A 10-year-old Hartlepool boy with cerebral palsy is learning to do some of the things he has never been able to manage before, like riding a bike, after major surgery. Mitchell's parents thought they had exhausted all the options for treating their son but then stumbled across a procedure called selective dorsal rhizotomy to treat spasticity in people with cerebral palsy.
A man from Redcar has set up a new organisation with the hope of changing discriminatory attitudes towards disabled people. Andrew Clark from Redcar is autistic and has set up a non-profit organisation to educate public bodies and private companies about disability. The newly-formed National Society for the Equal Rights to the Disabled plans to hold a series of events in 2011. Andrew believes education is the key to changing people's opinions.
A week of BBC features looking at the issues facing people with disabilities - Access All Areas - is getting under way. Disability affairs correspondent Peter White looks at how much more needs to be done to end discrimination, 40 years after the first Disability Act.
Tests determining whether people are fit to work are to be reformed to offer more support and to take greater account of mental health conditions. An independent review of the Work Capability Assessment, introduced in 2008, has proposed substantial changes to make it "fairer and more effective". Campaigners say it is flawed and many decisions are overturned on appeal.
Liberal Democrat Care Services Minister, Paul Burstow, has given a speech to Carers UK Conference in which he outlined the Coalition Government's Carers Strategy.
"Building a full partnership between health and social care will allow us to implement our vision for social care. We know all to well that it is a vision that matters hugely to the hundreds of thousands of families who rely on us. Much has been said and written about the impact of the Spending Review on social care. A lot of it has been misguided. There have been all sorts of claims and counter claims, which are alarming for older people and unsettling for those who care for them. So let me debunk a few myths for you.