When you’re aging alone, who will take care of you if you get sick? | The Washington Post
Not long before I turned 60, my husband and I split up, and a health concern that I’d never really worried about jumped out at me: What would I do, now alone, if I became seriously ill? I’ve had health issues in the past, so I know the importance of having someone there to support you — through doctor appointments, outpatient treatments, even drugstore visits. Growing old on my own didn’t sound great for a number of reasons, but who would take care of me if I became sick, injured or just too frail to take care of myself?
Making the web easier to access for people with disabilities | Marketplace
About 20 percent of Americans have one or more disabilities, and just like in the physical world, the digital one is not always readily accessible. So, going to a website, if you’re visually impaired, probably involves using a screen reader. “They’ll usually have that running, at all times, from the moment they boot up their computer. The screen reader is reading everything that is happening, for them, it’s verbalizing every interface,” explained Mikey Ilagan, a web developer and accessibility specialist. Ilagan spoke with Marketplace’s Lizzie O’Leary about the barriers to making tech more accessible. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
How to Meet Autistic People Halfway | New York Times
One of the most widely held beliefs about autistic people — that they are not interested in other people — is almost certainly wrong. Our understanding of autism has changed quite a bit over the past century, but this particular belief has been remarkably persistent. Seventy-five years ago, the first published account of autism described its subjects as “happiest when left alone” and “impervious to people.” Even now, a National Institutes of Health fact sheet suggests that autistic people are “indifferent to social engagement,” and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims that some “might not be interested in other people at all.”
Two Cancer Drugs Found to Boost Aging Immune Systems | Gizmodo
Drugs that can lengthen life have long been a hallmark of speculative science fiction—many hope for an invention that could extend average lifespans well into the triple digits in the distant future. But the timeline of these drugs could be shorter than we think. A new clinical trial published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine has found evidence that low doses of two existing drugs can boost the immune system of an elderly person, helping it fight common deadly infections, including the flu, with seemingly little to no side effects.
Discovery Could Lead To New Treatments For Cancer, Neurodegeneration, Aging And Viral Infections | Forbes
The good news is Americans are living longer than ever. The bad news is, well, maybe they’re not. Only time will tell whether the nations two-year slump in life expectancy will continue. So in the meantime, what can the most indulgent nation in the world hope for as far as longer life? The answer may come from another country altogether.
1 in 9 U.S. Adults Over 45 Reports Memory Problems | U.S. News & World Report
If you’re middle-aged and you think you’re losing your memory, you’re not alone, a new U.S. government report shows. In fact, one in nine Americans aged 45 and older say they are experiencing thinking declines. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noticing a decline in your mental abilities (“cognitive decline”) is one of the earliest signs of impending Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.
Plastic straw bans are the latest policy to forget the disability community | Washington Post
I was about to enjoy my morning cup of tea at my favorite local coffee shop when I realized they were out of plastic straws. For most people, this would be a minor annoyance or inconvenience, but for me it was a crisis. For me, a disabled person, no straw means no drink — if I try drinking my tea without a straw, I risk choking or burning myself with the hot liquid. Not willing to take the risk, I offered my tea to my friend, knowing I just couldn’t drink it.
Doug Baldwin is right: Release nonviolent, aging drug offenders | The Seattle Times
In a New York Times Op-Ed published in June, several NFL players, including Doug Baldwin, responded to President Donald Trump’s invitation to provide him names of federal prisoners “unfairly treated by the justice system” and, if he agreed, he would pardon them.
Disability rights groups voice issues with Starbucks’ plastic straw ban as company responds | PBS News Hour
An official from Starbucks reached out to disability rights activists on Saturday, the day before a planned protest against its recent ban on plastic straws, in what several disability rights groups said was the start of a direct conversation about the ban. After Starbucks announced on July 9 it would phase out plastic straws from its stores by 2020, disability rights activists were concerned the policy would exclude some people with disabilities. Several New York City-based groups, including the Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled and Disabled in Action, had planned to protest outside a Union Square Starbucks on Sunday after the annual Disability Pride Parade.
Aerie features models with Down Syndrome, insulin pumps in new lingerie ads | Today
Dear Aerie: Thanks for showing, once again, that real beauty doesn’t fit in a box. In its latest viral ads, the brand that’s celebrated beauty of all shapes, sizes and colors is featuring the differently abled in a beautiful way. The new Aerie ads show real women from all walks of life proudly displaying their disability, condition or illness — and they’re pretty darn inspiring. From a gorgeous gal with Down Syndrome to a beauty rocking her insulin pump, the new photos show that it’s time for more ad campaigns to embrace all forms of beauty.
Podcast: Aftereffect — an indictment of America’s disability care |Financial Times
When in July 2016 an unarmed African-American man was shot in the middle of a street in North Miami by a police Swat team, the story seemed depressingly familiar. Charles Kinsey, who was wounded in the thigh, worked as a behavioural assistant in a group home just down the street. He was accompanying Arnaldo Rios Soto, a severely autistic man in his twenties who was sitting in the road playing with his toy truck. Mistaking the small silver truck for a firearm, a passer-by called 911, prompting the stand-off with police.
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