From the Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star:

Canada must end institutionalization of mentally disabled people and invest in their quality of life by improving access to jobs and social supports, says a report released to coincide with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

The report by the Canadian Association for Community Living found that only a quarter of Canadians who have an intellectual disability and live alone are employed, and almost 75 per cent of them live in poverty.

The group also called for the closing of Canada’s three remaining large-scale institutions, which house some 900 people in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and called for community-based services to take their place. “Living in an institution is not living,” said Bendina Miller, president of the association.

Related story: Govt. report finds 60 percent of Israelis with disabilities live in poverty; Many are isolated — YnetNews, Tel Aviv

From Associated Press/USA Today and Reuters:

The United Nations has appointed musician Stevie Wonder as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. He will will focus on helping to improve life for the estimated 650 million people with disabilities — about 10% of the world’s population.

UN representatives said the singer-songwriter, who has won 25 Grammy awards, is being recognized for his philanthropic work with the U.S. President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, the Children’s Diabetes Foundation and Junior Blind of America.

Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1950 and became blind shortly after birth.

(Getty Images photo from USA Today)

UPDATE from AP:

Referring to the 650 million people with disabilities, Wonder said, “It is beyond my ability to fathom that 10 percent of the people of this world don’t matter to the other 90 percent of the people in the world.”

“I would hope that every single human being, and every single world leader, will commit themselves to making this world a better place and accessible for every single human being on this planet,” he said.

See also: Wonder promotes message of peace — CNN

Earlier post: UN says huge barriers remain for people with disabilities

From the [UK] Independent:

A leading British academic says enhanced survival rates for premature babies will cause a rapid surge in the number of students with disabilities, and could overwhelm the school system.

Professor Barry Carpenter of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust said recent medical advances now make it possible for 80 percent of premature babies to survive, but half have severe disabilities and represent “a new breed” of children who will need to be taught differently than children seen previously.

“There is an ever-increasing group of children with complex needs who do not fit the current range of learning environments, curriculum models, or teaching and learning approaches, and who are challenging our most skilled teachers,” he said.

From the [UK] Guardian:

Doctors and parents are reporting a sharp rise in the number of children with congenital birth defects in Iraq’s Falluja area, which is known for some of the country’s fiercest fighting and largest munitions fallout.

“It’s like we are treating patients immediately after Hiroshima,” said Dr. Bassem Allah, the senior obstetrician who is chief custodian of Falluja’s newborns.

Hospitals have noted a marked increase in congenital deformities, including tumors, spina bifida, anencephaly and heart defects.

The city was the site of the two most savage and prolonged battles in Iraq during the past six years. The potentially toxic residue of precision munitions that rained down on the city for up to two months in 2004 has left many medical professionals questioning the long-term impact of modern weaponry, although few are willing, so far, to directly blame the war.

From ABC Australia News[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]:

Related story: Immigrants ‘cast off’ disabled kids to enter the country  — ABC Australia

A successful 35-year-old South African software developer is being blocked from immigrating to Australia because he is quadriplegic, even though his skills are in high demand in Australia. The government says the reason for rejecting his application is the high cost of state services for a person with a disability.

Ryan Dekker (above, right, with his father) says he can compete with anyone professionally, and can support himself without any help from the government.

Under Australian rules, families are prohibited from moving to Australia if a member has a disability or health condition predicted to cost taxpayers at least $20,000 over a lifetime.

Related posts here.

(Photo from ABC News)

From the [UK] Guardian:

Nicola Clark, the mother of a British actress with Asperger’s syndrome, has launched a campaign to stop non-disabled actors from portraying characters with disabilities. Her daughter Lizzy, 14, plays a character with Asperger’s in a highly praised BBC television film.

… Nicola Clark has said that employing actors who are not mentally disabled to play characters with neurological impairments should stop. It is the “blacking-up of the 21st century”, she said. “We need to break down these barriers. They’re unacceptable and indefensible in a modern-day society, especially when there are so many good, disabled actors who are both ready, eager and able to take on these parts.”

The BBC has begun efforts to raise the profile of performers with disabilities, and next week will launch a nationwide talent search. The network’s popular EastEnders series recently introduced David Proud, an actor with spina bifida who uses a wheelchair in real life.

On the UK’s Channel 4, a video interview with Nicola Clark. An excerpt :

Q: Can you explain, as a viewer, what I’m going to get from watching Lizzy play somebody with Asperger’s that I won’t get from an ordinary actor?

A: Authenticity … authenticity and importing the story and the characterization with the truth, I think.

(Photo of Nicola Clark from Channel 4 video)

Writing in the [UK] Guardian, actor Simon Startin praises “Cast Offs,” a new British TV mockumentary that maroons six people with disabilities on a remote British island. Startin, who has multiple disabilities, says the series portrays its characters provocatively without making apologies or “spoonfeeding” disabilities to the audience. An excerpt:

Early press coverage of the series is getting pretty excited about the notion of disabled people getting drunk and having sex (this is not news to me), but I sincerely hope this not all Cast Offs is remembered for. It aspires to be a seminal piece of television by being a vigorous riposte to traditional “impairment-informed writing” that fails to see any further than the disabilities of characters. Cast Offs promises to create storylines that go far beyond this, and in the process portrays its characters as fully rounded people, not “merely” disabled.

See also:

Is sex for the disabled the last taboo? — [UK] Times

Cast Offs: Channel 4 comedy drama tackles ‘ last taboo’ of disability — [UK] Telegraph

Cast Offs: An intrepid foray by Channel 4 into sensitive territory — [UK] Times

With Cast Offs Channel 4 has turned disability into a comedy drama — [UK] Times

(Guardian photo from Channel 4)