Editor's Column
by
Tim Benjamin
This month we are beginning
a series of articles on upcoming changes in the Personal
Care Attendant (PCA) Program administered by the State of Minnesota’s Department of
Human Services (DHS). The disability community will be impacted by these changes
in many ways, but hopefully, none of these changes will impact safety and quality
of care. By the time you read this issue, some of these changes will have been
implemented, unless there is a last-minute postponement; but we are not anticipating
that. We will continue to report on how DHS is being affected and how the agencies,
PCAs and consumers are dealing with the new changes. Please send us your stories;
we will print them and forward your stories to DHS and to legislators to make
sure they see how these changes are affecting your independence and quality
of life. I want to thank Laura Tally and everyone that contributed to this
article and to the upcoming series.
May is Mental Health Month and of course, this issue encompasses
such a wide array of topics that we have to apologize for only touching
on a few. We all have to remember the stigmas society still attaches
to mental illness and continue the pressure on legislators, health-care
providers, and people in general to recognize, acknowledge and fund
research and support. It is hard to convey the huge impact that mental
illness has on our communities. It touches each of our families in
one way or another and has destroyed many once very stable families.
Thank you to all the contributors of these articles.
We have an article about
the new iBot™ wheelchair that
has been in the news. I was able to test the chair a couple weeks
ago and was very impressed with its stability. I will have another
opportunity to evaluate it in the middle of May after they have made
the controls more suitable for my level of function. Moving into
the standing and four-wheel-drive modes, the chair tips backwards.
That made it difficult for me to reach the joystick, so we will see
how well the controls can be individualized. Maneuvering up and down
curbs and going across rough terrain was very easy, and I have to
say kind of empowering—doing things I could never have done
in a standard chair.
The iBot™ manufacturers boast of the chair being able to bring
you to eye level with a standing person, giving the wheelchair user
more parity in the able-bodied world. This thought kind of bothers
me: first, is it really parity when the machine is raising you to
the eye-level of people who are standing, or is it just another way
of fixing a wheelchair user to fit into the norm of society? Second,
isn’t it just as easy to be face-to-face with your peers when
they are sitting next to you—and doesn’t courtesy dictate
that if you are speaking to a seated person that you sit down to
communicate with them? If this “standing eye-to-eye” advantage
suggests that there is some kind of power in standing eye-to-eye
with another individual—well, I am not sure I want to be involved
with those kinds of power struggles. I am very comfortable and confident
in my abilities to control the situation that I am in, in the seated
position. And if someone is going to take a swing at me, I guess
I would rather be closer to the ground!
We are making some modernizations
at Access Press. We are developing new systems for day-to-day operations
and a strategic plan that will ensure our longevity and self-sustainability.
It is always exciting to make changes to create a better newspaper.
If there is anything that Access Press is not doing that you would
like to see us get involved with, please
let us know. We are working
on developing
new ways to increase our electronic capabilities using the Web site
and blogs. We are also hoping to get more citizen journalists—like
you—working
with us on story ideas.
