From the Miami Herald (with video):

Miami’s No Barriers Festival showcases technology from around the world that promises to transform the lives of people with disabilities, allowing them to be more independent.

Among the innovations featured at the conference this weekend are an artificial sight generator; a GPS system for those who are blind; and ”smart” prosthetic limbs that read and react to brain signals like real nerve endings.

See also:

‘Technical advances help erase stigma of prosthetics‘ - Miami Herald

An interview with Paralympic track star, model, and speaker Aimee Mullins, keynote speaker for the No Barriers Festival’s opening night:

”It’s a funny thing when you cross the line from being cute to people to almost being a threat,” Mullins says, chuckling. “People once viewed the physically disabled as cute, and to be pitied. So yes, the technology has changed attitudes. I think we’re at the beginning of the end of that period when people who are missing natural limbs or have some other physical issue are automatically considered disabled. I’m certainly seeing less of that kind of attitude.”

Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs – TED

Earlier post here.

From the Orange County [CA] Register:

Surfers with amputations have been gathering at California’s San Onofre State Beach for a program called “Amp’d.” Some wear their prosthetics to surf; others don’t.

Surfing with other amputees allows them to share tips, and to see that missing a limb doesn’t mean you can’t do what you love.

Seventeen-year-old Shane Lincoln (above), who had his leg amputated after a car accident nearly three years ago, enjoyed getting back on a board. “It was sooo sick,” he said after riding five waves. “I didn’t think it would be that easy.”

(Orange County Register photo)

From the New York Times, with video:

A new modern dance company that calls itself Gimp is confronting public stereotypes about disability. Many of its members have undeveloped or amputated limbs, or bodies that defy common expectations.

Dancer Catherine Long enjoys the way the dance production makes audiences reexamine what they think they know about disability. She was born without hip sockets, kneecaps or a left arm.

“When I put myself out there on stage, I’m inviting people to look at me and I’m controlling the looking,” she says, “Whereas when I’m in the street I’m not inviting people to look at me but they do anyway.

“So this puts me in a bit more of a controlled situation, where I might then be trying to encourage people to look at themselves, and look at the way they look at different bodies, and their own body.”

The company is performing this week in New York.

See also earlier post: Go ahead and stare

(Photo from New York Times video)

From the [UK] Daily Mail:

Cerrie Burnell, co-host of a show on the BBC children’s television channel CBeebies, says she’s pleased to have sparked a national debate, but wishes it hadn’t been necessary.

The BBC has received nine official complaints and scores of emails from parents who oppose Burnell, saying she is frightening children. She was born with a right arm that ends at the elbow.

An excerpt from an interview with Burnell:

“This is the kind of discrimination disabled people face every day of their lives. This attitude still exists precisely because there are so few people with disabilities on television, so, no, I wasn’t surprised.

“You always hope that things have moved on, and it’s the same kind of discrimination that black and Asian actors faced 25 years ago. For them, things have moved on greatly, but disabled people are still struggling to fight prejudice every day

“… It can only be a good thing that parents are using me as a chance to talk about disability with their children.

“People need to be represented more honestly in the media, especially when there is so much emphasis on the body beautiful, plastic surgery and this obsession with trying to look like celebrities.

“When you are not used to seeing normal people, let alone disabled people, then anyone like me is going to create a stir. I think it’s really time to start changing perceptions.”

See also:

• Disabled TV presenter Cerrie Burnell: ‘Children can learn from me’ — [UK] Times
• Disabled BBC presenter Cerrie Burnell ‘would rather be blonde than have two hands’ — [UK] Telegraph
• Cerrie Burnell: Making it as a model is nearly impossible — [UK] Independent
• It is parents who can’t face disability on TV – [UK] Guardian TV & Radio blog
  

Cerrie Burnell was born with one arm

From Sky News, [UK] Daily Mail and the [UK] Evening Standard:

The BBC has received nine official complaints from parents that Cerrie Burnell, a new co-host on the popular children’s television channel CBeebies, is scaring their children, according to a network spokesman.

Burnell, who was born with one arm, previously worked as an actor on television and in the theater.

A spokesman for CBeebies defended Burnell. “We think that in time all mums and dads and children will love her as much as we do, ” said Michael Carrington.

Burnell said she was disappointed by the criticism but welcomed the discussion.

“It can only be a good thing that parents are using me as a chance to talk disability with their children,” she said. “It just goes to show how important it is to have positive disabled role models on CBeebies and television in general.”

(more…)

Disability rights advocates have announced plans to protest the decision by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists to grant its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to comedian Jerry Lewis this weekend for his telethon work raising funds for muscular dystrophy.

They say that Lewis has stoked pity and prejudice toward people with disabilities, as well as women and gay people. Protests are planned in Hollywood for Friday, Saturday and Sunday by “The Trouble with Jerry,” a coalition supported by thirty-three advocacy organizations.

Patrick Goldstein, writing in the Los Angeles Times “Big Picture” blog, recaps some of Lewis’ more offensive public utterances over the years.

As any veteran Lewis watcher knows, when he says what he really feels, all hell often breaks loose. In 1990, he wrote a first-person essay for Parade magazine characterizing people with muscular dystrophy as “being half a person.” In 2000, being honored by the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, he said he had no interest in female comics, saying it “sets me back a bit. As a viewer, I have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies in the world.” In 2007, during his Labor Day telethon, he jokingly referred to one of his cameramen’s sons as “the illiterate fag.” He apologized, but last October, on Australian TV, he called cricket “a fag game.”

Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune says the humanitarian award amounts to “the wrong statuette for the right guy.” He says Lewis should have gotten an Oscar in 1964 for his work on “The Nutty Professor.”

The Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, defended the selection of Lewis for the award. In a letter responding to disability rights advocates,   (more…)

Gadgets help keep elders safe in their homes, but may also add to isolation — New York Times

Turning 21 and losing medical care-Jewish Herald Voice, Houston

Recession hurting kids with developmental delays – Joseph Shapiro, National Public Radio

Iowa company profited from labor of disabled Texans - Houston Chronicle

Nevada’s disabled community faces more budget cuts - MSNBC/KRNV-TV

Laws in the U.S. say ‘no vaccination, no school’-UK Guardian

Speaker without limbs teaches compassion – Buffalo [NY] News