Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Off the Ball: Sport and Mental Disability

Excerpt from: Sports Byte (click for full article)

 

 

Judge Rules Against Football Helmet Manufacturer

Excerpt from: New York Times (click for full article)

 

 

A jury in Colorado has found that Riddell, the country’s largest helmet manufacturer, was at fault for failure to adequately warn players wearing their football helmets about the dangers of potential concussions.

The company was ordered to pay several million dollars in damages to a 22-year-old man who was injured in 2008 while playing high school football.

The award, which came from the jury in Las Animas County District Court in Trinidad, Colo., early Saturday morning, is a rare victory for those injured while wearing football helmets. It could provide a prelude to a parallel case brought by N.F.L. retirees, who have also sued the company.

According to the verdict, Riddell is responsible for $3.1 million, or 27 percent of $11.5 million in damages that were awarded to Rhett Ridolfi, who sustained a head injury and was paralyzed on the left side of his body during a football drill in 2008.

 

People Who Normally Practice Sport Have a Better Attention Span Than Those With Bad Physical Health

Excerpt from: Science Daily (click for full article)

 

This research has been carried out by scientists from the University of Granada.

New scientific evidence seems to confirm the famous Roman saying "Mens sana in corpore sano." Researchers from the University of Granada have demonstrated that people who normally practice sport have a better cognitive performance than those with bad physical health. More specifically, the results of this research indicate that the former have a better sustained attention span (they react more rapidly to an external stimulus introduced randomly while carrying out a monotonous task). Their autonomic nervous system also appears to work better when dealing with cognitive loads over a longer time period.

In an article published in the latest edition of the journal PLoS One scientists compared the cognitive performance in specific tasks such as sustained attention, time-oriented attention (generating expectations of when an event will occur) and time perception.

A Court Test for Suits About Head Trauma

Excerpt from: The New York Times (click for full article)

 

The N.F.L. will face off in court Tuesday against thousands of retirees in a case that will help determine the league’s role in caring for players with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The issue in front of United States District Court Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia is whether to grant the N.F.L.’s request to dismiss more than 200 cases brought by more than 4,000 former players who accused the league of hiding information about the dangers of head trauma. The players are seeking damages for their injuries.

The league has insisted the cases, filed in the last few years, essentially involved workplace safety issues covered by the collective bargaining agreements that players agreed to. Therefore, the players should plead their cases to arbitrators in grievance procedures, not a judge, the league has said.

ArtPrize 2012 prize-winning artist blogs on Huffington Post and disabilities and art

Excerpt from: MLive (click for full article)

 

Huffington Post has brought an ArtPrize artist’s work to the wider world, much as ArtPrize 2012 gave photographer Robert Andy Coombs the platform to explore physical disabilities and sexuality.

Coombs’ blog “The Stuff No One Talks About” appeared Wednesday on Huffington Post Arts & Culture page online.

In Coombs case, the stuff not discussed is the fact that people with disabilities are unusual. Coombs knows this first hand after he was disabled in a gymnastics accident in 2009 that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.

His Huffington Post blog, the second of three, begins:

“I can't really blame people for the way they react to me sometimes. I know people are curious. I can understand how it could be a little jarring to be dancing in a club and then turn to see someone in a wheelchair. Before my accident, I can't say that I wouldn't have felt the exact same way.”

But people with disabilities also have the same needs, which was the subject of his ArtPrize 2012 prize-winning photography series.

“Despite being disabled, we are still human and have sexual needs and desires,” he said.

12 Important Things to Remember about Adaptive Sports for Children with Disabilities

Excerpt from: Disability Blog (click for full article)

 

Finding sports opportunities for kids with disabilities is not always as simple as going down to the local soccer club during the first week of March for sign-ups.  Many families are not located near an existing adaptive sports team.  Hopefully including children with disabilities in sports will soon get even easier, thanks to new guidance from the U.S. Department of Education that clarifies that school districts are legally obligated to provide equal access to extracurricular athletic activities to students with disabilities.

At the link above, there is an outline of the stepsone family took that lead to their son attending the National Junior Disability Championships (NJDC) in 2011 as an independent athlete, and eventually lead to their family starting a local team for kids with disabilities in the Western Pennsylvania area, Strong as Steel Adaptive Sports.

Michigan High School Athletic Association: Schools understand obligation to students with disabilities

Excerpt from: MLive (click for full article)

 

Michigan schools understand their legal obligation to provide students with disabilities equal opportunities to participate in sports, according to Jack Roberts, Michigan High School Athletic Association executive director.

That understanding began before the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued a letter in January affirming the decades-old law.

“I think schools understood before this letter very well that they were obligated under the law to make reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities...so far as they could without altering the fundamental nature of the sporting activity,” Roberts said. “That’s what the law has required and that’s what schools have been doing very well.”

Brain-injury survivors, including war and sports victims, are honored in exhibit

Excerpt from: The Washington Post (click for full article)

 

Hemorrhages, blunt-force trauma and bullet wounds don’t exactly scream “art.” But in a new exhibit, the National Museum of Health and Medicine is honoring men and women who survived such traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

The temporary exhibit — titled “Whack’ed . . . and then everything was different” — expands on the museum’s standing TBI installation, which showcases human brain specimens as well as medical tools used for surgery, treatment and rehabilitation. Artist and TBI survivor Eliette Markhbein created the larger-than-life portrait series to raise awareness of TBIs.

Six Reasons To See The Jackie Robinson Biopic '42'

Excerpt from: Vibe (click for full article)

 

Big screen newcomer Chadwick Boseman broke a sweat as the leading man of 42. The biopic centers on the arduous career of legendary baseballer Jackie Robinson as he faces racial adversity on and off and on-the-field some more. Eventually, the short stop becomes a symbol of black excellence in a white-dominated, post-Civil War world.

NYer Of The Week: Ken McGrory Helps Youths With Disabilities Build Skills Through Basketball

Excerpt from: NY 1 (click for full article)

 

Nothing gets in the way of Ken McGrory’s love for basketball.

"I've played basketball my whole life. At 17, I had an accident to my right arm, so I learned to play basketball all over again left-handed," he says. "An injury should not stop you, or a perceived disability should not stop you from trying something that you want to do."

Today, McGrory shares that lesson by coaching young players with special needs.

"There are players that are on all levels of the autism spectrum," McGrory says. "We have players who have physical disabilities, and perhaps, we have a number of players who have brain issues. Typically, they would not be invited to play in a in a typical league because of whatever issues they may have. I think it's inside of me that I encourage every single kid to do their best."