Page One

A new, student-run class at UC Berkeley called the “Inclusion Initiative” is working to address a shortage in attendants, or “personal care assistants,” for the city’s disabled. 

The course, launched in the fall by seniors Andrew Saito and Emily Teplin, focuses on legal and social issues facing the disabled, and requires students, able-bodied or disabled, to spend five hours per week in an attendant-client relationship. 

Attendants, who do not require any special training, provide a wide range of services, from helping immobile clients out of bed, to reading to the blind. 

“Bottom line, we started the class to recruit Cal students to work as attendants,” said Saito. 

Local disability advocates say they can use the help. Sean Riedy, personal assistance services coordinator for the Center for Independent Living, or CIL, a Berkeley-based nonprofit, said there are not enough attendants to meet local needs. 

“We’ve got a pretty large community of disabled people in the Berkeley area,” said Riedy, who estimates that there are more than 500 people in the city in need of attendants.  

Currently, Alameda County provides a database of about 500 personal attendants available to work for low-income clients. The county pays those attendants, through state funding, at a rate of $9 per hour. 

CIL uses the county list to refer low-income clients to attendants, but according to Riedy, only about one-third of the attendants on the list are in the immediate area, and willing to work in Berkeley. 

“We could use 500 in Berkeley alone,” Riedy said. 

CIL also maintains a list of 50 to 65 local attendants available for private hire by people who do not qualify for county assistance. Riedy said CIL could use 70 to 100 assistants on its “private pay” list. 

Jesse Towmley, executive director of Easy Does It, a Berkeley organization which provides emergency, on-call attendants, many of them college students, said his organization is also short-staffed. Currently, there are 21 attendants on the payroll. Fully-staffed, the organization, which is funded by the city to the tune of $640,000 per year, would have 32 assistants. 

Advocates say that, despite the shortage, the situation has actually improved in recent months. “In 2000, there was an acute attendant crisis because of the dot com boom,” Twomley said. “UC students, who are traditionally the bread and butter of the attendant market, were getting $50,000 to stare at a computer. 

“Since the bust,” he said, “we’ve been seeing an increase in qualified applicants.” 

Still, Twomley said, there is a significant shortage, and the “Inclusion Initiative” marks an important step toward closing the gap. “It’s really helpful that the students are getting more and more involved,” he said. 

Saito and Teplin, co-founders of the class, met during their sophomore year when both worked as personal assistants through the university’s Disabled Students Program. 

Last year, the pair decided they wanted to do something more for the disabled community. After talking with local advocates and deciding to focus on the attendant shortage, Saito and Teplin began developing the course through a program called Democratic Education at Cal, or DECAL. The program allows undergraduates to set up classes that students can take for course credit.  

The “Inclusion Initiative” enrolled about 35 students last semester, and the course is in its second week of classes this semester. Next week, when students finalize their classes, Teplin estimates that about 60 students will be enrolled. 

Last semester, Teplin and Saito brought in a wide range of guest speakers to talk about everything from legal issues to sexuality. But they also divided the class into two sections every week, allowing students to discuss the emotional and ethical issues surrounding their attendant-client relationships.  

“It’s really a support group,” said Teplin, describing the sections. 

Saito said the class has helped to raise awareness around disability issues, and shift the attitudes of the able-bodied. He said his experience as a personal assistant, during his sophomore year, had a similar effect on him. 

“I was very conscious of a discomfort I felt around disabled people, and I didn’t want to have that prejudice,” said Saito, arguing that he was able to confront, and overcome it, through his work as an attendant. 

Ben Chater, a freshman with cerbral palsy who took the class last semester, and will help facilitate it this semester, said he was “utterly impressed with the class,” and that “a lot of what they said rang so true for me.” 

But, he added that the practical effect of the class, which provided him with three personal attendants, each working a different shift, was equally important.  

“I don’t know what I would have done without the class,” Chater said, “because it’s really hard to get attendants otherwise.” 

Thursday night, the “Inclusion Initiative” will hold a “job fair,” from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Unit 1 Recreation Room, 2650 Durant Ave., to match up students and clients.  

Last semester, most attendants served university students, but this semester, Saito and Teplin hope to reach out more to the community. Local disability services groups, like CIL and Easy Does It, will attend.