From the [Minneapolis-St. Paul] Star Tribune:

Vicky Solomonson, a young woman whose family rejected doctors’ recommendations that she be institutionalized following a diagnosis of Down syndrome, has died. She was credited with advancing disability rights through the work of her grandfather, Minnesota senator and then Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.

Solomonson, 49, had also been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in recent years. Her parents, Bruce and Nancy Solomonson, raised her at home with the help of her grandparents.

“We refused to hide Vicky out of sight in the attic,” grandmother Muriel Humphrey told “This Week” magazine in 1968.

(Star Tribune photo)

From the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, WCVB-TV:

Seven young men and two youths were charged this week with beating and kicking a teenager on a busy street in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood. They face up to five years in prison — twice the usual sentence — because the victim has developmental disabilities.

“A crime like this just shocks the conscience,” Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. “It’s obscene.’

Ninetten-year-old Jerome Brown, whom police described as “mentally challenged” or “of diminished mental capacity,” said the mob attacked him when he refused to surrender his cellphone. Lawyers for the defendants said their clients were not involved.

From the Des Moines Register, AP/Bloomberg Businessweek:

A federal agency has concluded that a Texas company cheated its workers with disabilities out of at least $1 million, subjected them to abuse and humiliation, and committed numerous major violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The company, Henry’s Turkey Service, had housed at least 65 men in an old bunkhouse in Atalissa, Iowa, and put them to work in a turkey slaughtering plant in where they were paid 41 cents an hour.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the Texas labor broker acted with malice or reckless indifference in committing numerous major violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, resulting in significant harm to the workers and “substantial economic benefits” to the company.

“What happened to the men employed by Henry’s Turkey Service at West Liberty Foods is nothing short of horrific,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia.

From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette (registration required), Google/AP:

The federal Department of Justice has filed suit against the state of Arkansas for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, alleging that the state illegally segregates hundreds of people with developmental disabilities.

The lawsuit accused Arkansas of a “systemic failure” that places people with disabilities in large institutions instead of pursuing less restrictive options for their care in community-based settings.

“The state gives individuals with developmental disabilities the draconian choice of receiving services in segregated institutions or receiving no services at all,” the lawsuit reads.

“Arkansas illegally segregates hundreds of individuals in institutions across the state and places hundreds more at risk of needless institutionalization,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez, chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We are acting now to remedy discrimination against these individuals.”

Arkansas officials said the state is complying with the ADA, and pledged to fight the federal lawsuit. “We will defend the right of our families to choose where they will have their loved ones served,” said a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

As school districts across the nation spend their federal stimulus money, some disability advocates say a loophole in the federal law has allowed districts to cheat students out of the very special education services the money was meant to bolster.

A federal rule allows districts to use their stimulus dollars to reduce the amount of local money a district spends on special education, allowing districts to use special ed funding to reduce other costs. Districts say the provision allows them to improve education for all students, but advocates worry the districts may be setting a precedent that could jeopardize special education allocations in the future.

“It’s an atrocity,” said Laura Kaloi, public policy director for the National Center for Learning Disabilities. The money was meant for students receiving special education, not as a way for districts to cut back on how much they spend on those students, she said.

Rick Santorum, former Republican senator from Pennsylvania and Fox News contributor, celebrates his daughter’s second birthday with an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Isabella has Trisomy 18, and has survived despite the dire predictions of doctors and experts. Santorum says Bella’s life may not be long, but “she is worth every tear.” An excerpt:

Being the parent of a special child gives one exceptional insight into the negative perception of the disabled among many medical professionals, particularly when they see your child as having an intellectual disability. Sadly, we discovered that not only did we have to search for doctors who had experience with trisomy 18. We also had to search for those who saw Bella not as a fatal diagnosis, but as a wanted and loved daughter and sister, as well as a beautiful gift from God.

… Living with Bella has been a course in character and virtue. She makes us better. And it’s not just our family; she enriches every life she touches. In the end, isn’t that what every parent hopes for his or her child?

Gwynneth VanLaven, writing in the Washington Post, says her visible disability makes her a target for strangers who offer well-meaning but unwanted advice in a futile attempt to “fix” her. To them, she says, she represents their worst fears: “I am vulnerability incarnate.”

VanLaven, who was hurt when she was hit by a car in 2007, says she really wants people to listen to her and bear witness to her experience — not offer miracle cures or accounts of other car crashes. An excerpt:

People are trying to relate, but they are relating out of fear. I think this is why the community’s love can sometimes feel suffocating. While well intentioned, the intervention of friends and strangers can sometimes feel like it has more to do with them than with me. I sometimes feel ignored when someone approaches me about my disability. Aren’t I more than a wounded lady? It feels like I’m wearing a scarlet D for “disabled-too-soon” and nobody can see past the fears it strikes in them.

… Active listening requires putting aside the anxieties of feeling vulnerable. When you see me rolling by on my scooter or hobbling along with my cane, the most difficult response may be to stay quiet. This means sitting with the feeling that the healthy can be suddenly struck down, that this fate could be yours or your daughter’s.