Disability news: Rebekah Brooks, Oscar Pistorius, Winterbourne View
| 15:05 UK time, Friday, 22 July 2011
The phone hacking scandal dominated headlines this week, leaving little room for anything else. But as Ouch! has proven time and again, disability is everywhere.
Able Radio, a Welsh station which focuses on disability issues, has offered ex News International Chief Executive, Rebekah Brooks, . They have described the voluntary position as an opportunity to "rebuild her career".
Station manager Malcolm John said, "We, to date, have no evidence she has ever been embroiled in any story that is negative to disability".
Listeners, who met the suggestion with "near-universal disapproval", will be pleased to note that Rebekah Brooks has "politely declined" the offer via her PR representative.
The other big disability story this week was amputee athlete sprinting to victory in Italy. The runner, who wears carbon fibre blades instead of his regular prosthetic limbs while racing, knocked half a second off his personal best.
He described it as a "dream race" and the win makes him eligible to compete against non-disabled athletes in the World Athletics Championships next month. It also puts him within the qualifying time for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Pistorius, 24, is the double below-the-knee amputee world record holder in the 100, 200 and 400 metres and has four Paralympic gold medals. But in the past his endeavours to race along side non-disabled athletes have been met with varying levels of support.
In January 2008, the International Association of Athletic Federations released research which compared Pistorius with six non-disabled athletes capable of a similar performance. The study claimed that his famous carbon fibre blades allowed him to use 25 percent less energy than his counterparts. He argued that he was disadvantaged by having less blood in his body and no calf muscles.
Five months later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the report was inconclusive and cleared him to compete.
Soon after the ruling, Oscar, who describes as "an icon on and off the track" failed to achieve the qualifying times for the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, which makes his most recent win all the sweeter.
Elsewhere in the news
•Castlebeck workers suspended in hospital probe
•Bubble baby syndrome risks for children of cousin marriage
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