On Disabilities

A legally blind woman who has led a fight to make Medicare pay for care even when patients' medical conditions don't improve is in court to get Medicare payment for her own home care.

"When I first saw him he had a little bit of eye movement and that was really the only way he could communicate," says Eric Sellers, who helped a patient use a brain-computer interface to communicate.

Several dozen children in California and Colorado have suffered paralyzed limbs, which doctors speculate could be caused by the respiratory virus EV-68. But we're a long way from knowing for sure.

Justin McCowan wanted to help find a cure for Alzheimer's because it's more common in people like him who have Down syndrome. He died in his sleep last week at age 40.

A shrinking pool of grant money for medical research has led competing applicants to oversell weak scientific findings, critics say. The result: Many experimental treatments are worthless.

Some advocates say autism-only schools can be life-changing for autistic kids who struggle in traditional classrooms. Others say segregating kids with autism carries its own problems.

Several bio-tech companies are developing exoskeletons that give people superhuman abilities. But these robotic suits are also doing something simpler: They're helping paralyzed veterans walk again.

There's evidence that many standard treatments for back pain — including surgery, spinal injections and painkillers — are often ineffective and can even worsen and prolong the problem.

Braille hasn't changed much in the nearly 200 years it's been around. But with tablets, smartphones and e-readers, how we read things has. Judy Dixon of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped talks with NPR about how technology has changed Braille — and whether it can endure.

Pregnant women are told not to drink, smoke or stress out. But it hasn't been clear how those choices may affect a fetus. By studying how genes are turned on and off, scientists say they are getting closer to understanding what experiences in the womb really affect a child's health.

People who lack special needs but simply want to keep their pets with them all the time can easily find fake "service animal" certifications on the Web. But those phony credentials can create problems for people with disabilities who legitimately need trained service dogs.

Every week, a group of people with a range of disabilities hits San Francisco Bay. They sail using specially rigged boats; one woman controls her boat using only her chin. Sailing offers a sense of independence for the participants, some of whom are confined to wheelchairs while on land.