Assistive Technology News Blog

By John M. Williams

On of the funniest routines that I have ever watched on TV was the late Bud Abbott showing Lou Costello that 7×13= 28. Yes 28 and not 91, and he proved it by multiplication and addition. What?

Abbot said 7×3=21 and 7X1=7. Twenty one plus 7 equals 28. He is right.

Abbott then wrote the number 13 seven times and then started adding seven threes – 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21. Then he added the ones to the 21. He started 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and finally 28. He is correct 21 plus 7 equals 28.

It is this type of arithmetic that has Republicans salivating during the discussions on raising the debt ceiling and reducing the deficit. To them 7×13 is 28. Using Abbott’s math, the Republicans can see smaller deficits. They prefer dealing with fantasy numbers rather then real numbers. Bud Abbott is their mentor He can show them how 6×12=18 and not 72 He is their hero. Looking at his mathematics, the Republicans can say, to meet a smaller deficit, you cut spending, and you do not have to raise taxes and close loop holes. Their followers love this type of thinking and mathematics. I am surprised they have not proclaimed Bud Abbott day and proclaimed him a national hero.

The Republicans have to stop using Abbott’s mathematics and deal with the real world. The deficit can’t, repeat can’t, be eliminated by federal spending cuts alone. Revenues have to be raised. Tax loop holes have to be closed. Intelligible people know this, and they reject Abbott’s mathematics outright. Maybe that’s the problem; intelligible people aren’t running the Republican Party. The party is run by Bud Abbott’s prodigies who are 100% sure that 5×5=10. Where can I get a diploma from Abbott University? Does Abbott mathematics mean tuition over four years is less than the advertised $10,000 per annum? C8ryABoyAGhS
To comment write to jwilliams@atechnews.com.

By John M. Williams

Next November 2012,American voters will decide whether they want their country to be governed by the people or business. If they decide they want to be governed by the people then they will vote Democratic and reelect President Barack Obama and return the Democrats to the majority in the House of Representatives and expand the number of Democrats in the Senate. If they decide they want to be governed by business then they will elect a Republican president and a Republican Congress.

A Democratic controlled executive and legislative branches will mean all Americans will have their quality of life and standard of living raised, freedoms expanded, Social Security and Medicare protected, a cleaner environment, access to healthcare, increased opportunity to vote and more influence in policy making.

A Republican controlled executive and legislative branches will mean Americans will have their quality of life and standard of living lowered, freedoms declined, consumer protections eliminated or not enforced, a dirtier environment, decreased access to healthcare, voter suppression, a continuation of racism, rising deficits, increased wealth for the wealthiest Americans, increased defense spending, attacks on Social Security, efforts to change Medicare as we know it, and voiceless in determining policy when it comes to business.

Voting is serious business. It is an individual’s single most important voice in determining the direction the elected government will take. When we vote we should know why we are voting. We should not vote because we have been life-long members of one party or another. We should vote because we are 100% certain that the people we are voting for will lead the country in a direction that improves our lives and makes the country stronger politically, economically, socially, racially, provides equality for both sexes, and, for those who believe in God, religiously.

We should be certain that our politicians have not lied to us on where they stand on issues. We must be certain that we have not interjected our own lack of knowledge on important issues and support these false issues because political leaders support them. We should call a demagogue a liar when we hear a lie.

I care about the economic soundness of the country. I want to see the $14 trillion debt eliminated. I am smart enough to know that cuts in federal spending alone will not erase the debt. The Democrats know this and are proposing spending cuts and revenue increases. The Republicans want only spending cuts, but spending cuts alone will never balance the federal budget. The Republicans are lying when they say spending cuts alone will balance the budget. Many Republicans in the House and Senate are millionaires and will benefit financially from not paying higher taxes. The Republican position on erasing the deficit is a lie and an insult to my intelligence, and to anyone supporting the Republican position.

For years, I paid my own health insurance. I did so until I was paying more for health insurance then I was my monthly mortgage. Paying health insurance almost bankrupt me a number of times. There were years without health insurance and therefore depleting our savings when someone got sick. Of course, covering pre-existing conditions was not available.

The Republicans want to return to the old eras when access to health was not available to everyone, and therefore healthcare was rationed. Republicans lie when they say healthcare was never rationed in this country. They lie when they say we have the best healthcare system in the world. They lie when they say Obamacare is a government takeover of the medical industry. It has not happened. The evidence does not support that statement. People who accept those lies are deluding themselves or don’t know the facts. Yet, they will vote for Republicans. Why?

Another lie. During the healthcare debate, Republicans said the Obama bill would establish death panels for seniors. Another lie! Yet people believed it. Why?

The Republicans called the Health Care bill, a jobs killing bill. Where are the thousands or tens of thousands of lost jobs in the health care field? Another lie. And yet, people believed the lie and voted Republican in November 2010. Name me one job’s bill the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has introduced this year. One!

The Democrats and the Obama Administration want to introduce a jobs bill to rebuild the crumbling infrastructure in the country. The Republicans say no because we don’t have the money. The money is there. Where? You eliminate tens of billions of dollars in tax subsidies to oil, gas and other companies on the corporate welfare rolls. The Republicans do not want their friends to have less taxpayer money. If they did have less they might have to work for a living like the poor and middle class. Still the middle class will vote Republican.

The Republicans’ plan for jobs creation is reduce corporate taxes, cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans, eliminate regulations, repeal the healthcare law passed last year and cut federal spending. This plan is a joke. Corporations don’t pay their fair of taxes now. The wealthiest Americans aren’t paying their full share of taxes now. Before we start eliminating regulations, we need to ask these questions. What regulations do they want eliminated? Why were they created? What are their benefits to employees and communities? How much do they cost to implement?

When Democrats talk about an expanded government, they are looking to correct abuses and wrong doing by businesses and other politicians. They want businesses to be responsible for their decisions. Republicans want businesses to be absolved of any wrong doing, even if people are hurt, maimed and killed. Name one Republican leader who spoke out against the 29 miners killed in West Virginia and the people killed in the Gulf of Mexico when the oil rig blew.

A number of states, controlled by Republican legislatures, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Maine, Indiana and others have passed laws restricting voting options. These limits are aimed at the poor, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, students and the elderly. Why these groups? Because they tend to vote Democratic. Republicans who know about these shenanigans will vote Republican. Americans should be up in arms that Republicans want to ensure that only certain people vote. Women and men have been killed, wounded, maimed for life to ensure All Americans exercise their voting privileges. Their sacrifices mean nothing to Republicans.

Voting should be encouraged, not restricted.

Bipartisanship is needed if the country is to move forward. Republicans have made it clear – as long as Barack Obama is president they will not work with him. They want him to fail which means the country fails.

In 2012, voters must decide if they want a stronger America or a weaker America. They must decide if they want an America for all Americans or a minority.

My vote will be for a stronger, inclusive America.

To comment send your e-mails to jwilliams@atechnews.com

By John M. Williams

The world has experienced major events in April and May 2011. The United States has been in the forefront of many of them. Tornadoes have brought destruction, financial ruin and hundreds of deaths to people in the South and mid-west. Republicans Newt Gingrich and Tim Pawlenty entered the presidential race. Osama bin Laden was killed. Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress. President Barack Obama visited Europe. Chrysler repaid its loan to the U.S. Treasury years ahead of time. Democrat Kathy Hochul won a special election in New York’s 26th district on protecting Medicare as we know it. Bosnian Serbian war criminal general Ratko Mladic was captured. On Memorial; Day, the United States honored its men and women serving in the military.

The property destruction, deaths and human misery caused by the tornadoes produced tears and a deep sadness. These negatives were soon raised when House Majority leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that any federal funds for rebuilding had to be offset by cuts in federal spending. Again, the Republicans showed they did not want federal aid used to help poor and middle class people. I listened for the outrage, but the people were silent. My pain was eased and replaced by admiration when I saw the tenacious fortitude of the people who are determined to rebuild their lives and homes.

I am amused by Newt Gingrich’s entrance into the presidential campaign. His chances of becoming president are zero. It is an oxymoron to call him an intellectual. He will line his pockets with campaign money, and he is good copy for the print and broadcast press.

Tim Pawlenty will never beat President Barack Obama. He is boring and was a so-so governor. He has to push himself to the extreme right if he wants to win his party’s nomination. The extreme right in his party will never win a general election.

Osama bin Laden deserves to be killed.

There will never be a Palestinian state as long as Benjamin Netanyahu is prime minister of Israel. The ultra right parties among the Palestinians and Israelis will never allow peace. Netanyahu must go, and the countries surrounding Israel must recognize Israel’s right to exist as a state in that region of the world.

It appears that President Obama had a successful trip to Europe. Let’s hope he can build on it and our ties with Europe will strengthen politically, economically and socially.

Chrysler repaying its loan to the federal government shows the president made the correct decision to loan Chrysler the money to save the company from going out of business. The decision saved Chrysler and the U.S. auto industry. The president deserves accolades from the country.

Democrat Kathy Hochul special election victory in New York’s 26th district on protecting Medicare as we know it should send a message to the GOP to leave Medicare alone. Seniors trust it and rely on it. Instead of destroying Medicare as we know it, the GOP should work to fix it. Privatizing Medicare will not fix it. Democrats should create a program that ensures Medicare remains a government run program and is solvent. Protecting Medicare may help Democrats remain in the majority in the U.S. Senate next year and retake the majority in the U.S. Senate.
Bosnian Serbian war criminal general Ratko Mladic’s capture is a victory for justice. He is entitled to be .a fair trial. If he is found guilty, he should be sent to jail for the rest of his life. His supporters should be watched carefully to ensure they do not try to break him out of jail.

On Memorial; Day, the United States honored its men and women serving in the military. America owes a great deal to our men and women serving, and our veterans, in our military. We need to provide our active military and our veterans with better jobs and medical care. We need to increase the amount of money the government gives to the Veterans Administration.

To comment on this opinion write to jwilliams@atechnews.com

By John M. Williams

One of President Barack Obama’s characteristics that I admire greatly is his call to bring out the best in us. He sees a country that has done great deeds – winning wars, building the transcontinental railroad, erecting Grand Cooley dam, building a national interstate highway system coast-to-coast, creating man moon missions, eliminating overt racism and the accompanying horrors, building the mightiest military forces the world has ever seen, creating and expanding the most admired democratic government in the history of mankind. and showing the world the strength of a multicultural and multi-racial society.
President Obama knows that to make America great there must be a united front consisting of a triage of business, government and public support of a common goal. In other words, he is calling for the best minds, best hearts and best souls to work together. His call unfortunately is not being heard and not being absorbed by businesses, political rivalries and the overwhelming majority of the American people.
America faces grave perils. Our federal deficits are unsustainable because we are underfunding our governments on all levels… Our infrastructure is decaying and producing lost revenue, accidents and deaths. Our values are focused on gaining as much wealth as we can and damn the consequences. The income gap between the rich and poor and the rich and middle class is widening by chasms. Our politics is becoming more and more polarized. Politicians believe it is okay to lie repeatedly to constituents Our environment is becoming more polluted all the time. Our healthcare policy is a train wreck looking to collide with multiple trains. Our education system is falling too many students. Religious conservatives are an adverse dominant force in our lives. Businesses have a strangle hold on government. Businesses, who do not want government running them, want to run government policy. They want to be the hungry wolves guarding an unprotected fully stocked chicken coup. And yet the majority of the American people knowing of these gargantuan hurdles don’t care. They are not demanding change. Rather they are accepting the status quo.
The philosophy of shared sacrifice that the president continually calls for is not welcomed by the American people and certainly not by big businesses who continue to use every tax loophole they can to avoid paying taxes. The president is calling for Congress to reverse this catastrophic trend. He is calling for the American people to support him. Are the American people responding vociferously? No.
The president wants to rebuild our decaying infrastructure. He is calling for America to support him. Are the American people responding vociferously? No…
The president is willing to reduce government spending but wants taxes raised to balance the budget. The American people are aware of the need to reduce government spending and to raise taxes. Are the American people responding vociferously? No…
The American people want jobs created. Big businesses are more willing to ship jobs abroad then keep them here. The president is trying to get businesses to hire more people. Are the American people responding vociferously? No…
The president is asking big business to participate in shared sacrifice. Business wants a policy of shared wealth where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Are the American people responding vociferously? No…
Americans are the losers when they fail to speak out against lies, deception, when they fail to put forth their best qualities and when they fail to demand that other Americans put country first. Americans need to understand that “United we stand, divided we fall.”

By John M. Williams

Former President George Bush could never have carried out the military mission in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden. He lacked the intellectual depth required to question, question and question all possibilities required to carry out a successful mission. President Barack Obama possesses the intellectual depth and confidence in himself and the military that made the raid on bin Laden’s compound successful.

President Obama’s leadership and steadiness displayed in the successful completion of this mission showed he is a worthy commander-in-chief. He is a true leader whose worthiness as commander-in-chief has been repeatedly demonstrated since he took office. He has shown his steel in military matters when he ordered a surge in troop levels in Afghanistan, when he ordered snipers to kill the three pirates, when he orders drone attacks, by withdrawing combat troops from Iraq and by ordering the mission to kill bin Laden.

A military commander’s prime concern is the safety of his men. Obama admitted in a 60-Minutes interview that before he ordered the Pakistan mission to go forward, he had to be certain plans were in place to get the SEALS back home safely even if it meant fighting Pakistan police and army. This is another sign of a worthy commander-in-chief.

The country owes the president a debt of gratitude in bringing bin Laden to justice. The mission could have failed. It didn’t. His success means some of the family members who lost loved ones on 911 can have closure. President Obama’s success also means America has shown it never forgets injustices and wrongs perpetrated on it. His success demonstrably shows we have a worthy commander-in-chief who should never be underestimated.

To comment on this opinion write to jwilliams@atechnews.com.

By John M. Williams

President Barack Obama scored a bullseye recently when he released the long form of his Hawaiian birth certificate. With one stroke, he put the birthers on the defensive. He proved they are liars and idiots. He proved they are hate mongers and racists. He deserves an apology that he will never receive.
Reasonable people accepted the document. Unreasonable people did not. Before the president was finished with his presentation, birthers were calling the document a forgery even before they saw it. Today, my bet is birthers will not even look at it because they don’t want to change their mind. They believe the president is not a legitimate citizen because he has dark skin. They resent him because he is probably one hundred times smarter than they are. They despise him because he is successful, and they are not. They hate him because they can’t beat him. Tragically the majority of the birthers reside in Southern states; some reside in western states, where Jim Crow laws were practiced for nearly a century.
The birthers support the tea partiers, and most tea partiers support the birthers. Many birthers are tea partiers. These two groups despise the president so much that they are willing to wreck economic calamity on the country by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. If both groups truly were concerned about the trillion dollar federal deficits, last year they would have opposed the two year extension of the Bush tax cuts that added to the deficit, and they would oppose the continuation of billions of dollars paid annually to corporations who do not need federal subsidies.
The birthers lack shame. They want the president to fail which means they want the country to fail. While the birthers are a tiny minority of the population, they have loud voices. Their opponents are largely silent. Their silence must end, and they must show the birthers that this is their country and crazy ideas do not dominate the political landscape. Opponents can trump the birthers by appearing on news programs, writing editorials and letters to news organization and their elected officials stating their opposition.
Lastly, the news media can be more responsive by giving less coverage to birthers and more coverage to people with sound political views. Without coverage, the birthers’ message can fade away.
To comment on this blog write to jwilliams@atechnews.com.

By John M. Williams

America is in decline financially, politically and morally. Liberals, independents and conservatives believe America is in decline. Their reasons for the decline differ.
As a liberal, I see financial policies that trouble me. While Wall St. prospers, businesses ship jobs overseas. Banks continue to refuse to give small businesses loans. Corporations avoid paying domestic taxes through loopholes, but they pay taxes or bribes in other countries so they can operate there. Meanwhile, businesses here are fighting regulations that they say are job killers. The truth is businesses do not want to be regulated because they want to operate without strings. If they sell defective goods that is fine with them because they are making money. If they poison the environment so be it they are making money. If they fail to provide a safe work environment so be it, they are making money. If they want legislation passed granting themselves huge tax breaks, they have willing participants in the Republican party, and some Democrats, who will sell their mind, heart and soul to businesses. If the Republicans control one or both houses of Congress, businesses know they can write legislation and regulations that favor themselves. This is tantamount to having ravenous starving wolves guarding a herd of prime cattle.
It is said that businesses are sitting on more than 1.6 trillion dollars that they could invest, but they are waiting to see how much new banking, healthcare and other regulations will cost them. They know what the regulations are because they have inside contacts who are probably checking with them as the regulations are being written. They are not investing because they are not sure what their competitors will do. Will their competitors find ways to circumvent the implementation of legislation and regulations? If they do, businesses want to take that same route. Their motives are profit, more profit and even greater profits.
How many businesses truly care about improving the overall economic health, political strength and welfare of the country? It appears relatively few. How many businesses are willing to do their part in paying increased taxes so the U.S. federal deficit will decrease and we will balance our federal budget? Relatively few, if any. They want the benefits of living here but they are unwilling to pay the cost of guaranteeing the benefits. Why? I do not have an answer.
Politically, America is trying to determine if it is a country governed by the extreme right or left. The extreme right is the most vocal of the groups and the group willing to fight the hardest. Fortunately, many of its positions are minority positions. Such positions hold an unrealistic viewpoint of how America should be governed and who should govern and that businesses should rule. The extreme right does not acknowledge that the federal government grew because economic, social and other ills challenging the country were being ignored by local and state governments, and the majority of people demanded corrective action.
The extreme right is willing to lie often to achieve their goals. They lied about the healthcare legislation, having death panels.
The left want s a very active federal role in our lives in education, civil rights, environment, healthcare, housing, rebuilding our decaying infrastructure, and maintaining oversight over businesses and curtailing the abuse by the military industrial complex.
The biggest political battles today in Washington, DC are between extreme right philosophies and liberals. The extreme right does not want the government involved in any portion of our lives. However, they do not offer an alternative or solutions to the problems challenging the country.
The liberals are offering government intervention as a solution to the country’s challenges.
An ideal solution in settling the philosophical differences between the right and left is for businesses to develop a let’s be honest policy and produce safe products, protect the environment, charge reasonable prices for healthcare, guarantee safer work environments, support the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, provide healthcare to every person in America, charge fair interest rates on credit cards, keep jobs in America, etc.
America is in decline. This decline can be reversed by putting the country’s needs and the peoples’ needs first and working toward a stronger economic and political America.

By John M. Williams

Across this country, the ideological war between liberalism and conservatism is being waged fiercely. The debate is over what is the role of all levels of governments in our lives? Local, state and the federal governments are broke. Local governments are broke mainly as a result of the recession. State and federal governments are broke as a result of the recession and asinine tax policies favoring the rich and businesses.

Achieving sound fiscal policies on all levels of government require an end to the recession and spending cuts and raising revenues. Neither of these policies will happen immediately. Liberals and independents recognize that to achieve balanced budgets spending cuts and raising revenues are absolutely necessary, and they will call for them, and hopefully fight for them.

Conservatives do not want governments to achieve balanced through cuts and raising revenues. They want to achieve balanced budgets through tax cuts and spending cuts. Even though history is against them in this area, they continue to lie to the American people that revenue lacking is not the problem rather excessive spending is. Gullible Americans swallow this lie as easily as they breathe dirty air.

Liberals believe that governments can have a positive role in peoples’ lives. Conservatives do not.

Under liberal governments more people progress economically than under conservatives.

Liberals want to rein in excesses and criminal activities by businesses; conservatives do not.

Liberals want a cleaner environment. Conservatives don’t.

Liberals know too big to fail is a fantasy. Conservatives reject the idea of too big to fail – despite evidence to the contrary.

Liberals want to provide affordable healthcare to everyone; conservatives oppose universal healthcare. They want the insurance market to operate without government interference.

Liberals support unions; conservatives oppose unions and want them dead.

Liberals want to protect women’s reproductive rights and choice; conservatives want the federal government to outlaw reproductive rights and choice.

Liberals support civil rights of everyone; conservatives support individual rights.

Liberals believe in a changing Constitution; conservatives want a static constitution.

Liberals believe in collective bargaining rights for workers; conservatives oppose collective bargaining rights.

Liberals believe in a free and open press that can criticize government without fear of oppression; conservatives dislike criticism and are willing to intimidate critics.

Liberals want curbs on presidential authority in national security areas; conservatives are willing to give conservative presidents unlimited power in national security areas.

Liberals believe in creating public service jobs to reduce unemployment; conservatives oppose using taxes to create jobs to rebuild and repair our infrastructure.

Conservatives believe taxes and tax laws should be used to enrich businesses and not to improve opportunities for the middle class and poor. Liberals hold opposing views.

Liberals want to expand Medicaid to help the poor; conservatives want to reduce the number of Medicaid recipients.

Liberals want to bring Pentagon spending under control; conservatives would spend a trillion dollars annually in defense of the country, regardless of waste, fraud, cost overruns and abuse.

Liberals want to regulate the banking and food industries; conservatives oppose regulations in these areas.

Liberals favor a path to citizenship for illegal aliens; conservatives oppose citizenship programs.

Liberals wanted to raise taxes to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Conservatives wanted borrowed the money, therefore raising the deficit by more than a trillion dollars.

The philosophical divide between liberals and conservatives grows daily. I am convinced that the differences are more economic than political. Conservatives believe that having lots of money is the only real measure of success and the government should not take any money from corporations and wealthy individuals. They believe in passing laws that favor the wealthy and corporations.

The war between Liberals (Democrats) and Conservatives (Republicans) is center stage in Washington, DC and Madison, WI. In the nation’s Capitol, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has passed $61 billion in cuts that hurt the poor. Instead of attacking revenue issues, the Republicans are attacking social issues. They do not want to fund National Public Radio, Planned Parenthood and other programs that they hate. They hate charity to the middle class and poor, but they lovingly embrace charity to corporations and the wealthy. A democratically-controlled Senate and a Democratic president can block such legislation and will in hopes of bringing sanity to the House of Representatives.

In Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker is out to destroy government unions by restricting the areas they can bargain. Walker wants to break the back of government unions. If he does, other states will follow his plan. And the middle class will suffer, and a democratic principle will die. If collective bargaining for better working conditions does not exist, then governments can raise working hours from 40-to-50 or more weekly. Health benefits and pensions can be reduced. Vacations can be reduced, and jobs can be eliminated.

Wisconsinites can end this brutal assault on their quality by recalling at least 8 Republicans
this year and Governor Wagner next January. This will send a message to Republicans everywhere that if you trample on my rights, your political career is over.

The lessons the American voter should take from the behavior of Republican office holders in states and in Washington, DC is know your candidate, because you may get a Jekyll/Hyde office holder. If you do, you deserve the consequences.

To comment on this article write to jwilliams@atechnews.com.

By John M. Williams

The help wanted ads for the next decade will scantily resemblance to today’s classifieds. Job titles more common in sci-fi novels such as space tour guide and molecular engineer will become common place.
For people with disabilities, employers are placing a premium on skilled and semi-skilled workers, especially in computers, healthcare, government, science and technology, engineering and medical pioneering. And there will be an avalanche of job openings aplenty in the trades as baby boomers retire.
Are you ready for the education race?
Opportunities abound as we become an information-rich society, says Marina Gorbis, executive director, the Institute for the Future. “With a growing number of video cameras, radio-frequency identification chips (RFID) and sensors gushing data, hot jobs will spring up, creating a demand for people who can cope and build new ways to comprehend it,” she said. “Your cell phone won’t be the only thing that vibrates.”
We’re entering an age where every object, every place, is surrounded by digital data. Massive amounts of data will be streaming in every direction. The only way we’re going to be able to live in this world of massive information is to be able to access it in ways that are more sensory rich. They have to appeal to our senses.
Job economist Tom Mason, Chicago, says learning all of our lives is the key to success. He argues that people with disabilities should expect to change careers six or seven times in their lifetime.
Mason believes that for people with disabilities to succeed there must be a restructuring of education in schools and students with disabilities must be introduced to the job market in their first year of high school and continues throughout their lives.
““This is an intellectual/academic race,” said Mason, who stutters. “Lifelong learning will be a forced march. If you stop learning, you will become unemployed and unemployable very quickly.”
Competitive innovation will produce hot jobs that are hard to imagine now. Synthetic biologists are creating organisms to perform specific tasks, said Leroy Hood, president and co-founder of the Seattle-based Institute for Systems Biology. In nanotechnology, systems engineers will fabricate new materials with ideal characteristics at the molecular level, said Frieder Seibel, dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California-San Diego, which opened a nanoengineering department in July. Engineers are building robots in new shapes and sizes.
People with disabilities should anticipate facing the stiffest competition of their lives decade by decade.
To get a high paying job, people with disabilities should think about international law and business, said Brady Thomas, international lawyer. He is blind in his left eye. He speaks Chinese, Korean and German.
International businesses man Thomas Elliott says, “Anyone who is not fluent in a second language will be at a huge disadvantage even if they never leave this country.”
Thomas adds, “Companies will navigate tax codes, laws, work regulations, environmental regulations and ethical questions worldwide.”
Highly skilled health-care professionals will be in demand because of rapid growth in aging. Health-care careers overall will likely enjoy job security. According to the U.S. Labor Department, 13 of the 20 fastest-growing occupations between 2004 and 2014 are related to health care. Home health aides, medical assistants and physician assistants are in the top five.
“As the global economy becomes more intermingled, more teachers with international experience will be needed, and people with disabilities should consider teaching as a career,” says Gloria Talbert, special education teacher, New York.
Talbert, who is dyslexic, also sees growth in assistive technology manufacturing worldwide and the employment of people with disabilities.
Talbert believes people with disabilities should anticipate living in different countries over their careers to succeed. Hot jobs are worldwide, and the ambitious must follow, especially this generation.
The hardest jobs to fill can’t be outsourced or turned over to robots, and they’ll probably still be hot in 2012 because of retiring baby boomers, said Melanie Holmes, vice president of North American corporate affairs for Manpower, a worldwide employment services company. Sales representatives, teachers, mechanics, technicians, managers and truck drivers are the six hardest jobs to fill today, according to Manpower surveys.
John M. Williams can be reached at jwilliams@atechnews.com. His web site is www.atechnews.com

By John M. Williams

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for America to rally and produce better teachers and leaders, to become innovative and to invest in rebuilding our decaying infrastructure. He called for America to become great again. He called for Americans to rally around their government and to trust it. He called for bi-partisanship in moving the country forward. He laid out his vision for moving the country forward. He struck the right cords.

After listening to his speech and then to Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) rebuttal, I wonder if the Republicans and the viewing and listening audience were listening. The Republicans weren’t listening, but the people I have spoken to understand the message. They have adopted a wait and see attitude on whether the Republicans and Democrats and the White House will work in unison to move the country forward.

Historically America is strongest and works better when both political parties and Americans are united whether it is to win a war, to build the transcontinental railroad, to build interstate highways, to go to the Moon, to defeat communism and to build a better country economically, socially, politically, religiously, educationally and professionally for every American. When more Americans prosper, businesses prosper. Businesses know they prosper when American workers prosper. And yet, businesses continue to ship jobs abroad, and they sit on two-trillion dollars for investment that could make them richer. Why? Why aren’t businesses rallying for America? An even larger question is why are American consumers supporting businesses that are not rallying for America?

President Obama knows the economic and social history of America better then Republicans. He wants the country to move forward as one. In responding to the president’s call to rally, the Republicans have decided they want a country that benefits most Americans or just wealthy people. They want a country run by businesses. They want a country undereducated and underemployed that will not meet the challenges a global economy presents.

In expanding educational and job opportunities, students with disabilities and adults with disabilities must be included in the president’s goals. This means students with disabilities must be seen as future leaders and given the same educational opportunities as able-bodied students. They must be trained to be scientists, mathematicians, engineers, researchers, lawyers, writers. They must be encouraged to spend more time studying. They must be seen as doers. They must be inspired to become all that they can be.

The tasks for teachers and parents of students of students with disabilities to convince these students to go beyond what they believe they can do is daunting and can be physically punishing for everyone. I understand that there are students with disabilities who lack the intellectual ability to do more. Still, there are other students with the intellectual ability to do more. They must be put into better college preparatory programs. They must be given access to all the assistive technology products they need from pre-school through college. They must be treated as equals with able-bodied students. They must be allowed to pass and even fail. They must be allowed to reach for the unreachable star, no matter how hopeless and no matter how far. An education is their future also.

Having earned an education adults with disabilities must be hired by the public and private sectors. I want to see more people with disabilities employed in the private sector. They deserve an opportunity to show and develop their talents and leadership skills. They must be seen as equals among their able-bodied peers, and their supervisors. They must be recognized as future leaders and put on the path to become leaders. Upon achieving higher positions, they must be visible to their peers and the public. They must be given role models to emulate, and they must become role models for current peers and future peers with disabilities to emulate. When obstacles are put in front of them, they must surmount them through education, persuasion and, when necessary, through litigation.

Employing and educating individuals with disabilities requires assistive technology manufacturers to be innovative in developing smarter, more versatile and less expensive products for use in education and employment. More government and foundation grants must be available to develop these products.

To comment on this blog write to jwilliams@atechnews.com.