Dyslexsia: Supporting Writing Difficulties - Call Scotland

Call Scotland has released this marvelous poster, entitled Supporting Writing Difficulties.

A step-by-step guide in the form of a question and answer ‘checklist’ helping you to identify problems and suggesting a range of practical technology focused solutions to support pupils with writing difficulties.

You can download a PDF version here.

CALL Scotland’s Vision

Every child / young person in Scotland with a disability or additional support needs has the curriculum materials, the Assistive Technologies (AT) and/or Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools they may need, and the support to use them effectively, to participate effectively and fulfill their potential through learning and achievement.

Disabled Students restrained, secluded in school

This is a graph of Instances of Restraint and Seclusion Per 100 Students. Credit: Carsey Institute at UNH

The restraint and seclusion of students in U.S. public schools in response to student behaviour problems are used much more frequently on students with a disability than on students without a disability, and especially in affluent school districts, according to new research at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.

Restraint is a practice that uses physical or mechanical means to restrict a student's freedom of motion.

Seclusion is a practice that usually involves the involuntary isolation of a student for a period of several minutes.

Douglas Gagnon

The research is presented in the Carsey Institute brief "Variation in rates of restraint and seclusion among students with a disability."

The research was conducted by Douglas Gagnon, doctoral candidate in education at UNH and a research assistant at the Carsey Institute; Marybeth Mattingly, director of research on vulnerable families at the Carsey Institute and research assistant professor of sociology at UNH; and Vincent Connelly, associate professor of education at UNH.

Vincent Connelly

On average across school districts nationwide, there were 2.6 instances of restraint for every 100 students with a disability for the 2009-2010 school year, compared with only 0.1 instances for every 100 students without a disability, the researchers found. Seclusion rates followed a similar pattern.

Add caption

This is a graph of Percentage of Districts Reporting Restraint/Seclusion For Students with a Disability. Credit: Carsey Institute at UNH

The researchers found there was wide variability in the use of restraint and seclusion on students with a disability in school districts, with the vast majority of school districts not employing these techniques.

According to the researchers, 59.3 percent of school districts report no instances of restraint of a student with a disability and 82.5 percent do not report a single instance of seclusion.

However, a small proportion of districts report exceedingly high rates.

"Schools today are tasked with implementing positive techniques that can effectively manage the difficult and sometimes violent behaviors of the most challenging students with a disability, which might lead some schools to more extreme measures," the researchers said.

The researchers also found that school districts with higher concentrations of poverty and larger black and Hispanic populations are associated with lower rates of restraint and seclusion. In fact, average rates of restraint and seclusion are more than twice as high in school districts of low poverty and low diversity.

"If certain disability types elicit more frequent restraint and seclusion, and the frequency of such disabilities differs by school type, this may help explain why rates differ across school poverty and racial composition," the researchers said.

More information: This research is based on data from the 2009-2010 Civil Rights Data Collection and the 2009 Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates. The research brief "Variation in rates of restraint and seclusion among students with a disability" is available at carseyinstitute.unh.edu/publication/969

Far from the Tree: Dyslexia, Down Syndrome, Autism, Schizophrenia, disability, etc.

Far from the Tree (BBC website)

The time-worn adage says that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, meaning that a child resembles his or her parents.

The children described in this book are apples that have fallen elsewhere - some a couple of orchards away, some on the other side of the world.

Yet myriad families learn to tolerate, accept and finally celebrate children who are not what they originally had in mind.

Andrew Solomon introduces us to families coping with deafness, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, and disability - as well as families who have children who are prodigies, who are gay, or who become criminals.

Episode 1:
Growing up gay and also struggling with dyslexia led Andrew Solomon to reflect on those situations where a child arrives in a family and is immediately an 'outsider'. 'Parenthood,' he writes, 'abruptly catapults us into a permanent relationship with a stranger'.

Read by Kerry Shale
Abridged and produced by Jill Waters

Read more about the book: Far From the Tree

Dyslexia: A Hidden Disability - YouTube

"Dyslexia: A Hidden Disability," produced by the Kennedy/Marshall Company, is an excellent documentary on adults and children who have dyslexia and the doctors and educators who are working to make a difference in their lives.

It features interviews with Steven Spielberg, Charles Schwab, Whoopi Goldberg, Sally Shaywitz, and Craig Watkinson.

Intellectual disability: New Form discovered

Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) led a study discovering a gene for a new form of intellectual disability, as well as how it likely affects cognitive development by disrupting neuron functioning.

CAMH Senior Scientist Dr. John Vincent and his team found a mutation in the gene NSUN2 among three sisters with intellectual disability, a finding to be published in the May issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

The discovery was made after mapping genes in a Pakistani family, in which three of seven siblings had intellectual disability as well as muscle weakness and walking difficulties, says Dr. Vincent, who heads the Molecular Neuropsychiatry and Development Laboratory in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH.

Intellectual disability is a condition in which individuals have limitations in their mental abilities and in functioning in daily life. It affects one to three per cent of the population, and is often caused by genetic mutations.

Another study in the same journal, submitted together with the CAMH-led research, also identified NSUN2 gene mutations in Iranian and Kurdish families with intellectual disability.

As with the Pakistani family, first cousin marriages in these families carrying the mutations increased the likelihood of intellectual disability among their children, and enabled researchers to focus on areas to map genes.

“The combined results from these two studies mean that NSUN2 is among the most common causes of intellectual disability resulting from recessive genes,” says Dr. Vincent.

As a recessive disorder, a child must inherit one defective NSUN2 gene from each parent to develop intellectual disability. This gene, located on chromosome 5p, encodes a type of protein called an RNA methyltransferase.

At the cellular level, the researchers found that the mutated protein was prevented from reaching its target area within the nucleus of a cell. As a result, it was unable to perform its normal role in cell division and/or RNA methylation.

Collaborators from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research in Cambridge, U.K., showed which type of brain cells were likely to be most affected by this mutation.

They are called Purkinje cells, a type of neuron that responds to the neurotransmitter GABA. Purkinje cells also control motor coordination, which were affected in the Pakistani family.

“We speculate that the muscle effects may result from the accumulation of the NSUN2 protein outside its target area in the nucleus,” says Dr. Vincent.

To date, Dr. Vincent’s lab has identified five genes causing different forms of recessive intellectual disability.

DisabledGear.com - Used and 2nd Hand Disability Equipment

DisabledGear.com is a FREE & easy-to-use website designed to make buying and selling second-hand disability equipment painless.

If you like it, please tell others: the more people that use the site, the better it will work for everyone.

And the free-ads section is, well…. FREE!!

You can always upgrade for extra features with a Prime Account

Read their protect yourself against fraud section - see Information pages - and report any abuse.

A community works best together .

DisabledGear.com

Paraplegic Woman walks again with aid of Exoskeleton

It’s been almost twenty years since Amanda Boxtel stood on her own two feet due to a freak skiing accident in Colorado, but today she’s up and walking again thanks to an exoskeleton from Ekso Bionics.

As Boxtel notes, this is only the first step in exoskeleton technology and someday, she hopes to dance again, cheek-to-cheek.

Summary of the UN World Report On Disability

Click on the Picture to read the full Summary of the UN World Report On Disability or click on this link

The Virtual College: Safeguarding Children with Disabilities

As part of my ongoing pursuit for knowledge and information to support you, my loyal reader and my clients, I have been looking at online and distance learning courses for Parents of children with some level of disability.

In that research I have come across the Virtual College who offer short online courses in plain English.

Please remember that I am not promoting or recommending these providers and encourage you to check that they meet your needs and are suitable for you and your children.


Safeguarding Children with Disabilities - Virtual College
Course Overview
In the UK there are approximately 1.2 million children living with disabilities (Families and Children Study, 2002).

This course aims to raise awareness of specific needs of disabled children in relation to their vulnerability and communication.

The course contains an overview of the national and local agendas in relation to children with disabilities, basic knowledge of the range of protection needs of disabled children and information on how you can enable them to communicate about their experiences and provide support.

On completion of this module learners will have covered these learning objectives:

• Be able to recall some of the key legislation and guidance relating directly and indirectly to children and disability
• Understand the range of initiatives focussing on disabled children, their siblings and carers, including their rights enshrined in legislation, government guidance or recommendations from disability groups
• Be able to state what disability is under the Disability Discrimination Act and list the four main types of disability
• Understand why communication is important, be able to name means of and barriers to communication for disabled children, and be able to describe how to ensure consultation and participation
• Be able to explain how children from minority ethnic backgrounds could experience ‘double discrimination’ and how professionals can influence this
• Understand the key elements that go into various aspects of child welfare, including transitional planning, multi-agency working, dealing with diagnosis etc.
• Recognise how safeguarding issues fit into the process, such as the links between abuse and disability, the need for Sex and Relationships Education and how the disclosure of abuse affects parents/carers

Lesson Plan

• Welcome and learning objectives
• Context and Overview
• Rights of Children, Young People, Facilities and Carers
• Awareness of Different Types of Disability
• Communication
• Attitudes and Value
• Transitions
• Guidelines for Working
• Safeguarding Issues
• Abuse and Parents/Carers and summary

Accreditation
The content of this course has been independently certified as conforming to universally accepted Continuous Professional Development (CPD) guidelines

Certification
On completion of this course you will be able to download a Virtual College certificate.

Duration
Approximately 2 hours. The length of time taken depends entirely on how quickly you can study and absorb the material. You can proceed as quickly or slowly as you like, and there is no limit on how long you can take to do the course.

Target Audience
This course is designed for anyone who works with children, young people and their families.

Entry Requirements
There are no specific entry requirements for this course.

How it Works

This is a general guide to how the system works; if you want a more detailed guide to how our purchasing and learning works please visit the Four Easy Steps page which should tell you all you need to know.
Alternatively, if you have a specific question or concern why not contact us directly ?

What
This is an online course, all the training will be taken through your browser window. There will be no face-to-face sessions with instructors nor will you receive any training material through the post. If you wish you may print out any page of the training material and may also print the notes you took during the training.
You can also revisit the training material at any time, even after you have completed the course.

How
The material for this course has been broken down into several smaller lessons, each lesson dealing with a specific area of the overall subject.

The lesson consists of a series of pages in which an instructor will talk you through the lesson material at a pace that suits you. Pages may also include supporting pictures, graphs, animation or extra sounds to help with the learning where appropriate. Some lessons will include challenges/quizzes to help you keep in touch and interested in the material.

Lessons can be taken in any order and each lesson may be PAUSED and RESUMED at any stage. When all lessons in the course have been completed our system will realise and automatically record that you have successfully completed the course

When
The course is self-paced so you decide how fast or slow the training goes. You can complete the course in stages revisiting the training at any time.

Cost
£30.00 + VAT (£36.00 inc. VAT) Discounts are available for multiple purchases - phone (+44) 01943 605976, or email info@virtual-college.co.uk for details
 

For more information visit their website: Virtual College

US Courts support right of Blind Woman to use tech aids to take Exams

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the oldest and largest nationwide organisation of blind people, today applauded a federal appellate court ruling affirming the right of a blind California woman to use screen access technology to take professional examinations required for her to receive a license to practice law.

The ruling, handed down yesterday by a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, upheld preliminary injunctions granted by a federal district court requiring the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) to provide electronic copies of its legal examinations to Stephanie Enyart so that she could read the questions with text-to-speech and magnification software.

The NCBE had appealed the injunctions, arguing that the law did not require it to provide electronic copies of the examinations and that Enyart must choose from the menu of accommodations it was willing to provide.
Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: "The National Federation of the Blind welcomes this ruling, which means that testing agencies must afford the accommodations and auxiliary aids that are most likely to level the playing field for the blind and other test takers with disabilities.

The court made it clear that law and equity simply do not permit the NCBE to dictate a one-size-fits-all solution for all bar candidates with disabilities. The ruling stands solidly for the principle that the NCBE and all testing organizations must consider the individual needs of each examination candidate and that accommodation policies must change as access technology continues to improve.

It is our sincere hope that the NCBE will change its rigid and outdated accommodation policies to reflect the letter and spirit of this ruling, and that other entities that administer educational and professional examinations will take note and do likewise. The National Federation of the Blind stands ready to fight for the rights of blind students and aspiring professionals and to make sure that this ruling is faithfully followed."

According to the ruling, Ms. Enyart established that screen reader software, which speaks text on the screen out loud and/or magnifies it visually, is her primary reading method and the way she took most of her law school examinations.

The court upheld the validity of a Department of Justice regulation, promulgated pursuant to Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), requiring that "the examination is selected and administered so as to best ensure that when the examination is administered to an individual with a disability . . . the examination results accurately reflect the individual's aptitude or achievement level . . . rather than reflecting the individual's [disability]."

Read more of this article at : www.disabled-world.com/

Growing subgroups: non-visible disability

What is the largest minority and the fastest growing subgroup of the population in the U.S.?

According to the U.S. Census, the answer is people with disabilities. This group runs the gamut from visible disabilities to non-visible disabilities such as chronic health issues like asthma or diabetes; partial sensory impairment like poor vision or hearing loss; learning disabilities; and mental health conditions like depression. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, if you don’t currently have a disability, you have a one-in-five chance of developing one before retirement age.

I don’t argue with those statistics-I think we’ll even discover some new disabilities now that we have a generation of people who have grown up using computers and cell phones their whole lives. (My guess is that in about 40 years, zillions of people will be seeking early retirement due to Chronic Texting Thumbs Syndrome or Headset-Induced Giant Ear Disease.)

What worries me is how the workforce will treat those who have disabilities. Will their increasing numbers mean they’ll be more readily accepted by employers or will the four-in-five people who are not disabled end up landing all the jobs?

The Americans with Disabilities Act protects people with known disabilities and ensures reasonable accommodations within the workplace. But what about when you’re just interviewing for a job? And what if you have one of those “non-visible” disabilities? When do you disclose this, if at all?

For the record, the three categories of non-visible disabilities are:

* Chronic health conditions (e.g., diabetes, cancer)
* Sensory impairments (e.g., hearing loss, mobility limitations, vision problems)
* Mental health and learning disabilities (e.g., depression, bi-polar disease, ADHD)

I just can’t imagine if I suffered from bi-polar disease or depression that I could mention this in an interview and not have it be a detriment in an interviewer’s mind. I’m sorry but I’ve heard from too many disabled folks frustrated with the job hunt to believe otherwise.

Now, let’s be brutally honest here. If the average corporate manager has it drilled into him to avoid situations that might cost the company money, how likely would he be to hire a person that would require office modifications, work rescheduling, etc., from the get-go? To be fair, if you’re hiring for a support position that calls for a person to be able to lift 50 pounds of expensive equipment, it would be fair to rule a job candidate out if he says he has a herniated disk and can’t do that.

My concern is with the person who would count out a candidate with a disability because accommodating that person would be laborious or expensive. Do you think hiring managers would take advantage of such disclosures to eliminate job candidates?

I’m going to cover some specifics about non-visual disabilities in future blogs, but I’d like to get a sampling of your thoughts on this topic. Let’s be totally honest here-no one is going to out you on Oprah or anything. If you had to choose between two job candidates, equally qualified, but one has a disability, how would it affect your decision? Or does it depend on the type of disability?

Project puts 1M books online for blind, dyslexic

Project puts 1M books online for blind, dyslexic

Even as audio versions of best-sellers fill store shelves and new technology fuels the popularity of digitized books, the number of titles accessible to people who are blind or dyslexic is minuscule.

A new service being announced Thursday by the nonprofit Internet Archive in San Francisco is trying to change that. The group has hired hundreds of people to scan thousands of books into its digital database — more than doubling the titles available to people who aren't able to read a hard copy.

Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project will initially make 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from foundations, libraries, corporations and the government. He's hoping a subsequent book drive will add even more titles to the collection.

"We'll offer current novels, educational books, anything. If somebody then donates a book to the archive, we can digitize it and add it to the collection," he said.

The problems with many of the digitized books sold commercially is that they're expensive, they're often abridged, and they don't come in a format that is easily accessed by the visually impaired.

The collections are also limited to the most popular titles published within the past several years.

The Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/


The National Federation of the Blind: http://www.nfb.org/

Open Library: http://www.openlibrary.org/

The UK National Autistic Society - What is Asperger syndrome?

The National Autistic Society - What is Asperger syndrome?

What is Asperger syndrome?

Asperger syndrome is a form of autism, which is a lifelong disability that affects how a person makes sense of the world, processes information and relates to other people. Autism is often described as a 'spectrum disorder' because the condition affects people in many different ways and to varying degrees. (For more information about autism, please read our leaflet What is autism?)

Asperger syndrome is mostly a 'hidden disability'. This means that you can't tell that someone has the condition from their outward appearance. People with the condition have difficulties in three main areas. They are:

* social communication
* social interaction
* social imagination.

They are often referred to as 'the triad of impairments' and are explained in more detail below.

While there are similarities with autism, people with Asperger syndrome have fewer problems with speaking and are often of average, or above average, intelligence. They do not usually have the accompanying learning disabilities associated with autism, but they may have specific learning difficulties. These may include dyslexia and dyspraxia or other conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and epilepsy.

With the right support and encouragement, people with Asperger syndrome can lead full and independent lives.