From ABC Good Morning America:

A father’s vision for his own daughter has led to the creation of a 25-acre theme park tailored to serve people with disabilities.

Opening Saturday in San Antonio, Texas, Morgan’s Wonderland features high-tech attractions designed to suit a wide range of cognitive and physical needs, rides that accommodate wheelchairs, and special bracelets with microchips that allow parents to keep track of wandering kids.

Former real estate developer Gordon Hartman said his 16-year-old daughter Morgan inspired him to create a fully accessible and inclusive place where the words ‘couldn’t', ‘shouldn’t’ and ‘can’t’ weren’t part of the vocabulary.

Neil Greenspan, writing in the Huffington Post, says the fundamental problems facing adults with autism-related disabilities are rarely addressed by the media. Reasonably typical, he says, is a young adult of his acquaintance who lives alone and is unemployed and socially isolated.

Among the problems Greenspan sees for adults with autism:

• A lack of organized support for socialization or recreation;
• A lack of job prospects, coupled with a lack of effective help in finding and maintaining work;
• A lack of housing options for adults who need some supervision or support;
• A shortage of trained medical professionals and coordinated care.

An excerpt:

Current policies and practices usually condemn adults with autism to constricted lives of mostly sub-optimal choices. Progress on the core deficiencies identified above will have to be achieved if the majority of adults with autism are to have even a modest chance for reasonably fulfilling and productive lives. Continuation of the status quo will represent a moral as well as a policy failure, as warehousing should be for consumer goods, not people.

Greenspan is an immunologist in the Department of Pathology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

A group of Ohio parents have banded together to create a rural residential and employment program for their adult children with autism.

It’s estimated that the non-profit Safe Haven Farms will cost $3.2 million, and will house up to 24 adults.

Sometimes lost amid questions about what causes autism and why its prevalence has increased – neither answer is known – is this: What happens when all those children become adults?

“If I were to grade our country on adult services for individuals with autism, I’d have to give it an F,” says Jeff Sell, vice president of advocacy and public policy for the Autism Society of America. “There are just very few options out there.

(Cincinnati Enquirer photo of program founders Denny and Ann Rogers and daughter Emily)

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)

From the Colorado Springs Gazette:

The Qwest Pioneers, a volunteer group of Qwest employees, hosted an adaptive Easter egg hunt at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind this week that featured a technological innovation for those with visual impairments – audible plastic eggs.

The handmade eggs were based on a 1964 invention of a beeping softball that was created so blind people could play.

Deaf students competed to find brightly colored eggs. Similar egg hunts were hosted in Denver, Grand Junction and other areas in which Qwest provides service.

See also:

Beeping eggs make Easter hunt a blast for blind students - Tucson Citizen

Easter Egg Hunt: Visually impaired children find more than eggs - Omaha World-Herald

Cleveland Sight Center holds Easter egg hunt for blind, visually impaired – Cleveland Plain Dealer

(Photo from Colorado Springs Gazette)

From the Chicago Tribune:

Choosing gifts for kids who have autism may be difficult — particularly when their desires are for things that may seem exotic or not age-appropriate. “Once I let go of some of those social expectations … and bought what I just thought would make her happy, it’s all been good,” said one mother.

For some children, the objects of desire may be church directories, word puzzles, spinning toys, Sesame Street characters or even cleaning supplies.  Many families come to realize that the obsession represents their child’s need for a coping tool or a bridge to an otherwise overwhelming world.

(Photo from sesamestreet.org)

Guest editorial by Andrew Monkelban in Wired Magazine. Monkelban is an avid player of video games who says he has “always received strange looks” from other gamers. An excerpt:

I was born with cerebral palsy, a non-progressive condition that affects the part of the brain that handles the limbs and fine motor functions. I’m unable to talk or walk, which confines me to a wheelchair. I only have full use of my right arm, but I can play one-handed. Playing certain games one-handed can be challenging, and there are some games that I cannot play, but I’m always up for a good challenge. It’s part of what makes me, or anyone else, a gamer.

… Sometimes, I’m still a little surprised that the fact of my being a one-handed, physically challenged gamer amazes people. When I go out, such as to an arcade, people look down on me. It’s like me being in a wheelchair automatically makes me a bad gamer. But once they see what I can do, they’re left in awe. In my mind, I’ve never been any different from other gamers.

…   Much like girl gamers before us, challenged gamers are becoming a larger part of the gaming community. So, if I can show others that just because we’re “handicapped” doesn’t mean that we’re to be taken lightly, I’d feel satisfied. This is one reason why my motto on Xbox Live is “Seeing Is Believing”. I may not be the best gamer in the world, but I’m certainly not the worst. Underestimate me, and it’s very likely I’ll kick your butt.