2010 TASH Summer Internship Program TASH is now offering summer internships at its national headquarters in Washington, D.C. The internship program is designed to provide undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to gain experience and learn about TASH and its work in human rights advocacy, education access, community living, employment and full inclusion. The deadline for submitting applications is March 31, 2010. A complete information packet can be downloaded here: 2010 Summer Internship Application

TASH is now offering summer internships at its national headquarters in Washington, D.C. The internship program is designed to provide undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to gain experience and learn about TASH and its work in human rights advocacy, education access, community living, employment and full inclusion. The deadline for submitting applications is March 31, 2010. A complete information packet can be downloaded here: 2010 Summer Internship Application

Last week, the Montana State Land board agreed to lease coal tracts to a St. Louis company, and on Tuesday, Governor Brian Schweitzer announced that because of the coal deal, he will not be cutting approximately $600,000 to disability services.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer announced Tuesday he will restore more than $605,039 to the disability services budget. This is his first decision regarding the budget recommendations made to him by the budget director last month. 

Progress monitoring is a scientifically based practice used to assess your child's academic progress and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Progress monitoring tells the teacher what your child has learned and what still needs to be taught.

The $940 billion health-care overhaul will take nearly a decade to roll out in full. A look at the key parts of the bill and when they go into effect.

After years of debate, a health overhaul is finally becoming a reality. Now what?

Many big provisions don't kick in until 2014, including the mandate for most folks to have health insurance and many new requirements for health-plan designs. Before then, you'll see a mishmash of other things go into effect at various times—and of course some of the changes depend on the Senate passing the House's so-called sidecar, or reconciliation, bill of changes.

Here are some ways you can start dealing with the new health-care landscape.

The health overhaul package passed by the House Sunday and sent to the Senate for final action is the most far-reaching health legislation since the creation of the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

While the underlying Senate bill will become law as soon as President Barack Obama signs it, additional changes will occur if the Senate passes the reconciliation-bill part of the package. The following is a look at the impact of the entire package, which would extend insurance coverage to 32 million additional Americans by 2019, but also have an effect on almost every citizen. Here's where things stand and how you might be affected:

The Board is undertaking an update of its standards for electronic and information technology in the Federal sector covered by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.  As part of this effort, it is also updating guidelines for telecommunications products subject to Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act.  On March 17, the Board released for public comment a draft of the updated standards and guidelines.  The draft features a new structure and format that integrates the 508 standards and 255 guidelines into a single document referred to as the “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Standards and Guidelines.”  Requirements have been reorganized according to functionality instead of product type since many devices now feature an array of capabilities and applications.  The released draft includes proposed revisions to various performance criteria and technical specifications that are designed to improve accessibility, add clarity to facilitate compliance, address market trends, and promote harmonization with other guidelines and standards.

When people are suffering from cancer, diabetes, heart disease or broken bones, their first line of help is usually a doctor’s office or hospital emergency department. However, for people suffering from mental illnesses, the first line of help often is police officers, sheriff’s deputies or even the county jail.

Freedom Scientific/Learning Systems Group Announces their WYNN Lesson Plan Portfolio

We are happy to present our newest educator resource, our WYNN Lesson Plan Portfolio! It is a new link on our Web site dedicated to presenting lesson plans for using WYNN to enhance the learning process.

On the Spectrum Jonathan Mitchell is a writer from Los Angeles. He wrote a novel about his life experience with Asperger's syndrome, an autism-spectrum disorder. Independent producer Tamar Brott met Mitchell in a writing class a few years ago.

Blythe Corbett Autism researcher Blythe Corbett explores the connection between autism and creativity. She addresses the controversies surrounding autism, including the debunked link to vaccinations and the emerging neurodiversity movement among adults, which says that autism isn't worse - just different.

Down Syndrome International (DSI) has officially earmarked 21 March as World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD). The date was chosen to signify the uniqueness of Down syndrome in the triplication (trisomy) of the 21st chromosome and is used synonymously with Down syndrome. Commemoration of World Down Syndrome Day started on 21 March 2006, it has " grown " manifold globally.

My son is dyslexic. He has an IEP and receives services in a special education classroom. Because he is not making enough progress, I enrolled him in the Barton Reading program. The school is implementing a new reading program that will conflict with the Barton program. If I refuse consent for this new intervention program, can the school terminate my son’s IEP?

In 2004, Sonne quit his job at a telecom firm and founded Specialisterne (Danish for "Specialists"), an IT consultancy that hires mostly people with autism-spectrum disorders. Its nearly 60 consultants ferret out software errors for companies like Microsoft and Cisco Systems. Recently, the firm has expanded into other detail-centered work—like keeping track of Denmark's fiber-optic network, so crews laying new lines don't accidentally cut old ones.

Specialist People Foundation is a Not-for-Profit foundation with the vision to create one million jobs for Specialist People around the world defines as people with a business potential that can be realized with a special understanding and management, like people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Our goal is to create awareness in the global community and to support the integration on specialist people into the labor market.

Arizona on Thursday became the first state to eliminate its Children’s Health Insurance Program when Gov. Jan Brewer signed an austere budget that will leave nearly 47,000 low-income children without coverage.

Carrie Sandahl talks about Chicago with the wide-eyed wonder of a newcomer. She's enthralled by the cultural energy, the varieties of educational programs for kids and families and the on-going opportunities for new talent, especially artists with disabilities.

Research shows that a project to use the devices as teaching tools in some N.C. districts has had a measurable impact on student achievement in math.

For parents of children with multiple medical problems, keeping up with countless doctor's appointments, ongoing tests and a variety of medications can be overwhelming, especially for those in challenging socioeconomic situations. 

As a result, families often wind up using the emergency room, the country's most expensive form of care delivery, to get help for their kids.

But a growing concept in health care reform called the "medical home" offers parents a way to simplify, organize and coordinate the complexities of their medically fragile child's health care needs. The medical home is not a location but an approach to care coordination designed to provide a constant trusted source of care, typically by a general pediatrician.