| November 6, 2009 | News for special education professionals |
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| Curriculum & Instruction |  |  |
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- Program offers business lessons to students with special needs
A program in which students with special needs at a New Jersey middle school craft, market, package and sell their own brand of jewelry has received state recognition for innovation in education. In addition to improving students' fine motor skills and self-esteem, the program helps students with special needs integrate into the mainstream while providing a unique lesson in entrepreneurship, the program's creator said. NorthJersey.com (Hackensack, N.J.) (free registration)
(11/5)
    
- Group funds special-education improvements in Md. Catholic schools
The Catholic Coalition for Special Education recently awarded $107,500 to Catholic schools in Maryland to pay for special-education teachers and support staff. The organization, which raises money from private donations, advocates the inclusion of students with special needs in Catholic schools. "I think it enriches the classroom experience, because frequently, students with different learning styles have a different perspective, and when they share that perspective I think it helps all the students," one school principal said. The Gazette (Gaithersburg, Md.)
(11/4)
- Staff volunteers at cash-strapped center for people who cannot hear
A Los Angeles school that teaches American Sign Language and English-literacy skills to people who cannot hear is relying on members of its staff to volunteer to keep instruction going as state funding has been delayed and private donations have fallen victim to the economic recession. "I'm willing to give up a check to keep this school open," said one of the school's English instructors. The center, which receives state funding for about half its $550,000 budget, says its financial troubles should ease as soon as the state resumes payments to disability service providers. Los Angeles Times
(11/6)
| Educational Leadership | | |
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- High-school student creates national autism program
A California high-school freshman has created a program that offers guidelines to help students mentor and better understand their peers who have autism. Zak Kukoff says Autism Ambassadors uses role-playing exercises to teach skills to students with autism that they can use in everyday school situations, and it teaches students without autism what living with the disorder is like. The program is "easily adaptable to any grade" and has been implemented at 12 schools, Kukoff said. Autism Speaks, the nation's largest autism advocacy group, has named the program its national peer-leadership initiative. The Acorn (Agoura Hills, Calif.)
(11/5)
| Technology Trends | | |
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- Studies to look at video games that could help people with disabilities
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced $1.85 million in funding for nine research projects involving the design of video-game technology to help people change behavior, manage chronic illness and improve communication. Among the projects that won funding: A study that will look at the effect of facial-perception video games on brain activity and facial-perception skills in children who have autism; and research that will examine if video-game use decreases the chances of people with Parkinson's disease suffering falls. Computerworld
(11/5)
- Software provides digital, Braille books to students with disabilities
 A new computer program is helping provide quicker access to digital and Braille textbooks for university students with disabilities. The Alternative Media Access Center provides the adapted textbooks to colleges in Georgia and hopes to provide the service to half of U.S. colleges by next year. "If I didn't have this service, I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that I would have failed my classes this semester," one student said. WCTV-TV (Tallahassee, Fla.)
(11/5)
| Policy News | | |
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- Advocates protest cuts to disability services in Maryland
A town hall meeting in Maryland's Frederick County saw advocates for people with disabilities call on state lawmakers to refrain from making additional cuts to services. More than 300 people turned out at the meeting, which was part of a series of four meetings across the state aimed at sending a message to state officials, who cut disability services by more than $30 million. The Frederick News-Post (Md.)
(11/5)
- Information on special needs to aid first responders in S.C. county
A new emergency-services program in South Carolina will add data about local residents with special needs into Anderson County's computer-based 911 dispatch system to help first responders in responding to an emergency. Information about children who have autism could help rescue workers find a child who is hiding or is unable to communicate his or her needs, advocates say. Project Special Response will also include information about people who do not speak English so first responders can employ translators when indicated. Independent Mail (Anderson, S.C.)
(11/5)
| Eye on Exceptionalities | | |
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- Research: High-tech prosthetics do not give sprinters an advantage
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that prosthetics worn by sprinters who have disabilities do not give the athletes an unfair advantage over runners without them, as had been claimed by authorities before the most recent Olympics. Last year, South African Paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius had been unsuccessful in convincing Olympic officials to let him compete using carbon-fiber prosthetic blades. The Guardian (London)
(11/4)
- Play showcases story of raising child with autism
A docudrama about raising a child who has autism is set to take the stage at a New Hampshire theater this weekend. "Autistic License," was written by Minnesota playwright Stacey Dinner-Levin who has a child with autism. "Theater humanizes issues. It puts a beating heart inside of facts," said the theater's creative director. The closing performance Sunday will be followed by a symposium that will include special educators. Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.)
(11/5)
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