The week of welfare and disablity stories.

These links don't directly relate to the paralympics, but I am pretty sure thats the reason behind this sudden explosion in the media of all things disability...

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mark-steel/mark-steel-they-cant-be-disabled--they-can-swim-8084638.html
There's a company called Atos, that you may have heard of, and the achievement it's best known for is to be despised by thousands of the disabled. 

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/28/paralympics-world-of-possibility
A great backwash of enthusiasm from the Olympics will carry the Paralympics triumphantly through the opening ceremony on Wednesday night. It's the same stadium and the same format,

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/sheffield-s-disabled-join-paralympic-protest-1-4873379#.UD205fzur58.twitter
DISABLED people in Sheffield put on a united front against the government’s chosen Paralympics sponsor.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/28/atos-3bn-government-contracts-paralympics?CMP=twt_gu
Ministers have outsourced more than £3bn of public services to Atos, the multinational IT firm whose sponsorship of the Paralympics has prompted a nationwide campaign by disability activists.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/28/hope-paralympics-games-normalise-disability?CMP=twt_gu
I've been waiting seven long years for the Paralympics. I'm a wheelchair sports fan (it's the same as being an armchair sports fan except I'm more portable).

 http://www.redpepper.org.uk/mythbuster-welfare-reform/
Welfare reform is almost inevitably contentious. Answering the question of who should receive how much financial support relies on often competing conceptions of fairness, with rival views about who needs, and who deserves, our help, not to mention the most just and efficient way of providing it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/aug/26/tanni-grey-thompson-paralympic-star?CMP=twt_gu
Lady Grey-Thompson may be Britain's greatest Paralympian, a TV personality and a dame of the British empire, but if like her you use a wheelchair, fame and stellar achievement can count for little when confronted with the vagaries of the public transport system.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19365786
 Frequent air travel is part of a BBC security correspondent's job - but flying with a wheelchair is sometimes more difficult than it needs to be.

 http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/paralympics/time-to-embrace-a-new-team-of-heroes-and-rethink-our-attitudes-to-disability-8079299.html
 After a brief dose of reality, it all starts again on Wednesday night. The torch, the ceremony, the fans, the winners and losers and the overnight Team GB heroes.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/23/paralympians-state-help-disabled-benefits-cut?CMP=twt_gu
 The flames are lit, the torches are on the move. Next week an extraordinary spectacle unfolds, revealing super-fit, finely muscled Paralympians doing things few able-bodied people could ever achieve. But will it change public attitudes – and if so, for better or worse?

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/paralympic-sponsor-engulfed-by-disability-tests-row-8084799.
 Paralympic sponsor engulfed by disability tests row - Home News - UK - The Independent

 http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/08/28/seven-medals-but-now-the-tories-want-my-benefits-british-paralympic-gold-medalist-tara-flood-speaks-out/

Paralympic winner speaks out and says get Atos out of the Games
Paralympic gold medallist and world record holder Tara Flood faces a test that could see her lose her disability benefits, she told Socialist Worker.