From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Henry deYoung, 23, was named Carnegie Mellon’s top undergraduate computer science student last spring, and is now enrolled in the school’s Ph.D. program. His younger brother Andrew, 21, also a student at Carnegie Mellon, is just as brilliant. They both have spinal muscular atrophy, a muscle-weakening disorder.

Technically, they’ve already outlived their expected lifespan, but they don’t dwell on it. They’re not expecting a cure. An excerpt:

“I think one’s circumstances affect one’s life, and I think it’s helpful if I and others remember that, and know that really, circumstances are just circumstances, not necessarily bad,” Andrew DeYoung wrote in an e-mail.

“In other words, we all need to remember that every person has value, not because of what we do, but just because we are. And it doesn’t matter whether one is president of the United States or is one of the dozens of sick children waiting right now at Children’s Hospital for a transplant — I think that if we all remembered that we all have value, life would be a bit more pleasant, and less goal-oriented.”

From the Hartford [CT] Courant:

Walgreens Co. is nearly finished building a $175 million distribution center in Windsor, CT, in which one-third of the projected 550 jobs will go to people with disabilities.The center will serve 275 drugstores.

In a similar Walgreen facility in Anderson, SC, 42 percent of the workers have one or more disabilities. The driving force behind the company’s disability hiring effort is Randy Lewis, the company’s senior vice president of distribution and logistics. Lewis’ son has autism.

Walgreens worked with technology experts to create equipment and software that meets the needs of people with disabilities. Company officials anticipate that the technological improvements will “increase worker productivity by 20 percent and boost long-term job retention in all of its modernized distribution centers.”

Earlier posts here and here and here.

From Fortune Small Business/CNN Money:

Dr. Glen House, who became quadriplegic at 20, teamed with biotech executive J.W. Roth to found Disaboom.com. The company is a fast-growing social network aimed at the 50 million Americans with disabilities and their caregivers. House’s goal: to help them “live forward with their conditions.”

The site offers advertisers an opportunity to reach a previously untapped market, including a reported 72,000 registered users. An excerpt:

… House demonstrates that disabilities are no obstacle in the brave new world of technology. If anything, the determination they engender provides a clear business advantage. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of self-employed Americans with disabilities has grown from 12% to 15% since the dawn of the Web. For the rest of us, the figure has stayed static at 8%. Your next competitor may just zoom past you in a wheelchair.

Roth also launched companion sites Disaboomjobs.com, an employment site responding to the high unemployment of people with disabilities, and lovebyrd, a dating site for those with disabilities.

See earlier post here.

(David Yellen photo/Fortune Small Business/CNN.com)

From the New York Times:

Families that include people with autism are determined to enjoy family vacations, and a small but growing number of tour operators, travel agents and resorts are offering getaways that are specially geared to their needs.

Opportunities include an “Autism on the Seas” package on a Royal Caribbean liner, a Colorado ranch, and various resorts and hotels. The 300-hotel chain Microtel Inns & Suites, known for welcoming guests with physical differences, also trains staff in hidden disabilities like autism.

A recent Harris poll showed that Americans with disabilities spent $13.6 billion annually on travel in the United States, not including the caregivers and family members who often accompany them.

From Newsday:

People with physical disabilities learn to scuba dive.

By Mary Lynne Kelley in the Detroit Free Press:

I fear that McCain is too afraid to appear weak by acknowledging his disability and, as such, is poised to let down those Americans who face their own every day with bravery and dignity.

… A strange dichotomy exists that allows us to view John McCain as heroic for the injuries he sustained as a POW but weak for the resulting disability. Perhaps he is trying to conceal it out of concern for his electability.

… John McCain does not offer a disability policy. A search of the McCain Web site, JohnMcCain.com reveals no disability issue section. McCain’s health care proposals, Straight Talk on Health System Reform, make no mention of the word disabled or disability.

(Detroit Free Press photo)

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Cheyenne Blanton, 17, (photo left) pleaded guilty to committing seven felonies against Ashley Clark, 19, who has a mental disability and was “humiliated, terrorized and tortured” for hours according to prosecutors.

Blanton could be sent to prison for 59 years and pay fines exceeding $100,000 for charges that include aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, conspiracy, felonious assault, vandalism, and kidnapping.

Prosecutors said Blanton and her boyfriend, Joseph Nagle, showed Ashley a knife and threatened to kill her. “They shaved her head and eyebrows, placed her in a cold shower and made her walk in the snow, soaking wet and barefoot in freezing temperatures,” said a prosecutor.

Sentencing was set for Sept. 5. Blanton’s boyfriend, Joseph Nagle, also faces charges

See earlier posts here and here.

(Cincinnati Enquirer photo