Friday, May 21, 2010, will be the 32nd edition of the Kiwanis Special Games. The Games are perhaps the Los Altos Kiwanis Club’s most important community service project.
Established by the Los Altos Kiwanis Club, the games are now produced by all of the Kiwanis Clubs of Kiwanis Division 34. Well over 900 severely challenged kids from more than 50 area schools participate. The games are simple, but competitive, and carefully matched to the abilities of the participants.
Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind Introduced
National Federation of the Blind Applauds Measure To Ensure Blind People Equal Access to Technology
Washington, DC (January 27, 2010): Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today introduced the Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind (H.R. 4533), which will mandate that all consumer electronics, home appliances, kiosks, and electronic office technology provide user interfaces that are accessible to the blind.
Clinton Turned Right in ’96 Speech, While Obama Plowed Ahead - NYTimes.com
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Sometimes, when I’m searching for the right words to express all my feelings about the current state of affairs, I get slapped in the head with something written by someone else who does it much better than I would have.
This can be very frustrating. Particularly when I’m trying to distinguish my developing blog here with new and insightful observations of my own.
In this case I wanted to write about my feelings and thoughts about President Obama’s recent State of the Union address. But this morning I found the venerable New York Times had beaten me to the punch. And they also had some additional information I did not have. Here is the link to the story:
For myself, I think the President’s speech was right on track. I like what he said and the new initiatives he proposed. I hope him every success as we move forward.
Oakland Settlement Includes People With Disabilities In Disaster Planning
News from the City of Oakland and the CDR Member’s Exchange
OAKLAND, Calif. – In a settlement announced January 21, 2010, by Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) and the City of Oakland, Oakland has agreed to adopt an emergency plan which incorporates the needs of people with all types of disabilities.
History and Need
The suit was filed in 2007 against the City of Oakland to remedy the lack of consideration of people with disabilities in its emergency preparation plan. Plaintiffs – the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (“CFILC”), Californians for Disability Rights, Inc. (“CDR”), and Marian Gray (an Oakland taxpayer) were represented by Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a non-profit law center that specializes in civil rights cases on behalf of persons with disabilities in Berkeley, California.
In my life I’ve had many special friends who are gay or lesbian. So has my wife, Donna. These friends are all honest, hard-working people, many of whom have raised or are raising happy families. Many have made important contributions to advancing and supporting the human and civil rights of all people, including people with disabilities. It is no surprise, therefore, that we have been happy to vote for measures which would allow same sex couples to marry and have opposed measures which deny such rights.
Today marks the opening of a new federal case which, if successful, would overturn California’s 2008 ban on such marriages. I was eagerly looking forward to being able to follow the arguments of both sides in this trial, particularly when it looked as if the proceedings were going to be videoed and distributed via YouTube. But that option has been blocked for now. So, if you have not seen any press reports yet, here’s a good summation from the New York Times:
This morning (Monday, January 04, 2010) my NPR alarm radio station brought me an oral essay from a writer I had not heard before. His name is Ben Mattlin and he is a writer who has a disability known as spinal muscular atrophy. It gradually and relentlessly weakens muscles.
What impressed me almost right away was how much his experiences and opinions matched mine and those I have previously heard from several of my friends and colleagues with disabilities.
I tracked Ben’s essay down through NPR.org and discovered he was accessible through Facebook.com. I’m glad to say we have since become “friends” through that medium. I’m looking to hearing more of him and his viewpoints in the future.
As much as I might like to I don’t have the resources to keep readers up-to-date on all the important issues impacting Californians with disabilities. I can only tell you about some of those issues from time to time. Following are two better and timely resources.
For almost daily updates I suggest you keep an eye on the California Disability Community Action Network (CDCAN). That organization’s director, Marty Omoto, does an outstanding job keeping us all in the loop on important events and upcoming issues addressed by California government. We encourage you visit his site frequently and/or sign up to receive his extremely informative press releases and announcements.
That earlier bit by the Monty Python folks was fun and gives a general idea of how big ‘everything out there is’ and how small a part of it we are. Here is another view based on the latest information available. Put together by the American Museum of Natural History, I find it very dramatic. I wanted to share it with you.
The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. This new film updates an earlier version, was created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition called Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, and is showing at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.
Here’s the video. You might need to wait a bit for it to fully load:
Lately I’ve become increasingly interested in cosmology. Questions about the universe, astronomy, this and other solar systems, the vast amount of whole galaxies other than our own Milky Way, and even the theories of alternate universes.
Luckily there are a growing number of books and websites dedicated to these issues. But there is also a great piece of video which touches on these subjects. It’s a clip from the movie “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life” and can be found on YouTube.com. In case you missed it or just have not seen it lately, here it is. You might need to wait a bit for it to fully load:
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