From USA Today:

In hearings seven months ago, congressional investigators disclosed evidence of widespread restraint and seclusion of students by school staff around the country, most of it involving students with disabilities. Some of the cases ended in death. Since the hearings, advocates say, only a handful of states have moved to restrict or regulate the practice.

“There has been a lot of attention, a lot of advocacy, a lot of family members involved, but it’s slow going,” says Jane Hudson, an attorney for the National Disability Rights Network, based in Washington, D.C.

See related interview with Rep. George Miller (D-California), who is co-sponsoring legislation that would prohibit or limit restraint and seclusion of students except in rare cases, when there is “imminent danger of injury.” An excerpt:

This abuse is a nightmare … The types of abuse these kids are suffering are so disturbing, you’d think these were stories about torture tactics used at prison camps. Instead they’re happening to some of our youngest children, in our schools.

The editorial board of the Cleveland Plain Dealer calls on Ohio to mandate insurance coverage and provide adult services for people with autism.

The editorial follows an extended feature about Sky Walker, an 18-year-old man with autism who unintentionally killed his mother, Kent State University Professor Trudy Steurnagel, earlier this year. Steurnagel had sought medical help to stem her son’s violent outbursts, but chose to keep him at home with her for fear he might face abuse in an institutional placement.

An excerpt from the editorial:

With a tsunami of autistic children heading down the pike into adulthood — and expected to live longer — adult services for all of them are critical.

Currently, there are few living arrangements for most autistic youth who are over 22 and thus no longer eligible for federally mandated services.

Yet there is much that these youths can contribute if they are monitored, employed and engaged in the community.

Cuyahoga County and the rest of Ohio must devote resources to help this vulnerable population.

Writing in the Boston Globe, pediatrician Claudia M. Gold says she’s worried about the potential for over-reliance on drugs for the treatment of autism. Already, she says, children with ADHD are getting too much medication. A recent study in the journal Pediatrics found that intensive and focused play, with parent, child and therapist participating together, brought significant improvement in behavior, language and IQ. An excerpt:

Aggressive marketing tactics have made second-generation antipsychotics among the highest-selling classes of drugs in the United States. A study published this fall showed that these drugs cause rapid weight gain in children. Add to these facts an epidemic of childhood obesity and a culture that looks for a quick fix over a long-term solution, and we have a potentially dangerous mix.

The Pediatrics study points in the direction of devoting resources to nurturing relationships in treatment of autism.

When considering medication, I hope all who care for these children will exercise extreme caution.

By Robert Pear in the New York Times:

A proposal to provide long-term coverage to people with disabilities and chronic illness is roiling debate in Congress. The measure was included in health care legislation passed by the House.

Advocates say the proposal, drafted several years ago by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, is long overdue and would help people with severe disabilities who want to live in the community. Critics on both sides of the aisle say it is financially unsustainable and would rack up huge debts.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) said the benefits would allow people with disabilities to “live out their lives with decency and dignity.”

“What’s the alternative?” Mr. Dodd asked. “Getting rid of all your assets, impoverishing yourself, relying on your family or friends to take care of you in order to try to survive.”

It’s being described as the most expensive movie ever made, a live-action 3D epic with a pricetag reported at close to $500 million. James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ premieres in Hollywood this week amid enthusiastic early reviews, with Australian actor Sam Worthington in the lead role.

Worthington’s character, Jake Sully, uses a wheelchair in the film. Not so the real-life Sam Worthington.

The film’s official site refers to Sully as “a former Marine confined to a wheelchair.” Here’s a sampling of the language journalists are using to introduce the character:

• MSNBC: “wheelchair-bound soldier”
• [UK] Times: “wheelchair-bound war hero”
• Associated Press: “a brawny former Marine who lost the power of his legs in battle on Earth”
• [Toronto] Globe and Mail blog: “a wheelchair-bound U.S. marine”
• Bloomberg.com: “a paraplegic former Marine”
• Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times: “the hero, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who is a paraplegic”
• Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune: “our hero is paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully”
• New York Times: “a Marine who has lost the use of his legs fighting in a war he didn’t understand”
• Variety: “wheelchair-bound former Marine”
• Fox News: “a former Marine paralyzed from the waist down”
• Chicago Tribune: “a Marine who comes home from combat in a wheelchair”
• MTV.com: “crippled ex-Marine”
• Kirk Honeycutt in the Hollywood Reporter: “a crippled former Marine”
• Michael Bodey in the Australian: “wheelchair-bound former Marine”

(Image from trailer on avatarmovie.com)

Writing in the [UK] Daily Mail, mother Deborah Dooley responds to a neighbor’s comment that she should have terminated her pregnancy rather than give birth to her daughter, who has cystic fibrosis. Daughter Flo is now 20 and is studying dance. An excerpt:

Flo is bright, beautiful, funny, affectionate, clever and hard-working. Yet she is also deemed to be ‘disabled’. To me, this changes nothing….

Very occasionally, I consider the fact that only a last-minute decision stopped me having a test that could have denied my lovely daughter life.

For a brief, sad and always shocking moment I wonder what life without Flo might have been like. Then I think about the huge joy she’s brought us, and how lucky we are to have her – and I feel doubly blessed.

Dooley’s daughter adds:

I do understand the dilemma that parents can go through — I just wonder if people who are so-called ‘ able-bodied’ really take the time to think about those who aren’t: what it means to be disabled, the variations on what we call disabled, and what these people can bring to society.

… I don’t think that being labelled as not quite right, or disabled — or whatever — before you’re even born should mean that you have no right to life. In my opinion, the world needs so-called, less-than-perfect people, those people can live full and happy lives — I believe I’m living proof of that.

(Photo from the [UK] Daily Mail)

Writing in the Huffington Post, Lennard Davis takes Hollywood and Broadway to task for regularly casting actors without disabilities to portray characters with disabilities, as when Abigail Breslin (left) was selected to play Helen Keller in the upcoming revival of “The Miracle Worker.” An excerpt:

The media helps to shape and define how society at large thinks about disability. The more that television, films, theater, and other forms of performance reflect a world filled with diverse peoples and bodies live, the more egalitarian and fair our society will be.

The one way to achieve this goal is have not just characters with disabilities appear regularly in the media but to know that people with disabilities play them.

Lennard Davis is professor of English, disability studies, and medical education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Related posts here and here.