I’m still trying to catch up with things I’ve missed while being offline the past few months. One happy discovery was to find that Dick Sobsey started up the ICAD blog in July and has been posting on it regularly. Some readers might be familiar with ICAD – the International Coalition on Abuse and Disabilities – a listserv that was populated by a broad spectrum of parents, professionals, academics and disability activists.
This an important resource for anyone who wants to keep abreast of developments relating to the abuse of people with disabilities. Dick is currently the Director of the John Dossetor Health Ethics Center at the University of Alberta. You can read about Dick’s professional career and his “real life.” Both are worth checking out.
Also worth reading are these two classics he’s written:
Father’s Day 2000 and Why we shouldn’t blame the murders of disabled kids on lousy services.
As mentioned in the post title, Dick shared some news about Democratic VP Candidate Joe Biden that should be of interest to folks in the disability community:
27 August 2008 Denver, CO USA Tonight Senator Joe Biden received the Democratic Party’s nomination for Vice-President of the United States. Less than one year ago on Oct 25th, Senator Biden introduced the Crime Victims with Disabilities Act of 2007 as part of Senate Bill 2237, Crime Control and Prevention Act of 2007. Biden has also advocated for expanding Federal Hate Crimes Legislation to include bias crimes against people with disabilities and has been strong supporter of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Obama has also pledged to get the US to sign on the the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and was an original sponsor of the Bill to expand hate crime legislation to cover disability. This may be starting out like a paid political announcement for Obama-Biden, but it’s not. It is, however, a plea to everyone who cares about crimes against people with disabilities and the general welfare of Americans with disabilities to get involved with the upcoming election. We need to be asking BOTH PARTIES what they will do if elected to move the agenda for people with disabilities forward. Will Obama and Biden put the Crime Victims with Disabilities Act high on their legislative agenda?
For more information on this proposed legislation and the wording of the bill, please go check out the link provided immediatey before the blog excerpt. –Stephen Drake