The [UK] Guardian presents a special package of news and commentary linked to the upcoming event Beyond Boundaries Live 2009, scheduled for July 4 and 5 in Hampshire. Inspired by a reality TV show featuring people with disabilities, the event is billed as “the UK’s largest lifestyle event for people with disabilities.”

Featured activities include beep baseball, wheelchair customization, adapted SCUBA diving, a fashion show, functional electrical stimulation, adapted skiing, and more.

Among the Guardian’s stories:

The quest for equality By Ben Furner. Significant steps have been made in the past 15 years to create a genuine state of equality in which disabled people can thrive. But this is no time to be complacent.

The future: in whose hands? By Ian Cook. One in five UK adults has a disability — meaning the disabled voice is becoming ever more varied. But are policymakers listening?

A sporting chance By Mark Gould. Too many disabled people are denied the chance to keep fit by poor facilities and a lack of support from their peers. How can this be remedied?

Individual thinking By Emma Bowler. Independent care for disabled people has evolved as far as it can in its current guise. But are providers ready to take the next step?

Willing and able By Emma Bowler. The disabled population’s desire to work is not matched by the number of jobs available. What is being done to redress the balance?

From the Los Angeles Times:

California advocates for people with Alzheimer’s are worried about a proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would shut down the state’s adult day healthcare centers, which provide services to elderly people living at home, and end funding for Alzheimer’s care programs.

“We are talking about a devastation of the safety net for these families that wasn’t really robust to begin with,” said Debra Cherry, vice president of the Alzheimer’s Assn.’s Southland chapter. “Without any community support, these families are going to crumble.”

Schwarzenegger said he does not want to hurt patients or their families, but the financial crisis leaves him no choice but to make wide-ranging cuts.

There are more than 588,000 Californians with Alzheimer’s, and experts expect the number to double by 2030.

Columnist Jane Glenn Haas writes in the Orange County [CA] Register that a new survey reveals caregivers for people with disabilities “are facing escalating financial and emotional hardships that are rarely, if ever, addressed in national debates about funding health care.” Some 44 million Americans are responsible for the care of a spouse or parent.

An excerpt:

A survey conducted by Evercare [a national health care coordination program of UnitedHealthcare] and the [nonprofit] National Alliance for Caregiving concludes 43 percent of caregivers have taken a pay cut or have been forced to work fewer hours as a result of the recession.

Some have taken on additional jobs or are able to work more hours, but almost 50 percent told surveyors they have exhausted their savings and 43 percent have had to borrow money to continue caregiving.

(more…)

From the Associated Press:

A national investigation by the Associated Press has found that nursing homes across the country have become a dumping ground for young and middle-aged people with mental illness, sparking violent and sometimes fatal encounters.

Younger, stronger residents with schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder are living beside frail senior citizens, and sometimes taking their rage out on them.

“Sadly, we’re seeing the tragic results of the failure of federal and state governments to provide appropriate treatment and housing for those with mental illnesses and to provide a safe environment for the frail elderly,” said Janet Wells, director of public policy for the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform.

Among the reasons behind the trend: state mental institutions are closing, leaving mentally ill people with nowhere to go; and nursing homes are actively looking for business because more elderly people are healthy enough to stay in their own homes.

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Hundreds of people rallied on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol to oppose Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s plan to cut 15 percent in spending for health and human services. They carried signs that said “Don’t balance the budget on the backs of our disabled, elderly and vulnerable.”

Many people in the crowd said they were worried about losing personal care subsidies that allow loved ones to be cared for at home.

From the New York Times:

Designer Cynthia Leibrock is one of the leaders in the Aging in Place movement, creating beautiful spaces that will remain livable even as people find their physical capabilities declining with age.

Her own home, above, embodies the principles of universal design, which holds that all structures should be equally accessible to everyone. An excerpt:

“I’ve got a great one-liner for you,” Ms. Leibrock says. “The line is, ‘I want people to know no matter whether they have mental or physical disabilities’ – change that word to differences – ‘they are only disabled if they can’t do what they want to do. Architecture can eliminate disability by design.’ You see my point. If you are in a house where you can do what you want to do, you’re not disabled anymore.”

See also: Bringing Égalité Home — New York Times. Universal design makes homes adaptable, except in France.

(New York Times photo)

Lab techniques now being used to create designer children – Wall Street Journal

Mom re-enlists to get treatment for disabled son - National Public Radio

Anticipated cuts to SSI will harm the elderly, blind and disabled - San Jose Mercury News

Autism coverage bill fails in Virginia Senate - Washington Post