From Topeka Capital-Journal,  AP/ABC News:

An estimated 600 people with disabilities and their allies rallied at the Kansas state Capitol Wednesday in a show of support for social services and higher taxes, saying legislators have a responsibility to protect people who are vulnerable. Hours later, an opposing group of about 300 rallied against tax hikes.

The disability advocacy rally was the culmination of a monthlong “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” relay across the state organized by InterHab Inc., a network of service providers.

Bill Craig, president and CEO of the Paola-based Lakemary Center, said the waiting list for people with developmental disabilities seeking services [in Kansas] now exceeds 4,000 and continues growing. At the same time, he said, people providing care to those with developmental disabilities hadn’t seen regular cost-of-living pay raises even before having their pay cut 10 percent because of Medicaid cuts.

“We struggle to keep up with local fast food restaurants as employers,” he said.

Kansas legislators face a $510 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year. Democratic Gov. Mark Parkinson is seeking to raise taxes to prevent budget cuts.

From AP/USA Today, ABC News, Politico.com,  Washington Post:

Authorities say they have arrested 91 people who gathered at the White House, many in wheelchairs, to protest what they termed the administration’s failure to provide sufficient support for the Community Choice Act. The legislation would allow people with long-term disabilities to use federal funding to pay for attendant care in their own homes rather than just in nursing facilities.

An estimated 400 people came from across the country for the event, sponsored by the national disability advocacy group ADAPT, and some reportedly chained themselves to the White House fence. An estimated 200 ADAPT protesters also gathered outside the American Hospital Association’s annual meeting in Washington, waving protest signs that read “Stop the nursing homes!”

A White House spokesperson said the president supports CCA, but said it “hasn’t been decided” whether the measure will be included in the health care reform effort.

“This is about choosing to live in our homes in our communities instead of nursing homes,” says Milagros Franco, from the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled.

Related posts here.

Freelancer Anne Miller, writing in the Washington Post, says ‘American Idol’ contestant Dave Pittman is part of of a rising movement of people with Tourette’s syndrome who are putting a public face on the disorder.

Pittman, a singer from Arkansas, performed a four-minute audition on national television earlier this year but failed to make it to the final rounds after he forgot some song lyrics. He has now embarked on a motivational speaking tour.

Among other people who have Tourette’s: Brad Cohen, a teacher who was featured in the TV movie “Front of the Class;” political cartoonist and author Jeff Koterba; New York City Council member Jumaane Williams; and Miller’s husband, Michael Davoli. An excerpt:

Now that we’re married, people with Tourette’s or parents of kids with Tourette’s sometimes put Michael on a bit of a pedestal: He got through school, he has a good job and he married. That’s probably the biggest concern of Tourette’s sufferers and their relatives: Will their life be normal?

At a recent public appearance, Koterba met a mother and her young daughter with Tourette’s. The woman asked Koterba if her daughter would have a normal life. It broke his heart, Koterba recalled. “No,” Koterba told the girl. “You’re going to have a great life. An amazing life. A creative, beautiful, wonderful life.”

See also:

• Dave Pittman’s ‘American Idol’ fame helps children with Tourette syndrome — Baxter Bulletin [Mountain Home, Arkansas]
• ‘American Idol’ singer isn’t hampered by Tourette’s syndrome — Washington Post

(Fox photo from the Washington Post)

The NBC Today Show marks UN-designated World Autism Awareness Day with a feature about the disorder, which affects tens of millions of people around the world. Among those highlighted are Autism Speaks founders Bob and Suzanne Wright, developmental pediatrician Cece McCarton, and parents Shelly and Jed Milstein, who have two sons with autism.

Autism Speaks reports that the rate of diagnoses now stands at approximately one in 110 children and one in 70 boys, a rate that has risen 600 percent in the past two decades. McCarton says the increase is caused in part by heightened awareness, but says researchers suspect other factors are involved.

Bob Wright says few school districts are providing appropriate therapies, and the cost of purchasing services privately is crushing the finances of many families. (Related post here.) He says fifteen states have passed measures requiring insurers to cover autism therapies, and says venture capitalists are beginning to work on therapies that might prove to be profitable.

See also:

ESPN: Curt Schilling’s wife pens book about son’s diagnosis with Asperger’s

CNN: Ten sites to check if your child has autism

CNN blog: The latest on autism research

PEB.com: Autism insurance gathers momentum

By Erica Demarest in Medill Reports at Northwestern University:

Disability rights advocates in Chicago have launched an effort to ensure that people with disabilities are counted accurately in the 2010 census. The Chicago Disability Complete Count Committee is part of a larger campaign targeting historically undercounted groups. An excerpt:

“There are many sub-communities within the disability community,” said Marca Bristo (above), president and CEO of Access Living, a group that services people with a variety of disabilities. “[Census workers] don’t know how to reach us. They don’t know the best way to get the word out in natural places where people with disabilities will find that information.”

There are no direct benefits specifically for people with disabilities since the standard 10-question census form does not ask whether a person is disabled. Still, committee members note that everyone benefits from a complete count.

Many do not participate in the census simply because they don’t know about it. With an unemployment rate of approximately 60 percent, a large number living in institutions and a litany of mobility problems, people with disabilities are more sheltered  than the general population, experts say. They often never see census advertisements.

(Photo from Medill Reports)

From the Lawrence [KS] Journal-World, WDAF Kansas City, KWCH-TV Kansas City:

Kansas disability rights advocates pleaded with state lawmakers to roll back a planned 10 percent cut in Medicaid funding, saying that the $22.7 million reduction would put the lives of vulnerable people at risk.

At a Capitol news conference Friday, advocates said the proposed cuts would end up costing more because they would force the state to place people in more expensive nursing homes.

“It’s just mind-boggling that we would cut those services only to force people into institutions which are going to cost taxpayers more dollars,” said Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas.

He said policymakers don’t understand that the cuts “are real and are devastating people’s lives, and without restoring those cuts, it’s only going to get worse.”

From the Washington Post:

People with intellectual disabilities are nearing success in their efforts to purge the word “retarded” from the national lexicon, boosted in part by the apology of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, reports Michael Alison Chandler,.

The campaign is led in part by the mentally disabled themselves, who are increasingly politicized and eager to escape the stigma associated with the term.

“It’s a time of change” said Jill Eglé, co-executive director at the Arc of Northern Virginia, a support group for the disabled, who spearheaded a campaign to change the state code in Virginia.

The words “retarded” or “retard” feel threatening, she said. Eglé identifies herself this way: “I am a powerful leader with an intellectual disability.