Alzheimers disease has a profound impact on both the individual with the illness and those who serve as care givers. Phoenix NPR station KJZZ recently featured a program focusing on the disease and those who live with it. While some of the information in the show focuses on Arizona, the information will be useful to almost anyone concerned about this issue. Click the play button on the player below to listen.

Hideous Media part 2.

AP reporter Pauline Arrillagais at it again. This time, maybe not so much with the pathos, although she does refer to John's leg as "lifeless" when "paralyzed" might fit just fine, although it is far less(sniff) tragic and prize-winning that way, isn't it?

I'm thinking that Disability Nation should run an occasional column about the worst of the worst of media depictions of PWD. Our crusading editor Larry, the J. Jonah Jameson of our little empire, here, found a real pip this week.

And, so, a column idea was born, thanks to the Associated Press, whom I used to worship as a little baby ink-stained wretch. But, much like Yale and the White House, it's increasingly apparent, they now let anyone in.

We've seen it all before.

Usually from medical-model pitchmen like Jerry Lewis who have missed several memos about what year it is and seem to find it acceptable to refer to those children on whose backs he has built a reputation as a humanitarian as "half a person".

Although I believe the point of exercises like blogging-against-disablism day is to share the great strides (see, even my metaphors aren't clean of bias) one has made in learning to understand that we all share a common history of oppression, of having our best gifts denied by a larger culture that just sees our liabilities and blah-blah-blah. I'm working on it.

I even understand a bit about inter-disability bias from having my stock shrink in some "brother" or "sister"'s mind when they find out how much attendant services I really need. This really hurts.

As season 2 of Friday Night Lights opens, Jason Street is having a tough Fall.The assistant-coaching gig that helped him through in the wake of his paralysis has been diminished by the new Dillon football coach, who whiplashes between respecting his experience and dismissing him as the "team mascot,".

He's still fighting with his self-destructive best friend Tim Riggins, only partially because Riggins carried on an affair with Street's girlfriend while he was in rehab.

Certainly there are many here in Arizona who are proud that our long-time senator, John mcCain is a candidate for President. However, as the following press release illustrates, our senator is out of touch with the disability community and the people of his own generation who, rather than having access to greater independence in their homes are often forced to live in nursing homes.

Disability Rights Advocates Challenge McCain and Republicans on Lack of Support for Community Choice Act: McCain’s Office Responds by Arresting Over 40

As an Apple fan and Mac user I find myself sometimes torn between appreciation for the steps that the company has taken to move accessibility forward by including several products including a screen reader and magnification program with their OS. And yet, I continue to be upset with Apple for the inaccessibility of the iPhone and iPod line of products.

Family therapist and call-in radio host Dr. Dan Gottlieb was a guest today on the NPR program Fresh Air. Gottlieb has assisted many people through difficult events and circumstances in his life. However, he's had many challenges of his own following an accident 29 years ago that left him paralyzed from the chest down.

ADAPT Activists Win Meeting with HHS Sec. Leavitt to Work on Medicaid Reform
HHS Staff Affirms that Access to Community is a Civil Right

Washington, D.C.--- 500 ADAPT activists closed off all access to the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, headquarters for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and kept it closed until HHS Sec. Michael Leavitt agreed to meet with ADAPT on the multiple policies that force people into nursing homes and other institutions, and prevent them from moving back to their own homes and communities.

I was surprised to see this terrific ad in the middle of my favorite newscast.

I never thought I’d care whether some forty-year-old guy from Texas decided to skydive to commemorate his big day. In fact, I think in some other broadcast I’d write it off as some big cliché.

However, Brian Scheele is no ordinary white guy from Texas.

The prosthetic-enhanced athlete will be able to run faster, jump higher and pitch harder than mere mortals…this brave new world is just around the corner and the cover story for this week's issue of ESPN The Magazine, now on newsstands.

From the Associated Press: John Fernandez should not have been playing lacrosse Saturday in the Army-Navy alumni game at Madison Square Garden. By all rights, the former U.S. Army first lieutenant should be dead. But luck intervened.

Check out the following video where you will meet John and learn more about his service to our country and life after his time in the military.