Link: Gallaudet's Vision
Rather than cloistering itself from the rest of the community, Gallaudet for the first time is designing a streetscape and architecture to bring together deaf and hearing people
Link: Testing Accessibility
Standardized testing is an inescapable part of modern education; however, these tests often fail to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities. Vanderbilt University Learning Sciences Institute researchers Stephen N. Elliott, Peter A. Beddow and Ryan J. Kettler have developed a decision-making instrument called the Test Accessibility and Modification Inventory (TAMI) to address the issue of accessibility for students with special needs.
Link: Veteran Prosthetics
The words flow for Kuniholm when he talks about disabled veterans and an engineering project he's involved with that could help other amputees.
Link: Chinese Disabled
Never mind the prospect of a swimmer competing in the butterfly who has only one leg, or a long jumper who is blind. To Zhou Rong, it was miracle enough when she saw a television report showing a disabled person in Beijing navigating a wheelchair onto a public bus.
Link: Cell Phones
The convenience and relatively low cost of cell phones in the U.S. has made them an indispensable part of life. Unless, of course, you are one of the 37 million or so hearing-impaired adults living in this country. But University of Washington (U.W.) in Seattle researchers are hoping to change that by developing software that lets callers communicate on their mobile phones using sign language via real-time video instead of being limited to text messaging.
Link: Online Accessibility
Ten years after Section 508, libraries still fall short of addressing disabilities online. In recent years, the Internet has become a digital commons of commerce and education. However, accessibility standards have often been overlooked online, and the digital equivalents to curb-cuts and other physical accommodations have only rarely been implemented to serve those with print disabilities.
Link: MATC Program
In a typical school year, Hall's office works with about 1,000 MATC students, providing such services as books converted to audio for those with learning or visual disabilities, sign language interpreters for students who are deaf or hard of hearing and note-takers for those with physical or mental disabilities. In addition, students who prove the need can receive additional time to take exams.
Link: ADA
A proposed Bush administration revision of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act would establish more strict mandates, such as requiring wheelchair lifts or ramps in school auditoriums, swimming pools and playgrounds. Disability advocates say the law does not go far enough, while business associations say the revisions could create financial strain at some of the more than seven million businesses and government agencies nationwide expected to be affected.
Link: Judy
Ramps and accessibility aids can be found all across Dubuque, making movement easier for physically disabled people. But the story told by the woman we'll call "Judy" shows that changing attitudes about disabilities, especially those that are unseen, is not as simple as installing a curb cut.
Link: NIMAS & CAST
On July 19, 2006, the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) was published in the Federal Register at the Library of Congress by the U. S. Office of Special Education (OSEP). With this official posting of the NIMAS, accessible instructional materials have become part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA).
"The purpose of the NIMAS is to help increase the availability and timely delivery of print instructional materials in accessible formats to blind or other persons with print disabilities in elementary schools and secondary schools" (34 CFR Part 300, National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard; Final Rule, FR Doc. 06–6340 Filed 7-18-06).
What this means for students, and, in this context, for those who are involved in the provision of IEPs for students, is that, effective July 19, 2006, publishers and other producers of print-based instructional materials will be asked to provide those materials in alternate formats if necessary to meet the needs of individual students. Publishers, for example, will create NIMAS-conformant files of their educational content and deliver those files to the NIMAC, a national file repository. They will then be downloaded and transformed by authorized users into student-ready versions and delivered to students via their school or teacher, etc.
