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“Nobody Is Too ‘Anything’ to Read, Write or Communicate” The late news broadcaster Walter Cronkite catalogued the ills of the world every night for television viewers. But through the cataract of daily despair he always glimpsed a reason to hope, to be joyful about the possibilities of the moment and beyond. For the tens of millions of viewers who watched his coverage of the first lunar landing 40 years ago that enthusiasm reached out from their TV sets, when, at the moment of human touchdown on the surface of the moon, Cronkite shed his cloak of objectivity and exuberantly exclaimed, “Oh, boy!”

Despite the many daily challenges that confront them in their sphere, members of school district assistive technology teams nationwide share Cronkite’s enthusiasm for the vast potential of technology to change the lives of individuals with disabilities. Sure, the struggles AT team members face are daunting: lack of time and money; too many pre-service and in-service teachers without sufficient AT training; funding-strapped districts that are sometimes reluctant to approve teams’ AT recommendations for individual students; the reluctance of some districts to accept AT’s viability, and a continuing belief in a few education quarters that some children with disabilities may never learn to read and write. Fortunately, among district AT team members – speech-language pathologists (SLP’s), occupational therapists (OT’s) and others – the technology flame burns brighter than ever. Their enthusiasm still bubbles. Their thirst for information about the latest technology developments that may aid their district’s children is unquenched. And their conviction that no child is too disabled to read or write remains not only ironclad but often translates into a hard-won happy reality for the children with whom they work.

Some key findings include the following: People with disabilities experience significant health disparities and barriers to health care, as compared with people who do not have disabilities. People with disabilities frequently lack either health insurance or coverage for necessary services, such as specialty care, long-term services, prescription medications, durable medical equipment, and assistive technologies. Most federally funded health disparities research does not recognize and include people with disabilities as a disparity population. The absence of professional training on disability competency issues for health care practitioners is one of the most significant barriers preventing people with disabilities from receiving appropriate and effective health care. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has had limited impact on how health care is delivered for people with disabilities. Significant architectural and programmatic accessibility barriers still remain, and health care providers continue to lack awareness about steps they are required to take to ensure that patients with disabilities have access to appropriate, culturally competent care.

Training will be held in three locations: Bozeman – August 9-10 Western Montana Drop In Center 695 Farmhouse Lane Helena – August 12-13 Lewis and Clark Library, Large Conference Room 120 S. Last Chance Gulch Billings – September 9-10 Location to be announced  The Leadership training will be offered by the National Consumer Support Technical Assistance Center (NCSTAC) and funded through a grant from Center for Mental Health Services and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.  Topics to be covered are: Steps to Recovery Self-Advocacy Meeting Management Serving on Boards and Committees Creative Leadership – Using your strengths Systems Advocacy

On Saturday September 11 the local non-profit group D.R.E.A.M. (Down syndrome research, education and advocacy in Montana) will hold its 1st annual Buddy Walk in Bozeman. The walk is a 1-mile loop around the Gallatin Regional  Park which is located off of Oak Street and right down the street from the Dinosaur Playground. The event is the main fundraiser for D.R.E.A.M. and a portion of the funds raised goes to the National Down syndrome Society.

In a series of policy recommendations, advocates from a consortium made up of a dozen organizations including Autism Speaks and Easter Seals highlighted the needs of adults with autism when it comes to learning life skills, accessing qualified support providers and obtaining funding that’s flexible. Organizers of the advocacy effort known as Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism estimate that more than 500,000 individuals with the disorder will enter adulthood in the next 10 years. They are urging Congress to pass reforms within the next year to meet the needs they’ve identified.

When: September 29th at 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. MT What: Information will be provided regarding current legislative and funding priorities around enrolling students with intellectual disabilities in postsecondary education, as well as insights into characteristics of model programs and potential challenges. Time for questions and discussion will be included.

The Montana Autism Society of America has chapters in Great Falls and Kalispell, and each one is doing its part to make this year's autism walk an even bigger success than in years past. The annual walk not only increases awareness about this disorder, it also raises funds that stay within local communities, to help families struggling with the effects of autism.

Facebook and Twitter will be awfully quiet come Nov. 1 if a slew of autism advocacy groups have their way. Advocates around the globe are pushing for a one day “communication shutdown” in an effort to create awareness and raise funds for autism organizations in more than 40 countries.

Please join us for our fourth annual “Art For Life Gala”. The focus for this annual event will showcase and recognize the incredible talents of our more than 60 individual artists, and to acknowledge those who support and encourage their artist endeavors. There will be a silent auction, live auction, dinner and an occasion to purchase works form the artists. The funds raised during this extraordinary event will be used to directly support the Growth Thru Art program operations. So please mark your calendar for November 13th, 2010 and join us at the MSU Ballroom at 6:00 pm to celebrate the artists who make our world spectacular.

Click here to download the brochure and learn more information about sessions, speakers, the hotel, tentative schedules, and ideas about funding! We can’t wait to see you in February! Click here to register online. We've made your best value even better with REDUCED early rates! Rates haven't been this good since 2007! Register before January 14, 2011 and SAVE with early registration rates! Inclusive education is a process of school reform that creates equality in education and increases achievement for ALL students, including students with disabilities. PEAK Parent Center’s Conference on Inclusive Education holds the tools you need to reinvent schools to be places where all students can achieve success! With the most POWERFUL line up of speakers you’ll find at one conference, PEAK’s 2011 Conference on Inclusive Education is the place to be!

Targeting the core social deficits of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-pervasive-developmental-disorders/index.shtml) in early intervention programs yielded sustained improvements in social and communication skills even in very young children who have ASD, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study was published online Dec. 8, 2010, in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

A new 11-country survey from the Commonwealth Fund finds that adults in the United States are far more likely than those in 10 other industrialized nations to go without health care because they have trouble paying medical bills, encounter high medical bills even when insured, have disputes with their insurers or discover that insurance won't pay as they expected.

The Family Acceptance Project™ is a community research, intervention and education initiative to study the impact of family acceptance and rejection on the health, mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay and bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth. Results will be used to help families provide support for LGBT youth, to develop appropriate interventions, programs and policies, and to train providers to improve the quality of services and care they receive. The project is funded by The California Endowment, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and individual donors.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in Education presented by Cheryl A. Theis (MA), Director of the Foster Youth with Disabilities in Transition (FYDT) and Clearinghouse and Education Advocate for the Parent Training Information Center Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)

The attorney general’s settlement of a 3-year-old lawsuit against a major pharmaceutical company will benefit Montanans who struggle with mental illnesses. The timing of this windfall is fortuitous, coming just as demand for mental health services is rising and state funds for covering them may be shrinking.

Please join the Southwest ADA Center at ILRU for a webinar on “The Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in education.” Cheryl A. Theis (MA), with the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) will provide an overview of the rights and protections for children with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act, IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act in elementary and secondary education. During this session we will: Give an overview of the rights and protections for children under the ADA, IDEA and Section 504 laws Update participants on the latest developments under these laws Discuss how to work collaboratively and effectively with school districts under IDEA and Section 504 laws Describe some of the latest resources available

A New Approach to Early Intervention: Virtual Home Visits Some bicoastal residents call it “flyover country.” Earlier generations called the huge expanses of America’s West “the Great American Desert.” But for the families of infants and toddlers with disabilities who reside there, often in remote and sometimes harsh circumstances far from the care their children require, it is home. Reaching those families for regular required home visits is often a monumental or downright impossible task for administrators of early intervention programs and their service providers who must drive for hours each way in weather conditions that are often severe and dangerous in an era in which fuel prices promise to remain prohibitively high. Until now, hard choices had to be made. Home visits to families in remote areas had to be postponed or canceled due to weather or cost. For families, their children’s needs went unmet. For federally funded statewide programs charged with seeking out and serving all infants and toddlers needing early intervention services, charters went unfulfilled. Today, however, technology provides the hope that virtual home visits can effectively and efficiently supplement, but not replace, traditional in-person visits.

Catholic schools are offering programs for children with disabilities more and more, with schools serving students diagnosed with everything from Asperger’s syndrome to intellectual disability. Though traditionally out of reach for faith-based schools given the high cost of providing special education services, determined parents are fund-raising and getting grants to develop programs at Catholic schools across the country. In fact, the number of Catholic elementary schools with a resource teacher to assist students with special needs grew from 28 to 42 percent between the 2001-2002 school year and 2008-2009.

President Barack Obama’s heath care reform proposal released Monday includes many of the provisions disability advocates have been pushing for. The $950 billion proposal comes ahead of a bipartisan health care summit planned for Thursday and retains many elements advocates consider favorable for people with disabilities. Notably, the plan would prevent coverage denials based on a preexisting condition and allocate additional federal funds to expand Medicaid.