Disability Access News

By REBECCA TODD - The Press | Thursday, 17 April 2008

Canterbury University graduate Jonathan Darby faced more challenges then most when setting out on a university career.

The 28-year-old was born with spina bifida and has been in a wheelchair since he was a little boy.

But his disability has never held him back. Eight years after rolling into his first university class, he has the degrees to prove it.

Darby graduated with an LLB yesterday afternoon and also has a BA and business diploma under his belt.

Completing a degree provided extra challenges for him, such as getting around campus and keeping energy levels up for late nights studying, he said.

"There's always more to your day then just a normal person."

Despite not being very academic at school, he always wanted to go to university and Canterbury had been great in accommodating his needs.

He has been overachieving since he was young. At 17 he completed a gold Duke of Edinburgh Award, which included physical activities such as tramping.

Canterbury University held two capping ceremonies yesterday and will hold another two tomorrow.

More than 1500 students are receiving degrees, diplomas and certificates.

By Georgiann Caruso
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A middle-aged woman arrives at yoga class, a guide dog beside her wheelchair. She slides onto a mat on the floor and begins warming up with help from the instructor, stretching her knee and leg muscles to the side.

Nearby, a man lying on a bench gets an assist from a class helper as he lifts his leg and brings his knee toward his body. Another person, an overweight student, sits and places his feet on brick-like props to enable him to stretch higher.

This is the scene at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where students attend weekly adaptive yoga class. Derived from traditional yoga, poses are modified for those with disabilities or health conditions.

Hundreds of miles away, longtime instructor Karen O'Donnell Clarke says the limitations could have a number of sources: multiple sclerosis (which she has), a sports injury, fibromyalgia or even a sedentary lifestyle. Post-surgical conditions, Parkinson's disease, stroke and arthritis may also cause some impairment. "Pretty much if you name a health condition, yoga can help with it," she says.

Physical therapist Sarah Knopf says the class' popularity is due to many patients asking what else they can be doing to strengthen their bodies or overcome a health challenge quicker.

"The adaptive yoga will take into consideration the patient's limitations," Knopf says. "A lot of patients with MS, for example, don't do well if they get overheated. So, with adaptive yoga, the instructor will take things nice and slowly, focusing more on breathing and relaxation.... If you are doing yoga in a gym, it's a little faster-paced."

Instructors say one benefit of adaptive classes is that more than one or two people in the group are doing something differently.

Evette Abron, who attends weekly adaptive yoga class at Jai Shanti Yoga in Atlanta, has MS and suffers from poor balance. She says she feels less self-conscious in this environment. Because of the personalized attention, she doesn't feel bad if she can't do something correctly or even at all.

Adaptive yoga is not just for those who have balance problems. People in wheelchairs can also benefit. The poses are modified in a way that anyone can take part.

Steven Kruger, who uses a wheelchair because of a car accident in 1998, says he took yoga about four times a week before his injury. Since the accident, he's found adaptive yoga to be relaxing. "Life with a disability sometimes can be a little overwhelming," Kruger says. The classes help him stretch muscles he can't stretch on his own, so he's more comfortable physically, especially with leg tremors. "Since I've been coming to the yoga classes, because of all the stretching, the tremors are a lot less, and when I do have them, they're a lot less painful."

Bill Hufschmidt, his instructor, says any consistent practice of yoga will help the student strengthen his or her body and increase mobility in the joints. He adds, "People who do this practice regularly have more awareness of their breath, and by taking deeper breaths, by taking longer breaths, there is a greater sense of vitality in the body, in their life."

Breathing exercises help prevent wheelchair patients from developing poor posture, Knopf adds. She says someone with poor posture may find it very difficult to take a deep breath, and yoga opens the chest.

Concentrating on breathing techniques is a major focus, says instructor Terri Leonard. She also likes to teach students to break awareness down into sensations of pain, how to relieve them, tightness in the body or numbness.

"If you have a disability and you're struggling with managing your body, managing your symptoms, coming to a yoga class is all about slowing down, and really focusing on your body in a way that perhaps you didn't focus before your injury or illness," Leonard says

Herald Sun
April 11, 2008 01:55pm

THE advent of low cost airlines in Australia and their over-zealous interpretation of safety regulations has led to greater discrimination against people with disabilities, the disability watchdog says.

A group of deaf people from Melbourne has launched a discrimination case against Tiger Airways after the budget carrier insisted they travel with a carer last month.

Federal disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes says the problem isn't limited to Tiger.

"There have been endemic problems in airlines over the past few years where people with disabilities have been refused carriage because of their disability," Mr Innes said on Sky News.

"The introduction of low cost airlines has been one of the reasons."

Mr Innes said they often applied unnecessarily strenuous or zealous interpretations of airline safety regulations and their staff weren't trained well enough.

"What you get sometimes are individual decisions which are outside airline policies," he said.

In 2006, Virgin Blue was forced to back down over its policy requiring wheel chair-bound passengers to be accompanied by a carer. It was currently fighting a federal court case over alleged discrimination, he said.

Last week, Mr Innes co-chaired a forum with Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities Services Bill Shorten to discuss how disabled people were treated by airlines.

The forum included the main airlines, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and government representatives.

Mr Shorten said the Government was concerned that discrimination was taking place "in the name of safety".

"But the reality is most people with impairment can understand (safety) instructions and fly," Mr Shorten said on Sky News.

Mr Shorten said Tiger was wrong to insist deaf passengers travelled with a carer.

"People who are deaf can still see and all emergency safety briefings have pictorial representations," he said.

"Just because people are deaf doesn't mean that they're stupid."

He said Qantas had the best policy: "If you can't self-medicate and self-see then you need a carer".

But Mr Shorten said individual flight attendants were not to blame.

Better training and awareness about disability was needed, he said.

"The airline industry needs to reach out to people with disability."

Comment is being sought from Tiger Airways.

By scopical.com.au
Published: 11 April 2008 8:59am

Four deaf passengers traveling aboard Singapore-owned Tiger Airways - which now flies in Australia - say they feel humiliated by requests to not travel on the airline again because of their hearing problem.

News Limited newspapers reported that a group of four Victorians - Adrian and Julie Doyle, along with two friends Steve and Robyn May - were asked when boarded to either purchase a seat of a sign-language translator, or to not fly with Tiger Airways again.

The four say they are humiliated by Tigers requests, and have now launched a discrimination case against the airline.

Adrian Doyle said that it was a humiliating and embarrassing moment for the group.

"The stewardess wrote on a piece of paper to me that we all require a carer on a plane because of our 'deafness', which sure floored me," Mr Doyle said.

"My friends had steam coming out of their ears, and my wife was dumbfounded."

"I then took the paper and wrote that they had insulted us by saying that we require a carer, since we have all travelled a lot, and never encountered any problems with our disabilities."

The airline says it is their policy to require those suffering from such an issue to be accompanied by a carer.

"I am shocked and stunned that Tiger allow themselves to discriminate against deaf people," Mr Doyle said.

The airline has now offered to apologise.

"We are happy to apologise to the people involved for the inconvenience and embarrassment they might have experienced," Tiger's Matt Hobbs said.

However both Qantas-owned Jetstar and Virgin Blue allow deaf passengers to travel unassisted.

Daily Advertiser 08 April 2008

If Rex is successful, intellectually disabled people, who are unable to understand safety procedures, will be required to travel with a carer.

The proposal will also affect wheelchair users, who may need physical assistance while travelling.

The application has been lodged with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, asking for an exemption to anti-discrimination laws.

“We’ve been carrying disabled people for years,” acting managing director of Rex Jim Davies said.

“We’ve been consulting with community groups for some time, and this proposed change is our way of trying to make things as easy as possible for disabled people.”

The application has proved to be controversial, with the federal

parliamentary secretary for disabilities and children’s services,

Bill Shorten, speaking out against it.

“People with disabilities are being treated as second-class citizens,” he said.

However, Davies called for calm.

“It is only an application. No decision has been made yet.”

Rex’s justification for its application is the airline’s use of 33 Saab aircraft, which are only large enough for one attendant.

According to Rex, it is too much for the attendant to maintain an appropriate duty of care to a disabled person who may need physical assistance.

The airline also claims three crew members have been injured from lifting passengers.

Rex maintains that the fares for carers would remain as low as possible, regardless of demand.