From the Washington Post:

Thanks to a “remarkably cooperative effort by businesses and advocates of protections for the disabled,” an effort to expand ADA protections has passed the House and is expected to clear the Senate soon. The measure will recognize civil rights for people with disabilities, and instruct the Supreme Court to interpret the definition of disability more broadly. The changes will provide more opportunities for people with disabilities to seek protection without putting an undue burden on employers.

Although President Bush has expressed concerns that excess litigation may ensue, he is unlikely to veto the bill, nor should he.

Editors at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel challenge the No Child Left Behind Law, saying its standards for students with disabilities are unfair and impractical. Milwaukee’s prestigious Rufus King High School school was cited last week for lack of adequate yearly academic progress among students with special needs.

… is it practical to suppose that all students with special needs can compete in reading and math with others who don’t have those needs?

Surely, the term “special needs” exists for a reason. If King is under serving these students, the district must deal with that. But if the measure for determining this depends on students with learning disabilities scoring on par with students without these needs, this is too high a bar.

By all means, have standards for special needs children. But make them fair. On this score, NCLB unfairly punishes schools.

As Britain’s Missing Top Model debuts, one of the judges writes on the BBC website about her hopes for the show. Lara Masters is a writer, model and actor who uses an electric wheelchair.

The fact is that fashion is a business and it is us, the consumers, who keep it thriving. Is it any wonder the industry sticks to a winning formula and largely shuns the idea of using bigger, more representational female models, let alone disabled models whose physical forms will be even more difficult to sell as aspirational?

Yet maybe the BBC’s reality show will make a difference. After all, fashionistas are always looking for something new, and disabled models are perfect to create intrigue and attract attention.

With video.

More about Lara Masters on BBC’s Ouch website.

From the [Melbourne, Australia] Herald Sun, New Zealand Herald, [New South Wales] Daily Telegraph:

Australian newscaster Tracey Spicer (left) says she considered suffocating her mother in 1999 as an “act of mercy” to end her “immense pain and suffering” from pancreatic cancer. The revelation, in an opinion piece, stirred new controversy in a nation that is deeply divided over the recent convictions of two women in the death of a man with Alzheimer’s disease.

Spicer said her intention was to prompt a public discussion, not to persuade Australians either way about whether euthanasia should be legalized. In her commentary, she said, “I knew it was the right thing to do. But as I looked down at the woman who gave me life, I knew that I could not take hers.” Her mother died a few hours later.

(Herald Sun photo.)

From the [Lower Hudson Valley, NY] Journal News:

Dimitri Kanevsky, a research scientist and master inventor who is deaf, expresses concern about the low U.S. employment rate for people with disabilities. It stands at 38 percent, or about half the employment rate for working-age people without disabilities.

There will be a labor shortage as baby boomers retire, Kanevsky writes, and the U.S. economy cannot afford to overlook the talents of people with disabilities.

In my view, people with disabilities develop top-notch, problem-solving skills that are honed by their need to overcome many obstacles to achievement. These skills are invaluable in numerous careers and help many disabled produce impressive track records.

… The vision underlying the ADA is equality of opportunity. We will achieve that goal when the employment rate for people with disabilities is the same as the entire work force and when people with disabilities have the same opportunity to advance their careers, based on individual performance, as every other worker.

By Sen. Fred Berry, Sen. Karen Spilka and Leo Sarkissian in the Quincy, Massachusetts, Patriot-Ledger:

… For tens of thousands of people in Massachusetts and their families with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the word “retarded” can be the most personal of attacks; yet it remains in the name of the state agency that provides services for them.

This year, the Massachusetts Senate has included language in its budget that would change that. The proposal, which has been met with wide acceptance, would change the name of the Department of Mental Retardation to the Department of Developmental Services.

This is an opportunity that should not be squandered if Massachusetts is to truly serve people with disabilities.

Sen. Fred Berry, D-Peabody, is the Senate Majority Leader; Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, is chairman of the Legislative Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities; and Leo Sarkissian is executive director of The Arc of Massachusetts.

By David Briggs in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Critics worry that the new rules are vague and expensive. But the greater moral cost would be to turn our backs on the growing number of Americans with disabilities, particularly war veterans.

… How about this time, before we listen to special-interest groups making narrow appeals to our personal economic stake, we inventory all the ways others have served us in our time of need? And then ask how we are passing on the gifts we have been given by showing consideration to our neighbor?

See also:

House right to expand the scope of the ADA, in the Jackson, Tennnessee, Sun