Saturday, December 20, 2008
Technology Transforms College for Students with Disabilities
A university in Vermont is taking advantage of today’s technology to help students with ADHD, learning disabilities, and other impairments to access college. This has impacted the university in such a way that there is now a new push for a "universal design for learning," would make college classes more accessible to all learners without accommodations. Learn more from The Burlington Free Press.
Family-Centered Care Tools
Family Voices has released a set of documents called the Family-Centered Care Self-Assessment Tools.
These three PDF documents (a Family Tool, a Provider Tool, and a User’s Guide) are designed to assist communities in assessing their strengths and indentifying areas that could use improvement.
The tools can be used by families to measure the care their children and youth are receiving. Health care providers can use them to evaluate ways to improve services and supports within the community. The three tools are ultimately intended to successfully build organized family-centered services for all children, including those with special health care needs.
These three PDF documents (a Family Tool, a Provider Tool, and a User’s Guide) are designed to assist communities in assessing their strengths and indentifying areas that could use improvement.
The tools can be used by families to measure the care their children and youth are receiving. Health care providers can use them to evaluate ways to improve services and supports within the community. The three tools are ultimately intended to successfully build organized family-centered services for all children, including those with special health care needs.
Combining academic goals and transition planning
Is it possible to combine planning for instruction to meet academic goals at the same time as transition goals?
Find out in this Q&A with the authors of the new Universal Design for Transition: A Roadmap for Planning and Instruction
Find out in this Q&A with the authors of the new Universal Design for Transition: A Roadmap for Planning and Instruction
The Role of Youth With and Without Disabilities in Making High Schools More Inclusive
Youth and young adult involvement is an important element in developing community-based systems of care for children and youth with disabilities and chronic health conditions. Family and youth/young adults are the primary consumers who know first hand what works, what doesn’t, and how communities can better meet their needs.
KASA (Kids as Self Advocates) of Family Voices and the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Part B Community of Practice recently banded together in presenting a national teleconference, The Role of Youth with and without disabilities in Making High Schools More Inclusive (MP3 audio recording). The teleconference featured youth and young adults with disabilities who spoke from their own experiences about how youth can play an important role in making high schools more inclusive. The four presenters are members of the KASA National Advisory Board and represent youth and young adults with disabilities and special needs on topics such as self-advocacy and equal rights, health care, and the importance of the youth voice in systems change efforts.
The powerful stories told by each of these youth are proof that the input of young people is crucial when developing community-based systems of care in communities. Because much of the care is being designed for and around them, their opinion should perhaps be the most valued. KASA Director Naomi Ortiz emphasizes that for youth to be successful advocates, they need to be interdependent and learn from their peers, older adults with disabilities, and other allies about how to successfully transition into adulthood. It is important to educate young people about the community they live in, the history of disability, and the leaders who came before them in the Disability Rights Movement.
KASA has made much progress in youth self-advocacy. Their website is filled with information written by youth with disabilities on a variety of issues. According to Ms. Ortiz, they are also currently developing a toolkit around working with paraprofessionals that will be finished by March 2009. Because KASA is a National project, they use technology and “virtual” meetings as a way to work on a national disability youth agenda. KASA currently has one state chapter and works to assist them and other state groups by sharing resources and updates about what is going on in different states.
KASA (Kids as Self Advocates) of Family Voices and the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) Part B Community of Practice recently banded together in presenting a national teleconference, The Role of Youth with and without disabilities in Making High Schools More Inclusive (MP3 audio recording). The teleconference featured youth and young adults with disabilities who spoke from their own experiences about how youth can play an important role in making high schools more inclusive. The four presenters are members of the KASA National Advisory Board and represent youth and young adults with disabilities and special needs on topics such as self-advocacy and equal rights, health care, and the importance of the youth voice in systems change efforts.
The powerful stories told by each of these youth are proof that the input of young people is crucial when developing community-based systems of care in communities. Because much of the care is being designed for and around them, their opinion should perhaps be the most valued. KASA Director Naomi Ortiz emphasizes that for youth to be successful advocates, they need to be interdependent and learn from their peers, older adults with disabilities, and other allies about how to successfully transition into adulthood. It is important to educate young people about the community they live in, the history of disability, and the leaders who came before them in the Disability Rights Movement.
KASA has made much progress in youth self-advocacy. Their website is filled with information written by youth with disabilities on a variety of issues. According to Ms. Ortiz, they are also currently developing a toolkit around working with paraprofessionals that will be finished by March 2009. Because KASA is a National project, they use technology and “virtual” meetings as a way to work on a national disability youth agenda. KASA currently has one state chapter and works to assist them and other state groups by sharing resources and updates about what is going on in different states.
What do families need to put their minds at ease in living with autism?
That's what Easter Seals wanted to find out. So this summer, thanks to the generous support of MassMutual Financial Group, they worked in cooperation with the Autism Society of America to conduct the Easter Seals Living with Autism Study.
Autism now affects more than 1.5 million Americans and their families -- yet services and support for people living with autism are few and far between.
Easter Seals surveyed over 2,500 parents of children who have autism and parents of typically developing children about daily life, relationships, independence, education, housing, employment, finances and healthcare.
The study results paint a startling picture of the life-long fears, anxieties and critical supports needed to raise a child with autism. Many parents of children with autism worry that their child won’t fit into society:
1. Nearly 80% are extremely or very concerned about their child’s independence as an adult.
2. Only 14% feel that their child will be able to make life decisions.
3. Only 17% think their child will make friends.
4. They report that they’re “financially drowning,” with concerns for their child’s financial future surpassing the worries of parents with typically developing children.
Easter Seals will use these findings to raise awareness of and advocate for the life-long services families living with autism desperately need.
Click here to download the Living with Autism Study and findings today!
Autism now affects more than 1.5 million Americans and their families -- yet services and support for people living with autism are few and far between.
Easter Seals surveyed over 2,500 parents of children who have autism and parents of typically developing children about daily life, relationships, independence, education, housing, employment, finances and healthcare.
The study results paint a startling picture of the life-long fears, anxieties and critical supports needed to raise a child with autism. Many parents of children with autism worry that their child won’t fit into society:
1. Nearly 80% are extremely or very concerned about their child’s independence as an adult.
2. Only 14% feel that their child will be able to make life decisions.
3. Only 17% think their child will make friends.
4. They report that they’re “financially drowning,” with concerns for their child’s financial future surpassing the worries of parents with typically developing children.
Easter Seals will use these findings to raise awareness of and advocate for the life-long services families living with autism desperately need.
Click here to download the Living with Autism Study and findings today!
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