he should try to take the test... if he cant pass it then he should buy a bicycle

I assume I'm the only one who's presently channelling Pat in "There's Something About Mary."

Pat ... "My real passion is my hobby"
Mary ... "Oh really, what's that?"
Pat ... "I work with retards."

I wonder who wants to assume the liability for this guy in the event of his causing an accident. Is it possible for him to have insurance without a license?

I say get him a bicycle. There's a reason a driver's license is required, not that there aren't plenty of idiot drivers out there who have one.

[QUOTE=Marvelous Marv]I wonder who wants to assume the liability for this guy in the event of his causing an accident. Is it possible for him to have insurance without a license?QUOTE]

No it's not. If he's going to drive a road-licensed vehicle, then he has to have a drivers license. If he wants auto insurance, he has to be licensed to drive. No sane insurance company is going to give auto coverage to an unlicensed driver, regardless of the premium they could collect. It may even be illegal for the carrier to do it in Alabama, although I'm not sure (it is in several other states). Generally speaking, if your license is revoked for whatever reason and your insurance company finds out about it, they have the right to cancel your coverage. Even the insurance companies that only deal in bad/unlucky drivers aren't going to take on the risk of someone who they would be protected everytime that individual got in the car. Almost every liability insurance policy has an exclusion for illegal acts, and guess what this qualifies as.

I'm going to stop being an insurance nerd now. Let me know if you need me to come back out of my hole.

I actually emailed the guy that wrote the article with some of the ideas we were talking about....evidently they passed the email along to the sister and she emailed me back, this was her response

Very cool Shani. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I was all about this guy getting his license until I read what was happening when he had one. Allow me to skip happily down the bleeding heart liberal trail and suggest that this is exactly the kind of situation the entire mental health system is set up for. I'm not suggesting that he move into a group home, but there are ways to support him and allow him to live as independently as he and his family would like. The People First group would be a great start. Alot of the folks I've met that are involved in the organization are very outgoing and personable. He wouldn't be friendless for long.

There's no reason why a local agency couldn't assist him in learning about the responsibility of riding his moped. They could make sure he's well informed of the risks involved and help him ward off the folks who've taken advantage of him in the past. Even help him find a way to pay for insurance, repairs to the moped, gas, etc. Hell, I bet they could find someone to assist him in getting his CB up to snuff so it's not taking out the neighbor's telephone. It's all about his role in the community he lives in and a big part of how supports and services are suppose to be designed now.

Slightly off topic. I've been working in the DD community for over ten years now and I always call people by their names, not their disability. If you use the word retarded as slang, I won't say anything to you, but I'll be mentally dropping your IQ by several points. I don't care if you consider it "PC" or not.

I don't see anything wrong if he is supervised and kept in a closed area where he wont endanger others while he is riding his ped. Everybody is in titled to some sort of fun activity

Damn. If that doesn't sound like the town I grew up in, I don't know what does. I think the only difference is that we had a lady that used to drive her lawn mower to the liquor store.

I hope he can at least ride the rascal.

Pelham hasnt changed a lot since I lived there as a little girl, thats really sad

Thanks Shani... I don't think I've ever seen this sort of thing happen before (were one of our discussions actually reach out and effect the source). Neat.

I replied to her yesterday (and asked about a golf cart too...that wasnt mentioned in my initial email) and this was her response

I've emailed her back to ask her to keep me posted on the organization that was visiting today.

Aren't motorized chairs allowed on the sidewalk? Aren't they just a glamourized motorized wheelchair?

it may be that there are no sidewalks there, its been a LONG time since I lived there, but there were none when I was little. Most times I only see them HERE is in a new subdivision.

First of all, many people are offended by using the word "disabled" to describe ANYONE. Also, kids will catch onto this trend, and soon enough 6th graders will be calling other kids "D-D's" and that term will become offensive. Then, the PC crowd will have to find a new and improved PC way to say it... perhaps "Pre-emptively happy folk". It's a viscious cycle. It only has a negative connotation becuase people LET it. If you mean something in a negative way, almost any word or term can hurt someone's feelings... if that person lets it. Perhaps a good thing to do while working with "retards" "developmentally disbaled" "special needs" or whatever people is to teach them that there is no wrong in being who they are, regardless of what somebody calls them. If they're high functioning enough to be offended, they are high functioning enough to learn to not be. As far as I'm concerned, the therapists and social workers these days that fall into this PC crowd are just enablers.

In short, your clients (note that even in mental facitilities the term "client" is used more often than "patient" now... just to make them feel better) can learn to not be so sensitive to people who DO try to hurt them. If I wanted to upset a "client" of yours, I could certainly do it without calling them retarded.

its too bad he can't read (i'm guessing) , internet would be perfect for him i would think. Talking to people all over the world.

would think walking or a bike or skateboard would be his next option with the moped gone. Guy seems loved by a lot of people.

I dunno about that, studies find that the more people use the internet even to chat with people, the more lonely they are.

I gotta admit it's not the same as meeting in person. I say give him back the moped with a limiter on it (depending on how fast it goes initially)

Meh I still don't think that's that bad, like saying I work with blind people, instead of "visually impaired"

I thought I would share and email I got from Edwards sister today, in case anyone is interested

Just writing to tell you the recent news concerning Edward. He's doing well and has started bowling on thursdays. Happy with what has transpired and adjusting fairly well. Thank you for keeping Edward in your prayers. Debra Milton

word up to my tards!

tard please!

he be my tard!


rofl, boy this could really be a good trend.

Overall, I hope that he gets some help cause of the story- as to the cb- we have that problem here, with a wheelchair bound guy down the street, and it is damn annoying when his cb breaks into our phone line- I dont begrudge him his cb, but get it to code- as to the rest of it, Pc terms annoy the hell out of me, because they change all the damn time, - do we fix the problem, hell no, lets just change the words again, so that for the next six months we can show we cared enough to learn the new "propper term " for someones condition- would'nt that energy be better spent slapping the shit out of people who tease retarded people = oh wait, that would actually be doing something instead of just sitting on our asses talking about it- and speaking of which- kudos to shani for actually reaching out to someone and becoming involved- maybe we could do that more often here, kind of like taking tfp to the next level......

As someone who is "mentally disabled", I learned long ago to ignore people when they are using terms like "deaf" to refer to me in a hurtful way. I think it'd be a lot easier to teach this technique to others who face this sort of behavior, than to somehow change the way mean people behave, in a direct manner. Like they say... ignore the monster and he disappears. But, possibly easier said than done.

As for this guy.. well.. I don't think there is really enough information to judge a good solution to his problem, but I agree his sister should be proactive towards finding one. It really depends on what his needs are and what kind of resources are available, etc. Public transit might be a good option, for instance.