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I am an Autistic Adult. I have an Asperger’s diagnosis. But any time I say this, people say things like, “Oh, but you can’t be, you talk!” or, “But you have so much to say!” This is particularly a prevalent response online, where I do communicate better. I sometimes hear it from people whose only experience around me is hearing me give a talk, not cognizant that there’s a huge difference between public speaking and reciprocal communication.If they stay around long enough, though, and they know what Autism actually is, they get it.

The LRE (Least Restrictive Environment) Community of Practice offered a series of webinars on inclusion over the past year. They are now making the recorded archived webinars available to the public. Please click here to download the full list of webinars with instructions on how to access them (PDF)

Some of the listings below identify camps available to all children, while some are especially for children who have disabilities. It is also very likely that your community has summer camps or recreational opportunities available that you won’t find listed here.

While businesses sometimes encounter serious challenges as they seek to implement inclusion strategies, many employers have overcome these hurdles with robust and creative practices. Through the Leading Practices on Disability Inclusion initiative, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN®) invited business leaders to share their successful disability inclusion strategies. This publication highlights successful strategies that can be used by businesses of all sizes to create a more inclusive workplace, marketplace, and supply chain. Real-life examples, such as these, are important to help businesses realize the wide range of opportunities available and the potential for replicating success.

"I came to the conclusion ... that No Child Left Behind has turned into a timetable for the destruction of American public education," she tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "I had never imagined that the test would someday be turned into a blunt instrument to close schools — or to say whether teachers are good teachers or not — because I always knew children's test scores are far more complicated than the way they're being received today."

Click here to register for this event What: Social inclusion occurs when individuals and entire communities of people have access to rights, opportunities, and resources that are usually available to members of American society. People with mental health and substance use problems are more  likely to fully recover and rebuild their lives when they have access not only to care and services, but also to social, economic, educational, recreational, and cultural opportunities that most citizens take for granted.  A socially inclusive society also provides opportunities for individuals in recovery to contribute to their communities as peers, employees, parents, residents, students, volunteers, teachers, and active citizens. Social inclusion provides a policy framework to make this vision a reality.  The SAMHSA ADS Center invites you to a FREE teleconference training to learn about three innovative community programs that are improving lives, changing communities, and transforming systems through social inclusion practices. The training will highlight the promising practices of the 2010 Campaign for Social Inclusion Award recipients, including:  SC SHARE’s Dream Team, which is reaching thousands of young people throughout South Carolina through partnerships with key government, faith, and community leaders. The Dream Team uses lived experience to show that there is hope; that a full, productive life can be the expectation; and that recovery is possible.  Heartland Consumer Network’s Poetry for Personal Power, which is changing lives and influencing educational systems by bringing open mic spoken poetry competitions to colleges throughout Missouri. This program is offering young people with mental health and substance use problems the chance to use personal experience and creativity to inspire others.     Advocacy Unlimited, Inc., which developed a 30-minute documentary titled Shining Stars – Young Adults in Recovery to give a voice to young people with mental health and substance use problems who teach about what recovery looks like and the important role all of us play in supporting each other. This program will be featured during a public viewing of the documentary in June at the State Legislative Office Building in Connecticut.    These SAMHSA-supported community-based efforts will demonstrate how social inclusion programs improve lives, communities, and systems. Participants will also learn how they can apply for the 2011 Campaign for Social Inclusion Awards and become a pioneer for building a socially inclusive America.   Date and Time Monday, May 9, 2011 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Mountain

I am autistic. If I don't have a job it is because people are so intolerant of my limitations that they make it impossible for me to work. But I have a wonderful life. I have a college degree, husband, I have two children, I am perfectly happy the way I am. I don't WANT a cure for autism. I want a cure for the ignorance and intolerance that cause problems for me in social situations and in the workplace.

Starting Tuesday, the store, which is located just inside the main Big Sky doors, will begin selling clothing, jewelry, shoes, toys, games and various knickknacks to the general public and Big Sky students while giving real-world business experience to vocational-education students at the school. Its grand opening begins at 3 p.m., and the store will be open until 8:30 p.m. Most, but not all, of its student-employees are children with special needs.

What: Please mark your calendar and join us at the 2012 Parent Involvement Conference. This year's conference will take place at the Doublewood Inn, in Fargo, ND on April 26th, 27th, & 28th (until noon).  The conference is jointly hosted by the Pathfinder Parent Center, the Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Human Services - Part C and the Anne Carlsen Center. Parents, educators, social workers, & therapists are all invited. The Anne Carlsen Center is hosting several technology speakers and keynotes. There will be a joint registration that opens right after the new year. Email dpage@nd.gov and we will send you a link when the registration is ready. Stipends will be available for parents living outside of the Fargo area through a grant from the ND State Council on DD.  Details will be available when registration opens.  If you would like to be considered as a presentor for the conference, contact cathyh@pathfinder-nd.org or call 1.800.245.5840 When: April 26 - 28, 2012 Where: Doublewood Inn 3333 13th Ave S Fargo, ND

Click here to register for this webinar What: The rapid growth in adoption of "Response to Intervention" across the nation's public schools, sparked in large measure by changes to IDEA's identification procedures for specific learning disabilities, is raising issues of compliance with IDEA's Child Find mandate.   Specifically, under IDEA (2004), school districts are no longer required to use a discrepancy model when determining eligibility, but instead, may use alternative means (e.g., response-to-intervention (RTI) or processing deficit approaches) to identify students. Consequently, significant variability among states in the SLD identification criteria now exists. The implementation of new criteria - particularly RTI - may result in delay or failure to properly identify students as eligible for IDEA services.   This Webinar will present the latest information on RTI adoption across states and the use of RTI for SLD identification. It will review recent challenges, including litigation, and provide guidance on an array of practical advocacy options that can be used to capitalize on the RTI process-to help struggling students regardless of whether they are suspected of having SLD-and deal with the delay or denial of access to special education potentially posed by RTI.  Time will be provided for questions from participants. When: Wednesday, November 2, 2011  12:00pm - 1:30pm Mountain

STRYVE is a national initiative, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which takes a public health approach to preventing youth violence before it starts. To support this effort, STRYVE Online provides communities with the knowledge and resources to be successful in preventing youth violence.

We are pleased to announce the release of a new FREE online training curriculum, Montana Integrated Vocational Employment Specialist Training (MT INVEST).  MT INVEST is a joint project of the Developmental Disabilities Program and Vocational Rehabilitation, and is available to our employment partners and the public throughout the State of Montana!