AAPDnews WINTER 2005
The Information Newsletter for AAPD Members


AAPD recognizes and thanks Sprint for sponsoring this issue of AAPDnews.


Disability Rights Spokesperson
Paul Longmore to Receive Betts Award:
Award to be Presented at March 9th AAPD Leadership Gala

Paul Longmore, Ph.D., an internationally recognized disability rights activist, historian, 
and spokesperson, has been chosen to receive the 2004 Henry B. Betts Award. He has 
dedicated his life to change the lives of people with disabilities who want meaningful 
work but fear loss of public benefits that pay for healthcare, disability equipment, and 
personal assistance. Longmore, who contracted polio at the age of seven, struggled 
against stereotypes and discrimination all his life.

In the 1980s, in collaboration with noted policy expert and fellow polio survivor Dr. Doug 
Martin, Longmore joined a public campaign to reform Social Security policies that 
penalized professionals with disabilities for earning money through education, 
fellowships, and grants. The outcome policy was the Longmore Amendment, which 
allows disabled authors to count publishing royalties as earned income. 

A major founder of the field of disability studies, Longmore also helped to establish and 
now directs the Institute on Disability Studies at San Francisco State University (SFSU), 
an interdisciplinary field that studies social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of 
disability and calls for the translation of those insights into public policy. 

In 2000, Longmore co-directed the first National Endowment for the Humanities 
Summer Institute on Disability Studies. The 25 participating scholars have since that 
time had a major impact on the development of the field. Also that year, he co-convened 
the International Disability and Sexuality Conference, the first major academic 
symposium on that subject. 

Longmore has published three books and dozens of articles, including Why I Burned My 
Book and Other Essays on Disability and The New Disability History (co-edited with 
Lauri Umansky). His writings have legitimized disability as a major dimension of 
humanity in historical research.  

The Prince Charitable Trusts and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) 
established the Henry B. Betts Award, which is administered by AAPD, in 1989. It is 
named in honor of AAPD Board Member Henry B. Betts, M.D., a pioneer in the field of 
rehabilitation medicine. The award presentation will be made collaboratively by AAPD 
and RIC at the AAPD Leadership Gala on March 9 in Washington, DC.

"Time Warner's commitment to diversity, as exemplified by our support for AAPD and 
the disability community, is a core value of our company as well as a business 
imperative. It underscores our conviction that the global community of which we are a 
part must include the widest possible range of voices, perspectives and experiences as 
well as a basic equality of opportunity." – Dick Parsons, Chairman and CEO, Time 
Warner Inc. 



Three Emerging Disability Leaders to Receive 
Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Awards

Three individuals have been selected by a national advisory committee to receive the 
2004 Paul G. Hearne/ AAPD Leadership Awards for emerging leaders with disabilities. 
They are Berhanu Joffe Deboch of Portland, Oregon, Alan D. Muir of Knoxville, 
Tennessee, and Elise C. Roy of Washington, DC. The recipients were selected on a 
highly competitive basis. Each will receive a cash award of $10,000 to further his/her 
work in the disability community.

The award presentations will be made at the AAPD Leadership Gala on March 9, 2005 
in Washington, DC. Members of Congress will present the awards.

The program was established by the Milbank Foundation for Rehabilitation in 1999 to 
recognize the work of Paul G. Hearne, AAPD's founder. AAPD recognizes the support 
of the program's lead sponsor, Independence Technology, and the continued support of 
the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation.

Biographies of the 2004 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award Recipients:

Berhanu Joffe Deboch, a political refugee who recently came to Oregon, is a student at 
Portland State University, and an advocate for neglected, marginalized, and 
disadvantaged individuals. 

Berhanu is from Ethiopia. While a student there, he was elected to serve as a Public 
and Recruitment Officer for the Ethiopian National Organization of the Blind (ENOB). 

After graduation, Berhanu worked at the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing as 
a Junior Expert Housing Specialist. In that role, he organized neighborhood 
cooperatives to build housing for low-income people. He points to his work there as his 
proudest accomplishment. 

In South Africa, he worked for refugees with the United Nations Higher Commission for 
Refugees (UNHCR). He emerged as a strong vocal advocate for HIV-infected people 
denied resettlement in developed countries.

In 1995, Berhanu became a refugee, living in camps in Kenya and Mozambique. While 
a refugee, he worked tirelessly to organize advocacy groups within the camps. 

He came to Oregon as a political refugee, and began his adjustment to blindness 
training while also adjusting to life in the U.S. He immediately started volunteer work at 
Portland's Refugee Center, where he was able to utilize the leadership skills that had 
proved effective during his work in refugee camps in Kenya and Mozambique.

Berhanu now speaks vocally about the two most serious barriers that he believes 
people with disabilities face: a lack of awareness among non-disabled people about 
how disability affects a person's life, and a lack of access to education for low-income 
people with disabilities

Alan D. Muir co-founded and continues to serve as Executive Director of Career 
Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD) in Knoxville, Tennessee. He works 
to actively promote the idea of improving career employment prospects for students with 
disabilities to employers and organizations. 

Alan believes the most serious barrier for people with disabilities is securing career 
employment in their fields of choice. He believes a lack of self-advocacy skills and 
knowledge further increase the employment problems among people with disabilities. 

When Alan met Dr. Robert Greenberg, Director of Career Services at the University of 
Tennessee, they both recognized an opportunity to make a difference for students with 
disabilities in terms of training and preparing them for career exploration and their 
exposure to the employer market. 

Alan created the Disability Careers Office, which is a national model project liaison 
office between Career Services and Disability Services.

In 2001, Alan and Dr. Greenberg co-founded COSD with a grant from the U.S. 
Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy. He then began his full-
time work leading COSD as its Executive Director. 

He has identified three leadership goals for the next five years: to develop a two-credit 
distance-education course for college students with disabilities that teaches career 
search skills, to create a Technical Assistance Center to conduct research on practical 
solutions for COSD member institutions and employers, and to bring people with 
disabilities into leadership positions at COSD as a means of further highlighting the 
abilities of people with disabilities.

Elise C. Roy is a two-sport varsity athlete, lawyer, and tireless disability advocate on the 
national and international levels. She works to increase the awareness of the 
importance of recreational and athletic opportunities for people with disabilities. She is 
the co-founder of Ready-Set-Go in Washington, DC, and is gaining recognition as an 
emerging leader among the young Deaf lawyers in America.

Elise is a graduate of Brown University. While there, she coordinated a group of 
upperclassmen who served as mentors to incoming students with disabilities through 
the BearAble mentor program. This group's efforts and activities resulted in a more 
active and visible community of students with disabilities on campus. Elise also created 
the university's first website for its Disability Support Services Center. 

Elise received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law, where she 
participated in the United Nations Convention process for an international treaty on the 
rights of people with disabilities.

In June 2004, Elise assembled and led a panel at the United Nations to brief delegates 
on the importance of including a sports and recreation provision in the proposed treaty. 
She was also invited to serve as a delegate at the Oslo World Congress, where she met 
and shared ideas with disability advocates and academicians from around the world. 
She was recently appointed to serve as a representative for the United Nations 
Disability Caucus, and asked to lead Rehabilitation International's Sports and 
Recreation Committee.

The past year Elise worked at the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights as a 
disability rights litigator, through the Women's Law and Public Policy Fellowship 
Program. She feels that this experience gave her critical connections to advocates from 
various fields. 


Disability Rights and Values

Dear AAPD Members,

In the wake of November's exit polls, increased attention is being paid to the importance 
of articulating the core values that underlie one's policy agenda. If we begin with values, 
perhaps we can attract new allies and help reframe the disability rights agenda in the 
context of the new Congress and second term of the Bush Administration.

The values debate certainly played a role in two post-election events that I had an 
opportunity to participate in on behalf of AAPD. The first was a hearing before the 
Senate Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Science, Space and Technology, 
chaired by Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas. Senator Brownback invited me to testify 
regarding prenatal genetic testing technologies and the impact of such technologies on 
people with disabilities. For a copy of my testimony, as well as the testimony of AAPD 
Board member Cheryl Sensenbrenner, please visit www.aapd-dc.org. The second 
event, which took place a few weeks later, was a daylong forum on "Designer Babies" 
hosted by Johns Hopkins University's (JHU) program on Genetics and Public Policy.

At the Senate hearing, most of the witnesses concurred that there was good reason to 
fear that new prenatal genetic testing technologies will result in eugenic attempts to 
"weed out" embryos with gene-linked disabilities. There was also a real fear that parents 
and their treating professionals, as they react to positive test results, would not likely get 
solid information about the experience of individuals living with these conditions and 
their families. Recent experience with the prenatal testing for Down syndrome and 
Spina Bifida only reinforces these fears.

In contrast, the dominant view I perceived at the JHU forum was that science should be 
permitted to develop in a relatively unfettered manner so that we can reduce the 
incidence of gene-linked disease and disability among the human population. Although 
a few of the participants (including me) expressed concerns about the eugenics and 
discrimination that would accompany the new genetic technologies, I'm not convinced 
that we got through to the high-powered geneticists and others in the room.

Whether the debate is generated by the application of technologies at the beginning of 
life, or end-of-life situations like Terri Schiavo's in Florida, it is critical that people with 
disabilities participate and use these discussions to reinforce some of the most basic 
values of the disability rights movement. At the top of my list is the principle that 
disability is a natural part of the human experience — something that in no way should 
limit a person's right to make choices, pursue meaningful careers, live independently 
and participate fully in all aspects of society. This fundamental principle protects 
everyone, from cancer survivors to people with HIV disease to people with Down 
syndrome. It also provides an important source of security for those in society who have 
yet to acquire a disability or chronic health condition.

When movie directors like Clint Eastwood incorporate a gratuitous plot twist that 
reinforces the shallow notion that life with a spinal cord injury is a fate worse than death 
— as in "Million Dollar Baby"— we must speak out. When people have their lives stolen 
because the only choice the State Medicaid program is willing to give them is isolation 
in a nursing home or other institution, we must question the values underlying that 
program. When our public policy expects disabled youth to retire onto Supplemental 
Security Income benefits upon turning 18, swearing to the government that their 
disability prevents them from working, we have no choice but to question the morality of 
such a system.

Any policy that deters or prevents full participation of people with disabilities in the 
economic, political, social, and religious lives of their communities is inherently suspect. 
It is my hope that, by reframing our agenda as a question of basic values, the disability 
rights movement will gain new allies, persuade more policymakers and voters, and 
ultimately reinforce the core tenet of many faiths and of American culture that 
all people are created equal and that every life has value and dignity. To use Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr.'s language, "Everybody can be great because anybody can serve." 


Andrew J. Imparato
AAPD President and CEO




Election 2004 and Voting Roundup

For Americans with disabilities, the 2004 Election was marked by advances in some 
areas and smaller gains in others. How did we fare?

Voters with disabilities are exercising their franchise to vote in greater numbers. Early 
reports indicate that in 2004, 52 percent of currently registered members of the disability 
community voted. In 2000, it was 41 percent and in 1996, it was 31 percent of 
registered people with disabilities who voted. This substantial increase is a good sign 
that our community needs to register more individuals with disabilities. When we 
register, we vote. When we vote, officials listen. 

Thanks to both the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) and the Department of 
Justice's release of the "ADA Checklist for Polling Places" 
(http://www.ada.gov/votingck.htm), polling place access became a priority for election 
directors. With the assistance of disability service agencies, they surveyed polling 
places throughout 2004. Progress happens incrementally. If your polling place remains 
inaccessible, bring it to the attention of your local board of election. 

HAVA requires that voting machines are just as accessible for people with disabilities as 
they are for non-disabled voters. The January 1, 2006 deadline under HAVA mandates 
that each polling place will have one accessible voting machine. 

In 2004, DVP advised and/or participated with state coalitions in Arizona, California, 
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Wisconsin to focus on nonpartisan 
voter registration and Get Out the Vote (GOTV) drives. These state coalitions are 
networks of diverse disability service organizations such as independent living centers, 
and local and state affiliates of the American Council of the Blind, National Multiple 
Sclerosis Society, National Association for the Mentally Ill, Commissions on 
Developmental Disabilities, Brain Injury Association, ADAPT, and United Spinal 
Association. Representatives worked together to increase the political participation of its 
members. More than 350 disability service organizations identified 1,586,739 individuals 
with disability interests in the 15 states, many of whom received voter registration 
application forms for the 2004 Election.

States with organized HAVA implementation programs, nonpartisan voter registration 
and GOTV drives are expanding. Americans with disabilities are 20 percent of the 
population, the nation's largest minority, and are not considered a voting bloc. As 
nonpartisan voter registration drives increase and as the numbers of voters with 
disabilities intensify, not only will people with disabilities be automatically included in exit 
polls, we will finally be viewed as a disability voting bloc. Participate, vote, and be heard.





Celebrating 10 Years: AAPD 1995 - 2005

As we enter 2005, AAPD's 10th anniversary year, we look forward to even greater 
growth in our membership from 2004's milestone of 100,000 adults, children and 
students with disabilities, their families, friends, and supporters. 

The growth in AAPD's membership and member benefits over the past decade 
demonstrates just how far AAPD's Member Services has progressed in the past 10 
years:

• From a small number of members in 1995, to 100,000 at the end of 2004. 
• From a few basic member benefits, to the opportunity to take advantage of loans and 
other critical financial services designed specifically for people with disabilities.
• AAPDnews has grown significantly in size and content, providing members with more 
in-depth coverage of current and updated national news, disability policies and issues, 
AAPD programs, new member benefits, and announcements.

There is strength in numbers! Help AAPD grow. Help AAPD seek providers who can 
offer the benefits that AAPD members have indicated are most needed. Tell others 
about AAPD – its advocacy, programs and member benefits for people with disabilities. 
Pass along your copy of AAPDnews with the membership application. Or call AAPD toll-
free at (866) 241-3200 (V/TTY) to get information and applications you can give to 
others. 

AAPD's website, www.aapd-dc.org, went "live" in 1996 with just a few pages and 
photographs. In 2000, the site's average monthly unique page visits were under 5,000. 
The following year, when AAPD brought website control and management in-house, the 
average monthly unique page visits increased to 17,000. By the end of 2004, AAPD's 
website was generating 135,000 visits in a single month. 

AAPD's website is not only a significant source for current and updated disability related 
news, but has also become a major research tool since news articles on the website are 
archived. From 50 page views per month for current and archived news in 2000 to 800 
in 2001, to the current 25,000 per month, this is an incredible increase that points out 
how critically important disability rights information is to AAPD website visitors and how 
engaged they are in the disability community.

Just prior to the 2004 presidential election, visitor traffic to AAPD's web section 
"Campaign 2004" more than doubled as site visitors became informed about the 
disability agenda and policies of each of the candidates.

In addition to the news, AAPD's website also provides an extensive list of disability 
resource links used each month by thousands of individuals. 

The growth of AAPD's Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) has been helped in part by 
AAPD's website, which provides a continually updated list of national and international 
Local Coordinators and National and State Organizing Committees, as well as essential 
tools which can be printed directly from the site to help both Coordinators and mentees. 

AAPD's website also provides immediate access to AAPD's Internship Programs 
information and applications. In 2004 these programs alone generated more than 
70,000 unique page visits from interested students with disabilities. 

AAPD is committed to keeping its members and the disability community continually 
informed through this newsletter, its website, and Action Alerts via Justice for All (JFA), 
AAPD's email listserv. You can easily subscribe to JFA, free of charge, through the JFA 
link on AAPD's home page www.aapd-dc.org.

For questions, please call the AAPD Membership Office toll-free at (866) 241-3200 
(V/TTY).



Free News Over the Phone

By Kimberly McCord,
NFB Newsline Outreach Manager
National Federation of the Blind

Front-page news is now within easy reach for a growing number of senior, disabled, and 
blind Americans. The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has introduced a free 
service called NFB-NEWSLINEฎ, a program designed to read newspapers over the 
telephone.

Currently available in 38 states, it brings more than 150 newspapers and magazines to 
its subscribers, free, over the telephone, including The New York Times, USA Today, 
The Wall Street Journal, and many local papers as well. Every day, using a standard 
touch-tone phone, a subscriber chooses today's, yesterday's, or the previous Sunday's 
edition of a newspaper in the service. No computer or special training is needed.

Thanks to NFB, newspapers and magazines are available over the telephone, 24 hours 
a day, 7 days a week.

Anyone unable to read conventional newsprint because of a physical disability qualifies 
for this free service. Eligible persons register by calling their state's Talking Books 
Library, by calling NFB at (410) 659-9314 to request an application, or by applying 
online at www.nfb.org/newsline1.htm.
Pharmaceutical Companies to Cut Prices of Prescription Drugs

A January 11, 2005 article in The New York Times said ten major pharmaceutical 
companies are joining in a new program to cut 25 to 40 percent from the prices of 
prescription drugs sold to uninsured people of modest means under the age of 65.
The new program, known as Together Rx Access, is the latest effort by drug makers to 
meet public demand for their products. People who enroll in the program will receive 
plastic cards that can be used at their local pharmacies. The federal government has no 
role in the program.

Sponsors of the new program estimate that 36 million of the 45 million uninsured in 
America will be eligible. Individuals are eligible if they are younger than 65 and not 
eligible for Medicare, if they have no public or private coverage for drug costs, and 
if their incomes do not exceed certain levels. The limit is $30,000 for an individual, 
$40,000 for a couple, $50,000 for a family of three, and $60,000 for a family of four.

The program offers savings on 275 drugs including Crestor, Lipitor, Norvasc, Nexium, 
Viagra, Zoloft, and Paxil. Participating companies are Abbott Laboratories, 
AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, 
Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, Takeda, and TAP Pharmaceutical Products.


New Website Aimed at Helping Those
in Need of Wheelchairs and Scooters

United Spinal Association recently announced the creation of a new website dedicated 
to reversing Medicare's in-the-home policy, which restricts beneficiary access to needed 
wheelchairs and scooters. Rightwheelchair.org, a joint project of United Spinal 
Association, ITEM Coalition and the Clinician Task Force, will serve as a vehicle for 
inspiring grassroots activities and as a clearinghouse for information regarding 
Medicare's unfair coverage and administrative policies relating to mobility devices. 


Proposed 2006 HHS Budget —
Home and Community-Based Services Initiatives
By Steve Gold, stevegoldada@cs.com

The President's proposed Federal budget for 2006 significantly shrinks many 
departments and agencies that serve people with disabilities. But, it also includes 
programs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that, if funded, will 
increase home and community-based care options for people with disabilities. 

Because these proposals are part of the President's New Freedom Initiative, to 
integrate people with disabilities into the community and keep them out of unnecessary 
institutionalization, advocates should write to their elected representatives and stress 
why these are critical to the disability community and also why other cutbacks are 
dangerous for the disability community.

Home and Community-Based Care Demonstrations
The budget includes three demonstrations proposals to encourage home and 
community-based care for children and adults with disabilities: 

Community Alternative to Children's Residential Treatment Facilities  
This demonstration enables States to offer home and community-based services to 
children who would otherwise be served in psychiatric residential treatment facilities. It 
would permit the delivery of intensive mental health services for children in their homes 
and communities and allow HHS to evaluate the cost of providing these services 
outside of institutions. 

Respite for Caregivers of Disabled Adults
This proposal creates a demonstration that tests whether respite care, or temporary 
care, reduces primary caregiver "burn-out" that often leads to institutionalization of 
individuals with disabilities. 

Respite for Caregivers of Children with a Substantial Disability
This demonstration allows States to provide respite care to care givers of children with 
substantial disabilities and would enable HHS to collect specific data about the cost and 
utilization of respite services for caregivers of disabled children. 

Spousal Exemption
This proposal protects Medicaid coverage of an individual married to a disabled 
individual participating in a work incentive program under the Social Security Act. 
Currently, if an individual is Medicaid eligible and the individual's spouse participates in 
the program, then the spouse's earnings could cause the individual to lose his/her 
Medicaid coverage. 

Presumptive Eligibility
This establishes a State Medicaid option allowing presumptive eligibility for 
institutionally-qualified individuals who are discharged from hospitals into the 
community, and will increase the number of Medicaid beneficiaries who receive home 
and community-based services rather than institutional care. This proposal has no cost 
associated with it.


Educating the Media
By Kelly Mack

People with disabilities often struggle with being ignored by society, but we also struggle 
with being inappropriately recognized. During the last year several movies and 
television shows with disabled characters have brought more visibility to the lives of 
people with disabilities, but they've also propagated inaccurate and disturbing beliefs. 
While disability rights advocates yearn for more representations of people with 
disabilities in the media, we should also be demanding that these images be 
responsible and accurate. One of last year's independent films entitled "Saved," starring 
Mandy Moore, also featured a disabled character played by Macaulay Culkin. The 
character had been paralyzed in an accident but wasn't reduced to a pitied stereotype 
— he proved to be a comic foil, a sarcastic observer, and grew more independent and 
self-confident during the film. Rich and complex characters like that are, unfortunately, 
few and far between. Two movies in the last year ("The Sea Inside" and "Million Dollar 
Baby") proposed euthanasia as an appealing choice for disabled people.

"South Park" regularly features two characters with disabilities. And while these 
portrayals are not flattering, every character on the show is comic relief and abused 
equally. In this context disability is equal and the characters are treated with the same 
irony. Some activists appreciate the inclusion of disability on the "West Wing," but 
others indicate the show lacks credibility in accurately portraying a person with Multiple 
Sclerosis. The same can be said of "Monk," a detective show with a main character who 
has obsessive-compulsive disorder. Plenty of television shows have enjoyed easy and 
cruel laughs by ridiculing people with disabilities, such as a recent episode of "Still 
Standing" where an epileptic Santa Claus suffers a seizure and bystanders laugh 
instead of coming to his aid. Often when people with disabilities appear in the media, 
their presence is unclearly defined or uncertain such as Dr. Weaver's use of a crutch on 
"ER" or Kevin Girardi on "Joan of Arcadia." The Kevin Girardi character started out 
strong in his exploration of recovering from a spinal cord injury but later episodes have 
left him adrift, as if the writers couldn't fathom or construct the daily life of a person with 
a disability. One of NBC's new shows, "Committed," promised potential with a guest 
character named Todd who uses a wheelchair and competes for the romantic attentions 
of the female lead. Todd is refreshingly flawed and could provide interesting conflict to 
the show, but building such a character requires care and research.

The convergence of these movies and television shows, especially the Oscar buzz and 
glowing reviews of "Million Dollar Baby" have inspired many discussions — on the 
National Disabled Student Union (NDSU) listserv and among friends in the community. 
Perhaps all our work has led to growing visibility, but there is a long way to go. People 
with disabilities deserve not only to appear in media representations but to be included 
responsibly. Ignorance can be reinforced by movies that gloss over the details of living 
with a disability. Just think how powerful a complex portrayal of people with disabilities, 
including humor, drama, and a variety of life experiences, could be in humanizing and 
educating Americans toward dispelling harmful stereotypes.



Wall Street Journal Executive Washington Editor Calls on President

Al Hunt, formerly executive Washington editor for The Wall Street Journal and Dow 
Jones, recently wrote an editorial, More Attention for Disabilities, in which he called 
upon President Bush to pay attention to recommendations from the President's 
Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PCPID) and the National Council on 
Disability (NCD). He said if the President really is serious about an ownership society, 
he should embrace expanded opportunities for the tens of millions of Americans with 
physical or intellectual disabilities.

Hunt refers to a PCPID report that says there is a major need to change public 
perceptions towards individuals with intellectual disabilities and calls on the president to 
play a more active role as "a spokesperson in a national campaign specifically targeted 
to school-aged children and employers to change negative attitudes toward people with 
intellectual disabilities."

Other issues in the article include the federal courts undercutting of the ADA. For the 
complete article go to: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,SB110376374709607925, 00.html. 


January Issue of EQUITY Offers Tax Help

The January issue of Equity e-newsletter, published by the World Institute on Disability, 
and its Access to Assets program, features a number of articles on tax help. To review 
this information go to: www.wid.org/equity.


A Conversation with Joel Kahn:
Section Manager, Information Technology, Procter & Gamble

Joel I. Kahn is nationally recognized for his professional, family, and community 
activities. In 1991 he was named National Multiple Sclerosis Father of the Year. He, his 
wife Susan and 19-year-old son, Philip, live in Wyoming, Ohio. In 1993 Careers and the 
Disabled Magazine named him Disabled Engineer of the Year and National Easter 
Seals honored him as one of three people recognized for their community service with 
the Plaut Award. 

Joel has appeared on Good Morning America and speaks regularly at local schools and 
colleges. He has served on the Executive Board of the President's Committee on 
Employment of People with Disabilities and as a Board member of his local Multiple 
Sclerosis Society. In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Joel to the National 
Council on Disability. He was subsequently confirmed by the Senate for this position.

Joel went to work for Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1974 and soon discovered he had not 
been hired for his degree but for what he knew – and it wasn't enough. He went back to 
school and got his Masters Degree and ultimately his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering. 
He has now worked for P&G for more than 31 years in several roles, each with 
increased responsibility. Currently he is a Section Manager in Information Technology, 
where he spends 85 percent of his time as an information technology strategist and 15 
percent working on disability issues both internally and externally.
He is most proud of his work with P&G in hiring people with disabilities in all aspects of 
the company — legal, marketing, engineering, etc. He says P&G is looking for qualified 
people with disabilities and the company's hiring and recruiting personnel make stops at 
disability centers at universities and colleges across the country.

His major concerns as a member of the National Council on Disability are health care, 
employment, and transportation. He advises advocates to contact or meet with the 
staffs of elected officials. Tell them you are a registered voter in your district and you 
would like more done on a particular issue.

His other advice is not to try to do everything at once. "You have to pay your dues. It 
took me 20 years to develop a position of influence at Proctor & Gamble."

Joel's advice for people with disabilities looking for employment is pretty simple: 

1 Always be positive.
2 When asking for accommodations put it in the best interest of the company. 
3 Go after a job because it is what you want to do not because the company hires 
people with disabilities or because it pays well.


Employment Gap Remains Wide
Between People With and Without Disabilities:
AAPD and Cornell University to Conduct Research and Policy Forum on Employment
By Andrew J. Houtenville, Ph.D., Cornell University

According to the Census Bureau, the employment rate of people with disabilities was 
37.8 percent in 2003, compared to 77.5 percent for people without disabilities – leaving 
the Employment Gap at 39.7 percentage points. Or, only 7.5 million of the 19.9 million 
people with disabilities (ages 21 to 64) are employed, compared to roughly 113 million 
of the 145 million people without disabilities. 

Within the population of people with disabilities, the employment rate ranges across the 
six categories identified by the Census Bureau: 47.7 percent for people with a "sensory 
disability," 32.1 percent for people with a "physical disability," 28.1 percent for people 
with a "mental disability," 17.5 percent for people with a "self-care disability," 17.3
percent for people with a "go-outside-home disability," and 18 percent for people with an 
"employment disability".

These statistics are based on survey data from the Census Bureau's American 
Community Survey (ACS), which has several disability-related questions: 

• Do you have any of the following conditions: (a) blindness, deafness, or a severe 
vision or hearing impairment (i.e., sensory disability) or (b) a condition that substantially 
limits one or more basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, 
lifting, or carrying (i.e., physical disability)? 
• Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition lasting six months or more, do 
you have any difficulty in doing any of the following activities: (a) learning, remembering, 
or concentrating (mental disability), (b) dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the 
home (i.e. self-care disability)?

• Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition lasting six months or more, do 
you have any difficulty in doing any of the following activities: (a) going outside the 
home alone to shop or visit a doctor's office (go-outside-home disability) and (b) working 
at a job or business (employment disability)? 

In general, the employment rate of people with disabilities in 2003 ranged from about 20 
to 40 percent depending on the survey, definition of employment, and the questions 
used to solicit disability information. This is a wide range, but the magnitude of the 
Employment Gap is a shocking figure, regardless of whether the employment rate of 
people with disabilities is 20 or 40 percent.

The statistics provide only a very simple and numerical description of the Employment 
Gap. They do not address some very important questions about the Employment Gap: 
(1) why does it exist, (2) are some groups more affected than others, (3) is it increasing 
or decreasing overtime, (4) what can be done to address it, and (5) are current policies 
and initiatives making headway in reducing it? They also do not address the quality of 
the work: full-time vs. part-time employment, the adequacy of wages and salaries, 
eligibility for health insurance benefit, the accessibility of the work environment, and 
others.

Over the next five years, AAPD and Cornell University will collaboratively conduct 
research and host Policy Forums to discuss the employment of people with disabilities 
as part of a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Employment Policy, funded 
by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

To learn more about disability statistics, visit www.disabilitystatistics.org. Another 
valuable resource is the newly redesigned Census Bureau website, 
www.census.gov/hhes/www/disability/disability.html.

Employment Status of People Ages 21 to 64,
by Disability Status, in 2003

Group			Population		Employed		Employment Rate
No Disability		145,309,000		112,643,000		77.5
Disability		19,872,000		7,513,000		37.8
Sensory		4,600,000		2,196,000		47.7
Physical		12,450,000		4,000,000		32.1
Mental		6,632,000		1,864,000		28.1
Self-Care		3,340,000		585,000		17.5
Go-Outside-Home	4,868,000		843,000		17.3
Employment		11,399,000		2,056,000		18.0
Richard Womack to Receive
Linda Chavez-Thompson Award:
Award to be Presented at AAPD Leadership Gala

Richard Womack, Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO and recipient of AAPD's 
2005 Linda Chavez-Thompson Award, has been a strong and consistent voice for 
disability rights and empowerment within the labor movement.  He spearheaded labor's 
involvement in the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, 
and has worked side by side with disability leaders on a variety of policy initiatives.

Womack orchestrates the AFL-CIO's participation on critical issues such as immigration 
and voting rights. Additionally, he works to integrate what the Civil, Human and 
Women's Rights Department does into the rest of the AFL-CIO's work.

Womack is an elected member of the NAACP's National Board of Directors; he chairs 
its Labor Committee and is vice chair of its Political Action Legislative Committee. His 
work in the national civil rights movement and fight for fairer treatment of all workers has 
been recognized through many awards.

The Linda Chavez-Thompson Award was established by AAPD in 2004 to recognize an 
individual from within the labor movement who has demonstrated extraordinary 
leadership in including people with disabilities and their families as part of the labor 
movement and the U.S. workforce.  


About Our Newsletter Sponsor:
Sprint's CapTel Relay Service
By Dave Thomas, Chief Diversity Officer, Sprint

Respect for diversity is a core value at Sprint. We believe that to win in the marketplace, 
our company's internal culture has to be aligned with the marketplace. Fostering 
diversity is not a social imperative; it is a business imperative. At Sprint, diversity is 
framed around inclusion, which means bringing people from differing backgrounds to 
the decision-making table. That includes the traditional racial and gender definitions of 
diversity, to be sure, but it also means diversity of experience, and even making sure 
people from different business units are at the table. 

Importantly for Sprint, our commitment to diversity also means making sure that people 
with disabilities see us as a telecom provider and employer of choice. Sprint and its 
employees have been leaders in the disability community. Most recently, George 
Littlejohn, a Sprint Relay employee who is blind, received the 2004 "Employee of the 
Year" award by the National Business & Disability Council. Sprint's commitment to hire 
and promote people with disabilities means that our workforce is more closely tied to the 
needs of the marketplace. 

Perhaps the best example of workforce-marketplace connection is in our Sprint Relay 
organization. Sprint is the nation's largest provider of telecommunications relay service 
for the deaf, with service to 30 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, New Zealand 
and the federal government. Sprint began providing relay services in 1990 and is one of 
the leading employers of deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the industry. Because the 
Sprint Relay team includes individuals who use the service daily, they have a great 
influence on the development and quality of the full range of Sprint Relay products — 
with exciting new products like Internet Relay, Video Relay, Wireless Relay, CapTel 
(Captioned Telephone) and Relay Conference Captioning.

One of the most exciting new products from Sprint Relay is CapTel, an assistive 
technology aimed at easing telecommunications for the more than 24 million Americans 
who are hard of hearing; who have experienced hearing loss later in life; or who are 
deaf, but have good vocalization skills. CapTel, a leading-edge captioned telephone 
technology developed by Ultratec, Inc., essentially provides live captioning of phone 
conversations, allowing users to ensure they receive and understand the full context of 
any call.

CapTel customers use a specially-equipped phone that displays captions on a built-in 
screen so the user can read the words while listening to the voice of the other party. 
The diagram on this page demonstrates how a CapTel call works. The conversation can 
flow naturally, allowing for normal interruptions and expressed emotions. It's a life-
changing experience for many who use it. 

CapTel is now available in several states, as well as through the Federal Relay. The 
Federal Relay contract makes available fifty (50) free CapTel phones per month 
nationally (fifty states) and service for federal civilian and military employees, federal 
retirees, veterans, for members of a federally-recognized Indian tribe. CapTelSM is 
making the federal workplace (as well as homes across the U.S.) more accessible for 
people who have hearing loss, and Sprint is proud to be part of that achievement.

Free Directory Assistance for Sprint wireless customers

Sprint now offers up to 10 free Directory Assistance calls per month for wireless 
customers who are blind, visually impaired or physically disabled. As a part of this offer, 
Sprint also includes free Voice Command™ service, a voice-activated dialing platform 
that reduces keypad use and reliance on handset display information. Voice Command 
works hand-in-hand with Directory Assistance: once you request a phone number, you 
can save it in your Voice Command directory, so you don't have to call 411 again for the 
same number. To obtain an application for this program, contact Sprint customer care at 
(888) 211-4727.


Contacting Sprint
www.sprintrelay.com
www.federalrelay.us
www.captionedtelephone.com

Sprint Wireless Information:
www.sprint.com/accessibility

Sprint Relay Customer Service: 
(800) 676-3777 TTY/ASCII/Voice/ VCO/Speech-to-Speech, 
(800) 676-4290 Spanish and Sprint or TRSCustServ@mail.sprint.com


United We Ride Initiative
to Coordinate Transportation Programs
By James J. Billy, United We Ride Campaign

The Federal Interagency Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility, comprised of 
eleven Federal Departments, has launched a new program, United We Ride, to improve 
the coordination of human service transportation throughout the country. United We 
Ride will facilitate partnerships at the Federal, State, and local levels. 

There are currently 62 federal programs run by eight different departments that provide 
some kind of transportation service for seniors, people with disabilities, or individuals 
with lower incomes. However, all of this energy, commitment, and financial investment 
in human service transportation have not yielded better transportation service on the 
ground because of a lack of coordination.

United We Ride provides tools to help States and communities consolidate 
transportation, analyze the regulatory barriers to coordination, and identify solutions to 
them. The program also encourages comprehensive planning, identifies best practices 
so States and communities can learn by example, and works to understand the 
difficulties of reporting on shared expenses.

United We Ride includes a cutting-edge Framework for Action to help States and 
communities assess their coordination needs, a State recognition award to recognize 
exemplary achievements in coordination, and state coordination grants to get the 
process started. It also offers States and communities help in providing hands-on 
assistance and guidance. 

The National Academy of Sciences estimates that transportation coordination can save 
more than $700 million nationally each year in benefits. According to the Community 
Transportation Association of America, States can realize a reduction of 50 percent in 
passenger trip costs if they coordinate their transportation services.


High Tech Job Shadowing Incorporated into AAPD's Mentoring Program

Thanks to a new partnership with high technology giant SAP, AAPD will be placing a 
greater emphasis on careers in high technology. 
SAP recently awarded a three-year grant to AAPD to fund development of the AAPD/ 
SAP High Technology Disability Mentoring Program. This program will build upon the
success of AAPD's broader, national Disability Mentoring Day Program, but with direct
guidance and input from SAP, it will seek to expose students and job seekers with 
disabilities in a more concentrated manner to careers in the high technology area. And, 
it will also provide a wider view into the high tech industry – not just programming 
careers, but also careers in high tech sales, human resources, and marketing. Working 
from some key SAP locations around the country, including its U.S. headquarters in the 
Philadelphia region where there is a large human resources emphasis, its global sales 
headquarters in New York City, and its key programming facility in Palto Alto, AAPD
and SAP will collaborate to begin offering high-tech mentoring opportunities beginning 
in the spring of 2005. 

Like all mentoring opportunities provided through AAPD, the AAPD/SAP High 
Technology Disability Mentoring Program will be orchestrated through local coordinators 
in regions around the country.

If you have questions or would like additional information, please contact AAPD toll-free 
at (800) 840-8844 (V/TTY) or via email at DMDAAPD@aol.com.

AAPD extends its most sincere gratitude to SAP for making this program possible.



The Washington Center Internship Program for Undergraduates with Disabilities 
Accepting Applications for Fall 2005

May 5 	Competitive Placement Deadline
June 15 	Regular Deadline
For more information, go to: www.twc.edu/students/public-services.html



EEOC Releases Report Highlighting States' Efforts to Employ People with Disabilities

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released a 
report detailing efforts to employ more people with disabilities in state government jobs. 
The Interim Report on Best Practices for the Employment of People with Disabilities in 
State Governments, available at www.eeoc.gov, contains findings from the States' Best 
Practices Project, launched by the EEOC in 2003. It highlights practices in four states, 
Florida, Maryland, Vermont, and Washington related to the recruitment, hiring, retention, 
advancement, and accommodation of qualified individuals with disabilities.

In addition, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas, and 
Utah have also agreed to become partners in this effort.
A final report detailing the best practices of all the participating states will be in the 
October 2005 issue. 


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