Long-time CDR member Frederick N. Frank, age 71, of Stratford, the beloved husband of Bonnie Bilcheck Frank, passed away on Sunday, July 19, 2015, at CT Hospice in Branford.
Fred was born in Bridgeport to the late Frederick and Mary (Kerpchar) Frank and has been a lifelong Stratford resident.
He was a graduate of Bunnell High School, Fred then went on to receive his bachelor’s degree from New Haven College (now the University of New Haven) and he became sales manager for Mudricks TV and Appliance.
Much of Fred’s working years were spent involved with several disability resource organizations. He was a true advocate for people with disabilities.
Fred was a member of numerous organizations including the Bridgeport Kiwanis of which he was past president.
He was best known to his family and friends for telling jokes and making people laugh, even if he told the same jokes over and over. He also enjoyed playing cards, going to movies and just spending time with family and friends.
In addition to his wife of 47 years Bonnie, Fred is survived by a son Craig Frank and his wife Mary of Milford, his grandchildren Justin, Kailee and Kristin, a sister MaryAnn Hretz and her husband George of Trumbull and several nieces, nephews and cousins. His son Gary Frank predeceased him.
Funeral Services took place Thursday, July 23, 2015, in the Adzima Funeral Home 50 Paradise Green Place and in St. John’s Byzantine Catholic Church, Trumbull, with a Divine Liturgy of Christian Burial. Burial was at St. John’s Cemetery Stratford.
The family requests in Lieu of flowers those desiring may make donations in Fred’s memory. To make an online condolence please visit www.adzimafuneralhome.com.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with DISABILITIES (CRPD)
(Washington, D.C.) When disability advocates started talking about the need for an international disability rights treaty, the frame of reference was the Americans with Disabilities Act. The legislation signed into law by President H.W. Bush, on July 26, 1990-the ADA-was the catalyst and the foundation on which the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was built. Now is an appropriate time to acknowledge that the ADA and CRPD are close siblings.
USICD President Patricia Morrissey, Ph.D, attended an ADA reception at the White House on July 20 and said:
Everyone who did the work to get the ADA passed was in the East Room for President Obama’s address, and, as the President stated, ‘We’ve come a long way and we have a long way to go.’ While the reception was a fitting time to mark 25 years of human and disability rights achievements, it is now a clarion to continue this work and demonstrate the obligation to offer the spirit of the ADA in the form of the CRPD to the One Billion people globally who need it. You know, we can do this if we try!
Now, over 151 countries have ratified the CRPD. Conversations worldwide have shifted from the ideas about the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation, to how do we implement these concepts? How do we make them a matter of common practice?
Instead of a four-pillars approach in the ADA (employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunication relay services), the U.N. delegations from 190 plus countries, over six years, discussed, debated, and agreed on 40 plus articles that lay out requirements and expectations in specific contexts (e.g., health care, education, employment, political participation, public awareness, right of mobility) and emphasized certain people with disabilities (children, women). This direction was necessary as developing countries said they needed specificity and emphasis in order to make their governments respond appropriately.
While the disability and human rights communities rightfully celebrate the 25th anniversary all over Washington and the nation, the fact remains that the universal value of these rights and protections will make this world a better place. It is our hope that someday soon the United States will join the nations that have ratified the CRPD.
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For more information, contact:
Kevin R. Locke
Chief Development and Communication Officer
202.359.6960
[email protected]
In a letter from U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, to Mr. David Mastroianni, Connecticut Valley District Manager of the United States Postal Services, the lawmakers request that recent changes in accessibility to the Seymour Post Office, which have “created an unacceptable burden for persons with disabilities” be “expeditiously” remedied to “restore equal access to the Seymour Post Office.”
The letter states:
“The expectation that customers with disabilities must set up on-street appointments or use a call-in number to arrange a time for service is an unreasonable one. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the burden to provide accommodations falls on federal facilities, not on disabled persons themselves. Intentionally or not, the status quo has that equation backwards.”
“We have fought and advocated for improved access to federally funded facilities for people with disabilities. The USPS has previously worked with communities to find adequate solutions, so that their buildings are accessible to all customers, regardless of disability. It is our hope that the USPS will comply with the spirit and letter of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Architectural Barriers Act.”
“We therefore respectfully request that the USPS work with the Town of Seymour and the community to provide equal access to the Seymour Post Office. We also ask that you keep our offices updated on any developments in this matter.”
For Immediate Release
People with disabilities will be rallying for access to services provided by the Seymour Post Office from 10:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, 2015, due to the Postmaster’s failure and refusal to provide equal access to customers with disabilities and the elderly.
The Post Office facility at 91 Main St. has a steep staircase at its entrance with no ramp, lift, or other means for persons with limited mobility to get into the facility to conduct their business. For years, customers with disabilities could use a service ramp at the rear of the building; but a few weeks ago the Postmaster suddenly shut down that option.
The Postmaster has offered people with disabilities one alternative: Customers may call a number and request that the U.S.P.S. staff to come to the curb.
This is unacceptable for the following reasons:
1) There is no signage or notice indicating that this option is available;
2) The number is not being shared publicly;
2) This option will not work for people who do not have cell phones or who, because of their disability, can’t easily use one; and
3) The sidewalk area is hazardous; and in inclement weather, this option would not work.
“The Postmaster is hiding behind the letter of the Americans with Disabilities Act while ignoring the fact that the USPS is required by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to make its services accessible to customers with disabilities,” said Marc Anthony Gallucci, Esq., Executive Director of the Center for Disability Rights. “They have had 40 years to plan for access. Haven’t they had enough time?”
“One must ask, why is it that the mail is ‘First Class’ but customers with disabilities are “Second Class’?”
Demonstrators will be demanding services during the protest, and will press their demands for a long-term permanent solution.
“We demand that the Post Office be made accessible, or that it be moved to an accessible location nearby,” Gallucci said. “In the interim, we also demand that access to the service ramp be restored, and that appropriate signage and door bells be installed so that customers can readily obtain the attention and service of staff when they need it.”
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Disability Rights Advocates, advocates from the Center for Disability Rights, and others invite you to participate in a rally from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday, May 13, 2015, to get the USPS to open an access point for disabled people to use at the Seymour Post Office, at 91 Main St., Seymour, Conn., 06483.
Click below to download the poster/flyer for the rally.
Spread the Word!!!
Ed: Begs the question: How many wheelchair contestants has the Price is Right had on their show?
Any “Price is Right” fan has probably dreamed of one day going on the show and being summoned to “Come on down!” while simultaneously fearing the worst-case scenario of never making it on stage to meet host Drew Carey, or going over on the showcase showdown. Or worse: not spinning the wheel hard enough to make a complete rotation.
Source: Woman in wheelchair wins a treadmill on ‘Price is Right’ – CNN.com
CHELSEA, Ma.—The woman Barry Berman saw sitting in the dining room of the nursing home was not his mother.
Or, at least, she was his mother, but didn’t look anything like her. His mother was vivacious, or she had been until she was felled by a massive stroke and then pneumonia, so he’d moved her into a nursing home so she could recuperate. He knew he could trust the nursing home, since he ran it, and knew it was lauded for the efficiency with which it served residents. But when he went to look for his mother a day or two after he moved her in, he barely recognized her.
“I’ll never forget the feeling as long as I live,” he told me. “I said, ‘Oh my God, there’s my mother, this old woman, in a wheelchair, lifeless. Look what my own nursing home did to my own mother in a matter of days.”
via A Better Nursing Home Exists — The Atlantic.
Among the cuts proposed in the Governor’s recommended budget for SFY16-17 is the elimination of funding for Help Me Grow.
Help Me Grow promotes early detection and connection to services for children from birth to 8 years old with developmental or behavioral challenges. Help Me Grow enables the service delivery system for children with developmental needs to function more efficiently and assists parents directly by educating and empowering them with the tools to monitor their children’s development, and to access appropriate help when the need arises.
Please join us in asking our Representatives and Senators in the Connecticut General Assembly to restore Help Me Grow funding in the final state budget for SFY16-17.
Click the “Send a Letter” button below to ask your state legislators to restore funding for Help Me Grow.
Last Wednesday Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced his proposed budget. Several important programs at DSS have been cut. The Governor’s budget:
- Kicks low income adults off HUSKY-including pregnant women, and moves them to Access Health where they will have to PAY insurance premiums
- CLOSES the Torrington DSS office
- ELIMINATES 13 DSS positions
- ELIMINATES funding for programs like the Human Services Infrastructure Community Action Program which helps many people with benefits and provides the funding match for SNAP outreach
There are better choices! Legislators need to hear our stories and ideas. They need to hear from you. Email, call, or testify that:
- We don’t need more cuts, we need REVENUE
- Health coverage for low income people, including pregnant women, MUST continue through HUSKY
- ADD staff and offices to DSS, DON’T cut them
- DSS MUST be responsive to service providers and our neighbors who depend on it by fulfilling its promise to have a phone line and portal for social service providers and getting wait times down and/or implementing a call back system
- DSS modernization is NOT WORKING and MUST CHANGE
There are two chances to talk about the proposed budget: Thursday, Feb. 26th @ 12 (Human Services Committee public hearing) and Friday the 27th @ 5 (Appropriations Committee public hearing). If you can’t attend either hearing you can email the Committees (in Word or PDF)at [email protected] and [email protected].
If you want to know more or want to testify, please email Lucy Nolan [email protected] or Nancy Boone [email protected].