Special Needs - gifted - Assistive Adaptive Accessible Technology

Special Needs Guidelines for Deaf, Autisim, ADD, ADHD, LD, Dyslexia

508 Compliance assitive Technology
accommodations and modifications in testing situations.

Find Special Needs Guidlines for Gifted, Deaf, Autisim, ADD, ADHD, LD, Dyslexia and 508 Compliance assitive Technology accommodations and modifications in testing situations.

Special Education Links

SPECIAL NEEDS FOR THE GIFTED CHILDREN
and the GIFTED STUDENT

IEP -- ADHD -- ADD -- auditory processing disorder -- autism -- ed -- anxiety

Federal laws exist

Students with disabilities attending public virtual schools and their parents are also protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). 20 U.S.C. 1232g and 34 CFR part 99.

The Special-Education Charade Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, are one of the greatest pitfalls of the country's school system.

8/5/16 Online instruction to children, including children with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In addition, some LEAs have begun, or are considering, offering children the opportunity to attend virtual schools. If a virtual school is a public school of an LEA, the LEA is the entity that would generally be responsible for ensuring that the requirements of Part B are met by that virtual school for children with disabilities participating in the virtual school's program. If the virtual school is a public charter school of an LEA that receives funding under 34 CFR-§300.705 and includes other public schools, then the LEA of which the virtual charter school is a part is responsible for ensuring that the requirements of Part B are met, unless State law assigns that responsibility to some other entity. 34 CFR-§300.209(b)(2)(i). The SEA, however, retains ultimate responsibility for ensuring that the requirements of Part B are met in all educational programs for children with disabilities administered within the State. 34 CFR-§§300.149 and 300.600.

Ruth E. Ryder Acting Director Office of Special Education Programs
It has been brought to the attention of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) that some local educational agencies (LEAs) may be using Response to Intervention (RTI) strategies to delay or deny a timely initial evaluation for preschool children suspected of having a disability.

7/2616 OCR issued guidance detailing the obligation of schools to provide students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with equal educational opportunity under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. OCR also released a new “ Know Your Rights ” document for students with ADHD. In the last five years, OCR has received more than 16,000 complaints alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in K-12 programs, and more than 10% involve allegations of discrimination against students with ADHD.

8/416 OSERS issued guidance (with summary for stakeholders ) emphasizing the requirement that schools provide positive behavioral supports to students with disabilities who need them. The guidance also explains that the repeated use of disciplinary actions may suggest that students with disabilities may not be receiving appropriate behavioral interventions and support through the Individualized Education Program (IEP). And, OSERS released two resource documents: assisting teachers with classroom management strategies and assisting schools in implementing school-wide behavioral strategies

Special Education Case Workers and Parents learn about Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 , a 2008 amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA). All state that children with disabilities have the same right to a “free and appropriate public education” as any other child. Lots of people think the ADA and the IDEA exist to protect youngsters who are blind, or who have cerebral palsy or autism or other cognitive delays - the kind of things most people think of when they see the word “disabled.” And that's true. But the laws also exist for kids like mine with invisible disabilities, including very bright students whose learning disabilities create huge disparities between their math and their verbal skills. In educational parlance, these are known as “ twice-exceptional” students, or sometimes — GSLN, for Gifted Students with Learning Needs . A child who simply needs certain accommodations in the classroom is covered under the ADA with what's known as a 504 Plan. The other law, IDEA, gives students with more significant disabilities the right to specialized instruction, as outlined under the IEP

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? Changing Education Paradigms - Creativity

Driven To Distraction : Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood ~ Dr. John J. Ratey (Author), Dr. Edward M. Hallowell (Author)
Groundbreaking and comprehensive, Driven to Distraction has been a lifeline to the approximately eighteen million Americans who are thought to have ADHD. Now the bestselling book is revised and updated with current medical information for a new generation searching for answers.
Through vivid stories and case histories of patients—both adults and children—Hallowell and Ratey explore the varied forms ADHD takes, from hyperactivity to daydreaming. They dispel common myths, offer helpful coping tools, and give a thorough accounting of all treatment options as well as tips for dealing with a diagnosed child, partner, or family member. But most importantly, they focus on the positives that can come with this “disorder”—including high energy, intuitiveness, creativity, and enthusiasm.

Delivered from Distraction: John J. Md Ratey (Author), Edward M. Md Hallowell (Author)
Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder In 1994, Driven to Distraction sparked a revolution in our understanding of attention deficit disorder. Widely recognized as the classic in the field, the book has sold more than a million copies. Now a second revolution is under way in the approach to ADD, and the news is great. Drug therapies, our understanding of the role of diet and exercise, even the way we define the disorder-all are changing radically. And doctors are realizing that millions of adults suffer from this condition, though the vast majority of them remain undiagnosed and untreated. In this new book, Drs. Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey build on the breakthroughs of Driven to Distraction to offer a comprehensive and entirely up-to-date guide to living a successful life with ADD.
As Hallowell and Ratey point out, “attention deficit disorder” is a highly misleading description of an intriguing kind of mind. Original, charismatic, energetic, often brilliant, people with ADD have extraordinary talents and gifts embedded in their highly charged but easily distracted minds. Tailored expressly to ADD learning styles and attention spans, Delivered from Distractionprovides accessible, engaging discussions of every aspect of the condition, from diagnosis to finding the proper treatment regime. Inside you'll discover

• whether ADD runs in families
• new diagnostic procedures, tests, and evaluations
• the links between ADD and other conditions
• how people with ADD can free up their inner talents and strengths
• the new drugs and how they work, and why they're not for everyone
• exciting advances in nonpharmaceutical therapies, including changes in diet, exercise, and lifestyle
• how to adapt the classic twelve-step program to treat ADD
• sexual problems associated with ADD and how to resolve them
• strategies for dealing with procrastination, clutter, and chronic forgetfulness

ADD is a trait, a way of living in the world. It only becomes a disorder when it impairs your life. Featuring gripping profiles of patients with ADD who have triumphed, Delivered from Distractionis a wise, loving guide to releasing the positive energy that all people with ADD hold inside. If you have ADD or care about someone who does, this is the book you must read.

Cambridge researchers showed that you had no trouble reading scrambled word text (A friend who has dyslexia) ..... now a researcher from Cambridge has since posted a more thorough examination of the phenomenon, with counter-examples and proper citation.

Wider Letter Spacing Helps Dyslexic Children
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120607105712.ht
Increasing the spacing between characters and words in a text improves the speed and quality of dyslexic children's reading, without prior training. They read 20% faster on average and make half as many errors.

People with dyslexia often struggle with the ability to accurately decode and identify what they read. Although disrupted processing of speech sounds has been implicated in the underlying pathology of dyslexia, the basis of this disruption and how it interferes with reading comprehension has not been fully explained. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron finds that a specific abnormality in the processing of auditory signals accounts for the main symptoms of dyslexia.
The researchers found that typical brain processing of auditory rhythms associated with phonemes was disrupted in the left auditory cortex of dyslexics and that this deficit correlated with measures of speech sound processing.
Further, dyslexics exhibited an enhanced response to high-frequency rhythms that indirectly interfered with verbal memory. It is possible that this "oversampling" might result in a distortion of the representation of speech sounds. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111221140340.htm

The National Center for Learning Disabilities IDEA Parent Guide online guide to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) , designed to explain the federal laws that underpin special education in every state. Although created primarily for parents, the guide is also a valuable source of information in accessible language for classroom teachers who may not have a background in special education. Teachers can use the guide as a referral for parents or use it themselves to better understand the rights and requirements of their students who have special needs.

SEGREGATING SPECIAL- NEEDS STUDENTS 2007
Rhode Island schools are keeping too many special-education students in separate classrooms, a practice that educators say prevents many of these students from receiving the same education as their peers in regular classrooms. About 8,900 of Rhode Islands 31,000 students in special education -- 29 percent -- spend the bulk of their class time in small, "self-contained" classrooms, even though research has shown that both students with -- and without -- learning disabilities benefit from learning side by side. In many cases, reports Jennifer D. Jordan in the Providence Journal, the practice violates federal laws. Rhode Island already claims the highest percentage of students in special education in the country -- 21 percent compared with the national average, 13.7 percent, a dilemma the state has been grappling with for several years. It costs far more to educate a special-education student in Rhode Island -- $22,893 a year, compared with $9,269 for a regular-education student. But officials say it is unclear whether integrating students would cost less than separate classrooms, as the special-education students would still need extra services. Most students in special education have mild to moderate learning disabilities, and state educators concede that most of them would benefit -- and perform better on state tests -- if they were placed in integrated classrooms with support from special-education teachers. (Just 1 percent has disabilities severe enough to be exempted from standardized state tests. These students take an alternate assessment.)

No Exit' Statistics by Linda Schrock Taylor
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/taylor4.html
Response to my article regarding the lack of educational policies and procedures for 'Remediation and Release' of special education students ([3] No Exit: The 'Black Hole' of Special Education ) has been extensive. Letters from individuals interested and involved in the problem - parents, teachers, students, administrators, voters - have added yet more names and stories that tell of the depth and hopelessness of the current 'permanent placement/black hole' process that holds special needs children in a system which seldom offers a positive or acceptable exit.

Teachers Remember What Title IX Is About
Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972 (Title 20 U.S.C. Sections 1681-1688)

The Internet Resources for Special Children (IRSC) web site is dedicated to communicating information relating to the needs of children with disABILITIES on a global basis in order to: Provide valuable information for parents, family members, caregivers, friends, educators, and medical professionals who interact with children who have disABILITIES. Improve the environment for children with disABILITIES. Create positive changes and enhance public awareness and knowledge of children with disABILITIES. Act as a central starting point for information and resources.

ADHD Special Needs Resources for Misunderstood Kids...Outside the Box!
http://adhd.kids.tripod.com

IDEA Practices
http://www.ideapractices.org/

Marc's Special Ed. Page:
http://www.halcyon.com/marcs/sped.html
It contains dozens of links to special Ed. sites, organizations and services for autism, blindness, epilepy, hearing impaired, gifted, speech-language, and many other exceptionalities.

LD OnLine: Learning Disabilities Resources
http://www.ldonline.org/

College and university placement assistance for students with learning disabilities."
http://www.ldcollegeplacement.com/

TECHNOLOGY

SPECIAL NEEDS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
FOR STUDENTS WITH IEPs AND /OR 504 PLANS
are allowed to use their accommodations and modifications in testing situations. Deaf, Autisim, ADD, ADHD, LD, Dyslexia, learning different, learning disabled, special education Know Your Rights and Sue for Assistive Technology

Martin Bayne's Technology Blog - Assistive, Adaptive, Accessible Technolgy. The Ultimate Consumer Reference. You have a right to software you can use, regardless of your disability. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. The Rehabilitation Amendments -- they are all there to be used.Trouble is they are not used often enough. Continue reading "Know Your Rights and Sue for Assistive Technology"

Assistive Media
New Media Helps Visually Impaired hear the stuff over the internet. David Erdody is using RealAudio technology on his AssistiveMedia Web site to make magazine articles available in audio form so that people with visual impairments can have access to a wider range of media.

DEAF ONLINE

DePaul Develops Sign Language Translator - DEMO
A team of faculty and students at DePaul University's School of Computer Science has created a computer-generated synthetic interpreter capable of translating spoken English into American Sign Language (ASL). The program, dubbed "Paula," uses speech recognition and sophisticated animation. Using the system, a hearing person speaks through a headset connected to the computer. The animated figure of Paula then translates into ASL through hand gestures and facial expressions on the computer screen. The project required four years and more than 25,000 hours worth of work by the project team. "Most people are not aware that ASL is not simply a signed form of English," said Rosalee Wolfe, professor of computer science at DePaul and one of the leaders of the research team. "It is a series of hand configurations, hand positions, body positions and movement and facial expressions that are used in certain specific combinations. Hence, creating an animated translator is a very intricate and detailed process."

Technical Assistance Project
The RESNA Technical Assistance Project provides technical assistance to the 56 state and territory assistive technology programs as authorized under the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-394).
Our technical assistance is designed to enhance the efforts of the State AT grantees and addresses issues raised by States and other entities through a variety of mechanisms.
The Technical Assistance Project is a sponsored project of RESNA, the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America.The RESNA Technical Assistance Project (Grant No. H224B990005) is one of four technical assistance grants funded by the National Institute On Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) under the Assistive Technology Act of 1998.

508 Special Needs

508 COMPLIANCE - GUIDELINES FOR GOVERNMENT WEBSITES THAT MUST BE FOLLOWED

508 compliance Guidelines for Web Sites

508 Compliance - See this first
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
http://www.cast.org/bobby/
http://www.usableweb.com/
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/webpage.html

Follow ALL Priority 1 recommendations of the WAI
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990324/full-checklist.html

Guidelines include:
- avoid image maps, especially server side
- don't mess with default colors
- use meaningful alt tags
-- no necessary info should be delivered with rollovers
- text for audio content
- caption video content
- use accessible java applets if java is used at all
- have table data read across rows rather than down columns

Still other resources are:
http://www.access-board.gov/
(committee or task group charged with writing the accessibility guidelines)

Html writers guild http://aware.hwg.org/

Federal Web Management Institute
http://www.fwmi.org/courses/basic.htm

We Media Web site specifically designed for the disabled and for use by the blind.

AUTISTIC AUTHOR TO LECTURE ON HER PERSPECTIVE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AT UNE'S NEW ENGLAND INSTITUTE 8/26/02

PORTLAND-" I think in pictures ," says Temple Grandin , an autistic person who has not only overcome the oftentimes debilitating challenges of her condition but has used her picture-making mind to great advantage, becoming one of the world's top livestock handling facility designers.
Grandin is the author of two autobiographical books, Emergence and Thinking in Pictures, as well as 300 articles in scientific journals and livestock trade publications. She is an assistant professor of animal science at Colorado State University and consults with the livestock industry on facility design, livestock handling and animal welfare. She has designed livestock handling facilities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and other countries. In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed. "When I design a piece of equipment, I can test run it in my head like a video," Grandin explains. "If there is no picture in my imagination, I have no understanding."