From the [UK] Independent:

Advocates and officials held urgent talks in London last week to discuss the forced marriages of people with learning disabilities to foreigners seeking passports.

The Foreign Office’s Forced Marriage Unit dealt with more than 80 cases of forced marriages involving people with learning disabilities last year, amounting to more than one in five of the total cases reported to the government. Experts fear the true scale of the problem is far worse.

Support groups attribute these forced marriages to the stigma of disability in some ethnic communities, the social and cultural isolation of people with disabilities, the fear of aging parents that their vulnerable children will not be cared for, and the view that people with disabilities are commodities.

Rape, domestic violence and abandonment are common consequences of such marriages, according to support groups.

From the Washington Post:

Inspired by his son Casey, Kirk Martin developed a business called Celebrate Calm, which uses workshops to coach parents and teachers on helping kids with ADHD and other conditions. (Kirk at left, holding a brain model, with son Casey.)

The key to Martin’s approach: His belief that “intense” kids need adults to model calm behavior.

His thinking is not that something is wrong with “intense” children, a term used to describe children who can be volatile because of conditions such as ADHD, oppositional defiance disorder, and sensory integration and anxiety disorders.

Instead, Kirk says, he believes they are simply wired differently and have “gifts, talents and passions” that are not compatible with traditional educational settings. Rather than asking how to “fix” these kids, he says he asks, “What are the advantages, what are the ways we can work with this mind to obtain good results?”

(Washington Post photo)

From the Orange County Register:

Matthew Morreale, 24, who is diagnosed with autism, has opened his own business shredding documents in Orange County. (At far left with mother Marthe and brother Joseph.)

Morreale is a local example of a growing trend in California and elsewhere, in which individuals with developmental disabilities start small niche businesses that can be launched with minimal funding yet make a steady profit. Experts hope these self-employment opportunities might offer a solution for the growing number of individuals with developmental disabilities exiting the education system and looking for work.

“Self-sufficiency and independence means not only lessening the impact on the budget, so they don’t have to rely on social supports,” said Dorsey Griffith, a spokeswoman for the state’s department of developmental services. “These people are good workers, and they’re happier when they’re working and they’re part of the community.”

Other adults with disabilities in the state are running mall kiosks, selling handmade bags, operating floral businesses and staging puppet shows for children’s parties.

(Family photo in Orange County Register)

From the Los Angeles Times:

A plan by California First Lady Maria Shriver to help people with disabilities find jobs is now in jeopardy, the victim of budget cuts proposed by her husband, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Republican executive is proposing to cut $7 million from the state programs that Shriver was relying on to advance her goals. The proposed cuts are part of an effort to resolve a projected $15.2 billion state deficit.

The inconsistency within California’s first couple is not lost on social service advocates.

Shriver had outlined a plan to find employment for 20,000 Californians with developmental disabilities, and to get positive publicity for employers that have had success hiring people with disabilities. There are an estimated 90,000 people with cognitive disabilities of working age in California, and over 70 per cent are unemployed.

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 New York Times, a review by Andy Webster of “Heavy Load,” a documentary about a British garage-punk band that is composed mainly of people with learning disabilities. The film doesn’t specify the nature of the disabilities, Webster says, but one band member has Down syndrome.

Depicted in the film is the band’s Stay up Late Campaign, which encourages people with disabilities to challenge the curfew system so they can choose the lives they want to be living.

An opening intertitle announces “A film about happiness.” Oh, please. It’s about struggle, the efforts of an ensemble wrestling with artistic obstacles as well as biological ones. It’s also a portrait of British band life: playing in smoky pubs and studios and at outdoor concerts and hustling tracks to a music publisher. And it is a portrait of a nation with social services and a public so compassionate it makes our own look heartless.

Other reviews:

(more…)

From The Bellevue [Washington] Reporter:

Four students with developmental disabilities have graduated from Bellevue Community College’s Venture Program, becoming the first to earn associate degrees in occupational and life skills (AOLS) for completing the program’s 90-credit, college-level curriculum.

The accredited AOLS degree is described as the first and only one of its kind in the nation for students with learning, cognitive and intellectual disabilities. The program is designed to integrate academic, workplace, social, and life skills to better prepare students for independence and employment. There are currently 53 students enrolled, and a staff of eight teachers.

(BCC Venture Program photo)