From U.S. News and World Report:

Military parents maintain that the Pentagon’s healthcare system is failing to serve active-duty military families who have children with autism.

It is estimated that 13,243 of the approximately 1.2 million children of active-duty military personnel have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. But only 1,374 are qualified to receive treatment under the extended care arm of the federal healthcare program TRICARE.

The families’ difficulties are compounded by frequent moves that disrupt or end treatment programs, and skyrocketing out-of-pocket costs for expenses not covered by TRICARE. Some families have little choice but to forgo treatment for their children. Officials worry that the pressure is prompting some to leave the military, which could harm military readiness.

From the Voice of America:

Emerging computer technology is revolutionizing the lives of people with disabilities. Participants at a recent conference on assistive technology at the University of Colorado-Boulder learned about new ways that high-tech machines are helping people with a wide range of disabilities.

Among the featured sofware was a screen-reading program that transforms computer instructions and information into audio; a program that converts engineering diagrams into raised-relief pages; and a program that changes spoken words into closed-captioned text.

From BusinessWeek:

Up until now, assistive technologies for people with disabilities have been focused chiefly on the workplace. The recently passed ADA Amendments Act clarifies that Americans with disabilities are also entitled to support in major life activities outside of work.

The changes are prompting the creation of devices that can help people enjoy travel, leisure and just plain old fun. It’s estimated that there is a $200 billion market of consumers eager to spend on such products.

Among the new entries: A GPS Ranger with audio and video commentary is available at some national parks for people with hearing, sight, and mobility impairments at a cost of about $15 to rent for the day, and an Apple iPod nano that has speech capability.

Larger technology providers may already have an edge – and an audience – for bringing new assistive technologies to disabled consumers. Yet the field is wide open for companies seeking a lucrative new niche in a growing market that would undoubtedly welcome more fun and games.

From the Greeneville [NC] News:

A state-funded program for adults with disabilities in South Carolina is being conducted on a Superfund hazardous cleanup site where residences, hospitals,  schools, farming and day care programs are banned by law, according to a report by The Greenville News.

Some 200 people with disabilities are receiving job training at the Charles Lea Center site in Inman while the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control continues to investigate the extent of contamination at the site.

Legislators and Gov. Mark Sanford’s office expressed alarm. “It does just send a bad message to put an adult-care facility in a place where you could not put a child-care facility, or for that matter raise animals,” said the governor’s spokesman.

(more…)

By Todd Ackerman in the Houston Chronicle:

Baylor College of Medicine is offering and promoting a new prenatal test that screens fetuses for hundreds of genetic abnormalities. The test is promoted as diagnosing disorders that couldn’t previously be identified in utero, and is “sparking debate because it’s sure to result in more abortions.”

The ethical debate about the testing ranges from whether its accuracy is well-enough established to provide results to anxious parents; to whether it should be regulated by government; to whether such screening reflects a trend toward eugenics, in which society eliminates the defective.

… “There are troublesome implications to those statistics and the new testing,” says Dr. Mary Mahowald, a University of Chicago ethicist. “They suggest an attitude that deems the lives of people with disabilities not worth living. They’re also troublesome because the fewer people with disabilities there are, the more likely they are to be victims of discrimination.”

(more…)

The Orange County Register reports that a local nonprofit set up to expand housing for people with developmental disabilities “has done little to further its core mission, instead directing three-fourths of its spending to its own management.”

Community Housing Resources Inc. (CHRI) was created in 1997 by the Regional Center of Orange County to help some of the 7,400 adults with developmental disabilities in Orange County to live independently.

But after more than a decade in existence and $1.6 million in taxpayer funding, the housing nonprofit has little to show for itself. In five of the past eight years, Community Housing Resources spent zero on its mission of housing the disabled. It owns no properties outright, has about $700,000 unused in its accounts, and has allocated 74 percent of its spending on management salaries and costs.

The State Department of Developmental Services says it has never audited the program.

… Meanwhile, the problem that the non-profit is supposed to help solve is becoming more acute. Last year, a report by the California Affordable Housing Institute described the lack of housing for developmentally disabled adults statewide as being at “a crisis level.”

From MSNBC/Reuters:

A new report by the U.S. Census Bureau says more than 54 million U.S. residents have some degree of disability, or about 19 percent of the total U.S. population.

The survey found that only about 46 percent of adults aged 21 to 64 with a disability were employed, compared with 84 percent of adults without disabilities.

Based on 2005 data, the report found a slight increase in the total number of Americans with disabilities compared with the 2002 survey, when 51.2 million people or 18 percent reported a disability..