Off message. This is not about technology, but news. Here is a statement from Dr. Will Kennedy Smith, who has just gotten notified that he is being sued for sexual harassment in Chicago. Dr. Smith is head of Center for International Rehabilitation and has been doing some political work around the issue of the rights of the disabled, including a report to the U.N. as the International Disability Rights Monitor and Physicians Against Land Mines. It is unfortunate that this work will be ignored by mainstream media in favor of the more salacious, but unproven charges in the civil suit. Statement dated 8/25/04

Dr. Smith can not respond in person as he is currently at the United Nations presenting a landmark report on the situation of people with disabilities to the UN Ad Hoc Committee on an International Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. Statement from Dr. Smith and CIR The Center for International Rehabilitation (“CIR”) and its President Dr. William Kennedy Smith today denounced allegations made by ex-employee Audra Soulias in a lawsuit filed today. The organization and Dr. Smith characterized the allegations made by Ms. Soulias as outrageous, untrue and without merit. Ms. Soulias has demanded payment of 3 million dollars. A disgruntled employee who had failed to receive a promotion during a corporate reorganization last year approached a number of former employees, including Ms. Soulias, who last worked at the CIR in 1999. The two then detailed the allegations in Ms. Soulias lawsuit and subsequently demanded millions of dollars in payments from Dr. Smith and the CIR. The CIR has issued the following statement, “Despite the time, energy and resources that will be needlessly wasted fighting these allegations, the organization cannot in any way endorse her claims or agree to her unwarranted demands.” Said Dr. Smith, “Unfortunately, my family and my personal history have made me unusually vulnerable to these kinds of allegations. I am saddened to think of the destructive impact this may have on the work and current employees of the CIR.” Ms. Soulias’s attempts to extract money from the CIR and Dr. Smith are especially unfortunate because of their potential impact on the work of the organization and its mission to assist people with disabilities in post-conflict countries. Since its founding in 1997, the CIR has been at the forefront of efforts to improve the conditions of landmine survivors and other people with disabilities in low income and post-conflict areas. In July 2001, the CIR introduced the world’s first distance learning course in artificial limb construction. Today, the program is being delivered to 29 clinics in six mine-affected countries. In Latin America alone, the CIR distance-learning program provides training to 45 prosthetists working at 15 rehabilitation clinics that treat approximately 4,000 patients annually. The CIR also operates a Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) to develop artificial limbs and wheelchairs for mine-affected countries. The RERC has been designated a national center of excellence in rehabilitation engineering by the U.S. National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. As part of its engineering activities, the CIR, in collaboration with noted wheelchair architect and user Ralf Hotchkiss, has developed a wheelchair for use in Afghanistan and other conflict-affected countries. The chair, which is currently in production in India, is distributed in the form of a wheelchair “kit” that can be assembled and fitted locally. This approach combines the economies of scale and quality assurance of mass production with the point of service care and local capacity building of cottage industry manufacturing. This month alone, the CIR will deliver 100 of these specially designed, durable and adjustable wheelchairs to the Afghan Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled in Kabul. There, workers will assemble, fit and distribute the wheelchairs.  The CIR participates with the Ministry in training the local workers on assembly, use, and repair of the chairs. The CIR’s work in Afghanistan, however, goes beyond the distribution of wheelchairs. The organization has assisted the interim government in establishing a national disability coordinating council which was crucial to recently passed legislation supporting the rights of people with disabilities in the country. Abdullah Wardak Minister of Disabled and Martyrs for Afghanistan has said: “The work of Dr. Smith and the CIR has been invaluable to the Ministry, helping us to meet the overwhelming needs of Afghanistan’s disability community. We hope their work, and this fruitful collaboration, will continue well into the future. I know Dr. Smith personally and have been impressed by his integrity and commitment to his work.” Disability activists also voiced support for Dr. Smith. Maria Veronica Reina, who heads the CIR’s International Disability Rights Monitoring (IDRM) program said: “I am proud to be working with the CIR. I have been with the organization for two years and we are making good progress. If you work hard you will get ahead in this organization. As a woman with a disability, I can tell you this is not always the case. Dr. Smith has been kind, thoughtful and professional in every interaction that I have witnessed. Over the past several months our team has worked long hours together preparing the IDRM report for the Americas. A group of disability researchers from 22 countries worked for over a year to pull it together. It would be a shame if our work were overshadowed by this kind of attack.”

Edited 9/13/04 to remove a quote attributed to Holly Biron, which she said was fabricated.