Those with borderline personality disorder, or BPD, a mental illness marked by unstable moods, often experience trouble maintaining interpersonal relationships. New research from the University of Georgia indicates that this may have to do with lowered brain activity in regions important for empathy in individuals with borderline personality traits.
My daughter was zooming through the toy aisles at Wal-Mart with her walker; I was chasing her and asking her to stop or else there would be no Lala Loopsie. Actually, she had more of a run-run-glide thing going on. One of the workers was standing on a ladder arranging shelves and noticed; I was sure he was going to ask her to stop running, but instead, he looked down at me and said, "I am so so sorry she's like that." And his face was contorted with great pity and sadness. He thought my daughter's disability was a great tragedy.
If you are among the approximately 1.4m children and adults in the UK born with a learning disability, it's likely that through no fault of your own you will experience a number of injustices in your life. From feeling largely invisible and isolated to being excluded from many of the activities that make life worth living - friendship, love, employment, leisure and further education - the chance of you living the kind of life you want to is vastly reduced if you have a learning disability.
New analysis for the first time looks at research into public attitudes towards people with a learning disability
Iain Duncan Smith's policies have not always been well-received by those with disabilities.
Education can really shape who we are as individuals, It gives you the knowledge and power to move forward in your life and acts as a mechanism to break down barriers that prevent you from achieving. During some time I spent in India five years ago, I learned how valued education was and how enthusiastic Indian children were to go to school and learn. The image of children living in quite extreme poverty, turning up to school every day with big smiles on their faces, will stay with me for the rest of my life and I've become very grateful for my own education and how much I've achieved.