BBC: DANCING ON WHEELS

Ballroom glamour and glitz come to BBC Three as celebrities join forces with wheelchair users in a dancing competition like no other

Singer Heather Small, gold medallist Mark Foster and actress Michelle Gayleare among the celebrities that will be dancing with wheelchair users in a groundbreaking new six-part series for BBC Three uniting wheelchair users and celebrities in a dance competition with a difference.

Actor Kevin Sacre, rugby legend Martin Offiah and presenter Caroline Flackare also set to partner wheelchair users who have never danced before – with only five weeks to master everything from the cha-cha to the paso doble.

The wheelchair users are: Simone, a 22-year-old Cambridge graduate; Diana, a 48-year-old magazine editor and mother; 27-year-old Carolyne, who enjoys nothing more than a night out; James, a cocky 31-year-old whose impressive acrobatic ability puts most able-bodied people to shame; Paul, a 24-year-old festival-goer who is looking forward to Glastonbury this summer; and 23-year-old Harris, who recently got married to a girl he met whilst travelling in Thailand.

They will all be learning the art of Wheelchair Dance Sport, a popular international sport where at least one dancer is a wheelchair user.

Wheelchair Dance Sport is practised widely by athletes in 22 countries, with competitions and championships held across the world.

In Dancing On Wheels (working title), the couples will be compete in the "combi" event where a standing able-bodied dancer partners a wheelchair user.

The winning couple will go on to represent the UK at the Wheelchair Dance Sport European Championships in Israel this autumn.

Lead choreographer Brian Fortuna, a professional ballroom dancer who appeared in the last series of Strictly Come Dancing and who has been teaching wheelchair dancing for the last eight years, will be putting the couples through their paces.

Under the guidance of Brian and some of the other top names in dance, the couples will be trained intensively each week to compete in a variety of exhausting and challenging dance disciplines as they battle for supremacy.

A panel of judges will decide each week which couples stay in the competition.

The judges will then select the two strongest couples who will get the chance to take part in a final dance-off, before a winning couple is chosen to represent Britain in the European Championships in October 2009.

The programme will be shown later this year.

Faith - Walking without two legs

This is 'Faith'                                                           
                                                                         
This dog was born on Christmas Eve in the year 2002. He was born with 3    
legs - 2 healthy hind legs and 1 abnormal front leg which needed           
to be amputated.   He of course could not walk when he was born. Even his  
mother did not want him.                                                   
                                                                         

                                                                         
His first owner also did not think that he could survive. Therefore, he    
was thinking of 'putting him to sleep'.                                
By this time, his present owner, Jude Stringfellow, met him and wanted to 
take care of him.                                                          
She was determined to teach and train this dog to walk by himself.         
Therefore she named him 'Faith'.                                           

                                                                         
                                                                         
In the beginning, she put Faith on a surfing board to let him feel the     
movements.                                                                 
                                                                         
Later she used peanut butter on a spoon as a lure and reward for him to    
stand up and jump around.                                                  
                                                                         
Even the other dog at home also helped to encourage him to walk.           
Amazingly, only after 6 months, like a miracle, Faith learned to balance   
on his 2 hind legs and jumped to move forward.                             
                                                                         
After further training in the snow, he now can walk like a human being.    

                                                                         
                                                                         
Faith loves to walk around now. No matter where he goes, he just attracts  
all the people around him.                                                 
He is now becoming famous on the international scene. He has appeared on   
various newspapers and TV shows.                                           
There is even one book entitled 'With a little faith' being published      
about him. He was even considered to appear in one of Harry Potter        
movies.                                                                
                                                                         

                                                                         
                                                                         
His present owner Jude Stringfellew has given up her teaching post and    
plans to take him around the world to preach that even without a perfect  
body, one can have a perfect soul'.                                                                                                                   
                                                                         

                                                                         


   
                                                                         
                                                                         
In life there are always undesirable things. Perhaps one will feel better  
if one changes the point of view from another direction.                   
I hope this message will bring fresh new ways of thinking to everyone and  
that everyone can appreciate and be thankful for each beautiful day that  
follows.                                                                   
Faith is the continual demonstration of the Strength of Life.

INDIA: No Place to be People with Disabilities In

"There are very few options in wheelchair production, especially for children, with no regular supply of whatever is available," K.N. Gopinath, assistant director of the Bangalore-based Association of People with Disabilities (APD), a national organisation working to empower the physically challenged told IPS. 

Technology in locomotion and mobility for the disabled has progressed worldwide, but India continues to use antiquated tricycles and wheelchairs as mobility devices. 

"Basic understanding of mobility is lacking in India today," APD director V.S. Basavaraju told IPS. 

Thirty-two-year-old Usman, who works for a company manufacturing aids and appliances for the disabled in Bangalore, says he has never boarded a bus or train. "Even though people are willing to help you, it is still nearly impossible to use public transport here." 

Nineteen-year-old Hanumantha says he has an arrangement with a colleague to drop him home every evening. In return Hanumantha buys him a ticket to the movies once a fortnight. "My father brings me to office everyday, carries me and sits me down," he says. 

Only about 15 percent of the loco motor disabled in India are able to use public transport, as compared to over 65 percent of disabled populations in developed countries. The rest struggle to commute daily - or are immobilised. 

India's social support network of family and friends is much stronger than in developed nations, but there is little barrier-free access to public facilities. 

Usman is one of the luckier ones. His inputs on what suits the disabled most were used by his employers, the Bangalore-based Indian company Flexitron, to design a low-cost, motorised, rechargeable bike for the disabled, priced Rs. 18,000 (356 dollars). Similar bikes cost around 3,000 dollars in western markets. 

Most of Flexitron's labour are disabled or challenged individuals who test their own products for usability and durability, thereby serving both their own livelihood interests and those of the company. 

But private companies like Flexitron lack access to government channels which use the public sector Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Company (ALIMCO) to source disability appliances. 

Not surprisingly, Flexitron now has a major market outside India, selling low- cost, low-wattage consumption technologies, including 53 disability- assistance devices, to 16 countries. 

Flexitron director R.S. Hiremath acknowledges that India has a poor record in research and development, but says there are several low-cost options that could be made in India for everyday needs, such as cutlery that can be grasped by those without fingers, or mats that allow a person to transport himself from wheelchair to bed, or bathroom devices. 

"These would be simple devices, so very useful for the disabled, at half the price compared to western countries," he says. 

But progress is patchy. "There is no actual discussion across all sectors of related users and manufacturers," Gopinath told a gathering at the APD golden jubilee celebrations in Bangalore last month. He said that the 1995 law, the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act is dependent on funding without designating a specified source for it. 

India's Deputy Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, T.D. Dhariyal, says each state in India has its own priorities to arrange funding. 

India is a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asia-Pacific Region and to the Biwako Millennium framework for action towards an inclusive, barrier-free and rights-based society. The Biwako framework of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) was agreed in Japan in 2002. 

Barrier-free systems use appliances and designs such as stair lifts at metro stations, wheelchair-friendly ramps, Braille signboards, and accessible ticketing counters. 

The only places in Asia with near-total barrier-free public environments by UNESCAP standards are Hong Kong and Japan. 

Dhariyal says India's Disabilities Act of 1995 provides a strong fillip to ensuring the rights of the disabled. 

"I am currently fighting a case in court of a visually impaired government officer who has been denied the position of District Collector (a senior administrative rank) because of his disability," says Dhariyal. The Act now makes it possible to take up such cases, he said. 

India's Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, responsible for the disabled, has six schemes for rehabilitation, livelihood, education and assisted device grants, more than what most other nations have. 

The amount of assistance on offer is, however, inadequate. "How much can Rs. 6,000 (118 dollars), given as grant for aids and appliances by the government really help?" says Hiremath. 

But many are not able to access even this fund. 

"My experience is that most of the current funding available (for disability- related aid) remains unused," Dhariyal told IPS. 

"We (APD) are now saying that what we have today in India is not enough, that we need value addition to mobility issues," says APD director V.S. Basavaraju. 

Dhariyal agrees that quality could be improved. "If aids of better quality are the issue, then somebody should approach the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (looking after disability-related governance) and put it to them," he says, sending the ball back to the court of organisations like APD.