From the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):

Author Ruth Schwartz Cowan defends prenatal genetic screening against claims of eugenics, rejecting claims by disability activists that it is a form of discrimination against people with disabilities. She says academics and journalists should stop making good people feel unnecessarily guilty about prenatal genetic screening.

Genetic screening was developed by medical geneticists to help the genetically “unfit,” precisely the people the eugenicists would have sterilized, have as many children as they wanted.

… Disability activists claim that genetic screening is a form of discrimination against the disabled — but it seems unlikely that the parents who banded together to form associations like the National Tay-Sachs Disease Association or the Cyprus AntiAnaemic Society or the National Association of Retarded Citizens would agree. (more…)

From ESPN:

Dale Davis of Alta, Iowa, bowled a perfect game this month. The 78-year-old Davis is blind.

According to James Benton, president of the American Blind Bowling Association, a 300 game is a rarity for someone with impaired vision. In the association’s 60-year history, Benton said, his organization is aware of only four perfect games thrown by someone who is legally blind. And no one with complete loss of vision is known to have bowled a 300.

“It is extremely rare,” Benton said.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Harlan Hahn, a longtime USC professor of political science and champion of disability rights who successfully sued the university to improve access for disabled people campuswide, died April 23 at his Santa Monica home. He was 68.

The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter, Emily.

Hahn was already in the vanguard of the disability rights movement when he joined the USC faculty to teach political science in 1972. He pushed for the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibited discrimination against the disabled, and the more sweeping Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.

Hahn, who had polio as a child, brought a lawsuit against USC in 1998 to remove physical barriers that limited the mobility of disabled individuals. The suit was settled in 2001 when the university agreed to embark upon a major barrier removal effort.

He also wrote or co-wrote a dozen books, and filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the 1983 case of Elizabeth Bouvia, a woman who was paralyzed and petitioned the court to let her starve to death. Hahn argued that disabled people needed better support, not help in dying.

“Ultimately, a disability is not an organic deficiency,” Hahn wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 1983, “it is the product of a disabling environment. . . . To deprive any member of the disabled population of the mental and emotional strength that he or she can contribute to others would be an unforgivable act.”

See also the press release from USC: In Memoriam: Harlan Hahn, 68; The USC College political scientist was a major force in the disability rights movement

From the Seattle Times:

Wil Kerner (left) builds elaborate and expressive artwork using construction paper and scissors.

What the autistic 12-year-old can’t express verbally or in social interaction he can show through his carefully cut out geometric shapes assembled into characters in a paper collage, a talent the staff at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center calls a rare artistic gift. Large red circles become heads, delicate strips of fringed white paper become hair, and finely cut arches are shaped into eyebrows.

The art — and the artist — intrigues those who study autism. Dr. Stephen Dager, interim director of the University of Washington’s Autism Center, who has been studying brain anatomy and chemistry in autism, is mystified by Wil’s artistic talents. Autistic people generally pay little attention to eyes during social interaction, studies show, and usually are unaware of others’ emotions. Yet, Wil has the ability to mimic human emotion through his art.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Members of Congress are expressing concern and scheduling hearings about a Medicare plan to use competitive bidding for products such as wheelchairs and walkers, in a sign that lobbying by medical-equipment companies is gaining traction.

Currently, companies receive a government-set fee to distribute such equipment for patients’ home use. Under the competitive system, companies bid on how low a fee they would be willing to accept. Medicare then limits distribution rights for a particular geographic area to several low bidders.

… Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services say competition could ultimately save $1 billion a year … Critics in Congress and elsewhere say service for the elderly will suffer if the bidding system drives some operators out of business. “We are very concerned about a decrease in quality and access and choice of provider,” says Peter W. Thomas of the Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities.

Attorney says she could die if she’s sent to a nursing home

From the Tulsa [Oklahoma] World:

Lindsey Easton, of Glenpool, Oklahoma, has lived at home most of her life under the care of her mother and 16 hours a day of skilled nursing care provided by a Medicaid program. Easton has infantile onset Pompe’s Disease, and is dependent on a ventilator and feeding tubes.

Easton’s Medicaid coverage ended when she turned 21 in September. She was subsequently denied coverage by Oklahoma’s Advantage Waiver program when it was determined that her care would exceed the program’s cost cap. She is now challenging that decision in court, arguing that the state’s action is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

Easton has led a full and engaging life as an avid reader, Girl Scout and co-valedictorian of her graduating class at Glenpool High School in 2005. … Housing her in a nursing home could lead to medical complications, extended hospitalizations and premature death, according to her legal brief, which cites statements from Easton’s doctor and nursing case manager.

… Laurie Easton, Lindsey’s mother, said she’d never put her daughter in a nursing home and is turning to the courts because she sees no other option. She has had to fight many bureaucratic battles over the years, she said.

“We’re just normal people trying to do the right thing,” she said. “We love our kids.”

From the Associated Press on Foxnews.com:

Computer attacks typically don’t inflict physical pain on their victims. But in a rare example of an attack apparently motivated by malice rather than money, hackers recently bombarded the Epilepsy Foundation’s Web site with hundreds of pictures and links to pages with rapidly flashing images

The breach triggered severe migraines and near-seizure reactions in some site visitors who viewed the images. People with photosensitive epilepsy can get seizures when they’re exposed to flickering images, a response also caused by some video games and cartoons.

… “They were out to create seizures,” said Ken Lowenberg, senior director of Web and print publishing for the foundation.

WIRED.com called it “possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on the victims.”