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Thread: Assorted News from the Web

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    Assorted News from the Web

    This thread is intended for recent news items related to disabled and accessibility, from print and the web media.

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    HWA Gets Govt $4m Grant to expand transport services

    ST, Mar 28 2015

    SINGAPORE - The Handicaps Welfare Association (HWA) will be expanding the services it offers to the disabled.
    With the help of a government grant announced recently as part of Budget measures, the HWA will add 11 more vehicles to its current fleet of 23.
    This will allow the association, which now provides an average of 40,000 trips a year or about 3,300 trips a month, to increase the number of trips by 30 per cent.
    "This will help us serve more people with disabilities so they can go to school or work," said HWA transport manager Simon Ching.
    The HWA also offers group transportation services to its rehabilitation centres in Whampoa Drive and Jurong Point, as well as a Dial-A-Ride programme for those who need transportation.
    The HWA and the two transport companies - EK Ang Trading and Transport, and Silveray - will be able to tap a government grant of $4 million to help them increase dedicated transport services for the disabled.
    EK Ang Trading and Transport director Michael Ang said he now has a fleet of 40 regular buses, which are used to ferry intellectually disabled children, such as those from Minds and the Rainbow Centre, to school and back.
    With the grant, his company will be adding 10 more buses and retrofitting them with hydraulic lifts. "Some of the children use wheelchairs and our staff have to carry them up the bus now," said Mr Ang.
    "With the new buses, which can each carry as many as seven wheelchairs at one go, we will be able to extend our services to more clients with physical disabilities," he added.
    - See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapo....QucrfCer.dpuf

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    Disabled people face lack of access at UK polling stations

    The guardian, Mar 25 2015

    Adam Lotun, who uses a wheelchair, found himself stuck outside his polling station, a community centre in Tolworth, Surrey, when he went to vote in the 2014 local and European elections. Despite access signs pointing to a ramp, there were no safety barriers and there was a drop to the floor of the building.
    “Even if I’d managed that, I was then faced with narrow internal doors, which I wouldn’t have been able to get my wheelchair through,” Lotun, 53, tells me. Unable to get inside, he couldn’t vote.
    Lotun’s experience is not a rare one. Two-thirds of polling stations had “one or more significant access barriers” to disabled voters at the last general election, according to Scope’s Polls Apart survey – anything from failing to provide a tactile voting device for blind voters, leaving them worried they’d accidentally spoilt their ballot paper, to not having a loop system to allow people with hearing aids to communicate. One disabled voter reported being ignored by staff and being spoken to only through her PA. Another described having to have the ballot box brought down steps to him as he sat outside in the rain.

    Almost half (42%) of all constituency offices surveyed have doors and corridors that won’t let a wheelchair through, according to research by the disability charity Livability, seen exclusively by the Guardian. Thirty nine percent have steps or poor ramps that mean wheelchairs can’t even get inside the building. With some irony, Disability News Service recently found that Mark Harper’s office – he’s the disability minister – is not accessible for disabled people. Nor, for that matter, is David Cameron’s.

    More: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...lling-stations

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    National disability conference in Melbourne turns out to be wheelchair inaccessible
    ABC News, Mar 26 2015

    Organisers of a national disability conference in Melbourne have come under fire after a speaker had to be carried onto the stage because it was not wheelchair accessible.
    There was no ramp for mobility-impaired speakers to reach the stage and participants had to be lifted up four stairs so they could get to the lectern. Also
    - the accessible toilet was filled with chairs and used as a storage space in the week leading up to the conference
    - The food provided was up on really tall tables ... wheelchair users could not access it

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-2...summit/6350328

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    Lewis Hamilton's younger brother Nicolas to become first disabled driver to race in British Touring Car Championship

    Daily Mail, 24 March 2015

    Nicolas Hamilton, the younger brother of Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, is to compete in this season’s British Touring Car Championship.
    Hamilton, who has cerebral palsy, will make his debut in June and becomes the first disabled driver to compete in the series.
    The 22-year-old will take part in five of the 10 rounds at Croft, Snetterton, Rockingham, Silverstone and the final meeting of the championship at Brands Hatch.


    He has been granted a guest entry by British Touring Car boss Alan Gow and will take to the wheel of an AmD Tuning Audi S3.
    ‘Whilst I’m aiming to improve as a driver, I’m also hoping to inspire others to strive for their own personal goals, whatever their situation in life,’ added Hamilton.
    ‘Anyone can exceed expectations in one way or another and I hope to prove that when I race alongside, not just able-bodied drivers, but the best Touring Car drivers in the UK.’

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/spo...mpionship.html

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    People with disabilities are increasingly taking part in mainstream sports

    People with disabilities are taking part in mainstream sports as well as getting involved in extreme or unusual activities such as ultramarathons, short-track speed skating and dragon boating.

    These activities are either pursued long term, short term or as one-off experiences. Sometimes, the disabled participants are pitted against the able-bodied.

    Paralympic athlete William Tan, 58, says that the Table Tennis Association for the Disabled (Singapore) had just six players in 2012, but has more than 30 now.

    Mrs Liza Ow, principal of the Association For Persons With Special Needs Tanglin School, says annual sports events and competitions organised by the Singapore Disability Sports Council and Special Olympics Singapore are usually well represented by athletes from the association's schools.

    These developments are a result of increased awareness about disability sports and better access to sports facilities.

    Ms Stefanie Pitchian, corporate communications executive at the Singapore Disability Sports Council, says the council has been doing more to educate the public about disability sports through road shows at public, corporate and school events.

    It offers 18 sports, including handcycling, wheelchair basketball and athletics. It recently added powerlifting and goalball to the list.

    See more at: http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/conten....ehnGWn3V.dpuf

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    Disabled students in India only at 0.56%

    Of 15,21,438 students studying in 150 colleges and universities across the country, there are only 8,449 students with disabilities which is mere 0.56 per cent of the total students, according to a survey on status of disability in higher education. According to the third edition of the survey by the National Center for Promotion of Employment of Disabled Peoples (NCPEDP), 74.08 per cent of these were male and 22.7 per cent female.
    "It is extremly shocking and disheartening that even twenty years after the enactment of the Disability Act 1995, the actual implementation is only 0.5 per cent as against the mandated quota of 3 per cent which raises many questions.


    "Why are disabled students not able to go to colleges and educational institutions. It is the architectural barriers as in the institutions are still not disabled friendly, transportation facilities are not adequate which create hindrances. We hope that the government will take notice of the survey and look into the matter," Javed Abidi, director, NCPEDP, said.
    As part of the survey, 200 institutions were written to, and only 150 responded, which included all the 16 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and 13 Indian Instiitutes of Management (IIMs).
    In terms of disability-wise break-up (as per the available data), students with orthopeadic disabilities are 46.67 per cent, students with visual impairment are 32.13 per cent, students with speech/hearing impairment are 5.16 per cent and students with other disabilities are 16.05 per cent. The colleges were identified on the basis of streams and courses on which the survey was to be conducted.
    Last year, the total number of students with disabilities was 0.63 per cent.

    http://ibnlive.in.com/news/disabled-.../537964-3.html

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    Dogs helping people with disabilities for 20 years

    9 Apr 2015

    WINSTED >> For 20 years, Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities has been training dogs to work with and help people with disabilities from all over the country. This year the company is celebrating those 20 years of service.


    ECAD was founded by Dale and Lu Picard after a sullen situation became a guiding light of success and hope for hundreds of people across the country.

    Picard’s father-in-law suffered a stroke and was in need of assistance for everyday things like using the bathroom, shaving and walking around. Dale and his wife, Lu, did not want to put Lu’s father into a rehabilitation center or nursing home, so a nurse came to the house for a number of weeks to help the man regain some of his abilities taken away by the stroke.

    However, insurance only covered the nurse’s stay for a select period of time and then Picard was in need of something else. That’s when he noticed his dog sitting next to his father-in-law on the couch.
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    “I thought that if I could train the dog to help him off the couch and get him to his cane, then it would be OK to leave him alone for the day,” said Picard.

    So that’s what he did. With the help of a dog, his father-in-law was able to get off the couch, reach his cane and walk around the house.

    http://www.registercitizen.com/gener...s-for-20-years

  9. #9
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    Use tech to increase accessibility for the disabled

    Published by ST Forum, 8 May 2016

    http://www.straitstimes.com/forum/le...r-the-disabled

    I am proud that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has donated $250,000 to help set up an award to nudge polytechnic students to come up with creative ways of using technology to improve lives and make us a Smart Nation ("Award for poly students' Smart Nation projects"; May 4). It would be great if students can develop useful applications for people with disabilities. Accessibility information, or the lack of it, on the various amenities often makes or breaks a travel experience for people with disabilities. This is important if we aspire to be a more inclusive society. I hope that there will be some charitable developers who will harness the current technology to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

    Eng Whan Seng


    Note: AllGoEasy aims to help address this concern. Check out the accessibility information that various users have kindly contributed to at http://www.allgoeasy.com .

  10. #10
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    Tirumala tirupati - Special Darshan for Physically Disabled & Aged

    Special darshan is arranged for the physically disabled and the aged (above 65years), through a separate gate in front of the Maha Dwaram-the main temple entrance. The pilgrims falling under this category will be allowed in two different slots at 10am and 3pm every day on showing the age proof id-cards/ relevant medical certificates.

    http://www.tirumala.org/SpecialDarsh...edAndAged.aspx

    A wheel chair facility is not available and not allowed in tirupati main temple. But handicapped devotee can come by car at close point of Mahadwaram. After reach close point, park your car at rambagicha guest house entrance point and from there handicapped devotee can come for special darshan entry by battery car which is available free of cost by TTD.

    More details:
    http://gotirupati.com/physically-challenged-darshan-in-tirumala/
    Last edited by KR; 15th May 2016 at 11:31 PM. Reason: added more info

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