CNN interviews athlete and actress Aimee Mullins, a double amputee who has set world records using prosthetic devices. An excerpt:

[Mullins] believes that people are not born disabled. “It’s society that disables an individual by not investing in enough creativity to allow for someone to show us the quality that makes them rare and valuable and capable.”

The interview links to video of a speech Mullins gave before a medical audience last year in San Diego, in which she underscored the negative connotations of the term “disabled.” In the CNN interview, Mullins was asked about the significance of language in defining possibilities for people with disabilities. Her response:

It’s not so much the word itself. The idea of being politically correct is not the goal here. It’s how we use the word very casually as a label to try to encompass somebody’s value to our community and the worth of their contribution to our community. That’s what we need to get right.

From Forbes Magazine:

Hugh Herr, director of the biomechatronics group at MIT’s Media Lab, has spent the past 27 years revolutionizing technology for people with prosthetic limbs, His goal: to build artificial limbs that are superior to natural ones. Both of Herr’s legs were amputated below the knee when he was 17 after a rock climbing expedition left him with severe frostbite.

Next year, Herr’s company iWalk is planning to release the PowerFoot One, the world’s most advanced robotic ankle and foot. “I like to say that there are no disabled people,” says Herr, 45. “Only disabled technology.”

“The fact that I’m missing lower limbs is an opportunity,” he says. “Between my residual limb and the ground, I can create anything I want. The only limits are physical laws and my imagination.”

“… Disabled people today are the test pilots for technology that will someday be pervasive,” Herr explains. “Eliminating disability and blurring man and machine will be one of the great stories of this century.”

Forbes calls Herr a “cyborg evangelist.”

(Forbes Magazine photo)

See also:

MIT’s Next Bionic Breakthrough — Forbes Magazine

From the New Haven [CT] Register:

Speaking at a Connecticut disability hiring forum, Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy Jr. called employment “the final chapter of the civil rights struggle.” It is estimated that some 13 million working age Americans with disabilities are unable to find work.

Kennedy, a lawyer who lives in Branford, Connecticut, lost his right leg to cancer in 1973. He said the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has not brought about needed changes in employment, and called on employers to welcome people with disabilities.

Kennedy … said his disability “has shaped who I am today.”

“People with disabilities are hardworking people,” Kennedy said. “People with disabilities want a job, not a handout.”

From the [UK] Guardian, BBC:

A beauty pageant for victims of Cambodia’s millions of landmines has been canceled after the government denounced the event as an insult to disabled people.

Khieu Khanarith, a government spokesman, said that the Miss Landmine contest, which was to have taken place this Friday, would “make a mockery of Cambodia’s landmine victims. The government does not support this contest.”

… Last week the country’s ministry of social affairs warned the organizers that the event would damage “the dignity and honour of our disabled, especially women”.

The winner of the contest was to be selected via Internet voting, and would have received a high-tech prosthetic limb. Organizers said the contest was designed to raise awareness of the dangers of unexploded landmines and to enhance participants’ self-esteem. It is estimated that up to 6 million unexploded landmines remain in Cambodia.

Earlier post here.

(Photo from pageant website)

From ABC News:

Because summer camps traditionally don’t serve kids with disabilities, specialty camps designed specifically for them are cropping up around the country.

“Summer camp is just part of Americana, and if you’ve got children with particular special needs it’s just very difficult for them to readily fit into a mainstream setting,” said Sean Nienow, the director of the National Camp Association. “Camps are set up with a lot of physical activity and are not set up to cater special needs.”

ABC profiles some specialty camps:

• Camp Twitch and Shout (outside Atlanta) for children with Tourette’s syndrome;
• Adventure Amputee Camp (Bryson, N.C.) for children with amputations;
• Cap I-Thonka-Chi (Meridian, TX) for children with traumatic burns;
• Camp Sunshine (outside Atlanta) for children with cancer;
• Camp Heartland (Minneapolis) for children who are infected with HIV/AIDs or have family members who are; and
• Camp Celiac (North Scituate, R.I.) for children with celiac disease.

… One boy at the Adventure Amputee Camp spoke for all the special needs campers when he was asked what he liked best about camp: “No one is staring, asking what’s wrong with you or criticizing your faults.”

See also:

‘At Camp Twitch and Shout, Tourette kids can be themselves’ — CNN

(ABC News photo)

On the eve of the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, editors of the Green Bay [WI] Press Gazette salute 16-year-old Jonathan Heider (left), who has set his sights on competing in the 2012 Paralympics. Heider was born without arms or legs. An excerpt:

The ADA has had its share of critics. There always was a fear that employers would pass on an applicant because of the perceived costs of accommodating a disability. Some disabilities are not as visible as others, and so the need for accommodation might be questioned.

But on balance, raising awareness of these issues has contributed greatly to American society, and finding ways to maximize people’s abilities has improved countless lives. As we remove more barriers, we likely will find more Jonathan Heiders ready to fulfill remarkable dreams.

See also: ‘We must uphold ADA’ — Port Huron [MI] Times Herald

Clerk says she was banished to the stockroom because prosthetic arm didn’t fit retailer’s image

From the [UK] Daily Mail:

A law student and part-time clerk is suing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for discrimination, saying representatives of the firm’s London store banished her to the stockroom because her prosthetic arm didn’t comport with the company’s image.

Riam Dean, 22, says she was told she had broken the company’s “Look Policy,” that lists in minute detail the requirements for staff appearance.

She said she had been given permission to wear a long-sleeved cardigan to cover the join between her arm and her artificial limb, but that a member of the retailer’s “visual team” objected.

Dean is seeking damages of £25,000. Four years ago, Abercrombie settled a £25million lawsuit, in which nine former employees alleged that they were forced to work in stockrooms or take night shifts cause they did not fit the “Abercrombie look.” All the litigants were from ethnic minority groups.