Paralympian regains use of her legs, joins pro team
Monique van der Vorst has a remarkable story. When she lost the use of her legs after having ankle surgery as a teenager, she took up handcycling and won two silver medals at the Beijing Paralympics. After a freak accident last year, she began to regain feeling in her legs, and now she is training to ride with a top professional cycling team. “Cycling with arms or legs, tactics, corners are almost the same,” Van der Vorst said, but she noted that “all the training I did in the last 10 years gives me a good base.”
Monique van der Vorst, a former wheelchair and handcycle racer, will now line up against elite able-bodied riders. (2010 AP Photo/Bas Czerwinski)
‘Oldest of the old’ could be redefined
Remember when Oprah said 50 is the new 40? Turns out 90 is the new 85, at least according to a recent Census report. According to the Associated Press: “By 2050, the United States is likely to have 9 million people 90 and older, the report projected … [and] the average 90-year-old can expect to live another 4.6 years, and anyone who makes it to 100 can reasonably expect to squeeze out more than two more years of life.” Two bits of related news: A study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people over 50 found higher rates of physical disabilities, depression and loneliness than heterosexuals face, and more aging Americans are able to stay in their homes by buying memberships in nonprofit groups known as “villages.”
Ohio student wears recording device to catch teacher bullying
Imagine your developmentally disabled child complaining for years about a teacher and school aide. You report the mental and emotional abuse to school officials, who decide that your child is lying and tell you that continued complaints could be considered “harassment and slander.” Would you back down? Or would you, as one Ohio couple did, have your child wear a recording device to school for a few days? The instructors were caught making such comments as “Are you that damn dumb? Are you that dumb?” and “It’s no wonder you don’t have friends. No wonder nobody likes you.” After an investigation, the family reached a $300,000 settlement in a lawsuit against the school district and the two instructors. The aide resigned and gave up her permit, and the teacher’s license was suspended for a year. In a similar case, a special education teacher in New Jersey was disciplined after a student used his cellphone to record the teacher calling him a “tard” and saying, “You want me to call you normal and you don’t even know what it is!”
The fashionable side of adaptive technology
Next time you pick out curtains, you might have more to decide on than color. Carpets that respond to diabetics’ damaged feet and gloves that provide increased sensory feedback are just a couple of examples of how wearable electronics might soon change our lives. Lynne Bruning works in e-textiles and conductive fabric, and she says, “The field is evolving so fast that every time I do a lecture … I have a new slide show with recent developments, methods and materials. As the hardware becomes smaller, faster, and more compatible with smart phones, the more quickly improvements develop.”
More reading
- Author Stephen King and his wife are using their foundation to help fund heating aid for poor, disabled, and elderly people in Maine.
- “Sexual assistants” in Switzerland are helping “people who might otherwise have little chance of being sexually active due to their handicap the opportunity to feel like a normal human being.”
- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced an ordinance to crack down on the illegal use of handicapped placards.
- North Carolina is trying — with little success so far — to track down victims of a sterilization program that targeted people with mental illness, epilepsy and low intelligence between 1929 and 1974.
- A businessman describes his battle with frontotemporal degeneration, a rare neurological disorder.
- Fourteen members of the House of Representatives want more scrutiny of how benefit checks are sent to disabled adults and minors.
Tags: Associated Press, Cycling team, Monique van der Vorst, New Jersey, North Carolina, Stephen King, United States
