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Getting work is no easy job for the disabled
Michael Blazek, an out-of-work financial analyst who's visually impaired, has one way to confront hiring managers' questions about whether he can do the job. He brings his tools to the interview.
Small enough to fit in his suit pockets, they include a magnifying glass, a monocular he uses to look at projections on a wall and an electronic magnifier that can blow up images 16 times. He also has a laptop with a magnifying program and closed-caption TV technology that allows him to work on spreadsheets.
"The company will not have to pay for anything," said Blazek, 47, of Irving, Texas, who nearly two years ago lost his job at a major telecommunications company after more than 20 years of moving up the ladder there.
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John Gregori
Age: 50
Home: Tollhouse.
Occupation: Heavy equipment technician and engine builder, but now I am disabled and I need a heart transplant. I ask everybody to become an organ donor. Someday you, too, could need a heart.
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Karen Douglas
Age: 63
Occupation: I'm physically disabled but mobile. I was employed by six law enforcement agencies; was an office manager, security supervisor and a self-employed home and business organizer.
Hobbies: Genealogy research, container gardening, crossword puzzles. I'm a voracious reader. Volunteering is my favorite pastime.
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Time to speak up
A lot has been written about the plight of In-Home Supportive Services care providers. But something is being left out. We, people with disabilities, need to speak.
Situations for both care providers and people with disabilities can improve. It is now that people with disabilities are called to speak.
There is that individual who cannot even get a drink of water without help. We need to speak.
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State to close Pomona center for disabled
State officials have announced plans to close the Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona, one of California's largest residential care facilities for people with severe developmental disabilities.
Terri Delgadillo, director of the Department of Developmental Services, said Friday the 82-year-old facility could shut its doors within two years.
Delgadillo cites a declining population and detoriating infrastructure at the 302-acre campus as reasons for the planned closure.
Linda Foster
Age: 63
Occupation: Home-care provider through In-Home Supportive Services, artist, backyard farmer.
Hobbies: Watercolor painting, volunteering at United Cerebral Palsy, being queen of a Red Hat Society, growing fruit trees and roses, collecting antiques and old flower-patterned China, cooking, photography, travel, reading, music, bird watching.
Bee reader since: 1994.
How many letters: 13 since 2005.
Favorite topics: Environmental issues, disability related and home-care issues, attempts at balancing the budget by cutting programs and services to the elderly and the disabled.
Why do you write? To address issues that are important and where maybe not everyone truly understands the implications. To bring a subject to the attention of the general public, government officials and politicians, and to provide a voice for the elderly and disabled in our community who are not always able to speak in their own defense.
Education: associate degree, Los Angeles Valley College. Extensive units from several colleges: Cal State Northridge and Fresno City College. Fine art major at Cal State Northridge.
Family: Three siblings living in a variety of places; many nieces and nephews scattered around the country.
Political philosophy: I am a progressive Democrat with strong leanings toward environmental issues. We have to be in this together and do everything we can to keep the Earth livable for all those who will come after us.
-- Compiled by Pam Rowse
@Nyx.CommentBody@