From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette (registration required), Google/AP:

The federal Department of Justice has filed suit against the state of Arkansas for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, alleging that the state illegally segregates hundreds of people with developmental disabilities.

The lawsuit accused Arkansas of a “systemic failure” that places people with disabilities in large institutions instead of pursuing less restrictive options for their care in community-based settings.

“The state gives individuals with developmental disabilities the draconian choice of receiving services in segregated institutions or receiving no services at all,” the lawsuit reads.

“Arkansas illegally segregates hundreds of individuals in institutions across the state and places hundreds more at risk of needless institutionalization,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez, chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We are acting now to remedy discrimination against these individuals.”

Arkansas officials said the state is complying with the ADA, and pledged to fight the federal lawsuit. “We will defend the right of our families to choose where they will have their loved ones served,” said a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

From Paris [Texas] News; Dallas Morning News:

A Texas appeals court has overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial in the case of Aaron Hart, a teenager with intellectual disabilities who had been found guilty of sexually abusing a young boy.

Disability advocates had been sharply critical of the 100-year prison sentence for Hart, calling it excessive punishment for someone who is said to have an IQ of 47. Hart’s lawyer during the appeal argued that the young man’s trial lawyer had failed to present evidence about Hart’s intellectual impairment. Hart’s parents say their son has been raped repeatedly since he has been in jail.

Aaron Hart’s punishment – 100 years in prison for a single incident – has stunned veteran disability rights advocates, who believed counseling, probation or even placement in a group home would have sufficed for a first-time offender with the mental maturity of a second-grader.

From WUSA9-TV, Washington, DC:

At Pope Paul VI High School in Fairfax, VA, students with intellectual disabilities are included in activities throughout the school, participating on such athletic teams as wrestling and basketball.

It’s all part of the school’s Options program, which started a little over ten years ago. The program brings trained professionals and student volunteers together to work with the kids with disabilities.

“Everyone learns to be comfortable with and foster friendships with those with disabilities,” said Chris Desmarais, who oversees Options. One mother said about her son, “”He’s no different in anyone else’s eyes. He’s a part of this school.”

See the video here.

From the New York Times:

Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, disclosed in an interview this week that an experimental drug has brought about substantial improvements in the behaviors of people with Fragile X syndrome in a small clinical trial.

The research involved only a few dozen subjects and has not been published or peer reviewed.

The company refused to reveal many details, citing commercial interests, but a Novartis official cautioned against too much optimism. Dr. Mark C. Fishman, president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, said the drug is likely to be years from commercial development and could fail further clinical trials.

If authenticated in further, larger trials, the results could also become a landmark in the field of autism research, since scientists speculated that the drug may help some patients with autism not caused by fragile X, perhaps becoming the first medicine to address autism’s core symptoms.

… “This is perhaps the most promising therapeutic discovery ever for a gene-based behavioral disease,” said Dr. Edward M. Scolnick, former research chief at Merck and now director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Columnist Neal St. Anthony, writing in the [Minneapolis-St. Paul] Star-Tribune, says workers with developmental disabilities “help drive the culture and success” at Key Surgical, a local firm that manufactures and distributes surgical products.

The company employs five such workers, including Misty Colby (left), through Lifeworks Services, a nonprofit that trains and supports them. The Lifeworks-trained workers are accompanied by a job coach and paid an average of $8.25 an hour, depending on productivity. They focus on detailed, repetitive work including counting, sorting, assembling, labeling and packaging.

“The Lifeworks folks are extremely diligent,” says Key Surgical CEO Brian O’Connell. “They are a part of a company that we think is a fun, vibrant, interesting place to work.”

From Politico.com:

Three young adults with intellectual disabilities are working as interns in Congress, courtesy of a new pilot program affiliated with Mason LIFE, a post-secondary program for adults with intellectual disabilities at George Mason University.

While the internships don’t guarantee future paid employment, organizers are hopeful that the office experience and self-confidence the students gain will give their resumes a welcome boost.

Mississippi Republican Rep. Gregg Harper, whose son has Fragile X syndrome, reached out to Mason LIFE to get the internship program started.

“After dealing with these issues for 20-plus years, that’s kind of where our heart is,” Harper said. “A lot of times, when you get out of high school and you’re dealing with intellectual disabilities, you fall off the educational face of the Earth. Sometimes you’re looking to give hope to some of these families who want their child to continue on.”

From the [Toronto] Globe and Mail:

Parents and educators of kids with developmental disabilities offer high praise for the new Apple iPad. They say it can serve as an assisted communication device, can help kids focus on routine tasks, and is a great help at easing student anxiety.

“It’s just a game changer,” says Samuel Sennott, co-creator of the popular Proloquo2Go software. “It’s … [a] portable, table-top solution for people with physical impairments, people with visual impairments.”

Sennott’s speech-generating software, currently ranked at number 34 in the United States among more than 185,000 available apps, is available in an iPad version.