From CBC News [Canada]:

Ontario’s “piecemeal” approach to treating adults with autism leaves some of society’s most vulnerable people without the help they need, an advocacy group said in a paper released Wednesday. Autism Ontario said the region’s government needs to develop consistent policies to serve these people.

The paper, entitled “Forgotten,” called for plans to provide educational, employment and social opportunities, as well as supported living options.

Related story from the BBC News:

Northern Ireland’s National Autistic Society says seventy percent of adults with autism in Northern Ireland feel they do not get enough support. The organization launched a campaign entitled “I Exist” to advocate for approximately 17,000 adults with autism in the region.

Here’s the video.

See earlier post.

From the [UK] Telegraph, BBC, [UK] Independent:

Sir Ken MacDonald (left), the UK’s highest ranking prosecutor, said this week that disability hate crime is widespread and the criminal justice system is failing to address it. He urged UK police and prosecutors to seek tougher sentences against those who victimize people with disabilities.

“This is a scar on the conscience of criminal justice,” he said in a speech. “All institutions involved in criminal justice, including my own, share the responsibility.”

Macdonald said the biggest barrier to effective prosecution is a failure by law enforcement personnel to perceive that people with disabilities are targets of systematic hostility and prejudice. A 2003 law in the UK allows courts to punish offenders more severely if a crime is motivated by a victim’s disability or sexual orientation, but the measure is rarely used.

Research by the charity Mencap says people with learning disabilities in the UK live in fear and face harassment on a regular basis. The UK has seen a number of murders and acts of violence against people with disabilities over the past year.

See also: This hatred is borne out of fear of disability — by Ian Macrae in the [UK] Indendependent. An excerpt:

Disabled people’s impairments frighten people because they show them what they could become. Hate is too easily borne out of that fear. And that is what the judiciary, the police and the criminal justice system – and indeed society at large – have to come to terms with. Disabled people create fear and hatred in just the same way as people from ethnic minorities do for the racist; women do for the rapist, or gay people do for the homophobe.

Earlier posts:

• BBC asks: Does disability hate crime exist?
• UK gang sentenced to life for murder of disabled man
• Columnist: We must protect people from this wave of barbaric and hateful crimes

From the New York Times:

Heba Said Ahmed (left) won a gold medal for power lifting at the recent Paralympic Games in Beijing, and broke a world record.

But when she left Beijing and returned home to Egypt, Ahmed once again faced a society that views her as a second-class citizen because she cannot walk, a disability caused by a childhood bout of polio. An excerpt:

“I want to prove to society that I am better than what they think of me,” she said. “In Egypt, they think a handicapped person should just stay in bed.”

It is hard to overstate how different Ms. Ahmed is from many of those around her. It is all about attitude. Egypt is filled with people who face adversity, most often a function of poverty and systemic indifference. It is a class-based society with an unwritten contract that many people believe condemns them to live as they were born, poor and marginalized. There is a pervasive feeling of impotence, a collective belief that fighting back is futile.

But Ms. Ahmed never refers to fate; she talks about choices. She does not talk about obstacles; she talks about challenges.

… “There is no such thing as a handicap,” she said. “A handicap is in your thinking, or in your heart.”

From the [UK] Guardian:

A UK charity says that many of the 1.5 million people with learning disabilities in the UK are being denied an effective voice in their care, and would be better served with the use of new multimedia technologies.

The Rix Centre said that new technology, including digital cameras, social networking sites and other multimedia sites, could be used to revolutionize the care of people with disabilities.

Andy Minnion, the group’s director, said websites could be created a low cost to offer information in formats that people with learning disabilities would find easy to use, but he said the government should provide multimedia training for caregivers.

The charity is hosting a conference called My New Media Life at the British Museum.

From the International Herald-Tribune, CNN:

More than a dozen of the world’s first ladies gathered at the UN Friday to call for a global effort to improve research, treatment and acceptance for people with autism.

“Not too long ago, those affected by autism-related disorders were set aside, placed in institutions, or dismissed as untreatable lost cases,” said Ban Soon-taek, wife of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. “Today, sadly this reality is still prevalent in some parts of the world.”

From ABC News:

Ethicists and Alzheimer’s advocacy groups are expressing outrage over a comment made by a British philosopher this week that people with dementia have a “duty to die” to minimize the burden they place on their families and society.

Baroness Mary Helen Warnock made the remarks in an interview with the Church of Scotland’s Life and Work magazine. “If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives — your family’s lives — and you’re wasting the resources of the National Health Service,” she said. The comment echoed an article titled “A Duty to Die?” that she had written for a Norwegian periodical.

“We dispute the fact that if you have dementia or some part of Alzheimer’s that you cannot have a quality lifestyle,” noted Paul Williams, director of public policy for the Assisted Living Federation of America. “We’ve seen in the last 10 years that these residents have been able to have the most independence and the quality of life that can be expected of them. … Just because you have a memory disease [doesn't mean] that we let you die and we can kill you.”

From [UK] Times: (Editor’s note: Link no longer working as of 3 p.m. Eastern)

In the wake of a court decision that found a mother guilty of murdering her daughter with cerebral palsy, parents of children with disabilities say they face daily battles with schools and social services to be given the help they need. During the trial of Joanne Hill, the court heard testimony that Hill was motivated by shame over her daughter Naomi’s condition. (Photo above.)

Joanne Hill admitted to killing her daughter, but denied murder on the grounds of mental illness, including depression.

Parents of children with disabilities described losing social safety nets, including being abandoned by spouses, being ignored by social services, losing services when relocating, losing jobs, and becoming homeless.

… Hill’s is not an isolated case. While most parents love their disabled children unconditionally, they are also worn out by endless battles for the services they are entitled to.

The controversial debate of terminations in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill returns to Parliament in the coming weeks. Some parents say that if they had known how difficult life was to be with disabled children they might have reconsidered their choice.

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