Mary McBride, a K-5 special education teacher at Dundee Elementary School in Dundee, Oregon, noticed that some of her students were struggling and falling behind during writing and research assignments. These students were able to understand complex information and verbalize responses, but had trouble processing printed information and/or translating their thoughts into written work. Ms.
Mary Moore, a third grade teacher at Jason Lee Elementary in Richland, WA, is using technology to actively engage all of the students in her diverse classroom. She has students with a wide range of characteristics with respect to hearing abilities, health, learning, and English language proficiency. For some students, these differences qualify as disabilities; for others, English is their second language.
Kellie Rhodes, a high school science teacher from Orofino High School in Orofino, Idaho, strives to make her labs accessible to all students. With the support of lab equipment obtained through funding from an AccessSTEM Minigrant, students with and without disabilities are finding science in Ms. Rhodes' class to be more hands-on.
George Landle is a science teacher at Garfield-Palouse High School in Palouse, Washington. Having a student who uses a wheelchair made him aware of difficulties experienced by students with mobility impairments as they attempt to access standard science lab stations. The stations in his lab were all built at a height that required students to sit on stools or stand to use them.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which is located within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, is the federal entity charged with collecting and analyzing data related to education.
The World Wide Web provides a great source for locating summer camps in your corner of the world. Using a search engine, you can search for items like "summer camp for kids with disabilities" or "accessible summer camps" and be provided with myriad options.
The National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC), at the American Printing House for the Blind, is a central repository for National Instructional Materials Access Standards (NIMAS) files. In addition the Center acts as a conduit through which the files are made available to authorized users to convert the files into fully accessible textbooks for students.
NIMAS refers to the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard. It is a provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and was endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education as the preferred approach for publishers to provide accessible curricular materials to students in grades K-12.
Speech impairments alone generally do not interfere with most computer use. However, advanced computer-based speech synthesizers are close enough to human quality to act as substitute voices and thus provide a compensatory tool for students who cannot communicate verbally. Students with portable systems can participate in class discussions once adapted computers provide them with intelligible speaking voices.
The Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards, developed by the Access Board as required by the 1998 amendments to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, apply directly to federal agencies. Increasingly, they are being used by other organizations, including educational entities at all levels, to assess the accessibility of their information technology.