Disability news roundup: From Olympic blues to Paralympic coos!

Many papers reported on how the Olympic venues are being transformed in preparation for the Games. The Guardian summarised the task at hand: "Thousands of flags and banners in dozens of venues will be changed, hundreds of buses will be converted, new volunteer recruits will be put through their paces and thousands of journalists will start trying to comprehend the intricacies of goalball and the Paralympic classification system."

Also this week, we saw two examples of popular public Paralympic pressure (PPPP?) Which brought about interesting responses.

1) The Royal Mail decided that they will produce stamps for every ParalympicGB gold medal winning athlete, as they did with Olympic gold medalists, despite previously saying that they would release just six group stamps. This had upset people who felt that disabled sports men and women weren't being taken as seriously.

2) An online petition by a wheelchair-using mother, distressed when told that she would be unable to sit with her family in the Olympic Park, gained over 30 thousand signatures and brought some clarity on how wheelchair spaces are allocated to spectators at Olympic venues.

2.1 million tickets have already been sold, making London 2012 the most popular Paralympics ever. Thousands of further tickets for the Games have just been released.

Elsewhere in the news

Watchdog finds 'weaknesses' in sickness benefit system (BBC News, Friday 17 August)

Tony Nicklinson loses High Court right-to-die case (BBC News, Thursday 16 August)

Paralympic cyclist Jody Cundy's union jack-inspired leg (BBC News, Thursday 16 August)

Michael J. Fox set for return to TV (The Telegraph, Thursday 16 August)

Eddie Marsan on playing Paralympics founder Ludwig Guttmann (BBC News, Wednesday 15 August)

One-handed pianist Nicholas McCarthy 'an inspiration' (BBC News, Wednesday 15 August)

Disabled rights pioneer Lord Morris dies aged 84 (BBC News, Tuesday 14 August)

Olympic Stadium transformed ahead of Paralympics (BBC News, Monday 13 August)

Man paralysed from the waist down becomes a top martial arts instructor - after gaining a black belt in kickboxing (The Daily Mail, Monday 13