$4.99 $4.99 /N O P R 2008 Volume OV CT ATRICK OBERT MAGAZINE VOLUME 2008 ROBERT PATRICK OCT/NOV THE VOICE OF OVER 50 MILLION AMERICANS 2 ABILITY ABILITY 3 MANAGING EDITOR Pamela K. Johnson MANAGING HEALTH EDITOR E. Thomas Chappell, MD HEALTH EDITORS Gillian Friedman, MD Larry Goldstein, MD Natalia Ryndin, MD CONTRIBUTING SENATOR U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) EDITORS Dahvi Fischer Renne Gardner Sonnie Gutierrez Oakley’s headquarters:The finish line for OC Habitat’s Homes for Heros benefit Eve Hill, JD Glenn Lockhart 6 HEADLINES — Voting Gains; Help with Medicare Josh Pate Denise Riccobon, RN Maya Sabatello, PhD, JD 10 HUMOR — Run for Office? Run the Other Way! Romney Snyder Jane Wollman Rusoff 12 GREEN PAGES — Water by Computer, Solar Flashlight CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Linda Boone Hunt Gale Kamen, PhD 14 DRLC — Make Polling Places Accessible For All Valerie Karr Extremity Games Best Buddies p. 31 Laurance Johnston, PhD Andrea Kardonsky 17 BEST PRACTICES — HP & Boeing Deborah Max Myles Mellor - Crossword Puzzle Paula Pearlman, JD 24 ANITA KAISER — Finding Innovative Ways to Mother Richard Pimentel Allen Rucker Kristen McCarthy Thomas 30 KENNEDY LEGACY — One Family, Many Contributions Betsy Valnes HUMOR WRITERS 31 ANTHONY KENNEDY SHRIVER — Best Buddies George Covington, JD Jeff Charlebois Mr. and Mrs. Kaiser p. 24 Paralympic Games Beijing Gene Feldman, JD WILLIAM KENNEDY SMITH, MD — iCons 35 WEB EDITOR Joy Cortes 46 ASST. SECRETARY OF LABOR — ‘Everybody Needs to Work’ GRAPHIC ART/ ILLUSTRATION Scott Johnson 52 MEREDITH EATON — From Therapist to Actress Paul Kim Melissa Murphy - Medical Illustration 57 JR MARTINEZ — Soldiering On PHOTOGRAPHY William K. Smith, MD p. 18 Music Within Brian Gordon /Meredith Eaton CBS 60 MANAGING PAIN — Ear Aches, Tooth Aches TRANSCRIPTIONIST Sandy Adler 62 CROSSWORD PUZZLE — Guess Your Best DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS AFFAIRS John Noble, JD 64 GEORGE COVINGTON — The Secret of Politics MARKETING/PROMOTIONS Jo-Anne Birdwell 66 EVENTS & CONFERENCES Jacqueline Migell Andrew Spielberg JR Martinez p. 57 UBLIC ELATIONS 74 SUBSCRIBE TO ABILITY MAGAZINE Crossword Puzzle ABILITY’s P R CONTENTS JSPR NEWSSTAND CIRCULATION John Cappello WWW.ABILITYMAGAZINE.COM EDITORIAL [email protected] ADVERTISING DISTRIBUTION CORPORATE SHIPPING For advertising Warner Publishing Services 8941 Atlanta Ave. NON-PROFITS information e mail A Time-Warner Company Huntington Beach, CA 92627 [email protected] Faxon - RoweCom Library Tel 949.854.8700 ABILITY Awareness/Fuller Center or call Services TTY 949.548.5157 Habitat for Humanity 949.854-8700 ext 306 Ebsco - Library Services Fax 949.548.5966 Boeing p. 42 Swets Blackwell PUBLISHER Chet Cooper ABILITY Magazine is published bimonthly by C.R. 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ISSN 1062-5321 Printed in U.S.A. © Copyright 2008 ABILITY Magazine ABILITY 5 Nolan, vice president of diversity and workplace devel- ILG IS A-OKAY opment at Pepsi Bottling Group; and Deborah Soon, vice president of marketing and executive leadership initiatives at Catalyst. uman resource execs, Fortune 500 company reps and small business leaders all put their heads “The benefit [of diversity] to our companies is several H together at a recent summit to discuss strategies fold,” explains Jacqui Quesada Jones, chairperson of the to make the workplace work for everyone. The conference organizing committee, and the newly hired event, which marked the 26th Annual Industry Liaison diversity staffing manager for Northrop Grumman’s Group National Conference, featured nationally recog- Irvine, TX, plant. During conferences such as this one, nized speakers such as PBS Television host Tavis Smi- “We get real time updates from the agencies on regula- ley, Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin and popular tions, trends they’re noticing across the country, as well blogger Luke Visconti. as the opportunity to share best practices...” Smiley spoke about race, expressing concern that, smilg.org/2008/ILG-Conference2008ExecutiveSummary.doc should there be an Obama presidency, the issue would not marginalized because he is the first Black president and a barrier had been broken. Matlin discussed her HELP FOR HIRING VETS issues with Hollywood as a deaf actress and how she overcame obstacles. And Visconti, partner and co- founder of DiversityInc magazine, who writes the popu- new online resource helps employers respond to lar blog, Ask the White Guy, talked about the diversity the needs of veterans with traumatic brain injury questions readers send him, because they’re too intimi- A (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dated to ask the folks at work. two common conditions facing returning soldiers. The America’s Heroes at Work website (see below) pro- Key federal officials also attended the conference and vides information about TBI and PTSD, and offers guid- presented relevant policy updates. For instance, Patricia ance on how to implement workplace accommodations Schaeffer, vice president of Regulatory Affairs in the and other services to help those who have it. The web- Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Com- site includes the Job Accommodation Network’s toll- pliance Programs, announced two new Federal policy free phone number, which employers can call to receive initiatives: personal assistance with providing job accommodations for veterans with disabilities. First, the Good-Faith Initiative for Veterans Employment (G-FIVE), which recognizes companies’ best practices “One of the best ways we can help these courageous for the employment and advancement of veterans. And men and women and honor their sacrifice is to help second, the Federal Contractor’s Online Application them return to full, productive lives through work,” said Selection System, which requires contractors and sub- Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “Employment can contractors either to make electronic job application sys- also play a role in their recovery.” tems accessible to candidates with disabilities, or to pro- vide them with a reasonable accommodation that allows Although their injuries may not be obvious, people with everyone an equal opportunity to compete for a job. TBI or PTSD may face difficulties, especially in the area of employment. Reasonable workplace supports Author Grace Odums, author of Diversity Principles: can often help resolve these issues. Through America’s Strategic Integration, offered research, which shows that Heroes at Work, employers learn how to offer job companies that employ diversity as a business strategy, coaching and mentoring, which can create a positive, realize higher productivity, operational efficiencies, and successful workplace experience for disabled veterans overall profitability. Her findings were in keeping with and non-veteran employees, including such “first what a panel of senior executives from industry and responders” as fire fighters, EMTs and police officers, government have found to be true as well. The group who routinely experience traumatic events. included president and COO, Wes Bush of Northrop Grumman Corporation, Joyce Rowland, senior vice americasheroesatwork.gov president of human resources at Sempra Energy; Sherry 6 ABILITY ABILITY 7 THE SCENT OF CANCER of new methods to analyze skin for signs of altered health status. dors emanating from the skin can be used to iden- Increased understanding of the chemicals related to tify basal cell carcinoma, the most common form skin odor could also lead to development of more O of skin cancer, according to research out of the effective anti-aging skin care products. Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. The findings, presented recently at an American Chemi- monell.org cal Society conference, may lead to even more methods to detect various forms of skin cancer. SEE AND SAY The researchers “sniffed” air above basal cell tumors and found a different profile of chemical compounds, breakthrough in video transmission technology compared to skin located at the same sites in healthy will soon allow deaf and hard-of-hearing Ameri- A cans to sign via their cell phones. Using special control subjects. software, University of Washington engineers “Our findings may someday allow doctors to screen for have found a way for mobile devices to send video. As a and diagnose skin cancers at very early stages,” said result of their discovery, the UW engineering team has Michelle Gallagher, PhD. been awarded a National Science Foundation grant for a 20-person field project to perfect the system; the project It turns out that skin produces airborne chemical mole- will begin next year in Seattle. cules known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, many of which have a scent. In the study presented at the The current version of what’s being called MobileASL conference, the researchers took VOC profiles from basal uses a standard video compression tool to stay within cell carcinoma sites in 11 patients and compared them to the data transmission limit. Future versions will incor- profiles from similar skin sites in 11 healthy persons. porate custom tools to obtain better quality. The break- through technology allows