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Charlotte Amalie
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Disabled Make Their Voices Count in Forum

Oct. 23, 2004 – About 150 people with disabilities and their advocates made their voices heard Friday before those with the power to do something – the politicians.
The crowded room at the Windward Passage Hotel bounded with energy as the group spelled out the problems they live with every day, problems which they feel with more political will could be solved.
The audience was vocal and passionate about their concerns. The forum – "2004 Voices That Count" – presents a unique opportunity for those concerns to be aired. Sponsored by the University of the Virgin Islands V.I. University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, the forum is in its third year.
The forum started Thursday when groups were selected to assess the needs of the community which would be brought to the panels of politicians on Friday.
"If you don't advocate and tell your elected officials what you want, they can't be held accountable," Wilbert Francis, program coordinator, told the group.
And they complied.
They expressed their concerns and frustrations to an array of politicians and political hopefuls. The morning session featured the two at-large senatorial candidates, Craig Barshinger and incumbent Almando "Rocky"Liburd, and two of the three running for the delegate to Congress seat – Krim Ballentine and incumbent Donna M. Christensen. Candidate Warren Mosler didn't appear.
The forum focused on four issues – education; transportation; employment and health, including mental health; and the services they provide to the disabled community. These same issues were discussed last year and report cards were issued on the government's performance.
The 2003 scores were the results of investigation by focus groups comprising the disabled and several advocate agencies.
The government failed; it received failing grades in almost every area. Two of the above-passing grades were given to Vitran Plus, which got a "C" in achievement and a "B" in effort.
Though report cards were not distributed Friday, there was little indication that anything had improved.
Several members of the hearing impaired community sat in the front row, giving rapt attention to the various interpreters who worked throughout the day translating the fast-paced dialogue.
The questions brought light, if not solution, to areas not normally perceived by the average person. For instance, there is no interpreter at the hospital, nor any in the hospital emergency room. If people who need one are brought in without someone to speak for them, they are in trouble.
Christensen said many of these situations can be remedied when the Medicaid cap is lifted, which she has been working on for years. The territories' hospitals are slated to receive $2.5 million soon, she said.
However, she said lifting the Medicaid cap would "open more services." Many of these services come under the Medical Community Attendant Services and Supports Act which will come into use after the Medicaid cap is lifted. Christensen said it is "most frustrating" not to be able to say these conditions will be solved immediately.
Ballentine's answers to the questions were general in nature, not addressing specific problems. He said, as he has on a previous TV debate, that solutions lie in "making the right friends in Congress."
He injected a bit of humor into the proceedings: "Give me two years," he asked, "and then you can re-elect her after I get things done."
None of the candidates missed the opportunity Friday to do a little campaigning.
A theme that ran through Friday's conference was the lack of enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA, which mandates such things as ramps on public buildings and schools. Felicia Brownlow, director of the not-for-profit V.I. Center for Independent Living since its inception in 1980, explained the situation locally.
She said buildings in the Historic Zone and churches don't fall under the ADA. "However, many "individual communities not mandated to be retrofitted to accommodate the disabled, still do," she said. "In the states there is hardly a church that hasn't addressed the problem."
A significant number of buildings in St. Thomas are without access, she said. For example, she cited Government House and the Lt. Governor's building. Both are on a hill, which makes even disabled parking difficult, and there is no ramp to access either building.
On another note, Brownlow noted that $1,000 fines are being allocated for parking in disabled zones. She said her agency gets between $5,000 to $7,000 a year from the fines.
Cecilia Dennery, a UVI professor, was one of three interpreters aiding the hearing-impaired group Friday. They spelled each other about "every 20 minutes," she said. "It's exhausting." The reason is that English syntax is not the same as the syntax of sign language. "Standard English is like a foreign language to the deaf. They understand things visually, rather than more of a linear perspective."
The interpreters Friday had the task of translating the fast-moving dialogue into signs the deaf participants could readily understand. "It's a mental workout," Dennery said. "One of the reasons children with hearing impairments have greater difficulty is because, unless they come from a deaf household, they are not familiar with English as we speak it."
The group was active throughout the day, as the individual participants stood up to sign their problems to the interpreters and await the answers. At one point, Dennery said later, they were having problems because they said they "couldn't understand anything the politicians said."
Another problem they face is a lack of interpreters in the school system. There are not enough qualified teachers who not only know sign language, but who can interpret it successfully. Brownlow, who has dealt with these problems over the years, said "they feel left out because there's a lot of things that don't get translated. The hearing-impaired community here has devised their own language." She said if someone came to teach American sign language, they would be at a loss to communicate.
Christensen suggested an incentive program for the territory which would encourage teachers to learn.
In the afternoon, participants got an inside look at the political process, as the senatorial aspirants made sometimes grandiose promises of the many changes they would effect in office, while the incumbents reminded them of the political process. Sen. Lorraine Berry pointed out more than once that the Legislature can make all the laws it wants and appropriate funds, but "it's the executive branch that allocates those funds and determines spending priorities."
After one of the more sweeping claims by an aspirant, Sen. Carlton Dowe explained, "No one of us can make anything happen. It's a collective effort."
Sens. Berry, Roosevelt David, Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg. Dowe, Louis Hill and Shawn-Michael Malone represented the incumbents. Aspirants were Karl L. Caesar, former senator Donald "Ducks" Cole, Liston Davis, Wilma Monsanto and Alex Randall.
The senators noted, as had Christensen in the morning, that Vitran is getting 10 new buses, with wheelchair lifts. This was welcomed by the participants, but several questions were voiced about the service. "Why doesn't it cover the Northside or Donkey Hill?" was asked on more than one occasion.
Davis said he was planning a "mass transit system" with a fleet of mini-buses which would implement the use of transfers, so that only certain buses would have to drive over the hills. He didn't, or didn't get a chance, to describe how he would fund the fleet.
The issue of sensitivity training came up in several areas – education, transportation and
the Legislature itself. Several participants told the senators that bus drivers are typically uncaring and rude. They seldom offer to help, they said.
The senators responded that sensitivity training should be a part of a program when the new buses arrive. Another area is education. More than one participant said there were instances of school teachers abusing disabled students.
Though they did not specify instances, one of the politicians noted a case of a 10-year-old child having to stand in a corner holding a stack of books for an extended period of time. Hill and several senators concurred the training should be implemented.
Brownlow said she has offered several time to various Senate presidents to offer a sensitivity training to the senators, but has never gotten a response. She said the elevator in the Legislature came into being only in the 80's, "when Ruby Rouse broke her leg."
The forum's keynote speaker was a 65-pound wheelchair-bound 40-year-old with more energy than two men twice his size. Greg Smith not only was speaker, he moderated Friday's conference, wheeling around from speaker to speaker with the adroitness of a ballet dancer.
Smith was born with muscular dystrophy. He became wheelchair bound in junior high, but had a joystick inserted in his wheelchair and played drums in his high school marching band.
Smith has his own radio show, "The Strength Coach," which has aired nationwide for 11 years. His website is www.thestrengthcoach.com
"I would not exchange my life with anyone," he told Thursday's crowd. Smith said Friday that the thing he enjoys most here is "the friendliness of the people. And the passion the disabled community has here. It shows a lot of strength. We have to do what we have to do."
Speaking of "have to do," Smith said he had gotten himself into a pickle where he was forced to take his own advice. "I tried scuba lessons yesterday at the pool here," he said. "It was a little scary, but I got more confidence. I listened to my own speech from yesterday, and decided it was something I should do, something I've never done." Smith said he would go out Saturday morning with Admiralty Divers who trained him Thursday. "Marty and Portia [dive shop owners] were very encouraging," he said.
A report late Saturday afternoon said Smith had a fine time diving out by Buck Island. Michelle Griggs, a wheelchair user and certified diver, accompanied him. "I think he had a good time," she said. "It's very tiring, but once you get in it's not that bad. We had fun." (See "A Day in the Life: Disabled on St. Thomas").

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