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)

Closing ceremonies can be viewed here.

Marathons close Paralympics with fantastic finishes — New York Times

‘Blade runner’ eyes Olympic glory — The Age [Australia]

U.S. murderball team takes gold – New York Times (photo at left)

China winds down Paralympics — Wall Street Journal (with slideshow)

Vancouver mayor in awe of star treatment for Beijing’s Paralympics — [Toronto] Globe & Mail

Writing in the [UK] Independent, columnist Dominic Lawson praises Paralympic equestrian Lee Pearson and laments the eugenic thinking that he sees reflected in the widespread use of prenatal screening for disabilities, most often Down syndrome.

Lawson reports on a recent study by Down Syndrome Education International that found that genetic screening and testing for Down syndrome is causing miscarriages of fetuses that don’t have the condition. He said the report also makes clear that doctors are advising pregnant women to have the test by giving them “anachronistically bleak” medical advice about Down syndrome.

Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is one of a small minority of women who decide to carry to term a baby diagnosed with Down syndrome, Lawson says, and some of her political opponents see that decision “as a hostile political act.” An excerpt:

The idea that Sarah Palin made her decision as an act of love, rather than of politics, is clearly incomprehensible to some.

… By making baby Trig into a known individual, rather than a mere statistic of chromosomal abnormality, the Palins are helping the wider world to understand the crucial point: that every person with disabilities is different, not defined collectively by their limitations, but individually -– like all of us –- by unique personalities and aspirations. It is exactly the same lesson that has been taught to us by Lee Pearson.

Lawson is interviewed about the Down Syndrome Education International study on the UK’s Channel 4. Video is here.

(Photo from the Independent)