disability

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Time to Ditch the Word 'Retard'?
 Time to Ditch the Word 'Retard'? 
OPINION
Sep 21, 2008 2:26 PM CDT

Time to Ditch the Word 'Retard'?

(Newser) - Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder is just the latest example of how the word "retard" has become a pop-culture phenom, but the movie also has served as a catalyst for disability advocates who claim that the word is offensive and must go, writes Lynn Harris in Salon. Are they right?...

S. Korea's Blind Masseurs Protest Threat to Livelihood

Government opens profession to sighted

(Newser) - Blind masseurs in South Korea are protesting what they see as the end of a way of life—and their livelihood, CNN reports. Police arrested 26 yesterday who gathered on a bridge and threatened to jump because the government is for the first time allowing sighted people to become licensed...

How Thunder 's Joke Hurts the Disabled
How Thunder's Joke Hurts
the Disabled
OPINION
Aug 16, 2008 7:09 PM CDT

How Thunder's Joke Hurts the Disabled

'Retard' a painful word for mother of daughter with Downs

(Newser) - Patricia E. Bauer suffers every time her Downs syndrome daughter hears the word "retard." When Bauer saw ads for Tropic Thunder, which jokes about retardation, they echoed every insult that her blond, blue-eyed daughter had endured for 24 years. After weeks of debate, Bauer remains stunned by ads...

Americans Face Hearing Loss 'Epidemic'

Hearing impairment far more common than expected

(Newser) - Americans are likely to face an epidemic of hearing impairment in coming years as the use of personal listening devices soars and the population ages, Reuters reports. A third of adults already has hearing loss to some degree and the proportion is expected to rise significantly. White Americans, men, and...

Bush to Overhaul Access for Disabled

Proposal would vastly expand 1990 disabilities act

(Newser) - With an eye to aging Boomers and Iraq vets, the Bush administration is set to propose wide-ranging new rules to improve disabled access to public spaces from retail stores to golf courses, the New York Times reports. The move, which updates  implementation of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, would...

EPA Plans Tough New Lead Limits
EPA Plans
Tough New
Lead Limits
May 2, 2008 2:37 AM CDT

EPA Plans Tough New Lead Limits

Safety standards unchanged for 30 years

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing stringent new regulations on lead  levels in the air, which have remained unchanged for 30 years. Some 23 counties in the US would be out of compliance once the new standards are established. Lead has been linked to developmental and learning problems in children.

Blind Paterson Feeling His Way as NY Governor

Much of Albany familiar, but layout of new digs takes getting used to

(Newser) - It takes a lot of extra sweat for New York's legally blind governor to act like a person with 20/20, the New York Times reports. David Paterson spends hours each night listening to recorded staff briefings—and memorizing speeches, since he can't read a teleprompter. And though the veteran politician...

Forget It, Baldy, You're Not Disabled: Judge

Teacher complained of 'discriminatory' teasing by students

(Newser) - A Scottish schoolteacher constantly mocked by students because of his baldness has been told having a chrome dome does not count as a disability, the Scotsman reports. The judge at an employment tribunal said that had he found in the man's favor, then anyone with a "big nose or...

Serbs Reject Charges of Patient Abuse

Government disputes group's claim that disabled are neglected, tortured

(Newser) - Officials in Serbia today called "dark propaganda" a report by a US human-rights group that alleged patients with mental and physical disabilities were systematically abused, and that staff at one facility tortured retarded children. "We may be suffering staffing and financial problems," one administrator said, "but...

Mastectomy Is No Disability, Court Rules

South Korean military ordered to reinstate female helicopter pilot

(Newser) - A South Korean court has ordered the military to reinstate a female helicopter pilot who was bounced from her job after she had a double  mastectomy to treat breast cancer. Regulations require personnel to be discharged if they're missing body parts. The case has been a flashpoint for feminists and...

Transplant Doc Accused of Quickening Patient's Death

Organ-donation controversy erupts

(Newser) - A San Francisco surgeon is facing unprecedented felony charges of accelerating the death of a 25-year-old disabled man to harvest his organs for transplant. The doctor denies the charges that he acted without a legitimate medical purpose, the LA Times reports, but the controversy is bad news for transplant doctors...

Military Skimps On Soldiers' Benefits

Disabilities shrugged off, wounded troops are sent back into action

(Newser) - Soldiers are being deprived of disability benefits, having their injuries downgraded and even being sent back into the field when they're not fit to fight, a U.S. News investigation shows.  An arbitrary and system for rating disabilities has been a problem for years, veteran advocates say, but it's...

Stories 61 - 72 | << Prev