Peter Wallsten of the Wall Street Journal reports that the relationship between White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and the President’s liberal backers has gotten increasingly contentious.

Among Wallsten’s evidence: Emanuel’s choice of epithet when he heard in a meeting about a plan by liberal Democrats and White House staffers to attack conservative Democrats on health care. “F–ing retarded,” participants remember him saying.

Emanuel’s use of the word “retarded” as an insult follows Obama’s “Tonight Show” jest last year linking his poor bowling score to the Special Olympics. The gaffe drew criticism from leaders of the disability community, who called on the President to advance public understanding and acceptance of people with disabilities.

See earlier posts about Obama’s Special Olympics gaffe here.

See also:

Special Olympics’ site “Spread the word to end the word,” campaigning against the use of the word “retard.”

Posts on the use of language describing people with cognitive impairments.

Posts on the use of the “r-word.”

Coverage of bipartisan federal legislation that would strike the term “mentally retarded” from the federal lexicon.

(Photo from the Wall Street Journal)

From the Columbus Dispatch:

For many Ohio school districts, the recent influx of federal stimulus money has doubled the federal dollars they receive for special education. New state regulations are making it easier for them to use the extra cash to shore up their shaky budgets, and disability rights advocates are crying foul.

Advocates say Ohio is cheating vulnerable students, and claim the state has taken the most extreme approach of any state in allowing local districts to divert the money for other purposes.

“It just seems completely mind-blowing to me,” said Jennifer Cohen, a policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based New America Foundation. “I think it’s sneaky, and I know there are a lot of special-education advocates out there who are upset about the implications.”

Earlier post here.

From the Detroit News:

Disability rights advocates are threatening to file federal ADA complaints over Detroit’s para-transit service, saying they regularly encounter unkempt and poorly equipped vans and rude drivers who engage in reckless driving, don’t show up at the appointed time and place, and drop clients at the wrong addresses.

The complaints come as the city is engaged in an ongoing contract dispute with its para-transit provider, prompting city officials to hire taxicabs and van services while attempting to resolve the dispute. Veolia Transportation has sued the city in federal court for breach of contract and a claim of $5.4 million.

City officials charge that Veolia is fanning complaints against the city in an attempt to win speedy resolution of its claims.

From the Oakland [CA] Tribune:

The city of Oakland, California, has reached an agreement with disability advocates to settle a 2007 lawsuit that charged the city had not made adequate plans to assist people with disabilities in the event of an earthquake or other disaster. The city has promised to make improvements in its emergency preparedness plans.

“This is a victory for people with disabilities in Oakland,” said Karla Gilbride, an attorney for Disability Rights Advocates of Berkeley, the organization that brought the lawsuit. “Oakland has shown itself to be a leader in making sure people will be equally safe … and we’re hoping other cities will follow Oakland’s lead.”

A similar lawsuit filed by Disability Rights Advocates and another organization is pending against the city of Los Angeles.

Software improvements are already bringing a ‘new era of empowerment’ for those with disabilities

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Berin Szoka notes that recent technological innovations are radically improving access for people with disabilities. For example, he says, a speech-recognition application for the iPhone now allows users to dictate email, text messages and full documents. Apple and Microsoft have built powerful accessibility features into their latest operating systems, and Google has announced it will caption all the videos on YouTube.

Szoka argues that these and other improvements were spurred by competitive forces, and will improve profits for tech companies. He opposes using regulation to force manufacturers to expand access for people with disabilities. An excerpt:

“Equal access” to the latest gadgets may sound appealing, but policymakers should recognize that regulation will only stifle the innovations that could most help the disabled.

Szoka is director of the Center for Internet Freedom at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, which is supported by Google, Microsoft and a host of other technology and media companies.

Alexa Posny, the recently confirmed assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, tells  Education Week that she became a special educator after seeing a childhood playmate barred from school because he had Down syndrome. Posny is 57, according to the Washington Post. An excerpt:

Q. What inspired you to work in special education?

A. During my childhood, I learned that children with disabilities often were not educated the way other children were. One of my playmates was a child with intellectual disabilities (Down syndrome). Although he would play with me and other children in my neighborhood, I soon discovered that he did not go to school.

At that time, I could never understand why he was never with us. He was more like us than unlike us, but he never entered the school door. Thirty some years later, the lives of students with disabilities have greatly improved and I have been engaged in this field during this entire time.

(Photo from allgov.com)

From the Baltimore Sun:

Zarifa Roberson couldn’t find a magazine aimed at people who have disabilities, so she decided to start one herself. The result is “i.d.e.a.l.,” an acronym that stands for “Individuals with Disabilities Express About Life.”

“Talking with young people with disabilities is kind of disheartening because they don’t know what to do with their lives,” she says. “Not everyone can be the next Stevie Wonder. This is why I started the publication.”