Tub Xiong (age 17) and Leng Xiong (age 16) have contracted Duchene’s Muscular Dystrophy, a sex-linked recessive genetic disorder.  This rare form of MD progresses rapidly, has no known cure and usually results in death around the age of mid-20’s.  The rapid progression leaves most youth in need of wheelchairs by the early teen years, as is the case with the Xiongs.  The parents were struggling to provide transportation for both of the boys.  With only standard automobiles at their disposal, it required two vehicles to get the two boys anywhere.  It was necessary to perform a difficult lift by a family member to maneuver in and out of the vehicle with their wheelchairs.   The parents turned to many agencies looking for assistance, but no agency could help them.

 The parents turned to Independent Living Services of Northern California for assistance.  Independent Living Services of Northern California took their request seriously and granted the family $500.  The Clifton Lewis Foundation contributed an additional $1000. By combining the two gifts, the Xiong family finally purchased a used accessible van for their two lovely children.  Leng and Tub stated that “our wish comes true.”  They also stated that “we can go anywhere we want to go together now.”

Additional information about Duchene’s MD is available at:  http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/000705.htm

Additional information about the services provided by Independent Living Services of Northern California can be found at:  http://www.ilsnc.org/services

The reduction would have slashed one-fifth of service hours for In-Home Supportive Services recipients to save the state $100 million over the next six months.

U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken converted her temporary December order blocking the state into a preliminary injunction.

Last month, Wilken said the IHSS cut “raises serious questions” about whether the state had violated several federal laws, including those protecting people with disabilities.

The full story can be read at:

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/20/4201434/federal-judge-blocks-budget-cuts.html

Additional details are available in a press release from Disability Rights California

Wednesday January 18, Noon on the South steps of the Capitol.  Transportation will be provided by ILSNC, 1161 East Ave.  Leave Chico at 9:30 sharp.

Click on this link to view the flyer.

01 18 12 Sac State of the 99% Flyer 1

January 3, 2012

A new app designed to help people with disabilities locate accessible restaurants, stores and other venues in their communities is getting a boost after being named a winner in a national contest.

The software called “Access Together” is a Foursquare-style app that allows users to check-in from various locations and answer simple questions about accessibility. The crowd-sourced information is then publicly searchable.

Access Together was recognized as a runner-up in the Apps for Communities Challenge, a contest sponsored by the Knight Foundation and the Federal Communications Commission. The competition honored developers that created apps offering “personalized, actionable information to people that are least likely to be online.”

In addition to being a runner-up, Access Together was also named the “most replicable” among the nearly 70 entrants in the contest. Those behind the software will receive $11,000 in prize money.

Currently, Access Together is an early-stage application that’s available as a mobile website compatible with iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices. The software includes a database of locations across the country available for individuals to rate based on accessibility, but most of the reviews entered thus far are for businesses in New York City.

Other contest winners included an app providing bus riders real-time transit schedules, software to help job seekers learn about and apply for employment through text messaging and a tool to help the homeless identify resources in their communities.

Copyright © 2012 Disability Scoop, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Source:  http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2012/01/03/prize-winning-app/14704

Tis the season for celebration of various holidays throughout the world.  On Sunday, many of us will stop to celebrate Christmas.  We hope that this season finds you healthy and reasonably happy.  We offer for your enjoyment and edification this cartoon from Tom Meyer, which appeared in the Sacramento Bee on Dec. 20.

Wolves Return to California

Reprinted by kind permission of the artist (http://www.meyertoons.com)

Tong Vang & Mai Lor

They enjoy the health benefits of outdoor activity as well as having fresh, organic produce available to eat and share.  Both Tong and Mai are members of the Hmong Disability Rights Council and are frequent participants in disability advocacy events and campaigns. ILSNC is proud of what Tong and Mai have accomplished.

As other garden plots become available, we will be expanding with new opportunities for community gardening/agriculture for our consumers in the near future.  To learn more and to volunteer with our Community Garden Project, go to: http://ilsnc.org/services/garden-project/

A federal judge has apparently granted at least a temporary reprieve to 372,000 elderly and disabled Californians who faced a 20 percent cut in their in-home care on Jan. 1.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland issued a temporary restraining order Thursday that prohibits the state from taking any immediate steps to carry out the reductions — in particular, from mailing out notices to all recipients, starting next week.  Wilken said a lawsuit by disability-rights groups and other advocates raised “serious questions” about whether the cuts would violate federal health and disability laws by forcing recipients into nursing homes.

That means it’s highly unlikely the reductions can take effect Jan. 1, said Stacey Leyton, one of the lawyers who filed the suit. She said the state’s attorneys had told Wilken they needed to send out the notices next week to start the clock running for cutbacks on New Year’s Day.

The judge has tentatively scheduled a hearing Dec. 15 on a request for a preliminary injunction that would block the cuts indefinitely. Even if she decides the state acted legally and denies the injunction, Leyton and other advocates said the cutbacks probably would be delayed by at least a few weeks. And Wilken’s ruling Thursday contained some strong language suggesting that she might well issue an injunction: She said the proposed reductions would put recipients “at imminent and serious risk of harm to their health and safety” and also risk “unnecessary and unwanted out-of-home placement, including institutionalization.” The state’s only concern is saving money, she said, while in-home care patients face “life-or-death consequences.”

The program, called In-Home Supportive Services, provides care to about 440,000 low-income Californians, including the blind and disabled and those over 65 who need help with daily tasks to live at home. The federal government pays about 60 percent of the cost.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation in June that required the 20 percent cutback in services to 372,000 recipients in January if the state’s revenues fell short of projections, which they did. The law allows recipients to apply for an exemption if they can show they would be at serious risk of being forced into an institution. But lawyers for the recipients say the exemption uses the same flawed standards that Wilken rejected in 2009 when she blocked the state from eliminating in-home care to 36,000 people and cutting it back for another 97,000.  ….

Source:  San Francisco Chronicle Politics blog, December 1 2011

For detailed and up-to-date information on In-Home Supportive Services, please visit http://www.ihsscoalition.org

ILSNC’s STATEMENT ON THE “OCCUPY MOVEMENT”

November 8, 2011

ILSNC sends a message of support to peaceful protesters in Oakland, all other American cities and around the world.  We call upon all protesters to remain steadfast in their commitment to non-violence.  We condemn not only the violence and excessive force recently deployed by the Oakland Police, but also the vandalism perpetrated by misguided individuals who reject the values of the Occupy Movement.

ILSNC believes that public protest and non-violent civil disobedience is often necessary to correct injustice.  It’s a core American tradition going back to the founding of our democracy.  From the Boston Tea Party to the women’s suffragette and labor movements; from the civil rights sit-ins to the Section 504 and ADA occupations by disability rights pioneers, our cherished victories required direct action.

Since long before the economic crash of 2008, people with disabilities have been fighting relentless cuts to our support programs and services. In California, we’re facing even more cuts, including a massive “trigger cut” to In-Home Supportive Services on December 15^th.  This planned 20% reduction hangs like an axe over the head of thousands of low-income people with disabilities.  Having been pushed to the limits of human endurance, we clearly identify with the pain and frustration expressed by the new “Occupy” movement.  Many of us feel like the general population has finally caught up with what we’ve been experiencing for a very long time.

Throughout this economic crisis we have asked for nothing more than shared sacrifice. We assert that catastrophic program cuts can be prevented by employing fair, common sense tax reforms to produce desperately-needed revenue.  Tragically, as public treasuries continue to drain, our elected leaders act like obedient servants to the tax-cutting demands of their powerful campaign donors.  The full weight of “deficit reduction” is therefore borne by those already struggling in poverty.

While we live in fear of the next cut, enormous tax breaks are given to corporations who promise to “create jobs” that never materialize. Bankers whose blatant criminality destroyed millions of American jobs luxuriate in billion-dollar bailouts while unemployed protesters are arrested for “camping.” As vital disability programs and services are gutted, we learn that 2/3 of U.S. corporations – particularly the largest and most profitable – pay zero annual income taxes. Fear-mongering politicians bloviate about the federal deficit while pouring trillions of dollars of new debt – not to mention thousands of young American lives – into the bottomless pit of so-called “national defense.”

In today’s “pay to play” political environment, now intensified by the U.S. Supreme Court’s disgraceful “Citizens United” decision, we find ourselves either patronized or completely ignored.  Now is the time for everyday Americans to unite and organize a bold resistance to the onslaught.  We believe that the peaceful protests taking place in over a thousand U.S. cities demonstrate the beginning of a new awakening.

For these reasons ILSNC urges members and allies of the disability community to take action now.  Make a personal commitment to contribute and to persevere for as long as it takes.  Get involved with disability advocates in your community.  Visit and support your local Occupy encampment. While you’re there, educate on disability issues and advocate for inclusion. Help build diverse alliances and think beyond immediate self-interests. Do whatever you can – start today!

Despite enormously powerful forces that stand against us, indifferent to the suffering of millions, we are confident in the power of our unity. Each of us has the ability to make a personal choice to work together for the common good. We will succeed if we can overcome our own apathy, disunity and defeatism.

We are the inheritors of a world made possible by the activists who came before us.  Let’s honor their legacy, change our lives and save our children’s future by seizing this moment to do something great.  Occupy Wall Street can become our best chance to restore fairness and opportunity before it’s too late. There has never been a better time to build the powerful kind of coalition we’ve dreamed about. And we’ll only have ourselves to blame if it turns out otherwise.

“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.”

- Frederick Douglass

It was truly empowering to learn that so many dedicated activists were so committed to the first principle of reform, which is universality.  Attempts were made by opponents to dilute the resulting legislation by proposing to not cover undocumented immigrants.  It could easily have been people with disabilities since most have Medi-Cal and are technically covered with one form of insurance.  Since most of us suffer at the expense of an inferior brand of health insurance, we urge y0u to join the single-payer movement.  You can make real contributions and receive an improved, truly universal 100% coverage “Improved Medicare for All” healthcare system as a result.  In Butte County, the Butte County Health Care Coalition would welcome your contribution of effort.

The 6 Principles of Real Healthcare Reform are:

1. Universality

2. Comprehensive, High-Quality Level of Care

3. Affordable, Based on Ability to Pay

4. Costs Must Be Contained

5. Accountability

6. Transparency

If you would like to be the beneficiary of such a wonderful improvement in your healthcare options, consider volunteering for the Butte County Health Care Coalition.  Additional information is available on their website at : http://www.buttesinglepayer.org

In our society there is a new opening for deep changes.  If you are tired and discouraged from getting the short end of the stick lately, we encourage you to get active.  In the 60′s, disabled activists gained important civil rights through participation in the social justice issues of the day.  Now is our time to gain new rights by joining with other activists.  What better place to start than by joining the other activists fighting for a fair and just healthcare system, one in which disabled citizens share with others in living a better quality of life.