Weekend reading and viewing: 12 - 13 March 2016

Sri Lankan girl with Down syndrome reunited with family in WA after visa granted Sarah Taillier, ABC News, 10 March 2016
A nine-year-old Sri Lankan girl denied an Australian visa because she has Down syndrome has been reunited with her family in Western Australia ...

Pro-Choice Parents of Kids with Down’s Syndrome
Ginger Stickney, The Body is Not an Apology, 3 March 2016
... Too often in both the “pro-choice” and “pro-life” camps, the assumption is that choice is unequivocally equals abortion. However I suggest that we need to remember that choice also means choosing to not abort. After all what it comes down to is that I as a woman have a right to choose what to do with my body and that means sometimes I choose to carry a fetus to birth regardless of said fetus’s diagnosis or lack thereof.

In this decision I felt utterly abandoned by both sides. In the pro-choice camps, I didn’t represent the woman rejecting a life of burden, and on the pro-life side, no one cared what became of my child or me since I choose to carry to birth ...

Revisiting the school years: for the better Alex McAuley, The Life That Max Built, 8 March 2016
... as I alluded to in the last post about Max’s school years, things turned out well in the end. In fact, the biggest obstacle I had to overcome was my own preconception of what school should look like for Max. That’s to say, I really believed full integration was the only model for him. Of course, in an ideal world where all things are equal, I honestly believe this is the best model for everyone, as we should all grow up side by side with people of all abilities, disabilities, religion, race, sex etc etc. But while the social systems with which we live are so broken that education and disability services (to name a few) receive significantly less funding than military defence, for example, often this perfect model is difficult to achieve ...

Just Because Our Children Both Have Down Syndrome Doesn't Mean We Need to Be BFFs

Maureen Wallace, Redbook Magazine, 8 March 2016
We need to come together to support the kids, but that doesn't make us soul mates ...

... After we realized we weren't going to immediately move to a commune with our new chromosomally-enhanced community members, we had to realize that this is okay. No one has to like everyone, even if you're dealing with the same issues around parenting a child with a disability.

Not Always Happy - A Comedy

Kari Wagner Peck, A Typical Son, 9 March 2016

When I asked Thorin if he was okay with me doing it he said: “Oh, no! No writing! Too much!”

“I’m writing it.”  “Good! You can do it.” ...

What “Guest Room” Really Says About Disability

Meriah Nichols, A Little Moxie, 9 March 2016

“Guest Room” is a 13-minute award-winning film that follows a couple with Down syndrome from the bedroom to the pregnancy test and a short way beyond ... (includes a link to the 13 m film)

The Dateables Ball: love found out of singles night for people with disabilities
Lesley Robinson, 7.30 (ABC TV), 7 March 2016

The Dateables Ball uses old-fashioned matchmaking to help people with disabilities to find romance. We visit the latest dance and talk to a couple that found love and are now planning their wedding. (Video 6m 32s)

• The current issue of Voice (March 2016) includes Relationships first, disability second, by Liz Dore from Relationships and Private Stuff - organiser of Datable events (Sydney)

100 Faces - living with a diagnosis of Down syndrome

This Australian-based social media project #100FACES is an online collaboration of shared stories from families all around the world.

The aim of the project is to give you a glimpse, a snippet, a snapshot, into the lives of 100 individuals living with a diagnosis of Down syndrome.

Over the course of 2016, you will meet babies, toddlers, children, pre-teens, teenagers and adults, with Down syndrome, from all over the globe ...