The message, with all its implications for success, can be distilled into three words. Spend any amount of time around this coach, around his football program, and you’ll come away parroting the mantra:

“Figure it out.”

Catchy, sure. But it’s more than a nice phrase. It’s Mark Speckman’s coaching philosophy. And his life.

They found an emaciated Dorcas Mburu tied up in the corner of a room. For years, Dorcas Mburu’s 80-year-old mother had kept her locked in the house, humiliated by her own daughter’s existence, and the mental disability from which her daughter suffered. After years of neglect, villagers of Kabuku in Kenya broke down the front door to save the woman.

Labeling people is a sensitive issue, especially for those with developmental disabilities. It is not an easy thing to change which is why there’s a major campaign to eliminate the “r-word.”

I SPOKE at an AIDS conference not long ago, and after the talk, someone asked me how I had contracted H.I.V. “Well,” I replied, “sexually.” Staring at my crutches, which I have used since I got polio as a child, she exclaimed, “But how?”

For Karen Foran Dempsey, efforts to provide equal opportunities for people with disabilities have not slowed since last year’s 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The creators of Fox’s hit show “Glee” want to make you laugh and think. The episodes are produced with messages about inclusion no matter what you look like, your sexuality or disability.

Sidewalks are made without curbs at the corners and laws prohibit putting up new buildings that are not accessible to everyone. We are now aware of the extra-large stalls in bathrooms and parking for people with disabilities in every mall. We take these improvements for granted now.

The Ozarks has lost a community leader in a tragic accident. The 42-year-old man killed in Thursday night’s van fire in south Springfield will be remembered as a tireless advocate for people with disabilities.

A new pilot curriculum at Plymouth Creek Elementary has first-graders learning more than just reading, writing and arithmetic.

Equality, full employment, protection under the law. As journalist John Hockenberry saw it, these were the things the Americans with Disabilities Act promised in 1990, when he had already lived nearly half his life as a paraplegic.