An Online Community by and for People with Disabilities

Sea Princess

Cruising is one of the best ways to visit new and exciting places around the world. I've been on three of them now, the most recent ended a few days ago when I returned from a Princess cruise to Alaska. The cruise was 10-days long and featured shore time in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway Alaska as well as a day in Victoria British Columbia. Without a doubt, Alaska is one of the most beautiful places in the world. However, for those of us with disabilities, the journey can be tricky at times.

Photo of Ray Sandford. Photo by Daryl Trones of City Pages.

DisabilityNation has continued to follow the story of Ray Sandford for the past few months. Back in April you'll recall that Ray's psychiatrist quit giving hope that the forced shock treatments he was receiving would soon end. Last week an article appeared in City Pages that did an excellent job of describing what Ray has been subjected to because of these treatments. City Pages is the main weekly newspaper distributed throughout Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.

Photo of a computer monitor next to a desktop computer tower.

We've all been there, busily working through that to do list and then something completely unexpected gets thrown our way. That was exactly what happened recently at work. It was late in the afternoon and I was trying to get a number of things done before the end of the day. Suddenly, my boss stopped in with a gentleman who was in need of assistance. She explained that he was working up until about 2 weeks ago when he was let go due to budget issues. He was once receiving SSDI benefits and now wasn't sure what to do at all. Thinking that I could help him with the benefits issue and possibly assist him in finding another job, she left him with me. And, did I forget to say he was deaf and did not read lips?

While some readers may find the above video shocking, anyone who has half-way paid attention to recent happenings related to disability issues in the state of Texas won't be surprised at all.

Several months ago we began hearing about the personnel issues with staff working at Texas state schools (institutions). it turned out that dozens of employees had once been fired or disciplined for abuse and or neglect of those living at state institutions and then were rehired again. And now videos surface showing staff at one of these state schools arranging for and carrying out fights between those living in the facility.