From various sources:

Op-ed: No excuse for the R-word — The Dallas Morning News. Wayne Carter, an editor for the newspaper’s website, says thoughtless use of insulting language jeopardizes the public’s acceptance of people like his son, who has Down syndrome. Carter is particularly troubled by recent estimates of a 90 percent abortion rate in cases of Down syndrome.

An excerpt:

So this is about more than hurt feelings. This is about the place the mentally challenged hold in our society. What does the future hold for our son in a world where so many people, if the choice had been theirs, would have killed him before he was born?

On a post on our movies blog about the controversy, a reader commented that nobody has a sense of humor anymore. I responded that I have a sense of humor, I get the intent. But as the father of a child with Down syndrome, I have a hard time swallowing the use of that word in any context. Another reader responded to my comment with this advice: “Wayne, The world ain’t gonna change on your account.”

Well, may be it won’t, not on my account or that of any of the people with whom I stand on this. But we can’t let it be so because we didn’t try.

Op-ed: Dad of youth with disabilities says controversy is overblown — Writing in the Chicago Tribune, David Greising says the word “retard” can’t be compared to the word “nigger.” To do so is to “cheapen the treachery” of the racial slur, he says. Greising’s 18-year-old son Wes has disabilities and cannot speak.

When I heard Downey use the word “retard” in the movie, I felt he was on Wes’ side, not making fun of him. And just for the record—for those who say children with disabilities might be ridiculed because of this movie—never in Wes’ life have we heard that he was made the object of ridicule. Our society has matured since a generation ago, when my boyhood friends and I heartlessly felt “retarded” kids might be the butt of jokes.

… The filmmakers knew precisely what they were doing with the word “retarded.” They used it well. They aimed their satire at Hollywood, and perhaps even at our simplistic understanding of people with disabilities.

If the boycotters think it through, perhaps even they will start to catch the joke

Op-ed: Lodging a complaint on political correctness — Andrew Lisa in the [Vineland, NJ] Daily Journal

Intellectual disabilities?

Listen, words like “retard” are crude and mean, and if you make fun of people with disabilities, you’re an idiot.

But how much can I be expected to remember?

Disabilities group wants ‘Tropic Thunder’ canned — Daytona [FL] News-Journal. Movie theater owners say they’d like to pull “Tropic Thunder,” but to do so would jeopardize their contracts.

Articles:

• Movie’s jokes not so funny to group — Detroit Free Press
• Local family joins protest of ‘Tropic Thunder’ — [Spokane, WA] Spokesman Review
• Review: Yes, ‘Tropic Thunder’ offends. That’s the point — Arizona Republic
• Advocates protest ‘hate speech’ in movie – Milford [MA] Daily News

Letters:

• Letter: Hurtful movie — Chicago Tribune
• Letter: Movie hurts battle to end negative stereotypes — Chicago Tribune
• Letter: Insensitive film fosters intolerance — The Times [Trenton, NJ]
• Letter: Offensive movie deserves boycott — Springfield [MO] News-Leader
• Letter: Movie mocks, pokes fun at people with disabilities — Ottumwa, Iowa, Courier

From The Independent:

Students with learning disabilities in the UK have traditionally faced extremely limited job opportunities, but colleges are now working to change that. Orchard Hill College, a non-residential school for students with complex needs, deliberately moved to a more urban location in Surrey to get higher visibility for its students.

At first, some of the locals were a bit freaked out, admits Principal Caroline Allen. “It’s interesting because people now often tell us our students are ‘not as disabled’ as they thought. I think they probably are, but their preconceptions about how much people with disabilities can contribute were rather narrow.”

… There’s still a long way to go, believes Hugh Williams, director of education at Linkage College. “You still get people with learning disabilities put into stereotypical work like stacking shelves in supermarkets, but things are changing.”

Other schools are working at strengthening social skills, improving access to technology, involving students in the community, and facilitating work placement.

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Brothers Will and Max Graf (l-r, with sister Laura) handle celebrity and middle school with confidence after being featured in the national media. The Post-Gazette began chronicling their middle school experiences last year, in stories here and here.

The brothers, who were both born with a form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, have been featured in People magazine as well as NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “20/20.”

Max, who’s starting to think he might like being a teacher, was only too happy to do his part in letting people know that dwarfs, despite their small size and slightly larger heads, are not “freak shows.”

“We’ve got the same size heart and same size brain as everybody else,” he said. “We’re no different. We’re just smaller. That’s it.”

The brothers also quickly dispelled fears about middle school when speaking to incoming students on an orientation panel, saying it was the best year they ever had.

(Scripps Howard News Service photo)

From the Boston Globe, [Danbury, CT] News-Times:

In a Connecticut high school program described as unique in the state, students who can see are learning Braille alongside students with visual impairments.

The sighted students are building relationships with students who have visual impairments and becoming aware of the daily challenges they face, as well as learning the raised-dot alphabet,

“Getting to know the blind students gave me a newfound respect for them,” said sighted student Courtney Parente, 17. “By seeing how independent they are, it changed my whole perspective towards people with disabilities.”

See earlier post: Braille literacy drop called civil rights issue

From the Romenesko website on Poynter.org:

“Left out by inclusion,” a series by Wall Street Journal reporters Robert Tomsho, John Hechinger and Daniel Golden, won the New York Press Club’s 2008 Gold Keyboard award for outstanding enterprise or investigative reporting.

Synopsis from chief judge, David Diaz:

In a series on one of the most significant educational policy changes in decades, this finely written and thoroughly researched investigation shows that the “mainstreaming” of special education students has failed to live up to its promise - while hurting some of the very children it was supposed to help.

See earlier posts here and here and here and here.

From the Washington Post:

Several schools in suburban Washington’s Montgomery County have programs for children with Asperger’s syndrome. They focus on teaching students to recognize and cope with their symptoms, as well as including them into general education classes to the greatest extent appropriate.

The Montgomery County program is one of only a handful at public schools across the country. Before her son entered it, one mother said, “I couldn’t see my child as anything. I couldn’t imagine him having a normal life. And now, my child has a personality. He’s funny. I can see him as an engineer. I can see him as an architect. I can see his life.”

From the Fort Wayne [Indiana] News-Sentinel:

Emmanuel Community Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, recently launched a program that is designed to include and support people with disabilities and their families. The ABLE program also provides education and awareness training about disability for fellow worshippers. Others in the faith community are also starting to provide programs.

“It’s so important for families to have someplace to go where they are accepted,” said Cathy Pratt, director of the Indiana Resource Center on Autism at Indiana University Bloomington. “The church community should be an obvious place of understanding and acceptance.”

Said a church leader, “Accessibility is not a wheelchair ramp. Accessibility is in your heart.”

See related post here.