From New York Daily News: The Daily Politics blog, Newsday, and WCBS-TV, with video from the Daily News:

New York Governor David Paterson, who recently criticized Saturday Night Live for making fun of his disability, turned the tables this weekend.

The governor, who is legally blind, appeared in a wheelchair at an Albany charity dinner to satirize a series of commercials in which people with disabilities chided him over proposed health care spending cuts. The skit ended with the governor rising from the wheelchair and doing a cartwheel, landing within inches of the edge of the stage.

The original union-backed ad campaign featured a blind man seated in a wheelchair asking the governor, “Why are you doing this to me?” In his parody, a whiny Paterson as Juan Pietri demands 24-hour media coverage of the governor.

“Governor Paterson, what have you done to me!” Paterson wails, in character. “I can’t pay my bills. I can’t put food on the table . . . and the reason, Governor Paterson, is you haven’t given the state . . . transparency!”

From the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and New Mobility magazine:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has selected veteran disability policy advocate Henry Claypool as director of the HHS Office on Disability.

Claypool has worked on disability issues at the federal, state and local level for 25 years. As a person with a spinal injury who uses a wheelchair, he relied on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) himself during his college years.

New Mobility magazine named Claypool as its ‘Person of the Year’ in 2005, citing his advocacy on behalf of thousands of legitimate consumers who were denied power wheelchairs when allegations of fraud and abuse prompted a government crackdown. In an interview then, he told the magazine he is driven by a vision of civil rights for people with disabilities.

“Having civil rights gives me a framework or a context to work within, and I can see myself as kind of a freedom fighter, and that keeps me going. I have a right to speak out and advocate for these things, and I’m really in touch with them because I live them every day. Who better? Who better to march on Selma than the people that had a reason to march?”

Claypool currently serves as policy director at Independence Care System, a managed long-term care provider in New York City. He has served in the federal government in various advisory posts in recent years, including as senior advisor in the Social Security Administration’s Office of Disability and Income Support Programs in the Bush administration, and senior advisor for disability policy to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the Clinton administration.

(more…)

From the Kansas City Star:

When the Kansas City Royal’s Kauffman Stadium opens for the season this month, the facility will be more welcoming to fans with disabilities.

The Royals and architects worked closely with a special advisory group of disability advocates to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law which didn’t exist when the stadium was first built. Among the changes:

• There are more than double the number of wheelchair seating spaces than before, even in suites.
• There are more family restrooms.
• Every concession area has counters low enough to accommodate people in wheelchairs.

(Kansas City Star photo)

In between the jokes at the Gridiron dinner about Biden’s hair implants and Obama’s self obsession, we hear, the evening’s “most applauded number” was a skit in which a faux Dick Cheney in a wheelchair sang, “He did it myyyyy wayyyy.”

How about it, readers? Can anybody fill us in on what was said, er, sung?

From the Vancouver Sun:

When the Vancouver Paralympics begin next year, organizers say, visitors will find a city and province that are among the most accessible in the world.

In the past, host cities have typically provided accessible Paralympic venues but often struggled with barriers in getting around the host city. Vancouver, however, boasts a high standard for accessibility, including wheelchair-accessible transportation, restaurants, curbs, and public buildings.

British Columbia made significant strides in accessibility decades ago thanks largely to the work of Edmund Desjardins, a disabled veteran of World War II who championed lobbying efforts for accessible building codes and disability rights in the province.

From the Savannah Morning News, [Atlanta] NeighborNewspapers.com, Macon [GA] Telegraph and  Dawsonville [GA] Times.com:

More than a thousand disability rights advocates rallied on the steps of the Georgia Capitol this week, insisting that legislators improve state funding to help people with disabilities live in their own homes instead of institutions.

Advocates said conditions have improved in recent years, but that there are still nearly 7,000 people with disabilities waiting for state waivers to help pay for in-home care. The latest round of budget cuts have left less money for programs to aid people with disabilities, they said.

Advocates also pushed for regulations to require builders of new homes to use construction methods that are accessible for people with disabilities.

Though tax increases have been unpopular with the Republican leadership in power, supporters made sure legislators knew about a recent poll they commissioned showing a willingness to increase taxes to help disabled people. According to the poll, 58 percent of people said they’d be willing to pay more in state and local taxes to provide more of these services.

“There is no debate,” Dave Blanchard, director of public policy for the Atlanta Alliance on Developmental Disabilities, told the crowd assembled outside the Capitol. “This poll clearly shows that Georgians want the General Assembly to act today.”

Among the signs carried by protesters:

• “Unlock the waiting lists“
• “Hear our voice; Respect our choice!”
• “My body, my choice where I want to live”

(Photo from the Savannah Morning News)

From the New York Times:

Designer Cynthia Leibrock is one of the leaders in the Aging in Place movement, creating beautiful spaces that will remain livable even as people find their physical capabilities declining with age.

Her own home, above, embodies the principles of universal design, which holds that all structures should be equally accessible to everyone. An excerpt:

“I’ve got a great one-liner for you,” Ms. Leibrock says. “The line is, ‘I want people to know no matter whether they have mental or physical disabilities’ – change that word to differences – ‘they are only disabled if they can’t do what they want to do. Architecture can eliminate disability by design.’ You see my point. If you are in a house where you can do what you want to do, you’re not disabled anymore.”

See also: Bringing Égalité Home — New York Times. Universal design makes homes adaptable, except in France.

(New York Times photo)