couldn’t
walk, they just stayed home.” My grandmother once protested being
asked to help pay for an elevator at her church: “My legs work,” she
said. “Why should I pay for thos

[Ai] Report to ponder: How touch pad tablets denying privacy to blind people in Australia: Commonwealth Bank's new Eftpos system makes blind people reveal pin

[avinash shahi via Ai]

We Indians need to be on guard before such inaccessible touch pad
tablet reaches at all shops in malls/retail   outlets. In the garb of
digital India, we will also be confronting this menace. Lets pull up
our socks and get in touch with the relevant authorities to get
accessibility of EFTPOs before its too late. I hope our accessibility
experts in India will take serious note of this report which has
robbed blind people in Australia of their privacy. Days are not far
when we will have ATM machines with out keypad and touch will do the
tricks. Then question arises what type of accessible ATMs will be
installed?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/28/commonwealth-banks-new-eftpos-system-makes-blind-people-reveal-pin


Disability advocates say the touchscreen terminal is difficult to be
accessed by the blind or visually-impaire

Disability advocates have criticised Commonwealth Bank for deploying
an Eftpos machine that cannot be used by the blind or
visually-impaired.

The advocacy group Blind Citizens Australia and the former disability
discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes said the touchscreen-only
terminal was preventing blind users using the machine, or forcing them
to divulge their pin to retail staff.

The bank’s Albert terminal is a tablet with no physical buttons or
tactile keys, which means about 350,000 blind or low-vision
Australians cannot use it independently. As of April, 75,000 terminals
were in use across Australia.

The executive officer of Blind Citizens Australia, Emma Bennison,
called on the bank to stop the rollout until the terminal could be
made accessible to all.

“Our members are finding that each week many more shops and
restaurants in their local communities are no longer accessible to
them,” she said.

“People who are blind are being asked to divulge their pin number to a
retail staff member to make a payment. This is totally unacceptable
... I cannot complete transactions which other Australians make 10 or
20 times a day.

Innes said he and other advocates had contacted the bank about the
terminal 18 months ago.

“We asked them to stop the rollout and modify the machine by adding a
keypad,” he said. “They have talked to us a lot about the problem, but
taken very little action to do anything about it.

“Many people who are blind or vision-impaired have stopped going to
retailers who only have these machines. Others have stopped making
transactions, and been forced to rely on family members and friends to
do the grocery shopping, pay for the drinks or buy the milk and bread.

“The Commonwealth Bank, by rolling out this device, is eroding the
independence for which we have fought for many years.”
The Albert machine is a seven-inch Android touchscreen tablet,
launched in March 2015 and described as “an innovative new EFTPOS
tablet [to] disrupt the payments space”.
According to the tablet’s user guide, Albert has accessibility
features that include text-to-speech and a “virtual cursor” that uses
swipes to input pin details.

“Albert has the capacity to be accessible to Australians who are blind
or have low vision through the use of text-to-speech technology,” it
says.
“Text to speech will prompt the customer to select Cheque, Savings or
Credit ... The voice prompts will instruct the customer to enter their
pin.”


Users can then use a “virtual cursor” that starts on the number five
to select numbers.
“Swiping up, down, left, right or diagonally moves the virtual cursor.
A two finger tap, or a double tap confirms the input. For example,
from 5, swipe left + confirm = 4.”

However, customers will get only three chances to enter their pin
correctly before their account is locked.


“There is an accessibility mode to turn on to make it apparently
accessible, except you still have to listen to a 10-minute tutorial so
it really isn’t possible to make it accessible, particularly in a
noisy environment,” she said.

“It’s just completely unacceptable ... regularly people have told us
that they had no other choice but to divulge their pin because they
can’t hear the tutorial, the staff member doesn’t know how to turn the
accessibility on, or they don’t have time to stand around for 10
minutes.”

A Commonwealth Bank spokeswoman said the bank was working with the
blind and visually-impaired community to “enhance our solutions”.

“When leveraging new technologies, such as touchscreens, ensuring
access for the vison-impaired community is vital and presents
industry-wide challenges,” she said.







-- 
Avinash Shahi
Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mai

[Ai] Sydney Morning Herald reports: "Disabled suffer hundreds of cases of violence a year, NSW Ombudsman figures reveal"

[avinash shahi via Ai]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/disabled-suffer-hundreds-of-cases-of-violence-a-year-nsw-ombudsman-figures-reveal-20170724-gxh8rx.html

-- 
Avinash Shahi
Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU
Disclaimer:
1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the 
person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent 
through this mailing list..



To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
___


Ai mailing list
Ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
http://accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/mailman/listinfo/ai

[Ai] Emily Rapp Black writes in the New York Times: "Why Is Our Existence as Humans Still Being Denied?"

[avinash shahi via Ai]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/opinion/why-is-our-existence-as-humans-still-being-denied.html
Credit Dadu Shin

In Denver in 1978, just after the July 4 holiday, 19 men and women
with disabilities positioned themselves in front of public buses at
the busy intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway. They chanted “We
will ride!” until city transportation officials were willing to hear
their complaints: Namely, that lack of access to public transportation
led to disenfranchisement and discrimination, which led to
joblessness, homelessness, despair and misery.

These pioneers, known now as the “Gang of 19,” were not simply
irritating commuters by blocking the intersection all day and into the
night — they were demanding to be heard, and, perhaps most important,
to be seen. They are praised now as important activists, although news
coverage at the time was far from celebratory. The protest was an
early sign of progress to come, including the passage of the Americans
With Disabilities Act in 1990, which established the fundamental
rights of access and equal opportunity that had so long been denied
this marginalized group of human beings.

Yet in late June, nearly 40 years after the Gang of 19 protests, I
experienced a troubling moment of déjà vu as I watched disability
rights activists being hauled out of their wheelchairs outside the
Denver offices of Senator Cory Gardner. The sit-in was a protest
against the Republican Party’s proposed drastic cuts in Medicaid, cuts
that would certainly push millions of people with disabilities out of
sight and into the neglect and despair of institutions, home
confinement, joblessness and poverty. I was saddened, bewildered and
angered that a movement that gave so many so much more life could have
come so far, only to be forced to protest the same issues all over
again — basically, our right, as people with nonnormative bodies, to
basic access, to our very existence.

In 1978 my parents watched live footage of the Gang of 19 protests on
their television (my father remembers getting up to turn up the sound)
in the weeks before my amputation, the first of six operations I would
have in the next five years, from ages 4 to 9. I was born with a
congenital birth defect that required amputation so that I might be
fitted with a prosthetic limb; this was considered, in my case, the
best shot I had at a “normal” life — which my parents viewed as an
ability to work, make an impact, have mobility, be considered equal to
others, even if my body was built differently. They desperately wanted
this for me, and were willing to change jobs and move across the
country to make it happen. It was a propitious move, as I would later
become an early student in the adaptive ski program in the Rocky
Mountains, an experience that, more than any other in my childhood,
changed my life.

My parents had moved us close to Denver to be near Children’s
Hospital, and their widely respected orthopedic surgeons on staff —
one in particular, who performed every one of my many surgeries,
including two of the “do-overs” when the operation didn’t yield the
desired results. We were not rich by any standards — a
lower-middle-class family with good health insurance — which, even so,
never covered all of my operations or devices or in full. Both my
parents worked two jobs on and off throughout my childhood to close
the gap. My father even drove a school bus, a fact I vividly remember
made me feel ashamed.

My parents must have sensed what a person — in this case, their
daughter — would face, given her nonnormative body. It must have been
a mix of hope and fear, of anger and elation.

Now, as a parent myself, I can imagine the mixed emotions my parents,
decades younger then than I am now, must have felt watching the
standoff between the wheelchair users asserting their rights and
demanding respect and dignity, and the official forces brought in that
showed how thoroughly that respect was, in fact, denied.

I’ve always known that discrimination against those with nonnormative
bodies runs deep. My great-aunt once announced that I was “made wrong”
to a room full of people when I was in my late 30s. On another
occasion, while I was talking about what the A.D.A., passed just that
year, meant to me, a relative said, “When we knew people who couldn’t
walk, they just stayed home.” My grandmother once protested being
asked to help pay for an elevator at her church: “My legs work,” she
said. “Why should I pay for those whose don’t?”

Very few people would express these sentiments publicly, or at a
cocktail party, or even at the Thanksgiving dinner table as my
grandmother did, but the attitudes behind them still exist. At times,
it seems that discrimination against people with disabilities is the
final frontier of human rights.

Although people with disabilities are able to ride buses in most
cities, the attitudinal barriers still exist, and the logistical ones
are often linked to these. In the late 1990s, I used to take the No