WSJ :: Aid to Make Homes 'Accessible'..

Really nice find in my inbox this morning was an article from the Wall Street Journal regarding accessible housing design:

• Aid to Make Homes 'Accessible'..
  By Theo Francis, Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2008

In trying desperately to respect copyrights but wrestling with that there is so much important information in his article, am thinking here that highlighting the more prominent resources reporter Theo Francis shares is the "safer" way to go:

• 400 Centers for Independent Living (CILs).. YAY, CILs get their due national "props"..!

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Standards For Accessible Design: U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) website..

• Pima County Visitability Ordinance: Accessible Society's take on that ordinance (December 23, 2003)..

• CUD's Most Popular Resources: Quick hug to The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University for providing their info in a cognitively accessible manner.. :wink:

• Article on Rosanne Grande, Bohemia, New York, investment advisor: Since she was quoted in the WSJ.. Everyone deserves their due fifteen..

• IRS' Publication 502 (2007), Medical and Dental Expenses: "Including the Health Coverage Tax Credit"..

• Social Security Online's Work Incentives - Detailed Information: In particular, Impairment Related Work Expenses (IRWE)..

• HUD's PHA Contact Information: Public Housing Authorities searchable by area map..

• National Association of Area Agencies on Aging: Cool.. Something new.. Had never heard of that one.. Thank you again, Theo.. :wink:

• 1997 Assistive Technology Act (AT Act) Programs: State programs, highlights, and accomplishments from the Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs..

A couple more that IMMEDIATELY came to mind to these fingertips:

• Concrete Change: "An international effort to make all new homes Visitable!" :hug to Eleanor Smith:

• Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia (SILCGA): "Changing lives, changing Georgia." Has Concrete Change as one of their many great projects forever in action.. :hug to Patricia Puckett:

Long as I'm at it, straight from SILCGA's website to you comes their contact info:

Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia, Inc.
755 Commerce Drive, Suite 415
Decatur, GA 30030
Voice: 770-270-6860
Toll Free: 888-288-9780
TTY: Use GA Relay, 711
Fax: 770-270-5957

Hm. While visiting them right now, my Mind just caught Concrete Change's footer there where it appears the website's information may have been provided in one form or another from some ten years ago until.......

Precisely today, April 6, 1998.. Makes it just that much more TOO cool for school that the WSJ article on accessible housing design debuted today..

Aren't you glad these fingertips have on-demand computer access once again and finally..? :wipes sweat from cyber brow as she winks:

Premature-PS.. Concrete Change should sound at least "vaguely" familiar to any seasoned veterans of the CraigsList Disabilities Forum.. :ga-WINK:

An-EE-way (and in conclusion,).......

*Please*, if you have just a few seconds, drop the reporter, Theo Francis, a very quick *thank you* because, human nature being what it is, people will *finally* start to take note of Visitibility purely because they did indeed see it in the Wall Street Journal.. If it works in your favorite email programs, I've set the email link below to fill in an email that very simply states, "Thank you so much for covering the very important subject of accessible home design. Visitibility benefits everyone!":

• Email Theo :: Theo Francis..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

To The W3C Re Cognitive Disabilities :: XSL Recommendations.. NICE..!

And I do mean, "WOW..!!!"

For those who are trying to grasp some Internet accessibility aspect of designing towards cognitive disabilities in addition to those [physical] in nature, the W3C's Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Recommendation (Version 1.1) is an AWESOME example of how to keep the incoming volume of your inboxes down to a dull roar.. The following is just one great example:

• 4.4.1 Stacked Block-areas..

The use of color combined with filling the spaces through the use of the various appropriate attributes is a hit with these fingertips..

Thank you..! See you all out there on the lists..!

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

Beautiful Minds :: If There's One Thing In This World That Gives A Girl Butterflies..

It surely gots to be seeing a (hanthum) man at work in the kitchen.. This priceless little treasure jumped out at me from my inbox a little bit ago.......

A beautiful Mind that cooks..

Ok, so he's tossing a salad, but still....... :giggle:

Next thing you know, he'll probably be jetsetting off to some sunset island whilst contemplating just how to save the World from itself..

Or, at the very least......

His navel.. :wink:

Cyber hugs from a very startled fan in Talking Rock....

The Cost Of One Crashed B1 Bomber.. In Ramen Noodles..

Crossposting this over from the On Butterfly Wings.. blog I started at the BarackObama.com website..

Peace, Love, and Something Warm in the Bellies for All tonight..

Not going to say much here.. Others are surely echoing my tear-stained thoughts across the cyber World..

But.......

The loss of a military B-1 bomber, above and beyond what may involve the human factor, is always outrageous in instances like today's when one starts looking at the Life survival business end of the ordeal of War..

So it works like this: Today, one B-1 bomber has been reported to have crashed over in Quatar

• CNN: B-1 bomber crashes in Qatar..

The cost of said lost military plane..? Not quite sure.. Tried to find something reliable and really quick in my favorite search engine.. Best I could do was it was anything from $200 million to $300 million dollars..

Give or take.......

A million or two.......

For one.......

Translated into ramen noodles at, let's say, 2 packages a day of something, anything warm in a person's belly, we get..

$200 million low ball cost for one crashed warplane..

Approximately 13 cents per package of ramen noodles (includes tax here in Georgia)..

Divided back into the aforementioned $200 million equals..

APPROXIMATELY 1,538,461,538 packages of noodles.. That's one billion, five hundred thirty-eight million, four hundred sixty-one thousand, five hundred and thirty-eight packages of ramen noodles laying smashed to smithereens on an al-Udeid Air Base, Qatar, war-involved (?) runway..

Someone check me.. This Mind doesn't always see the obvious it missed.. :wink:

Back to those two packages of something warm in someone's belly (on the high side as a fella could get away with just one), we get.......

769, 230,769 (seven hundred sixty-nine million, two hundred thirty thousand, seven hundred and sixty-nine) days that one Human Life could have something warm in their belly at the expense of one less crashed military airplane.. That's two warm meals a day if a fella eats a package per sitting..

Divide that by 365 days per year, and one gets, hm, crum, that can't be right.. Divided by 365 days a year, one gets:

2,107,481 (two million, one hundred seven thousand, four hundred and eighty-one) years..

Shoot.. That just can't be right.. But, if it is, War just got a whole [bleeped] more absurd to these fingertips.......

Shock from that number still numbing the Brain, but moving on to alternatively think further, seven hundred sixty-nine million, two hundred thirty thousand, seven hundred and sixty-nine people could theoretically have their Lives sustained one more day for the cost of one lost military warplane.......

Extended just one more day that could be THE one day that makes a difference in hoping Fate will land them in the Path of someone who can help guide them to the tools that will improve the quality of their Lives once and forever for all towards healthier communities everywhere..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

ACTION ALERT :: Child with autism charged, others same age NOT..

Clueless as to why I'm surprised, but here goes..

THANKS to that I am again back at the keyboard 24/7 as of this very past weekend, I just caught the following via a post over at Georgia Childrens Network (GCN) in tandem with only the second ever WSBTV weekday news alert I've ever received.. Fate being what she has been for me of late, these came within, say, an hour of each other today..

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Story #1 from the Tifton Gazette :: Autistic child charged with biting teacher: Student arrested for selling bogus drugs in seperate incident:

"An eight-year-old student at Horizon Academy school bit his teacher Thursday morning and was charged with battery."

*LOVE* how they tied the two stories together there, btw, even though they are unrelated.. Not.. :frown:

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Story #2 from WSBTV :: 3rd-Graders Allegedly Plotted To Attack Teacher..

"The nine students are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law, a prosecutor told the Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla. They include girls and boys, ages 8 and 9. Authorities withheld the Center Elementary School students' names."

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Cool, huh..?

Exact same ages.......

Exact same state.................

DIFFERENT laws...........................

Anyone catch my....... drift..? :raises left eyebrow:

United In Advocacy..