Amazon is making some enhancements to its Kindle electronic reader, aimed at improving the reading experience for people who are blind, visually impaired, or dyslexic.

The Inclusive Schools Network (ISN) is a web-based resource for families, schools and communities that promotes inclusive educational practices. This resource has grown out of Inclusive Schools Week™, an internationally-recognized annual event sponsored by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC). ISN’s mission is “to encourage, embolden and empower people to design and implement effective inclusive schools, by sharing insights and best practices and by providing opportunities for connection.” ISN provides year-round opportunities for families and educators around the world to network and build their knowledge of inclusive education.

Bright Beacon exists to provide a safe haven for parents of children with medical needs to meet, discuss their children, their children's medical needs, and perhaps even their own personal stories: their victories, defeats, joys and sorrows.

In Great Falls, 36 homeless students were identified in the 2005-2006 school year not long after the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Act was revamped by Congress; last school year (three years later) the district identified 211.That total is roughly 2 percent of the district's total enrollment, and it means there's, again roughly, a 50-50 chance one of your child's classmates is homeless.

Zac Browser is a totally free software package. It is the first Internet browser developed specifically for children living with variants of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, PDD not otherwise specified and PDD-NOS, also called atypical autism. Zac Browser was designed to offer a pleasant, rewarding and secure experience. Children sing, play and discover the best that the Internet has to offer with only a few clicks of the mouse.

If you read here, or write here, you know the challenges, in a way outsiders don't, of raising a child who is different from other kids. Some differences are more subtle than others, but the differences are there. Some people get it, others don't.

Schools today face the challenge of providing appropriate services to a diverse and increasingly numerous student population diagnosed with ASD. In order to achieve this goal, evidence-based practice is essential in the schools. To assist school professionals as they strive to help these students reach their potential, the National Autism Center has produced a comprehensive 245-page manual, Evidence-Based Practice and Autism in the Schools. The manual outlines relevant topics, including the current state of research findings, professional judgment and data-based clinical decision making, values and preferences of families, and capacity building. Each chapter sets a course for advancing the efforts of school systems to engage in evidence-based practice for their students on the autism spectrum.

Kayla Wheeler has only one limb, but enough talent to compete in swimming on a world stage

Nominations are now open for the seventh annual Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities Youth Achievement Award. This $1,000 award recognizing the strengths and accomplishments of young people with learning disabilities and ADHD will be given to a student 19 or younger who has demonstrated initiative, talent, and determination resulting in a notable accomplishment in any field—including art, music, science, math, athletics or community service. Honorable Mentions will also be awarded.

A Handbook for the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in National and Community Service Programs

Created in 1993, the Corporation for National and Community Service engages more than 2 million Americans annually in improving communities through service. The Corporation supports service at national, state and local levels through: Senior Corps, a network of programs that helps Americans age 55 and older use their skills and experience in service opportunities that address the needs of their communities. Senior Corps includes RSVP,The Foster Grandparent Program, and the Senior Companion Program. AmeriCorps, whose members serve with local and national organizations to meet community needs while earning education awards to help finance college or training. Learn and Serve America, which helps link community service and learning objectives for youth from kindergarten through college as well as youth in community-based organizations.

Athletes with intellectual disabilities will be allowed to participate in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London following a vote of the International Paralympic Committee.

The drug Abilify has received federal approval for treatment of irritability and aggression in children with autism, the drug’s makers say.

the myth that vaccines cause autism has led to ideas. Dangerous ideas, and not because they “challenge” medical orthodoxy. These ideas are dangerous because they have direct consequences for children with autism. These consequences take the form of subjecting children to unscientific treatments that are ineffective at best and harmful at worst, sometimes even life-threatening.

Last week the Chicago Tribune printed a long piece on biological treatments for autism by Trine Tsouderos and Patricia Callahan, and an excellent piece it was. They clearly understand what the real story is – a subculture of fringe doctors and others who are essentially doing unethical experiments and children with autism. They are exploiting desperate parents (who then sometimes contribute to the exploitation of the next desperate parents) who are seeking any possible help for their children. Of course the desire of parents of autistic children to do everything they can to help them is perfectly understandable. But there is a quagmire out there – an insidious trap waiting to ensnare the vulnerable, in the guise of professionals offering help. So-called DAN (for Defeat Autism Now) doctors and others are offering a slew of experimental and often highly implausible treatments for autism.

Besides taking many pills, the boy was injected with vitamin B12 and received intravenous infusions of a drug used to leach mercury and other metals from the body. He took megadoses of vitamin C, a hormone and a drug that suppresses testosterone. This complex treatment regimen -- documented in court records as part of a bitter custody battle between Coman, who opposes the therapies, and his wife -- may sound unusual, but it isn't. Thousands of U.S. children undergo these therapies and many more at the urging of physicians who say they can successfully treat, or "recover," children with autism, a disorder most physicians and scientists say they cannot yet explain or cure. But after reviewing thousands of pages of court documents and scientific studies and interviewing top researchers in the field, the Tribune found that many of these treatments amount to uncontrolled experiments on vulnerable children.

Treatment that includes medication plus a structured training program for parents reduces serious behavioral problems in children with autism and related conditions, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The study, which was part of the NIMH Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network, was published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“This is a good way to get special-education students integrated with nondisabled peers,” said Marvin Williams, special-education administrator for the district. “Head Start children are good role models for our children with disabilities.” The setting works, Williams said, because the more peer modeling children have, the quicker they learn. It’s better to have their peers show them how to behave than have teachers tell them, he added.