From the [UK] Guardian:

The BBC has reached the landmark of having all its shows accessible to the hard of hearing via subtitles.

… The service now offers more than 50,000 hours of subtitled content a year, including all the BBC’s national and regional programming…

From the BBC:

For the first time, Britain will conduct a census of adults with autism in order to better support them. In announcing the £500,000 project, Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis said adults with autism are too often abandoned by health and social services.

“We still don’t know enough about autism, but we do know that left unsupported, it can have a devastating impact on those who have the condition and their families, ” he said. “One of the key gaps in our knowledge is simple - we don’t know how many people have the condition in any given area.”

The group has been hard to measure partly because so many people have grown up before improvements in recognition and diagnosis; and some may have been labelled inappropriately as having mental health problems or learning difficulties or not acknowledged at all.

The National Autistic Society was enthusiastic about the effort.

Columnist Michael Gerson, writing in the Washington Post, argues that liberals who pledge an unswerving support for ’scientific integrity’ are eroding the core American principle that all men are created equal. Gerson joins Yuval Levin, writing in the New Atlantis, pointing to the eugenic practices of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as evidence of the moral pitfalls of purely scientific reasoning.

Nazism largely discredited the old eugenics. But a new eugenics — the eugenics of genetic screening and abortion, the eugenics of genetic selection in the process of in vitro fertilization — is alive and well.

Its advocates contend that the new eugenics is superior because it is voluntary instead of compulsory, and unrelated to race. But Levin responds: “Surely the most essential problem with the eugenics movement was not coercion or collectivism. . . . The deepest and most significant contention of the progressive eugenicists — the one that made all the others possible — was that science had shown the principle of human equality to be unfounded, a view that then allowed them to use the authority of science to undermine our egalitarianism and our regard for the weakest members of our society.”

From the Seattle Times:

Wil Kerner (left) builds elaborate and expressive artwork using construction paper and scissors.

What the autistic 12-year-old can’t express verbally or in social interaction he can show through his carefully cut out geometric shapes assembled into characters in a paper collage, a talent the staff at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center calls a rare artistic gift. Large red circles become heads, delicate strips of fringed white paper become hair, and finely cut arches are shaped into eyebrows.

The art — and the artist — intrigues those who study autism. Dr. Stephen Dager, interim director of the University of Washington’s Autism Center, who has been studying brain anatomy and chemistry in autism, is mystified by Wil’s artistic talents. Autistic people generally pay little attention to eyes during social interaction, studies show, and usually are unaware of others’ emotions. Yet, Wil has the ability to mimic human emotion through his art.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Members of Congress are expressing concern and scheduling hearings about a Medicare plan to use competitive bidding for products such as wheelchairs and walkers, in a sign that lobbying by medical-equipment companies is gaining traction.

Currently, companies receive a government-set fee to distribute such equipment for patients’ home use. Under the competitive system, companies bid on how low a fee they would be willing to accept. Medicare then limits distribution rights for a particular geographic area to several low bidders.

… Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services say competition could ultimately save $1 billion a year … Critics in Congress and elsewhere say service for the elderly will suffer if the bidding system drives some operators out of business. “We are very concerned about a decrease in quality and access and choice of provider,” says Peter W. Thomas of the Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities.

From the Orange County [California] Register: Man with cerebral palsy will climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness, funds.

From the Grand Haven [Michigan] Tribune and Detroit Free Press: Man with cerebral palsy walks across the state on stilts to raise awareness, funds.

Attorney says she could die if she’s sent to a nursing home

From the Tulsa [Oklahoma] World:

Lindsey Easton, of Glenpool, Oklahoma, has lived at home most of her life under the care of her mother and 16 hours a day of skilled nursing care provided by a Medicaid program. Easton has infantile onset Pompe’s Disease, and is dependent on a ventilator and feeding tubes.

Easton’s Medicaid coverage ended when she turned 21 in September. She was subsequently denied coverage by Oklahoma’s Advantage Waiver program when it was determined that her care would exceed the program’s cost cap. She is now challenging that decision in court, arguing that the state’s action is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

Easton has led a full and engaging life as an avid reader, Girl Scout and co-valedictorian of her graduating class at Glenpool High School in 2005. … Housing her in a nursing home could lead to medical complications, extended hospitalizations and premature death, according to her legal brief, which cites statements from Easton’s doctor and nursing case manager.

… Laurie Easton, Lindsey’s mother, said she’d never put her daughter in a nursing home and is turning to the courts because she sees no other option. She has had to fight many bureaucratic battles over the years, she said.

“We’re just normal people trying to do the right thing,” she said. “We love our kids.”