From the [UK] Guardian:

Doctors and parents are reporting a sharp rise in the number of children with congenital birth defects in Iraq’s Falluja area, which is known for some of the country’s fiercest fighting and largest munitions fallout.

“It’s like we are treating patients immediately after Hiroshima,” said Dr. Bassem Allah, the senior obstetrician who is chief custodian of Falluja’s newborns.

Hospitals have noted a marked increase in congenital deformities, including tumors, spina bifida, anencephaly and heart defects.

The city was the site of the two most savage and prolonged battles in Iraq during the past six years. The potentially toxic residue of precision munitions that rained down on the city for up to two months in 2004 has left many medical professionals questioning the long-term impact of modern weaponry, although few are willing, so far, to directly blame the war.

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…)

By Patricia E. Bauer

The House has joined the Senate in passing a measure that disability rights advocates hope will fundamentally change the conversations that are taking place between pregnant American women and their doctors.

Passed on a voice vote on Thursday, the bill would provide for accurate, up-to-date information and support for parents who receive a diagnosis of Down syndrome or other disabilities such as spina bifida or cystic fibrosis either prenatally or up to a year after the birth of their child. President Bush is expected to sign it.

Passage of the measure marks the culmination of an unprecedented bipartisan effort that has joined supporters of abortion rights, led by co-sponsor Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), with opponents of abortion, led by co-sponsor Sen. Sam Brownback, and disability rights advocacy groups. Kennedy is also a longtime advocate for people with disabilities.

While members of this loose coalition may have profound disagreements about what may be acceptable at the end of a pregnancy, they came together around another key question in prenatal care: What kind of information and support should be available to pregnant women if initial testing reveals the presence of a disability?

The question has become more urgent in recent years as more women are postponing childbearing, putting them at a greater risk of having pregnancies marked by genetic and other abnormalities, and as the offer of prenatal testing has become standard care.

(more…)

From the Houston Chronicle:

Michelle Colvard, the reigning Ms. Wheelchair America, is touring the nation to challenge stereotypes about women with disabilities. The 32-year-old Colvard also serves as executive director of the mayor’s office for people with disabilities in Houston.

In a Q&A, Colvard says she wants the public to stop seeing women with disabilities as victims or heroes, and just relate to them as people like everybody else. She’d also like to see improvements in employment, housing and transportation. An excerpt:

Q: What is one of your most heartwarming moments as Ms. Wheelchair America?

A: I got to go on the ice for the Houston Aeros game as Ms. Wheelchair Texas. I had a little table during intermission to sign autographs. At one point, I went through this line of little girls, and they’re like, “Ms. Wheelchair, I need your autograph.” All of a sudden, I was mobbed.

I grew up with my peers treating me a certain way. Back then, if those kids would have been exposed to this kind of figure — an image that portrayed a strong, confident, attractive woman who just happened to have a disability — I don’t think they would have treated someone who is in a wheelchair differently.

When I realized that, I started getting choked up.

From the Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch:

Preparing to anchor the presidential forum on disability issues, broadcaster Judy Woodruff says her 26-year-old son Jeffrey, who has spina bifida, has opened her eyes to the way the world looks from a wheelchair.

Having somebody in the family who is disabled is a lesson every day — in humanity and how much we shouldn’t take for granted.

Jeffrey was only mildly impaired by his condition until a routine surgery at age 16 caused unexpected complications. He emerged with profound disabilities, and cannot walk or use the right side of his body. He’s now a student at a small college in North Carolina.

Woodruff is senior correspondent and 2008 political editor for The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer on PBS.

The country has come a long way since the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. Having said that, just look around and you can see we have a long way to go. The disabled still can’t get into some places, some stores and many homes.

Of course, there’s such a wide variety of disabilities — hearing, visual, physical, a cane or a wheelchair, developmental delays. Part of what the disabled community has to do is educate society about the vast differences and that many with disabilities are perfectly capable of holding down a job and learning.

(PBS photo)

From the Baltimore Sun:

Nineteen-year-old Tatyana McFadden, a wheelchair sprint racer from Maryland, is among a growing number of athletes with disabilities who are being sought out by corporate America for sponsorships. A member of the U.S. Paralympic team, McFadden is being featured on 100 million drinking cups in McDonald’s restaurants across the country, and is also featured in a television commercial for Hilton Hotels Corp.

As unseemly behavior among able-bodied athletes has become more prevalent in recent years, corporate America has increased its efforts to reach out to athletes with disabilities, said Dave Rosenberg, executive vice president of GMR Marketing, a San Francisco firm that matched McFadden with Hilton.

McFadden was born in Russia with spina bifida and spent her first six years in an orphanage. Unable to walk, she got around on her hands. She was adopted and brought to the United States by Deborah McFadden, a commissioner for disabilities in the U.S. Department of Health and Human services.

As a high school student, McFadden successfully sued for the right to share the track with teammates in Howard County, then testified in support of state legislation requiring schools to provide disabled students access to sports programs. That bill passed in April.

See also: Georgia man is first Iraq veteran to qualify for Paralympics — Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

(Hilton photo of Tatyana McFadden)

From the Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald:

Expectant mothers will be able to insure their unborn babies against pregnancy complications, birth defects and even death under a new policy offered by insurance giant ING. The program is called the first of its kind in Australia, possibly the world, and will be aimed at the growing population of older mothers. Premiums rise with the age of the mother.

The policy will pay $50,000 to mothers whose children have disabilities such as blindness and deafness or other congenital malformations, including spina bifida, Down syndrome, cleft palate and heart disorders.

A spokeswoman for an Australian midwives association criticized the new program. “Insurance companies are going to go wherever they can to make a buck,” she said. “Fifty thousand dollars is not going to go very far in caring for a sick child. It is marketing fear and uncertainty when women are vulnerable during pregnancy.”