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: Serving Disabled Children
Many of America’s juvenile jails would be empty if the public schools obeyed federal law and provided disabled children with the special instruction that they need. Instead, these children are allowed to fall behind. When they act out, they are often suspended or expelled, which makes them more likely to commit crimes and land in jails where they can count on even less help.
Link: UnnaturalCauses.org
the series "explores the causes and seeks solutions to America's health crisis by crisscrossing the country, exploring how the social conditions in which Americans are born, live and work profoundly affect health and longevity". The series also highlights the results of studies that examined how socioeconomic status and other factors can affect health.
The series will feature such issues as:
* Hispanic immigrants' health status;
* How racial discrimination can lead to chronic stress that affects blacks;
* How job insecurity has affected residents of western Michigan;
* Type 2 diabetes prevalence among two American Indian communities in Arizona;
* How college-educated black women are more likely to give birth prematurely than white women who do not finish high school; and
* A gap in life expectancy between wealthy and working-class neighborhoods in Louisville, Ky.
Christine Herbes-Sommers, one of the filmmakers, said the series aims to demonstrate that "what is written into our bodies is a lifetime of experiences and social conditions. It's not about genes." She added that a theme of the series is that not everyone has access to resources that would help them sustain or improve their health.
She said, "It's easy to say, 'That person doesn't have to eat that way,' or 'They should exercise more.' But if you live in a dangerous neighborhood, or in the suburbs where there are no sidewalks, your choices are constrained".
Link: RRFC Portal
Bill of Rights for Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
According to the National Association for the Deaf, as of December 2007, 11 States in the country have enacted a Bill of Rights for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, with several other States proposing similar legislation.
Link: Misty Cargill's story
I believe in the principle of last-first: The last thing you think will be valuable is likely to be the first and most important. This Christmas, the lesson came to me in a particularly powerful story: the scandal of Misty Cargill.
Link: Response Letter
This article is a response letter to the editor of The New York Times. The article explains human rights in relation to children with disabilities.
