Free Assistive Technology Webinars

Free Webinars

 

Adults and General

Apps for IL: Managing Money, Budgets, and Shopping from PACER
June 5, 2018 at 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern

Introduction to Screen Readers Follow-Up Q&A Session from Deque
June 7, 2018 at 10:30am Pacific, 1:30pm Eastern (30 min) Original session is online.
 
Facebook and the Accessible Workplace from PEAT Talks
June 21, 2018 at 11am Pacific, 2pm Eastern

K-12

All That and a Bag of Chips (Indiana Content Connectors, IEP goals, AAC, and curricular pieces) from AbleNet
June 5, 2018 at 9am Pacific, 12pm Eastern
 
Easy Affordable Assistive Tech Solutions for Low-incidence Disabilities -IdahoTC
June 5, 2018 at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern

Stories from the Field: Visual Arts & UDL from CAST
June 6, 2018 at 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern
 
Speech Dude Tells Even More: Innovative AT to Help Your Moderate to Severe Students Flourish from AbleNet
June 13, 2018, at 12pm Pacific, 3pm Eastern
 
Why is the Student Having Difficulty With Direct Access? From AbleNet
June 19, 2018, at 12pm Pacific, 3pm Eastern
 
Do You See What I See? Cortical Visual Impairment Characteristics & Interventions from Accessible Technology Coalition
June 20, 2018, at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern

AT to support an Autism Spectrum Condition learner from CallScotland
June 21, 2018 at 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern (20 – 30 min.)

Feature Match… What’s That? From AbleNet
June 26, 2018, at 10am Pacific, 1pm Eastern

You May Have Missed

• Communicating with ALS: Keeping the Conversation Going from ALS Assn.

• AAC in Acute Care: Facilitating Patient-Provider Communication and Reducing Risks from ISAAC

• Autism and Accessibility, Design Challenges and Solutions from AbilityNet

• Free and Low Cost Assistive Technology from QIAT

• Making Education Websites Accessible to People with Disabilities from Level Access

AT Resource Pick of the Month

Cutting edge assistive technology on Your Morning. In this episode Tech expert Avery Swartz previews assistive technology aimed at helping people have better freedom with mobility, blindness, and controlling glucose levels. 

World This Morning episode. AT champions from Norway, Pakistan and Iraq discuss their advocacy and policy change.

Study: Baby Teeth Give Clues To Autism's Origins

Signs of Autism Can Be Found in Children's Baby Teeth,

New Study Suggests

 

By Kashmira Gander

on 5/31/18 at 6:16 AM

Newsweek magazine

Baby Teeth Give Clues To Autism's Origins

Scientists have created a new test which can identify whether a child has autism by looking at their baby teeth.

 

The paper is centered around how children metabolize metals, which are critical to neurodevelopment in early life. An imbalance in this process has previously been linked with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City wanted to uncover the mechanisms which underlie this link.

 

As children grow, a new layer of tooth is formed each day which shows the chemicals circulating in their body, similar to growth rings on a tree. In a nationwide study of baby teeth from 200 twins in Sweden, the researchers used lasers to test whether zinc-copper cycles were different in those with autism.

 

The results indicated that zinc-copper cycles in fetuses and children with autism were affected in a number of ways when compared with children without the condition. They were able to reproduce the same results in studies of children in the U.S and the U.K.

 

 

Click here to continue reading.

 



 



CDR Blog Survey

Please take a moment of your time to complete this brief survey about the Center for Disability Resources (CDR) Library Blog. Whether this is your first time on the blog, or you are a regular, this survey can benefit from your opinion. This is an anonymous survey created to gain an understanding of how you use the blog.  It should not take more than 5-10 minutes of your time.

Click here to take our survey!  

Free Training: Eye Gaze Devices and More

Eye Gaze Devices and More

Date: June 6, 2018
Times: 9:30 am – 11:30 am
      OR 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Place: Poplar Conference Room, 8301 Farrow Road, Columbia, SC 29203 (Directions)
Cost: FREE!
Limit: 10
Speaker: Carol Page

REGISTER NOW

Join us for exploration of accessing communication devices or computers using eye gaze or a head mouse. The eye gaze communication devices perform many functions in addition to using it as a communication device such as TV remote control, Skyping, texting, emailing etc. These devices are eligible for funding through SC Medicaid or Medicare. We will also look at eye gaze and head mouse access possibilities and software available on computers. This training is for users, family members or professionals who work with non-verbal people or people who may become non-verbal who have paralysis, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke and motor disabilities including ALS and cerebral palsy.

Carol A. Page, PhD, CCC-SLP, ATP, CBIS is the Program Manager of the South Carolina Assistive Technology Program (SCATP) at the USC School of Medicine, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Center for Disability Resources, Department of Pediatrics. She received her PhD degree in speech-language pathology from the University of South Carolina, her assistive technology professional certification from RESNA, and her Brain Injury Specialist certification from the Brain Injury Association of America. Carol provides trainings at a local to international level on assistive technology for persons with disabilities of all ages, their caregivers and professionals who serve them.

Check Out Our New Resource: Far from the Tree

Far from the Tree:

Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity 

by Andrew Solomon

is a nonfiction book about how families accommodate children

with physical, mental, and social disabilities and differences.

WINNER OF MORE THAN A DOZEN NATIONAL AWARDS

including The National Book Critics Circle Award, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize,

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and The J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize

Solomon’s startling proposition in Far from the Tree is that being exceptional is at the core of the human condition—that difference is what unites us. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, and Solomon documents triumphs of love over prejudice in every chapter.

All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent should parents accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on ten years of research and interviews with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges.

Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original and compassionate thinker, Far from the Tree explores how people who love each other must struggle to accept each other—a theme in every family’s life.

 

Praise for

Far from the Tree

"I have seldom read a book that made me feel moral quandaries as intensely as this one...What undid me, again and again, was the radical humanity of these parents,

and their gratitude to and for children they never would have chosen."

--Kathryn Schulz, New York magazine  

"That human beings are resilient in the face of extreme circumstances,

have a remarkable capacity to adapt, and summon the power of love to surmount daunting conditions are eternal truths made vivid in Solomon's Far from the Tree."

--Jerome Groopman, The New York Review of Books

"A brave, beautiful book that will expand your humanity."

--Anne Leslie, People

"A masterpiece of nonfiction, the culmination of a decade's worth of research and writing...It should be required reading for psychologists, teachers, and above all, parents....A bold and unambiguous call to redefine how we view difference."

--Carmela Ciuraru, USA Today

"A brilliant and humane examination of family and resilience and humility

and confusion and loyalty and difference and love...I want everyone to read it."

--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

Share your story, connect with exceptional families,

and learn more at farfromthetree.com.

Click here to check availability

Free Number Line & Math Manipulatives Training

Number Line to 10,000,000

and Other Math Manipulatives

For Elementary Students

including Low Vision and Braille

Date: May 31st, 2018
Time: 9:30 am to 11:30 am
Cost: Free
Location: Midlands Center, 8301 Farrow Road, Poplar Building Conference Room, Columbia, SC 29203
Limit: Only 18 seats available

Register Now

Presenter: Jim Franklin

Mr. Franklin will provide training on how to use the number line he invented to help students round numbers up to 10,000,000. View a variety of math manipulatives that address the standards of fractions, decimals, elapsed time, weight, and money. Participants will learn tips and strategies that are applicable to all students, including students with visual impairments.

School Website Accessibility Webinars

ED Launches New Website Accessibility TA Initiative

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced it is launching a new technical assistance initiative to assist schools, districts, state education agencies, libraries, colleges and universities in making their websites and online programs accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Through webinars, OCR will provide information technology professionals with vital information on website accessibility, including tips for making their online programs accessible. The initiative announced today, on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, builds on OCR’s history of providing technical assistance on this issue to hundreds of stakeholders.

OCR will offer the first three webinars on the following dates:

• Webinar I: May 29, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. EDT
• Webinar II: June 5, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. EDT
• Webinar III: June 12, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. EDT

If you are interested in participating in any of these webinars, please send your request to OCRWebAccessTA@ed.gov; include your name, preferred webinar and contact information. You are encouraged to invite your vendors to attend these webinars.

Information regarding the scheduling and registration for additional webinars is available on the Department’s website at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/iwcs.html.

Autism Spectrum Disorder Services in SC

SC children can't get autism therapy they need,

and it's the state's fault, suit says

By Jamie Self

jself@thestate.com

May 22, 2018 05:48 PM 
Updated May 22, 2018 06:15 PM
 

S.C. children in need of intensive autism treatment cannot find therapists, and the state's Medicaid agency is to blame, according to a federal lawsuit that alleges the state is driving therapists away by failing to pay them enough.

 

The lawsuit was filed by Ashley Manley, a Lexington mother whose 6-year-old son has been waiting for more than two years to get more than 40 hours a week of in-home, intensive therapy. A doctor prescribed the therapy for the child after he was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

 

South Carolina's reimbursement rates for autism therapists are so low that they cannot afford to treat patients covered by Medicaid, the joint federal-state insurance program for the poor and disabled, according to the lawsuit. The suit, filed last week, names the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services and its director, Josh Baker, as defendants.

 

As a result of those low rates, some S.C. therapists refuse to accept Medicaid patients for the autism treatment, leading to a scarcity of therapists and long waits for their services, the suit alleges.

Click here to read more. 

 

StoryfestSC 2018

StoryfestSC 2018

 

Date: Saturday, June 2, 2018

Time: 9:00AM - 2:00PM

 

Location: South Carolina State Museum

300 Gervais Street

Columbia, SC 29214

 

StoryfestSC is an annual event celebrating family reading. It connects South Carolina families with books, storytellers, authors and illustrators. Activities emphasize early literacy skills in a fun, interactive way. StoryfestSC is the kickoff event for the statewide Summer Reading Program held in all public libraries. The event is free of cost for families. Participants can listen to storytellers, enjoy readers’ theatre and puppet shows, visit community partner tables, participate in a craft activity, meet an author, receive a giveaway book, and share the love of reading with their family members. Approximately 1000 community members from around the midlands attend.

For more information contact

Denise Lyons  

State Library Director of Library Development Services

at 803-734-6061

or dlyons@statelibrary.sc.gov

South Carolina Transition News

 

 

May 23rd

 

Register Here!

 

*****

May 24th

 

General Registration

 

Artist Registration

 

*****

 

 

To attend EQUIP Summer Series,

all registration forms MUST be filled out completely

and submitted to Able South Carolina no later than June 8, 2018.

 

Columbia Area Registration

 

Greenville Area Registration

 

*****

September 30th



 

Featured Keynote and Sessions will include presentations by:

 

• Dr. Tammy Pawloski: Strategies for Reaching Rural and Impoverished Students & Families
• Charlie Walters: Employment First is for Everyone
• Dr. Valerie Mazzotti: Strategies for Data Based Decision Making in Transition

Register Now!



Alternatives to Guardianship Training for Service Providers

 

Only 2 days left to register!

 

What happens when a child turns 18?

Most professionals working with youth with disabilities have not been trained about guardianship and alternatives. Make sure you have accurate information when parents ask about their options!

 

Join us for this FREE training and learn about Power of Attorney, Supported Decision Making, Adult Health Care Consent Act, and much more!

 

 

May 23, 2018
10:30 AM - 12 PM
United Way of the Midlands
1818 Blanding Street
Columbia, SC 29201

 

For more information, email lfeltman@able-sc.org

Registration closes Wednesday at 9 AM

 

Register here! 



Registration is Open!

 

 

 

 

REGISTER TODAY!

http://bit.ly/BIACON18

 

Brain Injury Association of South Carolina

121 Executive Center Drive, Suite 135

Columbia, SC 29210

803-731-9823

http://www.biaofsc.com/

NADD Ohio IDD/MI Conference 2018

State of Ohio 16th Annual IDD/MI Conference

Mental Health Aspects Treatment and Support

September 24 & September 25, 2018 (M & T)

Renaissance Columbus Westerville-Polaris - Westerville, OH

 

Keynote Addresses

This year's keynote addresses will be given by:

 

Shelley Watson, PhD, Acting Associate Vice-President, Learning and Teaching; Professor, Centre for Academic Excellence, Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada who will speak on Positively Reversing Stigma Issues in IDD/MI

and

 

Kathryn Spergel, LISW-S, Executive Director, Mental Health, Recovery for Licking and Knox Counties, Columbus, OH who will speak on Emergency Services Delivery of Crisis Responses and the MUTT Project.

 

Schedule and Location

For the schedule and location click here.

 

 

For more information:

NADD

132 Fair Street
Kingston, NY 12401-4802
Phone: (800) 331-5362
Email: info@thenadd.org
Website: www.thenadd.org