From Newsday:

New York congressional leaders have asked Army Secretary Pete Geren to investigate a report that the Army is blocking Veterans Affairs’ officials from helping injured Fort Drum soldiers prepare their disability claims, potentially leading to reduced benefits.

… In a letter to Geren, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton expressed deep concern and said the allegations “should be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.”

“If these allegations are true they run counter to our nation’s pledge made to our men and women in uniform,” Clinton wrote Geren. “It is our duty to eliminate obstacles standing in the way of our disabled service members and veterans, not to create them. Our wounded should not have to deal with endless bureaucratic red tape just to receive the basic care entitled to them.”

The original report came from Ari Shapiro at NPR: Army blocks disability paperwork aid at Fort Drum

From the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News:

The validity of the testimony of a girl with autism is at issue in a criminal trial in the Detroit area, with the judge saying he would allow her testimony and rule on her competency next month.

The girl, who cannot speak, uses facilitated communication, a controversial method in which an aide helps a person type words into a keyboard. Investigators say the girl used the method to accuse her father of raping her for years and her mother of doing nothing to stop it.

Experts for the defense testified the practice is unreliable and not accepted as evidence in a court of law.

[The judge] ruled that facilitated communication is clearly not a science, but is a valid method of communication.

Defense attorneys said that during two closed-court demonstrations the girl — who one expert said had the intellectual capacity of a 3-year-old — was unable to answer any of the simplest questions put to her, like the color of the judge’s robe and whether she had a brother or sister.

Reports from all over: 

Seattle Times endorses insurance coverage for autism treatments.

The autism task force, created by the Legislature two years ago, has developed a knowledgeable and realistic road map focusing on issues of access and affordability for families with an autistic child. Its recommendations are doable. For starters, insurance companies ought to cover proven treatments for autism. Only two insurers in the state currently do so. That is unacceptable.

San Jose [CA] Mercury News op-ed: Legislators “must be clear that autism-specific insurance coverage must be mandated so that all health plans and insurers provide a full range of services.”

(more…)

Writing in the [UK] Independent, columnist Deborah Orr re-examines the case of Brent Martin, a young man who had been striving to manage his learning disabilities and live on his own when he was brutally murdered last summer.

What is the worst thing about this abhorrent crime against a vulnerable person? The worst thing is that it is by no means the most horrific recent example of escalating violence against people with disabilities. Over the last couple of years, a slew of vicious and often fatal crimes against people with physical or mental disadvantages have come to trial. Sometimes, the ordeals of victims went on for many months before they died.

(more…)

Down syndrome groups anxious about increased prenatal testing

The Associated Press interviews Carrie Arganbright, a Kansas City mom who received a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, as a way of discussing the controversy presently swirling around prenatal testing.

While studies have found that many doctors are ill-prepared to offer a diagnosis of Down syndrome, Arganbright said her doctor was competent and compassionate. The reason:

Two weeks before delivering the diagnosis, he had attended a panel discussion in St. Louis in which a mother of a child with Down syndrome challenged the medical field to do a better job supporting families who continue their pregnancies.

Yes, that was me! Many thanks, once again, to the American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologists for sponsoring the event, which also included a medical malpractice plaintiff’s attorney, a nurse and a member of the president’s council on bioethics. It was a fascinating and memorable conversation.

My remarks to the doctors, “Tell Them It’s Not So Bad,” can be found here.

Carrie, if you’re reading this, please do drop me a line.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The world’s largest golf resort management company has discriminated against disabled golfers and must provide carts that let them hit the ball without stepping on the course, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled.

Marriott International, which owns or operates 26 courses nationwide including Half Moon Bay Golf Links, violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by denying mobility-impaired golfers the same access as their able-bodied counterparts, said U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton. (more…)

On Philadelphia’s Channel 6 Action News, footage of Brad (aka B-Rad) Hennefer sinking the final shot of a varsity basketball game for New Jersey’s Cherry Hill East High School. Brad is believed to be the only person with Down syndrome in the country to earn a varsity letter in two sports, basketball and golf. Now a senior, he has played basketball all four years.

After he graduates this year, Brad is planning to go to Camden County College to study business and computers.

The rumor du jour: Brad will be featured on ABC’s Good Morning America tomorrow.

See earlier post: Athlete amazes teammates and fans.

Related link: The essay about Down syndrome that my daughter wrote for a middle school assignment a few years ago. It was published in the Washington Post Health Section. Yes, Margaret has Down syndrome, too.