Faith for ALL works to accelerate congregation accessibility so people with disabilities and their families can have deeper access into the community life of a congregation.

An industrial chemical developed to help separate heavy metals from polluted soil and mining drainage is being sold as a dietary supplement by a luminary in the world of alternative autism treatments.Called OSR#1, the supplement is described on its Web site as an antioxidant not meant to treat any disease. But the site lists pharmacies and doctors who sell it to parents of children with autism, and the compound has been promoted to parents on popular autism Web sites.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness for Montana (NAMI Montana) works with and against politicians all of the time. We don’t care whether someone is a Democrat or a Republican. The real issue for our organization is whether the politician is trying to help the one-in-five Montana families affected by serious mental illnesses. In many instances, we’ll support a politician on one issue and then fight him on another. With Montana’s suicide rate repeatedly among the highest in the country, we can’t afford to be ideologues. There’s just too much at stake.

Mental-health care for thousands of Montanans covered by group health insurance plans will be more affordable in 2010 thanks to a new federal law. Congress passed the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in October 2008 as part of the multibillion-dollar federal bailout package. The law, which took effect Jan. 1, prevents insurance plans that cover treatment for mental illnesses and addictions from placing stricter limits on those services than on other covered services. It does not require plans to cover treatment for mental health and substance abuse.

Fully accessible mainstream games are the core mission for the accessible gaming movement. AbleGamers selects one game to represent the most accessible game of each calendar year.  This year is no different, one video game stood out from the rest with accessibility options far beyond what most companies are willing to include.

I used to envy my friends who had children with learning disabilities and Asperger Syndrome. I watched their sons and daughters move from special education classes to regular classes--some even landed in our school district's gifted and talented program. My understanding at the time was that since these kids were on the "graduation track", they would likely go to college, enter the work force and go on to live independently. I would later learn that academics alone are not enough.

The EyeWriter project is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people who are suffering from ALS with creative technologies. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes

DREAMs' mission is: To make the Flathead Valley accessible for all people through awareness, coordinating networking, and increasing accessibility.

Once a week during winter, high school students with disabilities head to Whitefish Mountain Resort to ski, train for the Special Olympics and, above all, have a lot of fun. For many of them, it’s unlike any other experience of their lives. Their ticket to the mountain is DREAM Adaptive Recreation Inc., an organization established in 1985 to give disabled children and adults access to recreational opportunities in the Flathead Valley. DREAM stands for “Disabled Recreation and Environmental Access Movement.”

Here, you will find resources to help your preschooler get ready to learn to read. As your child’s first teacher, you can set him or her in the right direction for a lifetime of reading and learning.

Families dealing with the needs of autistic children are getting some help from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. The department has approved the use of a new web based autism treatment platform that will provide services as part of Montana’s Children’s Autism Waiver.  The Autism Waiver is an early intervention program for young children with autism.  Under the state program, a certified behavior specialist develops a treatment strategy and the State then provides a direct support person with training and experience in providing behavioral support.

Homeschool Facts is the brainchild of a consortium of homeschool parents, licensed educators, counselors and researchers. We are passionate about education choice, and especially the parent's right to choose their child's education.

A debate is brewing following a report released late last year charging that many mental health practitioners use outdated, unsubstantiated treatment methods. On the one side are academics who say that too many therapists favor personal experience when establishing a treatment approach rather than scientifically proven methods. In particular, they say that cognitive behavioral therapy, which is the most studied method in a therapist’s tool bag, gets far too little use.

As of Jan. 1, because of cutbacks at the state Department of Public Health and Human Services, case management for 550 people in 11 counties served by the Mental Health Center in Billings has been drastically reduced. Case managers who used to spend eight hours a month with each client can now spend only 1½ hours a month.

When Reed was an undergraduate at Montana State University, he was diagnosed with a degenerative eye condition known as retinitis pigmentosa. But it took a few years — and a number of frightening vehicle accidents — before he was able to accept that he was losing his eyesight. Since starting graduate school at Montana State University Billings, he has embraced the reality that he needs to learn how to travel through life without vision.

Military families who move from post to post have in the past struggled to get consistent support for their special needs children. Recently the Army and Marine Corps began providing caseworkers and legal aid to help parents negotiate for more resources.

Former Hellgate Middle School student Pat Fuglei is adjusting to his new school in Arizona after his parents, Bruce and Bridget, decided that continued verbal bullying at Hellgate made life unbearable for the young man.

A new study shows that assistive technology employed by a team of occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and educators has a significant impact on helping students with disabilities achieve their academic goals.

The research was published in the January/February 2010 issue of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy.

AccessApps is an initiative supported by the JISC Regional Support Centres (RSC) and JISC TechDis. It consists of over 60 open source and freeware Windows applications, running from a USB stick. AccessApps provides a range of solutions to support writing, reading and planning as well as sensory, cognitive and physical difficulties.