From ESPN, a feature with video about Team USA, winners of the 2008 Canada Cup International Wheelchair Rugby Tournament and ranked number one in the world.

The sport, once called “murderball,” pits athlete against athlete in often violent and painful combat that relies on skills, coordination and timing. In the video, team members discuss the points they earn for their level of impairment, and bicker over which players are more valuable to the team. One thing is not in dispute: their dedication to winning in the Beijing Paralympics. The video features exciting game footage.

(Above: 18-year-old Joel Wilmoth is the youngest ever member of the U.S. wheelchair rugby team. ESPN photo)

From The Detroit Free Press:

Shannon Wiltse was raised to be fiercely independent after she was born with partial limbs, but she longed for a relationship and found the answer on the internet. Wiltse, a genetics counselor, says she felt discouraged by the way men reacted to her disability so she didn’t reveal her condition to Allen DeWall until six weeks after they began chatting online.

“You need to know,” Shannon told Allen, “that I’m missing everything from the knees down, on both legs, and on my left arm from the elbow down, and on my right hand I have one digit, just one finger.”

Allen remembers thinking, “What am I getting myself into?”

But he did not say “Let’s just be friends.”

He said, “So what?”

… has been posted on Youtube.

Among the high points: The show grapples with standard concepts of beauty; contestants discuss how they feel about their own disabilities and who is “worse off”; fashion industry people confess their discomfort and wonder whether disability “sells”; a photographer asks the model prospects if he can shoot their impairments; contestants cope with access problems; contestants pose in lingerie; and judges debate which prospect might make the best “role model.”

Quotes from the introduction:

Beauty sells. Beauty is perfection.

Competition to make it as a top model in the cut-throat world of fashion is second to none.

So what are the chances of a disabled woman making it in a world obsessed with perfection?

“God, New York would rather burn their city down than put a disabled model on the catwalk, I reckon.”

“Disability has a natural place in life, so why shouldn’t it be part of fashion?”

(BBC photo)

As Britain’s Missing Top Model debuts, one of the judges writes on the BBC website about her hopes for the show. Lara Masters is a writer, model and actor who uses an electric wheelchair.

The fact is that fashion is a business and it is us, the consumers, who keep it thriving. Is it any wonder the industry sticks to a winning formula and largely shuns the idea of using bigger, more representational female models, let alone disabled models whose physical forms will be even more difficult to sell as aspirational?

Yet maybe the BBC’s reality show will make a difference. After all, fashionistas are always looking for something new, and disabled models are perfect to create intrigue and attract attention.

With video.

More about Lara Masters on BBC’s Ouch website.

From The New York Times:

Iraq, which has been in three wars in two decades, has a robust Paralympic team. Twelve of the 20 athletes who have qualified for the Paralympic games are disabled war veterans.

“As a country that participated in many wars since 1980, we have many disabled people,” said Ahmed Abid Hassan, a wheelchair fencing coach. “Our Paralympic team is better than our Olympic team.”

Above, Rasul Kadhim, a weight lifter with a paralyzed leg. (New York Times photo)

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Legislation has been introduced in Ohio that would expand the state’s hate crime law to provide protection to people with disabilities.

The measure was prompted by the attack last February of Ashley Clark, a teenager who has an intellectual disability and was born without limbs. Authorities say she was violently attacked in her rural home by two assailants who tied her up, beat her with a baseball bat, robbed her, cut off her hair and destroyed her prom dress.

The bill’s sponsor says that the attack would qualify as a hate crime if the proposed law were in place because Clark’s disability appears to be a key reason why she was targeted. Even if the bill were passed, it would have no bearing on the trial of the two suspects in the case.

Earlier post here.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Injured Iraq veteran Andy Robinson found difficulty adjusting to life at home until he focused his intensity on handcycling and managing Team Semper Fi, a group of injured Marines who are endurance athletes.

“When I was riding my handcycle, they weren’t looking at me like, ‘He’s messed up.’ They look at you with a lot of respect,” says Robinson.

Team Semper Fi is founded and funded by the nonprofit Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund and supports Marines by purchasing equipment, working on recruiting, finding events for the athletes to participate in, and arranging the logistics.

Founding member Derek McGinnis, an Iraq veteran who uses a prosthetic limb to participate in races and triathlons, expects the team to eventually send athletes to the Paralympics or Iron Man competitions.