From the Burbank [CA] Leader:

People with Down syndrome came from all around Southern California Wednesday to take part in a dance class led by Kym Johnson (left), one of the professional dancers from the ABC television show “Dancing with the Stars.”

The class was one of a weekly series initiated by Johnson with the help of the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles. An excerpt:

“Seeing how much they enjoy doing the dances, it’s fun for me,” said Johnson, adding that she feels she personally benefits from teaching the class. “It’s kind of selfish, actually.”

… “Some of them really come out and they bust out some moves, and they really blow me away,” she said, later comparing class members to NFL star Warren Sapp, her current partner on “Dancing with the Stars.”

“They mimic me a lot better than Warren,” she said.

(more…)

From the New York Times:

Heba Said Ahmed (left) won a gold medal for power lifting at the recent Paralympic Games in Beijing, and broke a world record.

But when she left Beijing and returned home to Egypt, Ahmed once again faced a society that views her as a second-class citizen because she cannot walk, a disability caused by a childhood bout of polio. An excerpt:

“I want to prove to society that I am better than what they think of me,” she said. “In Egypt, they think a handicapped person should just stay in bed.”

It is hard to overstate how different Ms. Ahmed is from many of those around her. It is all about attitude. Egypt is filled with people who face adversity, most often a function of poverty and systemic indifference. It is a class-based society with an unwritten contract that many people believe condemns them to live as they were born, poor and marginalized. There is a pervasive feeling of impotence, a collective belief that fighting back is futile.

But Ms. Ahmed never refers to fate; she talks about choices. She does not talk about obstacles; she talks about challenges.

… “There is no such thing as a handicap,” she said. “A handicap is in your thinking, or in your heart.”

From the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, an extended feature on people who are gathering in Virginia Beach for a regional conference of the Little People of America.

Conventions of the nonprofit organization are sweet relief for people with dwarfism and their families. They provide a world where being unable to reach the water fountain is no big deal, where top shelves go unused, where eye-to-eye conversations are more common than the neck-straining variety.

People like 17-year-old Jake Spruance (above left), a high school student and member of a wrestling team, has to put up with people staring at him, sneaking photos and videos of him, and even rubbing his head.

Members of the LPA are working for better public awareness of their lives, and some worry that prenatal testing will lead to more selective terminations of pregnancies in which dwarfism is diagnosed.

(Photo from the Virginian-Pilot: Jake Spruance with wrestling practice partner Taylor Whitt at Cox High School wrestling practice.)

From the Orange County Register:

The Goodwill of Orange County, California, has opened a new 12,000-square foot gym, designed especially for people with disabilities at a cost of $7 million. The goal is to create a workout that is “really accessible,” says a Goodwill official.

“In our general society, when we think of gyms, we think of healthy people exercising and they’re physically fit,” said Mae-Ghan Fletcher, a services coordinator with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Costa Mesa office. “At Goodwill, everyone has some sort of a disability so it’s a little bit of a safer environment. This is a place where you don’t have to compare yourself to others.”

Former New York Yankee Jim Abbott, who once pitched a no-hitter, is now campaigning on behalf of a government effort to encourage businesses to hire individuals with disabilities.

Abbott, 40, was born without a right hand and played 10 seasons of major league baseball. Now he’s joined forces with U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), and has been appearing at major league stadiums to underscore the message that employers should look past the disability to the valuable person within.

He’s hoping to turn around some profoundly discouraging statistics. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, in 2006, the employment rate for people with disabilities was 37.7 percent, compared to an employment rate of 79.7 percent for people without disabilities, a 42 percent difference.

(more…)

From the [Cherry Hill, NJ] Courier Post:

This weekend’s New York City Buddy Walk will feature high school varsity athlete Brad Hennefer giving a golf clinic for kids with Down syndrome on the Great Hill in Central Park. The clinic will be broadcast on the big screen on Times Square.

Nineteen-year-old Brad, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, played varsity golf and basketball in his public high school and is now a student at Camden County College. He is believed to be the only varsity boys’ basketball player in the country with Down syndrome.

The Buddy Walk, sponsored by the National Down Syndrome Society, kicks off Down Syndrome Awareness Month in October. Similar walks will be held around the country.

Among the observations from the [UK] Times, [UK] Telegraph, USA Today and elsewhere:

• The Paralympics challenged China’s traditional attitudes toward its 83 million citizens with disabilities, many of whom are denied education and employment
• Competition at the Paralympics has never been tougher, and with it has come more gamesmanship and more nations exploiting the rules
• The classification of athletes according to their disability creates problems that have yet to be resolved
• Beijing organizers delivered on their promise of “Two games, equal splendor,” drawing attendance of approximately 1.5 million people

(Photo of closing ceremony from AFP in [UK] Times)