Priscilla Wong creates paintings on a computer by moving a digital brush with her tongue because she long ago lost the use of her arms. Her labored breathing is aided by a ventilator, an instrument she has had to wear since she was 10. Wong can sit up for only a few hours a day and, as her grandmother Maria says, the now-23-year-old UC Davis graduate spends much of her life in “in solitude. In solemnity.” Read more.

Donald Trump likely wrecked the day of vaccine experts across the country in last night’s Republican debate. Trump reiterated his opinion that vaccines cause autism, a belief that has been thoroughly debunked by repeated studies.

Candidate Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, did refute Trump, saying, “We have extremely well-documented proof that there’s no autism associated with vaccinations.” The Autism Self Advocacy Network also pointed to the “wealth of scientific evidence debunking any link between autism and vaccinations,” in its own statement. Read more.

Calling the input received from Sonoma Developmental Center stakeholders “the first essential phase of the closure planning process,” the Department of Developmental Services released an 80-page draft of its closure plan for SDC late Tuesday, Sept. 15. Read more.

On September 8, 2015, the United States entered into a proposed settlement agreement with the State of Oregon to vindicate the civil rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) who are unnecessarily segregated in sheltered workshops, or at risk of such unnecessary segregation. The settlement agreement with Oregon resolves a class action lawsuit by private plaintiffs in which the Department moved to intervene in May 2013. The lawsuit alleged that the State’s employment service system over-relied on segregated sheltered workshops to the exclusion of integrated alternatives, such as supported employment services, and placed individuals, including youth, at risk of entering sheltered workshops. Read full text here: Oregon Olmstead 9.8.15

In 1938, an Austrian pediatrician named Hans Asperger gave the first public talk on autism in history. Asperger was speaking to an audience of Nazis, and he feared that his patients — children who fell onto what we now call the autism spectrum — were in danger of being sent to Nazi extermination camps.

As Asperger spoke, he highlighted his “most promising” patients, a notion that would stick with the autistic spectrum for decades to come.

“That is where the idea of so-called high-functioning versus low-functioning autistic people comes from really — it comes from Asperger’s attempt to save the lives of the children in his clinic,” science writer Steve Silberman tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. Read more here: Understanding the History and Pervasive Myths Around Autism

The Obama administration is warning state and local officials not to discriminate against people with disabilities who have children or would like to.

Technical assistance issued jointly this month from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services clarifies that children should not be taken from their moms or dads simply because a parent has a disability. Read more.