ESPN’s lack of coverage of Paralympics totally indefensible

From Slate magazine:

On Sunday, Paralympics superstar Oscar Pistorius placed second in the 200-meter dash, then accused a pair of fellow competitors of racing on unfairly lengthened prosthetic legs. A few days later, the South African hit the track again to run the 100 meters. Did Pistorius defend his gold medal from 2008?

If you went to ESPN.com on Thursday evening, you wouldn’t even know that Oscar Pistorius exists. In the hours after the race, there were no items about Pistorius on the site’s front page. (Among the top headlines: “Jets' owner: Circus label is driven by media,” “Holmes: Tebow deal initially floored Sanchez,” and “3rd-grader sent home for banned Peyton jersey.”) This wasn’t an atypical omission: There was no indication on the front of ESPN.com that the Paralympics were happening at all. To find the results of the 100-meter dash, you had to mouse over the “More Sports” flyout menu, then click on “Olympic Sports.” At the top of that page is a headline—“Pistorius surrenders another Paralympic title”—that leads to a 100-word wire story. The Blade Runner, it turns out, came in fourth.

ESPN’s decision to ignore the Paralympics is perhaps less shameful than TV rights holder NBC’s move not to broadcast any of the games live. But ESPN’s lack of coverage is still indefensible. There is no full-time ESPN staffer—online, radio, or television—in London to cover the world’s second-largest sporting event (4,200 athletes, 165 countries). The Worldwide Leader essentially defines what is and isn't sports news in this country, and the company’s call to disregard the Paralympics has relegated the event to eighth-tier status.

If my count is accurate, the ESPN family of Web properties has produced eight pieces of original, written content since the Paralympics began on Aug. 29: two blog posts by Paralympics fencer Cat Bouwkamp, four blog items by Grantland’s Dermot Hunt, one post in ESPN Playbook’s Tech blog, and a feature by ESPN the Magazine’s Ryan McGee on race car driver Alex Zanardi’s journey to Paralympics gold after a horrific accident. By comparison, the site’s Tim Tebow topic page—there isn’t a topic page for the Paralympics—indicates that there have been at least six original pieces of written matter in the last two days focusing on the Jets’ backup quarterback.

Rob King, the editor-in-chief of ESPN Digital Media, says he believes that ESPN is “honoring the event.” He notes that there are nightly highlights on ESPN3 and Paralympics images in online photo galleries. David Wetherill’s amazing table tennis shot also made the top spot in the SportsCenter Top 10. When it comes to parceling out coverage, King says you have to consider what the Paralympics are going up against: the start of college football and the NFL, the U.S. Open, the baseball pennant races, and NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup. “We’re making decisions all the time about things we deliver that can be excellent rather than just check the box,” he says. “We had to look at when the Paralympics were happening and where we can deploy folks.”

Even if it’s unrealistic to expect ESPN to be the all-knowing and all-seeing Sports Panopticon, it’s fair to demand more than what we’ve gotten from the media giant. The Washington Post had a great feature on a swimmer named Bradley Snyder who won gold in the 100-meter freestyle after losing his eyesight in a bomb blast in Afghanistan. The Guardian has a compelling interactive on the physics of running on blades. And most news outlets in the United States and abroad have run something on “boosting,” the terrifying practice in which athletes with spinal injuries harm themselves—that can include intentionally crushing their own testicles—in order to boost their heart rates and enhance performance. By comparison, ESPN has had no features on the triumphs of unknown Paralympians, no interactives, and nothing on boosting.

ESPN shouldn’t feel compelled to cover the Paralympics out of a sense of responsibility or do-gooderism. It’s also understandable that there’d be less coverage of the Paralympics than the Olympics—we’ve made the same editorial decision here at Slate. And the network surely faces coverage challenges on account of its limited access to video highlights, which have been parceled out primarily to NBC.

But outright neglect is not a legitimate journalistic strategy. Given the scope and importance of the event, the athletes’ remarkable stories, and the fascinating cultural and technological angles, ESPN surely could have spared a single blogger to cover the Paralympics. It could have asked Wayne Drehs, who wrote a bunch of great features during the Olympics, to stick around London, or perhaps sent Wright Thompson or some other longform wizard to do a couple of long takeouts on Paralympians. And at the very least, someone could have taken the five minutes to create a Paralympics topic page and a standing link on the site’s front page.

In the meantime, the Paralympics blackout has continued this morning, with no content from the games on the home page. Even on that hard-to-find Olympic Sports page, the Paralympics have been completely buried. The splash image at the top of the screen advertises a piece on Allyson Felix’s “four tips for a successful fitness regimen.” A wire story on Pistorius’ 200-meter contretemps is in the fourth position in that top promotional box. After this Sunday, the last day of the Paralympics, that story will likely disappear entirely. ESPN.com readers won’t miss it. Why would they, considering they never knew it was there in the first place.

New film drama, White Frog, spotlights Asperger's syndrome

From Voice of America:

An original young adult drama tells a story about tolerance that puts the spotlight on a problem not usually associated with the subject for a movie - Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. 

Those who suffer from it have difficulty in social interaction often with repeated patterns of behavior and clumsiness.  But for some, there is better than average language and cognitive skills.

Nick Young, the main Asian American character in a new movie called "White Frog" has Asperger's.  His situation is made more difficult by a tragic family crisis, the sudden death of his older brother Chaz, who is killed in a bike accident.

Nick, a high school freshman, reacts badly to losing Chaz, his protector and confidante.  He later finds out his brother had kept a secret from his family - that he was gay. The grieving parents struggle with the revelation about their deceased son in addition to never fully accepting Nick's behavioral problems.

"White Frog" is directed by 41-year-old Quentin Lee. The Asperger's Syndrome idea "was written into the character" Lee said and had special meaning for him.  Lee's younger sister "was diagnosed with Asperger's in Hong Kong, literally two weeks before the production, so that gave me more personal perspective on the movie and the role."

Now Los Angeles-based, Lee was born in Hong Kong and later emigrated to Montreal with his family as a teenager. Lee said the movie's gay theme might be a bit troublesome for the Asian American community. "I tend to think they're a little more conservative," Lee said, "hopefully the movie will help to open the community up more."

Although the film is centered around the life of a troubled suburban California Chinese American teenager, Lee explained that "the composition of the kid's friends is very multi-cultural" and  "hopefully is a very universal kind of thing."

The metaphor of the "White Frog," revealed late in the movie, promotes the idea that while people are different, friendship and understanding can overcome biases and rejection.

The Asian American community has responded positively to Lee's work. "For every artist it's your own struggle but support wise I've been playing Asian American film festivals since my first short films," Lee said.

"White Frog" opened in March at the San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival and also played at the Los Angeles Outfest in July. Negotiations are being held for wider distribution.

Take notice U.S. broadcast networks - Paralympics is a TV ratings winner in the UK

From Variety. Pictured are the Channel 4 Paralympics TV presenters.

LONDON -- The opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games attracted one of the biggest ever audiences in Channel 4's history.

The much-praised curtain-raiser, held at the Olympic Park Wednesday, and climaxing with an appearance by soul siren Beverley Knight signing "I Am What I Am," won an average 7.6 million viewers, a 40% share.
 

This was more than four times the web's average audience for a Wednesday night.

At one point, for five minutes between 8.45 p.m. and 9 p.m. local time, the audience peaked at 11.2 million.

The Paralympics' opening ceremony left Channel 4 in the unusual position of being the most watched channel for the night in Blighty.

Web achieved a 25.7% share of primetime viewing, compared with 16% for BBC1 and 11.1% for ITV1.

Channel 4's chief creative officer, Jay Hunt, said: "Last night's opening ceremony was a spectacular start to the London 2012 Paralympic Games, and I'm delighted that so many viewers enjoyed it with us. It kicks off 11 days of great sporting coverage on Channel 4."

However, there was criticism of the hefty number of commercial breaks, all the more noticeable because the BBC's Olympics coverage was free of commercials.

Some disgruntled viewers took to Twitter to complain about the constant interruption of the live event by ads.

While Channel 4 is state-owned it competes for ad coin with other private U.K. broadcasters.

Amputee snowboarder Amy Purdy will be competing on 21st season of "The Amazing Race"

From ESPN:

Snowboarders Amy Purdy and Dan Gale will be competing on the 21st season of "The Amazing Race," premiering Sunday, Sept. 30 on CBS, the network announced on Wednesday.

Purdy had both of her legs amputated beneath the knee when she was 19, after a battle with bacterial meningitis, and has since gone on to win three consecutive World Cup gold medals and a string of other titles as a top-ranked adaptive snowboarder. She is currently training with hopes of joining the U.S. Paralympic Snowboard team; she won silver at the World Championships in France in February, sharing the podium with gold medalist Bibian Mentel of the Netherlands and bronze medalist Sara Dorigatti of Italy.

"With a lot of hard work and creativity, I guess, I've been able to go on and become one of the highest-ranked adaptive snowboarders in the world," she says in an introductory video released by CBS. Purdy and Gale won't be the first snowboarders featured on the show: Pro snowboarders Andy Finch and Tommy Czeschin enjoyed a successful run during Season 19 in 2011, ultimately finishing in fourth place out of 11 teams.

Purdy and Gale co-founded the Adaptive Action Sports non-profit organization in 2005 and have been instrumental in bringing adaptive action sports to the X Games and other events, including the Paralympics. Gale, executive director of the Adaptive Action Sports organization, has served as sports organizer for X Games events over the past seven years including Adaptive Moto X, Adaptive Skateboarding, Adaptive Skier X and Adaptive Snowboarder X. In March it was announced that Para-Snowboard competition will make its debut at the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

"'The Amazing Race' is everything that you would expect it to be and more," Purdy told ESPN.com on Wednesday. "I think it's going to be a great platform for my message, which is that it's not really about me trying to show how able or how capable I am so much as that we're all able, we're all capable. We all have challenges and we all face adversities. We all have to adapt. 'The Amazing Race' is perfect for me because it's all about adventure and travel and taking risks and throwing yourself out there and challenging yourself. That's what I've been doing with my life anyways, so it's a beautiful platform to be able to take that to a bigger audience."

In addition to her record as an athlete, Purdy is known in the action sports world as one of the faces of Element Skateboards' Element Eden women's apparel line and a sponsored rider for Gnu Snowboards, Coal Headwear and Toyota. She is also sponsored by Freedom Innovations Prosthetics, Prosthetic Orthodic Associates and Southern California Prosthetics, among others. She was a featured speaker and skateboarding coach at the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) No Barriers Summit in Winter Park, Colo., in 2011, and her 2011 presentation, "Living Beyond Limits," was a hit at the TEDx Orange Coast conference.

Artists turn old prosthetic limbs into artworks for British show

From The AP:

LONDON — Prosthetics can change the life of an amputee. But when an old limb no longer fits or just gets worn out, it can be hard to part ways with an item that offered the liberating chance to jump, dance or simply walk.

Priscilla Sutton (pictured) has a solution: turn these "pre-loved" limbs into artwork. The Australian curator came up with "Spare Parts London," an exhibition of altered prosthetics that has opened in time for the Paralympics, which started August 29.

"I was cleaning my home and I found two old legs in my cupboard," said Sutton, a below-the-knee amputee. "I thought it was a bit crazy to keep hoarding my legs."

The exhibition, which includes works by artists from Britain, Australia, the United States and Japan, comes as people are paying new attention to the devices.

Public awareness of prosthetics has been heightened by the popularity of double amputee Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, the South African known as the "Blade Runner." The exhibition will showcase the "Cheetah" — the carbon fiber running leg Pistorius uses that has a flex foot designed to replicate the hind leg of the fastest animal on land.

The show also displays arms and legs hanging from the ceiling and others in glass cabinets. A creation by British artist Rachel Ball features a little girl's leg covered in colorful crochet and painted with henna on the foot.

"It reflects the original owner's personality," Sutton said.

Since coming up with the idea, 33-year-old Sutton has collected prosthetics donated by amputees, their families or health services around the world.

"I got a box of arms from the NHS (Britain's National Health Service)," she said.

Owners change their prosthetics for a variety of reasons, including wear and weight fluctuations. For kids, the stump changes as they grow. For adults, muscles sometimes waste away.

While many keep their limbs for sentimental reasons — parents might keep the first leg of their children, for example — many limbs also end up on the scrap heap.

Sutton hopes the art show will lead to an open conversation about prosthetics, but others argue there are better uses for them.

"It seems an odd way to showcase it," said Penny Broomhead, a physiotherapist specializing in rehabilitation for amputees. "I would rather people look at it in a more practical point of view."

Broomhead thinks a better use for old prosthetic limbs would be to send them to developing countries, where their components could potentially provide prosthetics to those who can't afford them.

"Spare Parts London" marks the second time Sutton has used legs and arms as artwork, after a 2010 show on the same theme in Brisbane, Australia.

Sutton said the earlier exhibition made people ask questions they never dared to ask before, such as whether she sleeps with her leg. (The answer is no).

Sutton was born without a fibula in her right leg and the doctors wanted to amputate. Her family left it up to her.

"In my twenties, I took the decision to chop it off because it was getting worse and worse," she said. "It was the best decision of my life and I never looked back."

After her operation, Sutton had her leg cremated.

"It was a good form of closure," she said.

She has two "spare parts:" An "everyday" leg covered with a design by American pop surrealist artist Marc Ryden and a sports leg that displays a traditional Japanese print with gold flowers and cherries.

The curator said the exhibition was a therapeutic experience to produce.

"I think it's a wonderful way to celebrate and share my love of prosthetics," she said.

British terror attack survivor becomes Paralympian

From The Associated Press:

LONDON — All eyes were on No. 7 when Britain played Ukraine on Friday in its first match of the Paralympic Games sitting volleyball tournament.

That the number for Martine Wright (pictured), a former marketing manager who was traveling on London's subway on July 7, 2005, when four suicide bombers inspired by Osama bin Laden detonated explosives and killed 52 commuters. She lost both legs in the explosion.

But as Wright will tell you, that wasn't the end of the story.

"I will always say I was one of the lucky ones that day," she told The Associated Press earlier this year. "I survived. I don't know how I survived. I've been living my life ever since."

She had stayed out late the night before, celebrating the decision to award the Summer Olympics to London. Having overslept, she didn't reach the car she normally rode. Instead, she just jumped on the train as the doors closed.

She later told an inquest into the terror attacks that she recalled a flash of light and a sensation of being thrown from side to side. She looked up, and saw one of the new sneakers she had just bought. It was bloody, blown off her foot and skewered on a piece of metal. An off-duty policewoman found her, wrapped her leg in a tourniquet, held her hand, moistened her lips with water. She had lost three-fourths of her blood.

Her body swelled to twice its normal size because of her injuries. Her brother and sister saw her in the hospital and told the police it wasn't her.

Wright will tell you that she had help to get through the seven years since 7/7. It's about Martine's team - what she refers to as "Team Me" - her support group of family and friends. It started in the hospital, with her mother, holding her daughter's face in her hands, telling her she could have died or suffered brain damage. But that didn't happen. Martine was still Martine.

Wright saw the impact of the bombs on so many others. Families grieved. The city reeled in shock. She ultimately had to decide: What would it be, Martine?

The answer began with small steps on prosthetic legs. She fell down. But she got back up, again and again.
''When you go through something traumatic in your life ... you sometimes lose who you are," she said.
"You're thrown in this completely new world. When it happened to me, it didn't sort of happen overnight, suddenly, an epiphany - Right. I can live my life now. It's a very gradual process."

She learned to fly, took up skiing. She got married, had a gorgeous little boy. But she needed more.

Always athletic, she missed the competitiveness she once experienced at work - that passion for success, the thrill of winning. She became attracted to sitting volleyball because you don't use a wheelchair.

Like volleyball, it has six players to a side and three touches allowed, but the net is lower and players mostly sit on the floor. When Wright is on the court, she isn't thinking about disability.

Plus, at the gym, Wright found camaraderie. Her teammates, too, have their stories - like Samantha Bowen, a veteran who was injured while serving in Iraq. These teammates of yours, they understand.

"It's such a negative thing that happened in my life," Wright said. "But I've gained something so positive. It's a miracle in itself."

No one expects the British team to medal since they are relatively inexperienced.

On Friday, Britain lost 25-9, 25-20, 25-14 to Ukraine, the European champion, with Wright frequently rotating on and off the court before her watching family.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/08/31/4220246/terror-attack-survivor-becomes.html#storylink=cpy

DC attorney with autism invents 'sensory shield' for Metro rides

From NBC Washington:

Overcrowded Metro trains are pretty typical during rush hour, but for one local woman a packed train poses more of a threat.

Lisa Daly (pictured) is autistic and has a sensory processing disorder, making her highly sensitive to touch, texture, light and sound.

After too many uncomfortable rides from Rockville into D.C. on the way to her job as a congressional lawyer, Daly came up with a solution. She created her own sensory shield.

"It's allowing her to function in society in a way that she is able to carry on her day-to-day activities [and], her job," said Dr. Susan Rich. "[T]his provides her an ability to carry on with her life."

The L-shaped device keeps a seatmate from accidentally touching her or bumping into her. She sits on one section to stabilize the device, with the other "arm" of it coming between her and the person in the seat neat to her.

"I can sit on it, so I don't have to touch the Metro seat, and then there's the partition that goes between me and the next passenger," Daly said.

Other riders weren't phased by Daly's use of the sensory shield. In fact, some people wanted one of their own. "I don't want anybody to touch me," another passenger said, laughing.

Daly says the shield is just a prototype but that if she makes more, they will be more user-friendly. This type of shield wouldn't work for those left standing on the train.

Models for Diversity is putting a billboard image of an amputee model across lanes of traffic at the Holborn Eye, in central London

From London24:

Images of Paralympic athletes are plastered on London billboards ahead of the Games, but images of disabled models remain largely absent.

But now one group wants to change that.

Models for Diversity is putting a billboard image of an amputee model across lanes of traffic at the Holborn Eye, in central London.

Founder Angel Sinclair wants to highlight discrimination in the modelling industry against men and women who are way outside the generic model-type.

“This might be the only time people see a disabled model this year and I’m proud to be able to demonstrate disability is no barrier to beauty.”

“The Paralympics challenges previous notions of who can be an athlete. It is the ideal setting to get people thinking about who can be a model.

“How often do we see a model in a magazine, in an advert or on the catwalk with a disability?

“It’s unfair on those models and doesn’t represent society; our street surveys showed 68% of people believed there should be more models with a disability in the fashion and beauty industry.”

At the heart of the poster is Debbie van der Putten. She featured in BBC Britain’s Missing Top Model.

The billboard shall be display at the Holborn Eye for five days from August 29.

USA finally engages with Paralympic Games thanks to media interest

From The Guardian in the UK. (I am quoted in the article, fyi.)

It was just as well Josh Blue had a sense of humour because every time he returned to the US after touring abroad with the US Paralympic football team he would be greeted with blank stares. The parawhat?

The excitement of playing before cheering crowds in Europe and South America would dissolve in the indifference and ignorance of his home country. The striker and his disabled teammates would play domestic games in near-empty stadiums. "It'd be just our relatives." Even after competing in the 2004 Games in Athens, Blue, who has cerebral palsy, returned home to silence and shrugs. "Unfortunately it just doesn't get any play here."

A stand-up comedian, it was not until he won NBC's reality show, Last Comic Standing, in 2006 that the American public woke up to his talent, off the field at least.

Blue has a self-deprecating humour focused on living with disability which enchanted viewers and critics. A "palsy punch" was effective in a fight, he said, because "first of all, they don't know where the punch is coming from, and second of all, neither do I". There was little funny, however, about US ignorance of the Paralympics, a vacuum which left American competitors envious of the support disabled athletes enjoyed in other countries. "You'd hear about all these projects and think, wow, why aren't we doing that?" said Christine Tinberg, founder of Bicycling Blind Los Angeles, a group which matches blind people with sighted riders on tandems.

London's Games, however, may signal a turning of the tide. Companies like Visa and General Electric are featuring slick commercials with disabled athletes to endorse a range of products. Some disabled athletes are finding additional audiences through social media.

Disabled military veterans-turned Paralympians are tapping patriotic sentiment. NBC recently announced it would scale up coverage, previously virtually non-existent, to four hour-long programmes on NBC Sports plus a daily highlights package via the US Paralympics YouTube channel.That pales in comparison with Channel 4's Paralympic fest of an estimated 400 hours, or even the BBC's patchy coverage in 2008 when it showed daily highlights and live coverage at the weekend.

Nevertheless Sir Philip Craven, the International Paralympic Committee president, celebrated NBC's announcement. "It's tremendous news that the London 2012 Paralympic Games will get more airtime in the US then ever before and thoroughly deserved."

But why has the US been so resistant until now? And to what extent is it embracing the London Games?

Beth Haller, a professor of mass communication at Towson university who has written about disability issues, said apathy was largely the result of media neglect. Television networks shunned past Games, she said, leaving viewers unaware there even was a competition for disabled athletes after the regular Olympics. "Much of it boils down to the economic structure of our media. It concentrates on what will make money, and it thinks the Paralympics won't do that."

A student who analysed the 2002 Salt Lake City winter Paralympics discovered US journalists scrambling for the airport once the regular Games ended while many foreign journalists stayed on for the Paralympics.

Another reason for apathy, said Haller, was that US medal success in the Olympic Games sated national pride, unlike some smaller countries which viewed the Paralympics as an opportunity for consolation medals. Even so, the US amassed 99 medals in Beijing, coming third overall.

US awareness has been negligible even among the disabled. Growing up in Minnesota, Blue, a talented footballer from an early age, did not hear about the Paralympics until the age of 22 when a sports-loving disabled friend said: "You know there's a team for you, right?"

Soon after Blue was scoring goals for the Paralympic squad, but it rankled that he could have been doing so years earlier. "Elsewhere, especially Europe, there's much greater awareness and respect." A glimpse of disabled elite athletes in action, he said, was usually enough to hook fans. "Have you seen a wheelchair basketball game? They kill each other out there."

Tinberg, who recruits braille students for her bicycling group, said many initially gasped at the idea of becoming athletes. "They've never heard of it. They're like, cycling blind, really? How does it work?"

After awareness, the biggest problem was lack of resources. "Most blind people are unemployed and bikes are expensive."

Disabled war veterans have given the media a new reason to cover the world's second biggest sporting event – an event founded in 1948 to help rehabilitate injured British veterans. Of the US delegation 20 are veterans, of which six were injured in combat.

"The veterans are having a huge impact. It pulls people's hearts. And the government is putting a lot of money into sports facilities for them," said Tinberg. Last week she was seeking a sighted rider to team up with a recently blinded 21-year-old female soldier.

Push Girls, a reality television show following the lives of four glamorous LA women in wheelchairs, has helped nudge disability issues towards the cultural mainstream.

"Things are changing. I see a lot more awareness," said Kenneth Riptoe, executive director of One with Water, a swimming club associated with the Paralympic movement.Most agree. The US Olympic Committee said NBC's expanded coverage meant Americans would see more of the Games than ever before.

In a statement NBC, which did not respond to interview requests for this article, said it would conclude coverage with a 90-minute special show on September 16, a week after the Games end.

That did little to appease critics who said it was all still too little. "Hey, NBC found a whole 90 minutes for the Paralympics! In the middle of the afternoon! A week after it's over! Woo hoo!" wrote one blogger.

Blue, who is no longer on the US Paralympic squad, said he will follow his beloved football team from afar. Their first game is against Ukraine, a powerhouse ranked third in the world. "But they're getting old. We think we can take them."

Artist Sue Austin puts underwater wheelchair to test ahead of Paralympics

From BBC News. Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPh533ht5AU

Artist Sue Austin is preparing to show off a prototype self-propelled underwater wheelchair to the public.

Ms Austin, who has been a wheelchair user since 1996, developed the chair with help from dive experts and academics.

The model is powered by two dive propulsion vehicles and steered with a bespoke fin and foot-operated acrylic strip.

She is staging a performance with it in a swimming pool in Weymouth this week.

"Creating the Spectacle" forms part of the Cultural Olympiad celebrations.

Ms Austin, from north Devon, says she first had the idea after learning to scuba dive in 2005.

"When we started talking to people about it, engineers were saying it wouldn't work, the wheelchair would go into a spin, it was not designed to go through water - but I was sure it would," she told the BBC.

It was built with funding from the Arts Council's Impact Scheme.


Finding a suitable dive propulsion vehicle to propel the chair was initially difficult because most propeller models were designed to be hand-held and Ms Austin lacked the strength to hold on to them.

Eventually she trialled a model that was designed for divers with disabilities - and then added two to the wheelchair.

Ms Austin bought an NHS wheelchair for the project and spent months with her team perfecting its buoyancy. She initially designed flotation aids, but in the end found that simple swimming floats worked better.

"If you just put a thruster under the chair all the thrust is below the centre of gravity so you rotate," she said. "It was certainly more more acrobatic than I anticipated."

She modified the heel plates so that they formed fins at the backs of her heels and re-drilled the rubber straps to attach her legs to the acrylic "wings" she needed to steer the vehicle.

The addition of the second thruster and fin meant that the wings were no longer practical but she kept them for aesthetic reasons.

The wheelchair also required a more robust seat to handle the pressure placed upon it during a performance.

"I would love to create a version with hand controls - but I need my arms to be free for the performance," said Ms Austin.

The wheelchair, which had patents pending and was as yet unnamed, was already in demand, she said.
  "We've had PADI [Professional Association of Diving Instructors] course directors and very experienced divers saying they would pay to hire it," she said.

"The Oceanography department at the University of Plymouth, where I did a BA [bachelor of arts degree] in performing art, said it would make their courses accessible to students with disabilities."

There is one problem with the wheelchair however - the frame is beginning to rust. Ms Austin says that ideally the next model should be made of titanium.

"Push Girl" Angela Rockwood lands major modeling campaign with Nordstrom

From People Magazine Stylewatch:

You often hear that tenacity and perseverance are musts for any model who wants to succeed in the industry. Well, Angela Rockwood has those in spades.

After breaking into the business, she was in a horrific car accident that left her in a wheelchair. But instead of giving up, Rockwood decided that her injuries (which stripped her of the use of her legs and left her with extremely limited use of her arms) shouldn’t stop her from doing what she loves. And 11 years after that life-changing accident, she has achieved something she dreamed about, but never thought would really happen: Rockwood is modeling again, in a national campaign for Nordstrom.

Rockwood is one of the stars of Push Girls, a Sundance Channel series about the lives of four women bound to wheelchairs — and her story of breaking back into the business has been one of the most inspiring of the season.


“After my accident, the thought of modeling didn’t even cross my mind,” the 37-year-old, who identifies as quadriplegic, tells PEOPLE. “But what did occur to me was that I had been transported to the realm of the paralyzed for a reason. I realized I had a huge choice to make: to go down the positive path, be an example for others in similar positions and be a voice.”

To have her voice heard, Rockwood wanted to do something she knew how to do: model. “There weren’t many models in chairs to make a statement like, ‘Hey we are the consumers too!’ and ‘Who doesn’t want to look sexy or fashionable sitting in a wheelchair?’” she explains.

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who felt that way; Nordstrom had been looking for models with disabilities to be featured in an upcoming campaign. So Rockwood submitted her photos to a casting agency. “The rest was history,” she adds, happily.

Though she’s working under different circumstances than she did prior to the accident, nothing else has changed much, in her opinion. “When I was on set for Nordstrom, I felt like I was at ‘home’ again,” Rockwood says. “It was like throwing a fighter back in the ring to win their belt after a major setback from a recovering injury.”

Reporting Live ... with autism ... from Worrall Elementary School in Pennsylvania

From The PBS Newshour:

BROOMALL, Pa. | No getting around it -- the news has an agenda in this suburb of Philadelphia. The stories are fun. The reporters are short. And most of the production team has Asperger's syndrome.

This is Action 7 News -- a product of the Asperger's support program at Worrall Elementary School. Teachers here say that producing a newscast is one of the best ways for these students to learn how to speak clearly, work together, build confidence ... and become school celebrities at the same time.

The newscast is about to begin, so click play on the video above for the full report.

Transcript:

BETTY ANN BOWSER: It was straight to the top for Donato Tocci. At 11 years old, he's already a television news anchor. And he's about to go live.

TELEVISION VOICE: From the global resources of Worrall Elementary School, this is Action 7 News 2012 ....

DONATO TOCCI, Anchor (pictured): Hello, Im Donato Tocci, reporting live from Action 7 News, today ...

BETTY ANN BOWSER: News has an agenda at Worrall Elementary School in Broomal, Pa. The reporters aren't simply young and driven, they also have Asperger's syndrome.

Children with this form of autism often have trouble with social cues like facial expressions and gestures ... and working well with others.

MICHAEL RIZZO: I said Mona Lisa!

BETTY ANN BOWSER: And that's the very reason Asperger's specialist Randi Rentz and speech pathologist Kristen Dercole developed this newscast. They wanted their students to see the world from another angle.

RANDI RENTZ, Asperger's specialist: A lot my kids are very black and white so to speak where they dont understand the middle area the grey area and you know they may know happy, they may know sad but they dont know the difference in between.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: And television journalists -- even miniature ones -- need to watch themselves from time to time to think critically about how they present themselves ... especially how they sound.

KRISTEN DERCOLE, speech and language pathologist: I think that reporters in general are really good role models for students as far as good speaking skills. We always talk about how to be on a newscast, you have to over-enunciate.

TUSHAR NARAYAN: His owner, Mike Schelin, even takes him on cross-country races.

DERCOLE: You have to slow down your rate of speech.

AARON THOMAS: ... largest mass transit system in the world.

DERCOLE: You have to really work on your pitch.

HANNAH COATES: ... largest chocolate bar ever made.

DERCOLE: You want to emphasize key words.

DONATO: In Sports News, Jeter hits 3,000!

DERCOLE: So theres a lot of different parts of speech that you can work on while you work on the newscast.

AUGIE PANTELLAS: "The homer was Derek's 3,000th baseball hit..."

BETTY ANN BOWSER: That's Augie Pantellas, reporting the latest in sports. When his mother Michelle learned he had Asperger's and would need treatment, this isn't exactly what she envisioned.

MICHELLE PANTELLAS, parent: So I was a little angry when I first, you know, met everyone here and a little frustrated. I was scared for my son, but I think that being in the program for six years has changed the course of his life. I mean, the skills that he's learned ... coping skills, strategies, just how to react to people and how to read people.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: It's a good perk. But the journalists themselves can think of a better one. When the half-hour broadcast is complete each year, the whole school gathers to watch.

MICHAEL: Well I guess my favorite part about Action 7 is getting to do all of the other skits and letting your friends envy you.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Even Donato, the anchor, feels it.

DONATO: I've never been this famous before.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: For children with Asperger's -- kids who often stand out from the rest of the crowd -- that feeling can be, well, monumental.

RENTZ: One year I was over at the middle school. And there was a huge, huge difference with the kids who had been through the program socially not just with their confidence but with their social skills overall as a whole.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: At the moment, Action 7 is the only program of its kind in the nation ... at least as far as Randi Rentz knows. But she also believes that shining this kind of spotlight on kids with Asperger's could be a good approach for any school.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Betty Ann ... No, wait ... let's let one of them do it.

AARON: Reporting live from the red streets of Spain, I'm Aaron Thomas for Action 7 News.

Meet Pirelli, disabled spokesdog for service dog non-profit, Canine Assistants.

From Headline News:

The relationship between a human and their service dog is an irreplaceable bond, forged with trust and free of judgment. It is a relationship as unique as the dogs who serve and the humans who love them. It is more unique, still, when it is the dog who has the disability.

Meet Pirelli, a young dog that is being trained to provide a very special service. Pirelli is part of Canine Assistants, a non-profit organization that trains service dogs and matches them with adults and children who would benefit from the dogs' company. Unlike most of the dogs in the program, Pirelli will probably never open doors, flip light switches or lead someone around a mall, but he will be delivering an important message: Disabled doesn't mean different. And Pirelli should know. He has been dealing with a disability all his life.

Pirelli was born to be a great dog. At Canine Assistants, dogs are bred into the program. Kent Brunner, the veterinarian at Canine Assistants, says is a nearly necessary part of their service. 

"We have found that what we ask of those dogs is so difficult for the average dog, you really need a dog that’s temperamentally suited to do this," he says. "The day-to-day activity, for dogs who are not socialized as puppies, is very stressful. We just found that it was a little unfair to ask dogs who have been taken from elsewhere to undertake all of that."

Except, when Pirelli was born, he was missing part of his back left foot. Members of the foundation struggled with what to do about Pirelli's ailment. Amputation was an option, but instead they decided to see how strong the little pup could be. "In some ways it comes back to, above all, do no harm. Do the least aggressive thing," Kent says. 

A little silicone bootie was designed for Pirelli's foot, and as time went by, he grew stronger, more acclimated to his unusual hardware. He also grew fast, as puppies tend to do, so the prosthetic had to be replaced. Most recently, with the aid of a sold-out Groupon, the foundation was able to raise enough money to recast Pirelli's leg yet another time, but he will probably need more refittings. After all, at only 8 months old, Pirelli is still a growing boy.

Because of his prosthetic, Pirelli won't take on the normal tasks of a service dog, but Jennifer Arnold, the founder of Canine Assistants, says Pirelli belongs in the spotlight, anyway. Pirelli will visit schools as a spokesdog for those with disabilities, teaching children that what matters has nothing to do with a wheelchair, or a prosthesis, or a paw that never grew.

Though he is still young, Jennifer says Pirelli is a prime candidate for such a strong message. "We talk about how brilliant our dogs are and how they really don’t judge based on what your body can do, but what kind of person you are," she says of her organization's events. "Pirelli is just an exquisite example that life isn’t about how you get from place to place, or what you see or hear. It’s so much more than that. His spirit is unbelievable, he’s got that very special blessing. Imagine what he will be able to do for kids who wont be teased because he will teach kids the right way to think."

Pirelli's story hits very close to home for Jennifer. When she was 16, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She had to use a wheelchair for two years, and during that time, she feared she would never walk again. Through her father, she learned of an organization in California that was training service dogs. Jennifer was lucky. Eventually, she was able to walk on her own, but the idea of service dogs stuck in her mind. Together with her father, she started Canine Assistants in 1992. After 20 years of breeding, training and caring for service dogs, Jennifer says she can't underestimate the impact a dog can have on the life of someone with special needs.

"They are partners in the truest sense of the word," says Jennifer. "The dog is able to do so much physically that the person may not be able to do, and the person is able to provide a loving home and a human relationship. But the biggest things that dogs do for their people, they don't look at the container. To the dog, their person is perfect, the way they are. They just overlook disabilities, like it's nothing."

That's what Canine Assistants hopes Pirelli's work will stand for: A precious relationship, free of judgment, or prejudice, or hate. Humans can learn a lot from dogs in that way. It's a job little Pirelli was, quite literally, born to do.

British man who fought for assisted suicide is dead

From The NY Times:

LONDON — A 58-year-old British man suffering from so-called locked-in syndrome died Wednesday, six days after a panel of High Court judges rejected his request for help in ending his life. His death is certain to galvanize the already contentious debate about assisted suicide in Britain.

The man, Tony Nicklinson, (pictured) a former rugby player and sky diver who suffered a stroke in 2005, died at his home in Melksham, 80 miles west of London, at 10 a.m., according to a statement issued by the law firm that represented him. 

Mr. Nicklinson’s family used his Twitter account to say that he died of natural causes. At a news conference, Saimo Chahai, the family lawyer, said Mr. Nicklinson had been refusing food since the court ruling and had declined rapidly over the weekend after contracting pneumonia. “The fight seemed to go out of him,” she said. 

After having a stroke while on a business trip to Athens, Mr. Nicklinson, a civil engineer, developed locked-in syndrome, an incurable condition in which a patient loses all motor functions but remains awake and aware, with all cognitive abilities. He had spent the last seven years paralyzed from the neck down and unable to speak, feed himself or even clean his own teeth, communicating through a system that allowed him to write messages on a computer screen by blinking his eyes. 

He had argued in court that he would be physically unable to administer a lethal drug to himself, and that his only path to release from his “living nightmare” would be permission from the court to have somebody else — in his suggestion, a doctor — administer the necessary dose without fear of prosecution. 

Under British law, anybody, including a doctor, who knowingly helps a terminally ill person to die faces possible criminal prosecution and a lengthy jail term if convicted. 

In an essay he wrote before the court case, Mr. Nicklinson said, “It cannot be acceptable in 21st-century Britain that I am denied the right to take my own life just because I am physically handicapped.” He added, “It is astonishing that in 1969 we could put a man on the moon, yet in 2012 we still cannot devise adequate rules for government-assisted dying.” 

In its ruling last Thursday, a three-judge panel of the High Court said that Mr. Nicklinson’s case was “deeply moving.” But, writing for the panel, Lord Justice Sir Roger Toulson said a decision in Mr. Nicklinson’s favor would constitute “a major change in the law.” 

“It is not for the court to decide whether the law about assisted dying should be changed and, if so, what safeguards should be put in place,” the ruling said. 

The government of Prime Minister David Cameron, as well as the British Medical Association, representing 140,000 doctors and medical students, applauded the ruling. 

In their Twitter message, Mr. Nicklinson’s wife and two adult daughters said: “You may already know, my Dad died peacefully this morning from natural causes. He was 58. Before he died, he asked us to tweet, ‘Goodbye world the time has come, I had some fun.’ ” 

Mr. Nicklinson’s anguished appeals to be allowed to seek assistance in ending his life culminated with a heart-wrenching scene, captured in a video posted on the BBC Web site, after the court decision last week. 

It showed him sitting at home in a striped sports shirt, sobbing heavily and groaning as he listened to a television report of the court ruling. His wife, Jane, standing at his shoulder, can be seen leaning over to wipe his mouth. 

In Europe, only Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands allow euthanasia. Switzerland allows assisted suicide and is the only country that helps foreigners die, at a clinic near Zurich. 

The British law against assisted suicide was mitigated in 2010 with a statement by the Crown Prosecution Service, responsible for criminal cases, that set out the detailed circumstances that would be taken into account in reaching a decision on whether to press charges. 

Keir Starmer, director of the prosecution service, said at the time that it was for Parliament, not prosecutors, to change the law that made assisted suicide a crime. But strongly held views on the issue, which cross party lines in the House of Commons and involve uncompromising opposition from right-to-life groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, have kept governments from tackling the issue for decades.

Michael J. Fox's new NBC sitcom about dad with Parkinson's

From The AP:

NBC has made it official: Michael J. Fox (pictured) is coming back to series TV with a new comedy series, based loosely on his personal life.

NBC announced Monday it has a 22-episode commitment for the series set to premiere in fall 2013.

The single-camera comedy, thus far untitled, will feature Fox as a husband and father of three from New York City who is dealing with family, career and challenges that include Parkinson's, the network said. No further casting was announced.

The executive producers and co-creators are Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends with Benefits) and Sam Laybourne (Cougar Town, Arrested Development), with Gluck producing through his Sony Television-based Olive Bridge Entertainment. He also will direct the pilot.

Reports of Fox's plans to return emerged last week.

Canadian-born Fox won stardom for his work as Alex Keaton on the hit comedy Family Ties, which began its seven-season run on NBC in 1982.

"To bring Michael J. Fox back to NBC is a supreme honor," said Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment, "and we are thrilled that one of the great comedic television stars is coming home again."
He called Fox "utterly relatable, optimistic and in a class by himself."

"I'm extremely pleased to be back at NBC with a great creative team and a great show," Fox said.
The 51-year-old actor was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991. In 2000, he left his ABC comedy Spin City after four seasons, saying he intended to focus on helping find a cure for the disease.

He founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for sufferers of Parkinson's disease while promoting the development of improved therapies and raising public awareness of the disease.

Since then, he limited his acting appearances to guest shots on series including Rescue Me, Boston Legal, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Wife. But in May, he told ABC News that a new drug regimen has helped him control the tics that are a result of the disease and could allow him to take on more acting roles.

His feature films include the Back to the Future trilogy, Teen Wolf, Bright Lights, Big City and Casualties of War. He has won five Emmy awards.