Month: February 2024

Categories
Little People of America

VOTING RIGHTS HISTORY: Women and Little People

Constitution

Individuals with dwarfism are represented by people of all ages, body shapes, skin colors, national origins, cultures, religions, and genders. As such, we are a microcosm of society with diverse values, talents, economic status, politics and opinions. Perhaps this is why February 27, 1922—the 102nd anniversary of the United States Supreme Court defending women’s voting rights under the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—stands out to me. Little People of America’s (LPA) heritage also includes defenses to freedom of expression and voting rights.

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As an alien, female, dwarf immigrant to the U.S., I was scorned when I expressed an unpopular opinion at an LPA Board of Director’s meeting. One Director blasted me for delaying the board’s progress, another accused me of stifling discussion and energy and attributed this to my being from New Zealand. I put the record straight with a heritage and values email:

In 1893, New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world to grant the vote to all adult women. I therefore come from a rich heritage of debate and democracy. There are three books sitting next to my computer monitor: a Bible, a dictionary, and a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Please never mistake a plea for civility as a call to stifle discussion or energy. However, I strongly believe that the First Amendment freedom of speech comes with responsibility and is not a license to disrespect or discredit people.

When I first emigrated to the U.S. as a permanent resident alien in 1981, LPA had two classes of disenfranchised people—noncitizen aliens without student or employee status and average-size parents of children with dwarfism. For several months, I fit into the first nonvoting class as one who was neither employed nor a student. Consequently, I was ineligible for membership and unable to vote. Thankfully this inequity was corrected in 1982 when the membership approved a proposed bylaw amendment to allow permanent resident aliens to become LPA members with the right to vote regardless of their employment or student status.

As a Past President of Little People of New Zealand (NZ), I was surprised to learn that average-size parents of children with dwarfism were nonvoting members of LPA. In NZ height was not a criteria for membership. In some LPA chapters, parents’ opinions were not sought or welcome. Parents were frequently relegated to the back of the room. In many chapters, parents were limited to servant roles of providing transportation to a meeting, setting up, and cleaning up after a meal.

This all changed in Robert Van Etten’s second term as LPA President (1984-1986). Robert successfully promoted a bylaw amendment giving the vote to one average-sized parent living in the household of a child with dwarfism.

So what voting rights do you appreciate?

Photo credit: Venita Oberholster from Pixabay

The examples given in this post are drawn from Chapter 2, “President Robert: The Second Term” and Chapter 7, “President Angela: Last Leg of Relay” in ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: Champions of Change for People with Dwarfism and Disabilities by Angela Muir Van Etten. https://angelamuirvanetten.com/always-an-advocate/.

Categories
Medical

Emergency Calls

First Responders

Medical emergencies, life-threatening situations, or crimes in progress can all trigger emergency calls. Depending on our country of residence, we call three digit numbers—000, 211, 911, or 999—to request help.

My first experience calling 911 was in 2017 when my husband Robert was in respiratory distress at the Little People of America’s 60th anniversary banquet in Denver, Colorado. Just as our meals were served, Robert’s breathing became so labored he was unable to eat. He returned to our hotel room to use his C-PAP machine, but this wasn’t enough to stabilize his breathing.

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Providentially God placed all the right people around Robert—the family sharing our banquet table included a respiratory therapist, nurse, and nursing student! All three joined hotel security staff in our hotel room to assess Robert’s breathing. The therapist even had a Pulse Oximeter to read his blood oxygen level. And indeed it was low enough for him to need oxygen. It was time to call 911!

Robert used the hotel’s portable oxygen tank until the ambulance arrived to take him to the Denver Health Medical Center and admitted to the ICU. The medical consensus was that the most likely cause of Robert’s breathing trouble was the cumulative effect of being in the Mile High City for a week. As a sea level resident of Florida, Robert was classified as a flatlander, and would be fine once he got back to sea level. And they were right. He used a portable oxygen concentrator for the flight home and, as predicted, he was fine soon after touch down in West Palm Beach, Florida.

All credit goes to God for taking care of us both during this stressful time. “God’s angel sets up a circle of protection around us while we pray.” Psalm 34: 7, Message

If this incident had happened 50 or so years earlier it would have been harder to call an ambulance. There was no coordinated 911 number and you had to know the local number of the emergency service you needed—fire, police, or medical. Also, the emergency number was often the same as the non-emergency number, meaning a busy signal was common.

In the United States (U.S.), the first 911 call was placed on February 16, 1968. However, it has taken years for this emergency number to go nationwide. Coverage has only increased gradually —17% in 1976; 50% in 1987; almost 93% in 1999 and 99% in March 2022. So as we appreciate this wonderful service, let’s bone up on some useful 911 facts:

  1. If you’re not sure about your location, 911 can usually track cell phone callers.
  2. Although texting to 911 is available in select areas, it’s better to call so operators can gather more information.
  3. Amazon Alexa can not directly call 911, but Google and Siri can call via voice command.
  4. You can call 911 even if your phone does not have a current service plan.
  5. In an average year, around 240 million 911 calls are made in the U.S.

Image by F. Muhammad from Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/photos/first-responders-ambulance-3323385/

You may also want to read:

Categories
Awareness

Share the Love of Books

Book

February 14th is for sharing the love of books and reading and, of course, for sharing love with your valentine. It’s hard to miss Valentine’s Day, but how did I miss International Book Giving Day? It’s been active since 2012 and is celebrated in 44 countries, including the United States. Whatever the reason for missing it in the past, now I know to use it to increase access to and enthusiasm for books.

As a child, my siblings and I didn’t go to bed with square eyes from watching too much television, rather we went to bed with a book to read. Little did we know how much this contributed to our language development, critical thinking ability, social cues, emotional intelligence, and imagination. When Amy Broadmoore, the United Kingdom co-founder of Book Giving Day, noticed how many children didn’t have books to read, she made it a goal to get as many new, used, and borrowed books into the hands of children as possible.

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So how do people celebrate Book Giving Day? Here’s a list of ideas:

  1. Gift a Book: Select a new or gently used book that you love or think someone else would enjoy. Give it to a friend, family member, coworker, or child in your community. To gift books on dwarfism, check out my website for ideas:

2. Donate Books: Local libraries, schools, shelters, foster homes, orphanages, thrift stores, or community centers are typically ready to accept book donations. You can also donate to non-profit organizations that focus on sharing books with people without access to them, such as: Books for Africa, Book Aid International, the Book Bus, the Prison Book Program, and Kids Need to Read.

3. Organize a Book Drive: Gather books from your community and organize a book drive. Encourage others to contribute, and then distribute the collected books to those in need.

4. Leave a book somewhere: You may “accidentally” leave a book in a doctor’s office waiting room, on public transit, and other places for someone else to pick up and read. You can inscribe the book on the first page to show whoever picks up the book it’s theirs to read and pass on to the next person.

5. Organize or join a book exchange program (for children or adults): It’s not only about handing out books; you can also trade them. See for example, Bookmooch which allows people to receive used books in exchange for donating their own books.

As for me, I commit to gifting one of the books in my dwarfism memoir trilogy (winners choice as to which one) to the first person who emails me this week at angela@angelamuirvanetten.com to report celebrating Book Gifting Day in one of the five ways listed above. 

Photo credit: Image by GraphicMama-team. https://pixabay.com/vectors/book-character-glasses-show-1773756/

You may also want to read blog posts about books by Angela Muir Van Etten:

Categories
Motivation

Get Up and Never Give Up

board

February is an exciting month for football fans, but figure skating is more my style. I often wonder at how skaters get right up after they fall and continue skating. Apparently it’s one of the first lessons skaters learn. Indeed, Scott Hamilton—American figure skater and 1984 Olympic champion—counted 41,600 skating falls.

Building on this experience, in 2017, the U.S. Figure Skating founded National Get Up Day on February 1 as a day to share inspiring stories of perseverance and the power of never giving up. So today I’m sharing a snippet of the story of what it took for Little People of America (LPA) to break the six-inch reach barrier for ATMs.

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In 1993, Nancy Mayeux—a parent of children with dwarfism—led 700 LPA members in a letter-writing campaign to the federal Access Board in response to their call for public comments on the height of ATMs. In a devastating blow, the Board declined the requests to lower the operable parts on ATMs from 54 to 48 inches.

One year later, unwilling to give up, LPA applied for membership on the ICC/ANSI A117.1 Committee on Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities, a private organization that produces a model building code making public buildings and facilities (including ATMs) accessible to people with disabilities. LPA’s application was approved and I was persuaded to represent LPA on the Committee.

In March 1995, the Committee rejected LPA’s proposed changes targeting the six-inch reach barrier as unsupported by statistical data. Despite this setback, LPA gathered data on height, arm extension, eye height, and vertical reach at the July 1995 national conference. And the data showed that at 48 inches about 80% of people with dwarfism could reach ATMs and everything else activated with a push, pull, or turn.

When the data was presented to the Committee in February 1996, it resulted in the biggest code change in 20 years! LPA’s 48-inch proposal was added to the second draft of proposed code revisions. However, the proposal still needed to survive public comments and negative ballots on the final draft of the ANSI Access Code in the next three meetings: October 1996, April/May 1997, and October 1997.

At the Spring 1997 meeting, there was pressure on Committee delegates to withdraw their early votes supporting 48 inches. After a five-hour battle and the longest debate on a single provision in the whole three-year revision cycle, the room was quiet as the votes were carefully counted: 13 in favor of 54 inches, 18 for 48 inches, and seven abstentions. But the fight was not finished.

In October 1997, a surprise fifth and final debate on LPA’s proposal was scheduled. Once again I had to justify the reasons for lowering the unobstructed side reach from 54 to 48 inches. But when the final vote was taken, the victory was more decisive—22 votes for 48 inches, eight votes for 54 inches and only two abstentions.

As a result of LPA’s “get up” actions we learned that change is possible with preparation, perseverance, persuasion, and prayer.

Photo credit: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This post is a condensed version of Chapter 15, Breaking the Six-Inch Reach Barrier, in “ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: Champions of Change for People with Dwarfism and Disabilities” by Angela Muir Van Etten. https://angelamuirvanetten.com/always-an-advocate/.