PLUK eNews

It's unusual for people with autism to go to college, but Chris Fitzmaurice has started graduate school at UNCC. He's specializing in clinical exercise physiology. “I don't look at (autism) as a disability,” he said. If it means he has to work harder, he figures it only makes him stronger.

Last month, the 23-year-old started graduate school at UNC Charlotte, where he's pursuing a degree in clinical exercise physiology. The goal is to help others heal through physical activity.

DENISE HOWARD no longer needs to ask someone to tell her the charge on her electric bill, to read back what's written on a menu, or to check her seat assignment on an airplane.

Many people who work with children with disabilities will recognize that phrase from the definition of assistive technology (AT) in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA). This month the Family Center turns its newsletter focus to an icon of the AT industry, someone who has spent several decades modifying and customizing devices to serve the needs of the broadest range of children with disabilities – RJ Cooper.

The Planning and Record Keeping category provides tips and tools to help those involved with children with special health care needs plan, organize, coordinate, and keep track of everything.

Reading is about to get easier with the distribution of new digital reading devices for blind and visually impaired people. Funded by federal grants, the devices work like iPods and will replace old, 1970s-era tape recorders that have been the staple of libraries for visually impaired people for decades.

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) introduced a host of features that made using a Mac easier for people with physical disabilities. Among its key improvements was VoiceOver, a screen reader that narrated whatever was on the Mac’s display. Leopard improved on those features, adding a more human-sounding computer voice (Alex) and offering more ways to interact with the Mac (including support for USB Braille displays and number-pad input). Snow Leopard continues those efforts to make OS X more accessible.

David Hoefer is one of three teens showing animals at the fair this year as part of the Justice Riders — the county’s first-ever special needs 4-H club. David’s brother, Terry, 16, became the first 4-H member with cerebral palsy to show at the fair last year as part of the Saddlelites 4-H club. This year, Terry’s back with the Justice Riders, once again showing his miniature horse, Ra.

The next generation of wheelchairs could have a totally new look and allow users to get in and out with less assistance, if a new model unveiled Wednesday in Japan is any indication.

In May 2008, the National Institutes of Health started an undiagnosed diseases program. Its goal is to provide answers to patients with mysterious conditions that have long eluded diagnosis and to advance medical knowledge about rare diseases.

The purpose of “Preparing for the Flu: A Communication Toolkit for Schools” is to provide basic information and communication resources to help school administrators implement recommendations from CDC’s Guidance for State and Local Public Health Officials and School Administrators for School (K-12) Responses to Influenza during the 2009-2010 School Year.  

FAPE is the acronym for a Free and Appropriate Public Education. It is one of the most misunderstood concepts of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). And it often causes the greatest conflict between parents and schools. A required component of IDEA, FAPE mandates that school districts provide access to general education and specialized educational services. It also requires that children with disabilities receive support free of charge as is provided to non-disabled students. It also provides access to general education services for children with disabilities by encouraging that support and related services be provided to children in their general education settings as much as possible.

York, Maine - I remember a time when teachers jumped at the chance to use the latest technology in their classrooms. In fact, I remember the time about a decade ago when my administration gave me my first Apple computer to use in my room. My students were all huddled around me as I investigated new learning tools. The graphics were terrible but it was like magic to my students. It lit their imaginations and sparked great discussions. Today students have taken a fearless lead in online social networking and the creative use of new technologies. Technology has become a part of life for them and they want more of it in the classroom. Many teachers and administrators, on the other hand, now seem to fear this. Some claim technology dumbs down students. They block social media sites like Facebook and Web-based e-mail because of a fear that it might be abused. They also reject the use of iPods and cellphones because they are distracting and encourage cheating. News flash: These technologies are here to stay.

ADA Signing Ceremony This video documents the speech given by President George H. W. Bush when he signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law on July 26, 1990. In the video, President Bush speaks to a huge audience of activists, Congressional supporters, people with disabilities, and their families and friends gathered on the south lawn of the White House. The 22-minute film, provided to the Department by the George Bush Presidential Library, is being re-released on the Internet to increase awareness of the ADA. Dial Up (Modem & ISDN) QuickTime: Open Captions | Audio Description Real: Open Captions | Audio Description High Speed Internet (DSL/Cable) QuickTime: Open Captions | Audio Description Real: Open Captions | Audio Description

Police Response to People with Disabilities

Police Response to People with Disabilities, Eight-Part Series - Designed for use in roll-call training, this videotape addresses law enforcement situations involving people who have mobility disabilities, mental illnesses, mental retardation, epilepsy or seizure disorders, speech disabilities, deafness or hard of hearing, and blindness or low vision.  The eight segments range from 5 ½ to 10 ½ minutes in length.

My Country

In this one-hour documentary originally shown on PBS, symphony conductor James DePreist, who contracted polio as a young man, profiles three people with disabilities whose lives have been shaped by the struggle for equal rights. Mr. DePreist is the nephew of African American contralto Marian Anderson, who in 1939 was prevented from singing at Constitution Hall. He draws parallels between racial barriers and the barriers faced by people with disabilities.

An Inconvenient Youth: Raising Children with Autism

By Cintra Wilson

In Philadelphia, a group of gutsy, sharp-witted, wisecracking mothers (and one honorary dad) are raising kids with autism. From diagnosis (saying the A word) to leaving no treatment untried (avocado, really?) to loving and admiring what can't be "fixed," they're in it together.

As Americans search for the cure to what ails our health-care system, we've overlooked an invaluable source of ideas and solutions: the rest of the world. All the other industrialized democracies have faced problems like ours, yet they've found ways to cover everybody -- and still spend far less than we do. I've traveled the world from Oslo to Osaka to see how other developed democracies provide health care. Instead of dismissing these models as "socialist," we could adapt their solutions to fix our problems. To do that, we first have to dispel a few myths about health care abroad:

She took her frustrations to Dr. George Demetri, a member of her organization’s advisory board. A professor and cancer researcher at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Demetri had long wanted to use the Internet to connect patients around the globe and mine their collective wisdom for new insights into the rare cancers he studies.That led her to Frank Moss, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory, and a new collaboration between her group and the Media Lab: LAMsight, a Web site that allows patients to report information about their health, then turns those reports into databases that can be mined for observations about the disease.

About three months after her son’s birth, Ms. Roscoe asked to see a psychiatrist. She was given a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, or P.T.S.D. — a mental illness more often associated with surviving war, car accidents and assaults, but now being recognized in parents of premature infants in prolonged intensive care.