Many years ago, at my children’s inclusive elementary school, I was asked to observe in a fifth-grade classroom, and to share my ideas on better strategies for Chris, a boy with autism. Chris received intensive adult support: a teacher’s aide usually sat right next to him. During a spelling test, Chris told her how to spell each word, and she wrote for him since his writing was illegible to everyone except Chris. But most of her efforts were to keep Chris in his seat. It was painful to watch as—every few minutes—Chris fidgeted and started to rise, and a gentle, but firm, hand on his shoulder kept him in his seat.

A guide to the 2010 Montana Special Olympics, including articles, event information and schedules, published by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

For the first time in three decades, the rate of premature births in the United States has declined for two years in a row, a finding that suggests the country is finally beginning to make some progress in the battle against prematurity.

University of Montana student Emily Lund's academic resume is six pages long, with no fluff or repetition. It details her research projects, volunteer work, internships, teaching and research assistant positions, thesis papers, scholarly publications, scholarships, honors and grant awards. Oh, and the 22-year-old is only an undergraduate.

Earl Woodruff, an associate professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, says YouTube videos can often summarize 10 pages of a textbook in five minutes. Not only do students spend less time on the concept, they’re often more engaged, he says.

There have been a lot of articles on a lot of websites about accessibility and the iPad since the specifications were first released. Now that our USA readers and bloggers have begun to get their hands on the devices there are even more articles being written, and I’m sure more will follow as the 3G enabled devices are released in the USA and both models become available in other countries starting on May 28th. As an assistive technology enthusiast and disabled blogger, it’s fantastic to see so much interest in the non-mainstream uses of these devices!

The process is the same for any goal - academic or behavioral. You need to clearly define the target behavior. (Note: the behavior should be described in nonjudgmental terms.) The school needs to gather baseline data on the behavior for the Present Levels of Performance before developing specific measurable goals.

AdastraSoft's goal is to provide a set of innovative, user-friendly mobile application solutions to assist those who have various special communication and education needs to realize their full potential. We design our products with community-centric model in mind: Your ideas and suggestions will help shape the content and presentation of our software.  We welcome you to explore our site, and hope you would become a contributing member of our software community.

FRIDAY, May 7 (HealthDay News) -- Infections during infancy or childhood do not seem to raise the risk of autism, new research finds. Researchers analyzed birth records for the 1.4 million children born in Denmark between 1980 and 2002, as well as two national registries that keep track of infectious diseases. They compared those records with records of children referred to psychiatric wards and later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Of those children, almost 7,400 were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

A symbol for the disabled, she had Down syndrome but the family refused to institutionalize her. She died Thursday after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Jan Butorovich has always had a soft spot for children, especially those who end up in the court system through neglect or abuse.  As a volunteer for the Yellowstone Court Appointed Special Advocates program, Butorovich has devoted hundreds of hours a year working for children and speaking for them in court.  In the nine years she has volunteered, Butorovich has been an advocate for 33 children and usually serves two families at a time. She also is the volunteer representative on CASA’s board of directors.

Yellowstone County voters will find many candidates for office on the June 8 primary election ballots, but only one ballot issue: a proposed 3.2 mill countywide levy to help sustain mental-health services. The three county commissioners, Bill Kennedy, John Ostlund and Jim Reno were unanimous in their decision to put the question to voters. The commissioners are asking voters to consider funding a portion of some local crisis mental-health services that help local law enforcement agencies do their job of protecting public safety.

More than doubling the number of books available to print disabled people of all ages, today the Internet Archive launched a new service that brings free access to more than 1 million books – from classic 19th Century fiction and current novels to technical guides and research materials – now available in the specially designed format to support those who are blind, dyslexic or otherwise visually impaired.

Internet Archive today launched a new service that will provide more than a million books in a specially designed format that can be read by visually impaired readers. The new service is part of the the non-profit’s Open Library project, which has been scanning and digitizing hundreds of thousands of books for the past several years and now has more than a million in its index. Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, who funds some of the Archive’s costs through his charitable foundation, said the new service more than doubles the number of books previously available to visually impaired readers.

May 5, 2010, Washington, DC:--The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) thanks Senators Mark Pryor (AR) and John Kerry (MA) for introducing the “Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act” (S. 3304).  The measure is a major step forward for people with disabilities in ensuring accessible technology. Also co-sponsoring are Senators Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, both from North Dakota. Similar to the “Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act” (H.R. 3101) introduced in the U.S. House,  S. 3304 would modernize disability accessibility mandates in the Communications Act, bringing existing requirements up to date as television and phone services connect via the Internet and use new digital and broadband technologies.

SAN FRANCISCO — Even as audio versions of best-sellers fill store shelves and new technology fuels the popularity of digitized books, the number of titles accessible to people who are blind or dyslexic is minuscule.A new service being announced Thursday by the nonprofit Internet Archive in San Francisco is trying to change that. The group has hired hundreds of people to scan thousands of books into its digital database — more than doubling the titles available to people who aren't able to read a hard copy.Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project will initially make 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from foundations, libraries, corporations and the government. He's hoping a subsequent book drive will add even more titles to the collection.

April 25, 2010 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- You might be familiar with micro-sculptor Willard Wigan's amazing miniature art. But not many know that Wigan has a disability, and it forced him to escape to a microscopic fantasy world in order to survive. Although Wigan dealt with severe learning disabilities his entire life, his artwork enabled him to overcome academic challenges.

Welcome to Wheel Adventure Travel! Travel Lovers, this site is for you. It offers useful, detailed travel guides on disabled and budget travel around the world. You will find info on wheelchair accessible hotels, travel tips and advice on international travel destinations.

One of the hardest things about parenting older kids who are on the autism spectrum is recognizing that the issues they're dealing with as teens are very different from the ones they dealt with in elementary school. It's so much easier -- and more comfortable -- for us to think about birthday parties and playground friendships than it is to tackle the prom and dating, isn't it?

 "Suddenly, the question is not simply, 'How do I teach my child this or that?' but a much more complicated 'How do I teach my child not to need me to teach him anymore?'" writes Claire Scovell LaZebnik in Growing Up on the Spectrum: A Guide to Life, Love, and Learning for Teens and Young Adults with Autism and Asperger's.

April 2010 - Epistemic Games: Role-Playing, Technology-Based Games for Real-World Thinking and Learning Computer games delight and distract kids – and occasionally infuriate parents and teachers – but some games actually aim to encourage students to think about their world and their place in it. That latter category encompasses epistemic games. Epistemic what? Epistemic games. Derived from epistemology – the study of knowledge -- epistemic games remain a largely unknown element in the growing gaming universe. But they have already carved out a small niche well worth examining: technology-based games that help young players, including those with disabilities, assume the perspective of a specific group of individuals, including attorneys, doctors and urban planners, among others. The objective of epistemic games is to teach players how to problem-solve like real-world individuals and, in the process, develop creative and innovative ways of thinking.