Parent Training and Information Center (PTIC)

The Westchester Independent Living Center (WILC) has been awarded a Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation 2013 Quality of Life grant in the amount of $6,000 in the Adaptive Sports category to support the New York Rollin’ KNICKS Basketball Team.

The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Quality of Life grants program was conceived by the late Dana Reeve to address the myriad needs of children and adults with paralysis and other mobility impairments and their families. Grants support critical life-enhancing and life-changing initiatives that improve physical and emotional health and increase independence. Funded projects offer a diversity of services and approaches: improving access; providing education and job training; sponsoring organized sporting activities; and much more. Quality of Life grants are funded through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“In the pursuit to achieve greater independence for individuals living with paralysis, the Reeve Foundation is honored to provide Quality of Life grants to organizations that support the paralysis community nationwide,” said Niketa Sheth, Senior Vice President of Quality of Life, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. “Each organization selected for a grant provides stellar curriculum or service that empowers, educates and reinvigorates people living with paralysis. We are proud to raise awareness and fund these pioneering programs that aim to improve the freedom and well-being of our community.”

WILC will utilize the grant to purchase 2 sport wheelchairs for new members of the New York Rollin’ KNICKS basketball team. The Rollin’ KNICKS is a wheelchair basketball team co-sponsored by the New York KNICKS/Madison Square Garden and the Westchester Independent Living Center (WILC). The Rollin’ KNICKS are members of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA). The NWBA, founded in 1948, is comprised of over 200 basketball teams across 22 conferences and 7 divisions. The Rollin’ KNICKS are in the NWBA Championship Division. They play in tournaments throughout the United States.

Basketball wheelchairs are not for everyday use. They are specifically designed for athletes who want durability and quick, easy adjustments. They allow players to move down court quickly, turn rapidly, and they absorb some of the rough contact inherent in the sport.

The Rollin’ KNICKS team is comprised of individuals who range in age from 15 – 59. Years of experience playing wheelchair basketball range from 1 year for the newest members to 40 years. Established members of the team become mentors to the juniors (as the new players are called) helping them to develop their skills and athleticism. Participating in competitive wheelchair basketball exposes the juniors to men and women who are wheelchair users, who are working, have families and are part of the community. It helps them develop teamwork and cooperation, skills which can be transferred to other areas of life including employment, independent living and self-sufficiency.

For more information regarding wheelchair basketball, check out the National Wheelchair Basketball Association.

For more information regarding the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, click here.

NY Rollin’ KNICKS Win NWBA National Basketball Championship

By LISA TARRICONE (November 2008)

Eighteen years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, access to retail stores, theatres, doctors offices, hotels, restaurants, museums, private schools and libraries is still not a guarantee for the 54 million persons living with a disability nationwide; nor is it for a certain percentage of the 170,000 of those whom reside in Westchester County. Although Title 111 of the AD A prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in places of public acc ommodation, in many places, restroom doors are still too narrow, store and restaurant e ntrances have steps instead of ramps and examining tables in doctors offices are not adjust able to allow access for wheelchair users, to name just a few examples.

Until now, the only legal recourse for individuals facing ADA violations was to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice and hope their case would be pulled amid its enormous backload. However, a working initiative involving the Westchester Human Rights Commission (WHRC) and Westchester Independent Living Center (WILC) – a disability advocacy and referral agency in White Plains – is slated to dramatically change this scenario. Both agencies will be working with new legislation within New York State’s Human Rights Law to not only ensure accessibility standards for persons with disabilities but to assist the business community toward compliance. In addition to focusing on public accommodation issues, WHRC and WILC will implement an Equal Access Campaign which will address the impacts of stigma and public attitudes on county residents with disabilities.
[In addition, WHRC now has countywide jurisdiction to process discrimination cases, which can also include public accommodation violations.]

The new state law went into effect on January 1 of this year, adding provisions to its Human Rights Law to be consistent with Title 111 ADA requirements concerning public accommodations. This amendment is significant as it now allows a state enforcement mechanism specifically for ADA violations. The new provisions added could have been implied from the existing language of the NY Human Rights Law, but the incorporation of exact ADA provisions currently leaves no room for differences in mistakes or interpretation.

The state Division of Human Rights will be working with both the disability community and business groups toward enforcing its new law, which will promote and implement reasonable accessibility changes without unnecessary litigation. A December 2007 letter generated by the Division to New York business entities states: “While the Division cannot limit a person ’s right to seek and receive individual redress under the Law, it will initially focus its own enforcement activities on assisting businesses in identifying and removing obstacles to equal access in places of public accommodation, in compliance with the new law.

In accordance with this objective, WHRC and WILC will assist interested local businesses and other commercial facilities with site ass essments of their operations and offer compliance recommendations. “If you lease, own or operate a business that serves the public, you have compliance obligations under the ADA,” says WILC’s Executive Director, Joseph Bravo. Bravo points out that the “grandfathered in” reply oftentimes used by businesses when facing access violations is a myth. “Local building codes may or may not include a provision allowing facilities to be grand fathered, but the ADA does not,” he says.

The ADA requires existing places of businesses to remove barriers when it is readily achievable or easily accomplishable without excessive difficulty or expense to do so. New construction must meet more extensive access requirements under the ADA. “No matter how old a building is, it is not totally excused fro m complying with the ADA,”says Bravo, “but keep in mind also that access to improvements can open your business to a large customer pool previously shut out.”

The Equal Access Campaign will highlight a different disability issue each month for one year beginning in April and continuing through May 2009. Bravo sa ys the overall objective of the campaign is to generate public awareness of the ongoing attitudinal issues that people with all types of disabilities face in their daily lives. He offers two examples: “Despite the discrimination protections under the ADA, peopl e with psychiatric disabilities still experience stigma when looking for a job and sign language interpreters are still not made readily available in medi cal and other facilities for persons who are deaf.”

Lisa Tarricone
Director, Systems Advocacy
Westchester Independent Living Center
White Plains, NY 10601
914.523.8922 (mobile)
914.682.3926 ext 2112(office)