Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

From Disability.gov, this fact sheet provides an overview of the major federal student aid grant programs. The federal government provides grant funds for students attending colleges, including career colleges and universities. Grants, unlike loans, do not have to be repaid. To access the fact sheet in English go to http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/Grant_Programs_Fact_Sheet_04_2009.pdf A Spanish version is available at: http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/spanish/Grant_Programs_Fact_Sheet_04_2009%28es%29.pdf

You may download the full program brochure at: http://www.rehabseminars.org When: March 9-11, 2011 (Wednesday, Thursday & Friday)         Where: Shoreline Conference Center Seattle, Washington Area

You may now download a full program brochure at: http://www.rehabseminars.org What: 2011 Special Education Conference Improving Services and Results for Students with Disabilities When: March 9-11, 2011 Where: Shoreline Conference Center Seattle, Washington Area

Calling ALL Youth! Have you had experience in a youth-serving system? (Like Child Welfare, Foster Care, Juvenile Justice, Special Education, etc.) Do you have expertise and experience that others may benefit from? Have you developed training materials or presentations to share with others? Youth MOVE National is looking for YOU to share your voices and experience! We are looking for Youth and Young Adults to serve as Consultants in our newly established Consulting and Technical Assistance Pool. Consultants are paid to provide training, speeches, technical assistance, and more to organizations interested in learning more about youth engagement, empowerment, and youth voice in systems change. If you are interested, please see the attached application and return all required materials to YouthMove@ffcmh.org. Consultant Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and applicants will be notified whether or not they were selected. Applicants may also be contacted to provide more information than was provided in the application. Please feel free to call us with any questions: 202-679-0452. 

What: Our monthly Autism Support Group Meetings have been a success with parents coming out to share stories and ideas. Please join us at the next meeting and help us grow our network of parents and caregivers. Because there will be an open discussion between parents and caregivers about daily challenges of autism, we ask children not attend the meetings. Also, visit our website for great information about autism as it affects Montanans and find us on Facebook under the name “Montana ASA”. Where: Summit Medical Fitness Center, Meeting Room #3 205 Sunnyview Lane in Kalispell, MT When: Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 7-9pm Mountain Contact: Tim Tepas Founder, Autism Society of America – Northwest Montana Chapter www.MontanaASA.org Tim@montanaasa.org (406) 257-8758

ZoomReader is an iPhone app that combines the iPhone’s camera with high quality OCR, flexible reading options (magnification, contrast, etc.), excellent text-to-speech, and even voice recognition for commands. Aisquared is to be commended for putting all of this together for only $20.  They’re not only making accessibility simple, they’re making it affordable!

What: Click here to read the schedule and workshops that will be offered. Make sure to scroll through all four pages. Click here for a registration form to mail to us with a check, or for online registrations, fill in the below information by typing into the text box, click Submit, and then go below to pay by PayPal. Costs for SLP/Audiologists: $350 for four days, includes lunch and snacks. To use PayPal without a PayPal account, you can use a credit card.  See the first screen that comes up and click on "Don't have a Paypal account? Pay With a Credit Card." Cost for students: $100 For more information and to register: Visit http://www.mshaonline.org/

Click here to download the flyer with full information (PDF) What: The first webinar will be an introduction to the Sibling Support Project and SibShops with Don Meyer, which we believe will offer a great introduction to this organization.  Then, on August 9th, we will have a Sibling Panel for siblings of people with autism or other developmental disabilities to share their experiences and perspectives.  We have been trying to schedule and finalize these webinars for several weeks, and we are thrilled that they are finally coming to fruition. Webinar 1: Introduction to the Sibling Support Project Tuesday, August 2, 2011 12:00pm-1:00pm Mountain Speaker: Don Meyer, Sibling Support Project Space is limited. Reserve your seat now at: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/e2mwyexqnq9t Webinar 2: Autism NOW Sibling Panel Tuesday, August 2, 2011 12:00pm-1:00pm Mountain Facilitator: Ms. Tonia Ferguson Space is limited. Reserve your seat now at: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/e3g3lwhnhxiv Contact: Jennifer Sladen, Program Associate Toll free: 800.433.5255 Fax: 202.534.3731 Email: jsladen@autismnow.org

For more information on the Ready 2 Read early literacy initiative, visit http://ready2readmontana.org or contact Sara Groves at (406) 444-5357 or at sgroves@mt.gov. (HELENA) --- The Montana State Library (MSL) is pleased to announce that it has received $45,000 in grant funds from two separate Montana foundations. The First Interstate BancSystem Foundation, based in Billings, awarded the State Library $35,000, and the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, based in Missoula, awarded the State Library $10,000. The money will be used to expand the Montana State Library’s statewide early literacy initiative, Ready 2 Read. Launched in 2009, the Ready 2 Read program is an effort to help parents and caregivers understand the value of sharing language and literacy with their children. The program has provided collections of high-quality children’s books to libraries, early childhood training to librarians, and extensive information and training to parents and caregivers on the importance of sharing books with children from birth forward. “New research suggests that there is no greater investment than in early childhood education,” said Darlene Staffeldt, Montana State Librarian. “Montana libraries have evolved to meet the challenge of providing programs, services, and materials for our youngest library patrons – children from birth to three years old. We look forward to working with the First Interstate BancSystem and Washington Foundations to expand our offerings even further.” Funding from First Interstate BancSystem Foundation will be used to support training of librarians to further their expertise in early literacy and early childhood education.

What: This conference will provide information and hands-on training in the latest technology being used to enhance communication and social skills for individuals living with autism. This conference is for everyone who loves and works with children and adults with autism every day. This year we will highlight Communication and iOS devices - iPads, iPods and iPhones. Today’s technological advances offer highly interactive tools that can be used to help build communication skills. During our event you will learn how to choose applications appropriate for your needs, whether you are a parent, educator or practitioner. Through demonstration and actual hands-on training you will be introduced to a variety of applications that use interactive text, illustrations, painting, animation, voice recording, stories, songs and speech/language based activities that may be helpful in developing communication abilities of children and adults on the Autism spectrum. Practitioners can use these devices to help people with cognitive-behavioral needs through applications that target social skills and executive functioning like planning, organization, attention and memory.  We will also benefit from meeting and hearing from people of all ages who are navigating through life on the spectrum. Their stories will inspire, educate and bring us closer as a group as we take action to improve the lives of individuals with autism. This conference is for everyone who loves and works with children and adults with autism every day. Join us as we continue our work for Montana families living with autism. When: July 27 & 28, 2011 8:00am - 5:00pm (both days) Where: MSUB Main Campus - Library Room 148 Billings, MT Register: Call 406-896-5890 to register for this event; visit http://www.msubillings.edu/autism/ for more information.

A Note from Vicki S. Dohrmann: Our planning committee has been working hard at planning the annual Special Education Conference. We are pleased to announce our 2012 conference faculty and full-day course schedule.  We are bringing specialists from all over the U.S. to present current research and evidence-based interventions.  The conference is scheduled for March 7-9, 2012 (Wednesday-Friday) at the Shoreline Conference Center. We are asking local businesses interested in supporting special education to donate directly to schools to support staff development for special education teachers, therapists and support personnel.   If you have an intern or parent that may be interested in volunteering at the conference, please ask them to contact me at vickid@seanet.com; we currently have volunteer positions available for all courses.  If you have an active parent-teacher organization at your school, please share this information with them.  We appreciate your support in helping us "get the word out" about the annual conference. Sincerely, Vicki S. Dohrmann, MA, CCC-SLP Planning Committee Chairperson-Rehab Seminars When: March 7-9, 2011 Where: Shoreline Conference Center Greater Seattle, Washington Area

Click here to register for this webinar What: The Representational Portfolio was originally developed as a marketing tool for job developers to represent job seekers to employers. Portfolios are also used by youth to introduce themselves at their IEP meetings and to develop self-advocacy skills. During this webinar, you will learn how Portfolios can be an important piece of the health care transition for young adults. Through a Portfolio's concise text and photos, individuals with disabilities can describe the impact of their disability; list current medications and side effects they are experiencing; discuss seizures (what type, how often, etc.); introduce and explain medical equipment; share information about helpful accommodations and supports; and articulate what they want and need from their medical provider. Younger children can use Portfolios to learn to describe their own health care needs at an early age. Presenters will also share links to health care transition resources such as toolkits, web sites, and iPad apps that attendees may wish to explore. When: Tuesday, September 20. 2011 1:00pm - 2:30pm Mountain

The Vocational Rehabilitation and Autism Spectrum Disorders project offers webcasts to NIDRR grantees, people with disabilities and their families, professional organizations, and other stakeholders to increase awareness of and discussions regarding knowledge translation concepts and other topics of broad scope related to VR-Autism, standards of evidence, systematic review procedures, effective outreach activities, and conclusions/implications from specific systematic reviews addressing topics of high interest to consumers of evidence-based research.

When I heard that Steve Jobs had passed away, I was boarding a train from New York to Philadelphia to visit my son. A friend phoned and then text-messaged me the news before I could read it on Twitter. It felt, I said later, as if someone had torn the hair out of my head. When I did tweet, the first semi-coherent thought I was able to write about Jobs was also about my son: I’m on my way to PHL to see my son, who uses a device Steve Jobs invented to help him talk. He will never know. He will never know.

The Impact on Students with LD and AD/HD The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) was passed by Congress in December 2008 and became effective January 1, 2009. This significant piece of legislation corrected what Congress considered to be a departure from the intent of the original ADA (passed in 1990) brought about by several narrow interpretations of the law through Supreme Court rulings. These rulings weakened the law and made it difficult for people with disabilities to receive the protection the law intended.The ADAAA also has a direct and substantial impact on Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) -an important law that provides protections for school-age children with disabilities.   This Parent Advocacy Brief will help you understand the changes brought about by the ADAAA, how they apply to Section 504, and how these changes may impact children with disabilities, including learning disabilities, as well as other conditions such as Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), Aspergers Syndrome, diabetes, asthma, and life-threatening food allergies.

The use of optical character recognition (OCR) systems combined with speech synthesis (computer-generated speech) has become increasingly accepted as a means of compensating for reading disabilities. These OCR systems, or reading machines, convert printed text to spoken language so the user can hear and see written words. These technologies are now marketed internationally (for example, WYNN®, Kurzweil 3000®), commonly found in assistive technology centers serving individuals with learning disabilities, frequently exhibited at LD conferences, generally considered in assistive technology evaluations for students with LD, and regularly discussed in publications on LD and assistive technology.

What: The next support group meeting for the Northwest Montana Chapter will be at Serious JuJu Skateworks at 1896 Airport Road in Kalispell. The meeting will be on Monday evening, May 2nd from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Children are encouraged to attend and enjoy the indoor skate park or watch a movie on the big screen provided by Serious JuJu. Where: Serious JuJu Skateworks at 1896 Airport Road Kalispell, MT When: Monday, May 2nd from 6:30-8:30 p.m Contact: Tim Tepas Founder, Autism Society of America – Northwest Montana Chapter www.MontanaASA.org Tim@montanaasa.org (406) 257-8758

What: Participants from around the world attend the TASH Conference to learn more about best practices in the field of significant disabilities, network and share information, and most importantly, stake their claim in a movement to include people with disabilities in all aspects of life. We hope you’ll join us! When: November 30 - December 3, 2011 Where: Atlanta, Georgia Who attends the TASH Conference? People with disabilities Parents, siblings and other family members Educators (General Education and Special Education) School Administrators Researchers College Professors Students Click here to learn more about submitting a proposal to present at the 2011 TASH Conference. Proposals are due by May 6, 2011, at 5 p.m. ET.

Click here to download the FFY 09 APR (PDF) Click here to download the Part C Determination Letter from OSEP (PDF) Each of the regional Part C agencies FFY 09 Annual Performance Reports are posted at http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/fssac/ (under Part C Reports), along with Montana's Part C Determination Letter from the Office of Special Education Program (OSEP). Contact Erica Peterson at EPeterson2@mt.gov for questions.

Bookshare is happy to announce that Read2Go, the accessible e-reader app for the Apple iOS, is now available for purchase for $19.99 on the Apple App Store! Now your child can enjoy all their favorite Bookshare books on cool Apple devices like the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch (4th generation versions). Read2Go allows readers to easily find, download and read Bookshare books all in one place with great features: listen to books with high quality text-to-speech voices see and hear words read as they are highlighted adjust reading speed, font size, and colors for highlights and background contrast connect and read with Braille displays via bluetooth and more! Go to the Apple App Store to purchase Read2Go today! Are we having fun yet? We hope your families are having a great summer. One group that surely is are the participants in the "Bookshare Everywhere" Summer Contest. Over 350 students are reading an incredible amount of books this summer, improving reading skills, and may be on their way to winning awesome prizes like an iPad 2! There's still plenty of time to play, so have your child join today!