ADA Anniversary; 25 years of progress, but still a long way to go

By setting my last two novels in the early 1980s, I gave myself an advantage (age-wise, I knew how to place the characters' similar life events) and a disadvantage (the Americans with Disabilities Act would be years to come, not enacted until July 26, 1990). But it's still worth noting what could –and might– happen to Everett, the paraplegic character in these books, in his years ahead.

Robert L. Burgdorf, Jr. wrote a lengthy article in The Washington Post about how he (and others) wrote the Americans with Disabilities Act and worked to get it passed.

Read Me, Hear Me, Touch Me

It's always great when word gets out about my books, and those of my fellow authors. But when the same large corporation with whom you publish actively resists getting your books shared with disabled people, that's f*cked up.

The first published review of PINS the audiobook has been posted on Amos Lassen's blog. 

Here's a short excerpt: "What makes this novel so important is that we so identify with what goes on and it tears at our heartstrings. I found that reading this is difficult because of the subject matter but hearing it read really drives it home."

"Hearing it now made me realize how important this book it. The voice makes everything seem more real and [narrator Paul] Fleschner is able to capture that in his voice. Get a copy and sit down for a listen. You will not regret it, I guarantee."
  

AXIS-tence

A wheelchair-using BART commuter in the early 1970s

My weekend was full of East Bay arts, all of which ended up being, in some ways, connected. For those of you not in the San Francisco area, East Bay is the Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island of the Bay Area.

Some people in San Francisco may dismiss the East Bay, make "bridge and tunnel" jokes. I ride BART a lot, and while a few unpleasant events have happened to me, none of them were serious. The few very violent events - shootings by criminals and BART police have been covered by other media quite extensively. But personally, I can honestly say that it's a pretty amazingly efficient commuting experience.

One of the things I recently learned while researching the sequel to Every Time I Think of You, a novel that includes a disabled gay main character, is that Bay Area Rapid Transit was one of the first mass transit systems that made platforms and elevators and train cars accessible to wheelchair users.

A Shameful Senate

screencap from the senate vote

It shouldn't be difficult to approve a measure of basic human rights, particularly when that measure has already been approved. But for Republican senators, that seems impossible, even when those rights have long ago been approved by a Republican president.

Senate Republicans blocked the ratification of a United Nations treaty on rights for the disabled for one simply inane and utterly irrelevant reason: home-schoolers allegedly being told what to do by "foreigners."

Sen. Inhofe was joined by Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (SC), Mike Lee (UT), Marco Rubio (FL) and most of the party’s leadership in quashing the treaty. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), who is up for re-election in 2014, voted against it.

Ramplifier

"What costs more: a home in San Francisco's Sunset District, or a wheelchair ramp in the Board of Supervisors' chambers? If you picked the house, you're wrong."

Matier & Ross' column castigates the SF Supervisors for the ongoing drama about a ramp to be built to accommodate Supervisor Angela Alioto-Pier and other wheelchair users in the chambers.

Alioto-Pier, who is paraplegic, threatened to sue over this ramp back in '08, when the Board initially rejected the $1.1 million price tag. The ramp, now costing more than most homes - even in the Bay Area - has become an economic embarrassment, some say.

SFist anklebites with coverage of the 300-plus cranky comments on SFgate's website.

One comment sums it up: "This is not about access or ramps. It is about the super bloviated hot air and global warming that is local government in San Francisco."

Follow the Trail

I find all kinds of news articles relating to the lives of my characters in Every Time I Think of You. Mostly, I've been researching the historic facts relating to their lives during the time of the novel. But here's an example of the hopeful vision of Reid come true. I'm kind of giving away a bit of the ending, or, more precisely, Reid's potential career goal after the book ends.

This Times Leader article focuses on accessible ramps in state parks in New Hampshire; pretty neat.

One of the interviewees, 55, had his disabling accident in 1980. At 55, he had to wait decades for this goal to become a reality. Hopefully, my fictional characters will not have had to wait so long.