By Matthew Syed in the [London] Times:

A scientific evaluation of the curved carbon fiber blades used by amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius has found that the blades give him a considerable advantage over his able-bodied rivals. If this finding is upheld, Pistorius has “no business competing at the Olympic Games,” Syed writes.

I spent much of my early table tennis career practising with John Jenkins, the leading wheelchair player of the era. No quarter was asked, none given. When the opportunity arose I would deliberately angle the ball to exploit Jenkins’s lack of reach and, on occasions, he would lean so far to get bat on ball that his chair would topple over, sending him to the ground with a deafening crash. Seconds later he would be up again, face gritted, lips smiling grimly, his eyes dancing with the joy of competition.

One time my father happened to be watching (more…)

After years of paying for a badly disabled boy’s nursing care, the insurer said he no longer needed it. His parents hired a lawyer.

From the Los Angeles Times:

At 13, David Denney’s body functions like that of a baby. Severe brain damage halted his motor development at 4 months.

Blue Cross of California, the family’s health plan, paid for [a] nurse for most of David’s life at a cost of about $1,200 a week.Then about two years ago, the company decided that David didn’t need a nurse anymore — contradicting the opinions of two of David’s physicians — and it stopped paying.

… The extent of treatment denials by insurers is unknown. But patients are contesting them more than ever.
(more…)

In their first British interview, Christopher Reeve’s children talk in moving detail about how the family clung together in his fight against paralysis

From the [London] Sunday Times:

Matthew Reeve, a 28-year-old film director, and his sister Alexandra, 24, discuss “Christopher Reeve: Hope in Motion,” a pair of documentaries Matthew made about their father. The interview coincided with recent announcements of advances in the stem cell research their father believed would lead to a cure for spinal cord injuries.

“My dad was always extremely optimistic that science could get him out of his wheelchair,” said Matthew, whose films about his father were recently released on DVD in America. “For him it wasn’t a question of if, but when.”

Alexandra added: “Our dad might not be with us any more, but the issues he cared most about still are.”

From the Boston Globe:

There is a role for aversive therapy if it is practiced with great restraint and respect. But such was not the case in August, when two emotionally disturbed teens in a Stoughton group home run by the Rotenberg center were given dozens of electrical shocks at the direction of a telephone caller posing as a medical supervisor. That caller was later identified as a former student.

The fact that the staff was so easily duped speaks to both poor screening of new hires and a dangerous lack of training. On that night, at least, the center resembled not a therapeutic environment but the infamous Milgram experiment, which measured the willingness of ordinary people to hurt a test subject based on nothing more than the verbal order of a phony scientist.

(more…)

Even a loving family with ample financial resources is powerless against the disease.

From the Los Angeles Times, the latest in a series of articles about the strained system that is meant to care for an estimated one million Californians with mental illness. The name of the series: Breakdown.

Today’s story chronicles the failures of the system to protect 23-year-old Tiffany Sitton, a young woman with schizophrenia.

By Stevens Weed in the Ithaca [NY] Journal:

I recently facilitated a discussion about disability and community support. One participant said, “I don’t talk about my disability unless I have to, because I want to be treated like I’m a normal person.”

Most feel this way, that the health of the body determines whether or not we are “normal.” A problem with this notion is that it has come from one side of the story, the able-bodied. For most of history, the able-bodied are the ones who have defined the disabled experience. Doctors, government officials, lawyers, psychologists have been the ones to tell us who is and is not “normal.

(more…)

From Examiner.com in Washington, D.C.:

Marla Oakes, the director of the District of Columbia’s troubled special education system, has been relieved of her duties and transferred to another department, The Examiner has learned.

… City officials downplayed the significance of the transfer, but Oakes presided over a system in meltdown.

… In the last year, the special education program has been repeatedly embarrassed by revelations of abuse, mismanagement and waste. Employees continued receiving paychecks months after they left the schools, and critics said millions of dollars went out the door to private schools and vendors without regard for the safety or welfare of the children.