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Topic “Special Needs”

Special Needs, Special Shirts: Kickstarter Aims To Create Luxury Fashion For All

A new Kickstarter raising funds to create luxury shirts designed with special needs people in mind (but appropriate for all wearers) was born of a lack of options for integrated clothing items in that realm — but unlike mass-market garments of the same function, Mianzi’s shirts are appropriate for all wearers. Richard Nachum Kligman’s Kickstarter to get Mianzi Fashion off the ground has hit a third of its goal in four days, and it’s not difficult to see why. Many popular Kickstarters back projects that are just fun or just popular, and it’s kind of cool to see one that innovates to create a product that makes life easier for people with special needs. On the page (using a site where folks with great ideas can hook up with small bits of funding), Kligman explains how the concept of Mianzi Fashion was born — and why the shirts appeal not just to special needs clientele, but everyone. Kligman explains that his son Moishy requires a bib due to cerebral palsy, and searching high and low led him to realize no products exist to address the need for a shirt and a bib concurrent...

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AZ student with special needs avoids bullies with protection of football team

by Marie Saavedra, azfamily.com QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. -- This story starts with high school hierarchy. The kind where kids like seniors Carson Jones and Tucker Workman sail through their classes and lead the undefeated football team. “It's senior year, you know, it’s pretty exciting," Workman said. "It’s a rush, it goes by so fast but it’s fun." At the same time, students like Chy Johnson just try to make it through the day. “The girl threw trash at me," Chy said, describing one of the girls who bullies her. The 16-year-old sophomore was born with a brain disorder, and kids picking on her because of her differences have always been a part of life. But this year, her mom had enough of her coming home crying every day. She decided to call on a family friend for help. It was Carson Jones, starting quarterback....

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Families Happy Despite Severe Needs

Posted on DisabilityScoop.com, By Even with the severe disabilities associated with two rare chromosomal disorders, a new study finds that parents raising kids with the conditions say the experience is positive. In fact, in interviews with 332 parents who have lived with children with trisomy 13 or 18 — two disorders marked by severe disabilities and a short life span — 97 percent said their kids were happy and enriched their lives. The findings reported in the August issue of the journal Pediatrics come in sharp contrast to the predictions that families said they were offered from the medical community. Parents indicated that they were told that their children would be “incompatible with life” and would lead a “life of suffering.” Some...

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Couple with disabilities embraces joy of parenting

Posted on thestar.com in early July 2012. Written by Sarah-Taïssir Bencharif, Staff Reporter. VIDEO OF THIS STORY AVAILABLE HERE William wiggles his little arms and legs, smiling up at the moving musical mobile above his crib. His parents, Maricyl Palisoc and Charles Wilton, savour these joys of parenthood, joys very nearly taken away from them. In May, they almost lost their newborn to the Peel Children’s Aid Society because they both have a disability. Wilton, 28, and Palisoc, 34, both have cerebral palsy, a physical disability affecting their movement and motor skills. Their disability is also marked by slurred speech but has no impact on their mental capacities. “They told us we might not even bring the baby home,” Palisoc recalls of the harrowing three months of indecision prior to William’s birth on April 13...

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