Brazos Valley Center for Independent Living

Connecting people to the power of independence

advocacy

Great Fun Opportunity to Help Promote Accessible Parking in Texas and Win a Prize!

Parking Mobility is having a fun contest to help promote the importance of accessible parking in Texas for people who have disabilities. Accessible parking helps people who have disabilities maintain their independence by making it easier and safer for them to get in and out of places of employment, do their own shopping, and run their own errands.

Between now and March 11, Parking Mobility is collecting photos of vehicles parked improperly in accessible parking spaces. You can email photos to Mack Marsh at mack@parkingmobility.com.

The three people who send Mack the most photos will each get a $100 gift card to Apple. Also, if you send Mack the names and email addresses of everyone you tell about this contest, every time they send a photo, you also get one point toward winning your own card. Easy!

This contest is not meant to get our neighbors in trouble. Cars in the photos sent will not be given tickets.The point is to help remind everyone why we should respect accessible parking for people who really need to use it.

Here is an example of a photo someone sent Mack:

2/26/13, 4:00 p.m., outside an Olive Garden restaurant.

parking

Have Fun!

February is Low Vision Awareness Month

loviz

During the month of February, BVCIL will acknowledge Low Vision Awareness Month with interactive activities, an awareness field trip, and lots of informative web posts showcasing how people with low vision maintain their independence. Prevent Blindness America initiated Low Vision Awareness Month to call attention to Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) which, according to PreventBlindness.org, is the number one cause of vision loss in people over 65.

Vision is measured in terms of acuity, which means accuracy and sharpness. Acuity is expressed as a fraction, with the top number, which is always 20, representing what a person with ideal vision can see clearly and accurately from a distance of 20 feet. So, a person with perfect vision sees 20/20, has 100% of the visual acuity humans typically have, and sees clearly and accurately what he or she should see at that distance.

eye chart

A person has moderate low vision if her or his visual acuity is between 20/70 and 20/200 in the best corrected eye. Best correction means that even with glasses, medicine, assistive technology, or even surgery, the person’s vision cannot be corrected to better than 20/70. With a best corrected acuity of 20/200 or below (only 10% of ideal vision), or a visual field of less than 20 degrees, a person has severe low vision and is considered “legally blind,” or eligible for disability benefits because of the vision loss. A more generalized definition of low vision is vision loss that interferes with a person’s ability to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADLs).

mobility choices
Picture from www.whitecaneday.org

But just because low vision may make ADLs more complicated does not mean that people who have low vision can’t live independently. Quite the contrary! People who have low vision can choose from a broad spectrum of assistive devices and adaptive techniques to enhance their independence. Some people with low vision choose a long white cane or dog guide to help with mobility. While some with remaining vision do use Braille, such as to access computers, others use electronic high-powered magnification devices to make reading easier. Kitchen aids such as large print cooking timers and battery-powered liquid level indicators enable independent meal preparation.

A CCTV
A high-powered electronic magnifying machine

 

During Low Vision Awareness Month, we will feature in our office an interactive display about low vision and how people who have it sustain independence. Our Visually Impaired Persons (VIP) peer group will have a lunch outing to promote awareness. Please also follow our web site and our Facebook page throughout February to learn more about life with low vision.

February is Black History Month

We Shall Overcome

We owe the celebration of Black History Month, and more importantly, the study of black history, to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Born to parents of former slaves and enrolled in high school at age twenty, he graduated within two years and later went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. In his studies he was disturbed to find that history books largely ignored the black American population, and it was not until the 20th century that they gained respectable presence in history books.  Woodson determined to write black Americans into the nation’s history. In 1915 he established an organization to promote the scientific study of black life and history, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), and a year later founded the widely respected Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he launched Negro History Week as an initiative to bring national attention to the contributions of black people throughout American history. Woodson chose the second week of February for Negro History Week because it marks the birthdays of two men who greatly influenced the black American population, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. However, February has much more than Douglass and Lincoln to show for its significance in black American history; each day of the month has its own accomplishments. After launching Negro History week (which became Black History Month), Woodson chose to provide a theme for each year to focus the public’s attention.

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The ASALH dedicates the 2013 Annual Black History Theme to celebrating the anniversary of two important African American turning points–the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1963 March on Washington. The Emancipation Proclamation, decreed by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1st, 1863, declared slaves in all confederate states then at war with the Union “forever free” and made them eligible for paid military service in the Union Army. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on August 28th, 1963 in Washington D.C. More than 200,000 advocates took part in the walk. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, noting that the Emancipation Proclamation gave hope to black slaves. The following year Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a real step towards fulfilling the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Woodson and the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s remain to be our role models for advocacy, as they each sought to advance their own rights and others’ awareness. By celebrating Black History Month, we are honoring the past to inspire the future, which can give a healthy sense of self and hope for one’s own future.

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Please follow our BVCIL Facebook page to find our daily posts of accomplishments by African Americans on each day for the month of February.

National Forum on Disability Issues 2012

The National Forum on Disability Issues 2012 featured Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy Jr., and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) speaking on behalf of their respective parties to present the campaigns’ positions on matters relating to Americans with disabilities. Ohio Senate Republican nominee Treasurer Josh Mandel and Ohio Senator Sen. Brown participated. The speakers were given the opportunity to provide their positions on a wide variety of disability issues directly to the disability community. Frank Sesno, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University and former CNN White House correspondent, anchor and Washington bureau chief, served as Forum moderator. This is the only national event to focus specifically on disability issues.

Watch the full event via You Tube:

Hays County & Parking Mobility

Hays County Commissioners Court Takes First Step to Enable Volunteers to Report Handicap Parking Space Violators

Hays County Courthouse, San Marcos, TX – The Hays County Commissioners Court Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Austin nonprofit Access Empowerment to deter unlawful use of parking spaces reserved for persons with disabilities.

“Unfortunately, too many people don’t understand how dangerous it is for a person with disabilities to navigate through a parking lot and that medically compromised individuals may suffer life-threatening reactions to heat and cold within just a few minutes,” said County Judge Bert Cobb, M.D. “Accessible parking spaces are designated for these persons for a reason and I feel certain that if they had a choice, people who hold permits for those spaces would prefer not to have to use them.”

According to Access Empowerment, some 18 percent of the population with accessible parking permits share less than 4 percent of spaces set aside for them, and in inclement weather and peak shopping times up to 75 percent of those spaces are taken by persons parking illegally. On any given day, up to 25 percent of those spaces are used by those not entitled.

Under the MOU, Access Empowerment would train community volunteers to use their personal smart phones to share information about vehicles parked illegally in spaces reserved for persons with disabilities. Once trained, the volunteers who see such violations would send photos of the illegally parked vehicles via encryption software to Access Empowerment for verification. If it is verified that the owner of the vehicle was not permitted to park in the space, he or she would pay a fine of up to $500 or request a trial. First-time offenders could opt to attend an education course similar to defensive driving.

“Our main goal is to educate the public about the safety issues persons with disabilities face when they are denied the parking spaces reserved for them, which impacts their safety and their access to goods and services,” said Mack Marsh, Project Director for Access Empowerment. “Our hope is that eventually there will not be a need for this type of program.”

There will be no upfront cost to the County for the program, which would be funded through a percentage of the fines collected from those who illegally park in handicap spaces. According to Access Empowerment, Hays County is expected to be the first county to implement the program, which has been in development for several years. The Texas Transportation Code authorizes the use of volunteers to report illegal parking in handicap spaces.

“We’ve had interest in the program nationwide and internationally,” Marsh said. “We’re pleased that a Texas county will be the first to implement our program, which will assist our wounded veterans, elderly, medically frail and persons with disabilities and give them the consideration they deserve.”

A launch date for the program is several months away while Hays County works with Access Empowerment to develop program policies.

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