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The Ipswich Advertiser: Prison pups deliver new purpose

WHEN Kris was sentenced to life in prison, he didn’t expect to spend the long nights cuddled up to a 10-week-old labrador pup named Oxley. Oxley joined three other pups to enter Ipswich’s Borallon Correctional Centre last week, where eight maximum security prisoners will be responsible for full-time care of the assistance dogs-in-training.

This is the first time the program will run in an Australian maximum security prison. The offenders will teach them basic obedience commands to prepare them for helping people with a disability. These tasks include opening doors, fetching phones and mail, picking up dropped items and paying cashiers at shops.

The Age: Code opens doors to disabled

The Rudd government will today announce minimum access requirements for public buildings built or renovated from May 1 next year.

For the first time, uniform building rules will be mandated across Australia to end the isolation felt by as many as 4 million people who cannot use many public facilities. These go beyond buildings – to swimming pools and cinemas.

CBS: “Fight Club” for Mentally Disabled Brings Conviction; Guadalupe Delarosa Caught on Tape, Prison Next [WARNING]

An employee of a Texas home for the disabled who staged fights between the residents for “entertainment” is going to prison.

Coshocton Tribune: Independence important to residents with disabilities

Coshocton residents such as Connors and Wagner, who in the past would have been relegated to care facilities or be cared for by family members, have the option to become independent. Medicare has a waiver program that addresses different levels of care for these clients by providing them with help on meeting independent goals but at the same time offering a support system to provide for individual care.[…]

Living outside intermediate and long-term health care facilities gives developmentally disabled individuals the opportunity to choose what church they’ll attend, where they’ll go to work and who will take care of them if they need assistance.

“It’s exciting being out on my own and I’ve enjoyed the past eight months,” Connors said. “The best part is the privacy.”

Daily Sun: Persons with disability want constitution amended

A group, Joint National Association of Persons With Disabilities (JONAPWD) has called on the two chambers of the National Assembly to amend section 42 of 1999 Constitutions as well as section 57, 52 of Electoral Act of 2006.

National President of the group, Barrister Danlami Bashiru, made this call at a recent event in Lagos to commemorate the 2010 International Women’s Day with the theme; “Equal rights for Disabled Women in this Democratic Dispensation.” […]

Barrister Bashiru noted that women in this group suffers triple jeopardy, first as a woman, secondly as woman with disabilities and thirdly, they suffer discrimination from fellow women in the society.
He, however, revealed that JONAPWD has inaugurated the women’s wing of the body in Lagos for disabled women to have a strong voice, speak for themselves, demand for their rights and to provide lasting solution to challenges they faced.

The Telegraph: Self defence for the elderly – using an NHS walking stick

Kevin Garwood, 61, a triple black belt, has developed special ”cane work” courses for people over 50. The course is based on martial arts from around the world that use the sabre, bayonet and staff, which have been adapted specifically for stick users with limited mobility.

Typical moves include throws, takedowns and ‘neck hooks’ which use the crook of the stick for locks and strangleholds as well as gentle exercises using the 3ft long canes.