BAC Rutland

I AM near quadriplegic, a result of polio, and I cannot stand. I have limited strength in my arms, enough to function once I’m in my chair but not enough to get into or out of the chair.

To be able to live in my own apartment, as I desired, rather than in the custodial care of a nursing home, required the assistance of a rotating crew of attendants to transfer me from wheelchair to bed, bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to shower chair … you get the idea. Ten to 20 minutes in the mornings and in the evenings usually did the trick. Otherwise I went about my business, which included working at an insurance agency. No warehousing for me, thank you.
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Pat Leahy’s résumé is sprinkled with relevant skills and achievements. Although he doesn’t note his blindness since birth, he often wonders when to disclose it to potential employers. Should he tell them before the in-person interview or simply walk in with his guide dog?
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CHICAGO – The first rigorous study of behavior treatment in autistic children as young as 18 months found two years of therapy can vastly improve symptoms, often resulting in a milder diagnosis.

The study was small — just 48 children evaluated at the University of Washington — but the results were so encouraging it has been expanded to several other sites, said Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of the advocacy group Autism Speaks. Dawson, a former University of Washington professor, led the research team.
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Indisputably some of the biggest civil rights advances in recent decades have involved people with disabilities, and nowhere do those changes register more than in schools. As documented by The Sentinel’s Sarah Palermo in a three-day series of reports, special education has expanded well beyond its original expectations to account for as much as 20 percent of the enrollment in Keene schools, and involves more than $13 million in annual spending, the lion’s share of which is handled by local taxpayers.
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Alexa E. Posny, chosen by President Barack Obama to run the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, previously served in a similar capacity for the Bush administration, after holding various education administration posts in Kansas for many years. She was confirmed by the Senate October 5, 2009.
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As large numbers of Americans deal with losing jobs, the unemployment rates are even higher among certain groups, including men, minorities — and also people with disabilities.

Lenny Kepil knows. He was laid off from his job this spring as a software test engineer. He’d been the last hired, but his whole department took a hit. “It makes you nervous when you’re laid off a long period of time. And right now, it’s been seven months so far,” he says. “So I have to get ready for the reality that things are stacking up against me.”
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