Jennie Bourgeois

American Sign Language Video Podcast from the
DISABILITY LAW LOWDOWN a project of the National Network of ADA Centers

June 22, 2009 – The National Network of ADA Centers announces new episodes on the Disability Law Lowdown website at ASL.DisabilityLawLowdown.com. The first video podcast series in American Sign Language bring a new level of service to the Deaf community by expanding traditional audio-only podcasts to include video that allows subscribers too see native Deaf speakers signing the show’s content.

The podcasts deliver the latest in disability law information via American Sign Language, captioning, voice-over, and transcripts to maximize accessibility. Free subscriptions to the ASL podcasts are available to have shows automatically delivered to MP3 players. The ASL podcasts are also available on the Disability Law Lowdown website, where transcripts of the shows are simultaneously available. For the fastest viewing, go to www.youtube.com/disabilitylawlowdown .

Topics currently available include: Tax Incentives, Voting Rights, Ticket to Work, Housing, Your Rights with Law Enforcement, Workplace Accommodations, Your Legal Rights as a College Student, Legal Obligations of the Hospitality Industry, Requesting an Interpreter, and an Overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Disability Law Lowdown is provided by the Disability Business Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC), a national network of ten ADA Centers across the country, offering technical assistance and training in the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability-related laws. To reach the center that serves your area call 1-800-949-4232 v/tty. To subscribe, look for the ASL Disability Law Lowdown podcast on iTunes, or visit ASL.DisabilityLawLowdown.com.

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The following information is re-printed from an article written by Sabrina Hagan, Educational Transition Specialist

1. What does the student want to do with his or her life?

What are his or her dreams and goals? If the student is non-verbal or has difficulty communicating, parents can still use their knowledge of the student to be sure that transition services reflect their preferences.

2. What are the student’s personal needs, abilities and skills?

Look at the amount of assistance a student needs to accomplish a task. What type of assistance is needed to complete each task?

3. What are the outcomes that a student and parent want ot reach or achieve?

Parents and students should bring suggestions to the transition planning meeting.

4. How do young people develop self-advoacy skills?

Parents and school staff should encourage self advocacy in young people. Staff should direct questions to the student and encourage students to answer. It is important to have parent assist with answers when appropriate.

5. What are the programs, services, accommodations or modifications the young person wants or needs?

Parents and their students need to think about these and make notes to bring to the meeting. Parents need to be clear as to what will benefit their student.

6. What kind of accommodations will the student need when they go to higher education or employment?

Parents and students need to think and consider the types of accommodations and supports the student is using ont he high school level.

7. Who will be responsible for what part of the transition plan or the IEP?

It is wise for the parents and the student to know who is responsible for each transitional goal.

8. Should the educational and transition program emphasize practical or academic goals? Does the student need a combination of both?


This will depend on the goals of each individual student.

9. What are some other things to consider?

If a student plans on going to college is he or she taking the courses needed to meet college entrance requirements? When will the student graduate? What kind of diploma option is the best choice for each individual student?

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I accidentally stumbled across this site while doing some Internet research and thought that they provide a pretty neat service to both bloggers and blog readers alike. RSS Hugger connects people to blogs that may be of interest to them and the appropriate RSS feeds for those blogs.

Here is some information from their website -

rssHugger is a unique website that aims to bring bloggers and readers together. rssHugger aims to provide blog owners with a unique easy-to-use way to promote their blogs by sending them traffic, building backlinks for search engine optimization, as well as attracting new rss subscribers if the content is interesting to the reader. rssHugger aims to help visitors be able to easily find blogs that write about subjects they are interested in. These subjects include: internet marketing, making money online, charity, sports, gambling, and many more. If the visitors find a blog that they had not previously heard about, they can easily add it to their RSS readers or bookmark it.

RSS Hugger is a paid service for bloggers to have their blog’s RSS feed listed with them. However, they offer bloggers an option of posting a review of their site in leiu of paying the listing fee with them. I think that is a pretty equitable offer.

So, if you have a blog, or enjoy reading blogs on in a particular subject area, check out RSS Hugger and discover some new blogs that may open new doors and information gateways for you!

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As reported in the U.K. Daily Mail, apparently, an individual with a disability does not fit the clean cut American image of A&F. It was reported that in the London store, a woman with a prosthetic arm was “discovered” by her supervisor and shuffled off the floor into the back stock room to work.

The employee, a 22 year old law school student, is now suing A&F for discrimination stating that her disability did not fit in with A&F’s public image concerns. She claims that she was informed that she broke the strict “Look” policy which is a 45-page manual that informs employees how they are to present themselves to the public.

According to Zeldaily, since filing her lawsuit, A&F have offered her approximately $10,000, but she has turned down that offer. She stated if she accepted their offer, she would not be able to talk about it. As a volunteer for an organization working with children with limb disabilities, she feels she needs to move forward so that hopefully something as blatantly discriminating as this does not happen to others in the future.

It was just four years ago that A&F lost a $25 million discrimination suit brought by nine former employees who were told they did not meet the “look” because they were ethnic and forced to work in the stockroom as well.

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Netflix claims that captioning for their streaming movies and TV episodes is still about a year away in development. They state the are working on integrating the technology to overlay the captions onto the video at the time of play back.

However, YouTube has made captioning available for its videos online since August of last year. Video files uploaded must already have captions available in them for it to work within YouTube. One interesting note, is that the captioning only seems to work when watching YouTube videos directly from the YouTube website, not from from videos that are embedded into other websites. They provide a great support page about using captioning in YouTube as well.

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Does the idea of having all of your non-perishable grocery store items delivered to your door with FREE shipping sound good? What about e-mail reminders when you are running low on laundry detergent or toliet paper and need to re-order, or being able to place an order online and get the order within 2-3 days to your doorstep?

If that does not sound good enough — you can also click on free digital coupons and save money on the items you purchase. AND… finally … what if I told you their overall prices were about the same (or in some cases maybe even less) than your average grocery store’s prices? No kidding!

I just placed an order through the online site, Alice, and I have to say … I am hooked! I placed a beginning order for some of my basic “stuff” like cleaning supplies, plastic baggies and paper products. I simply did a search for things in their system currently with a coupon attached and took advantage of the great deals on the products that I tend to use.

I received the order in 3 days all neatly packaged in one box. What a great service! Will definitely be using them on an ongoing basis.

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Great article from posted by Steve Roesler in his blog which details research from Oxford University about the top ten most irritating phrases. Check out his called “All Things Workplace”. He has some really good information to share.

…and the Top 10 Things You DON’T Want to Say are:

1 – At the end of the day

2 – Fairly unique

3 – I personally

4 – At this moment in time

5 – With all due respect

6 – Absolutely

7 – It’s a nightmare

8 – Shouldn’t of (it is “shouldn’t have”)

9 – 24/7

10 – It’s not rocket science

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Information from Simple Truths

Once in a great while you will see something that will bypass the brain and go straight to the heart. I guarantee that this short 3 minute movie will be one of those times.

I’ve probably watched it 50 times, and each time, I love it more than the last. Not only does it bring service into perspective, it brings life into perspective!

Don’t forget to pay it forward by sharing this with friends, family and co-workers. They’ll thank you for it!

Just click here to watch. Click Here.

Live with Passion,
Mac Anderson
Mac Anderson
Founder, Simple Truths

Simple Truths, LLC., 1952 McDowell Road, Ste. 205, Naperville, IL 60563, USA
Phone: 800-900-3427 / 630-946-1460
Copyright 2008, Simple Truths, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Very concise website that lists alphabetically some of the more commonly used idoms in the English language. This is a great resource for interpreters when needing to understand the meaning of idoms that are often used so that they can properly be interpreted.

Check it out!

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National Federation of the Blind and American Council of the Blind File Discrimination Suit Against Arizona State University

6/25/2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
cdanielsen@nfb.org

National Federation of the Blind and American Council of the Blind File Discrimination Suit Against Arizona State University University’s Amazon Kindle DX Pilot Program Discriminates Against the Blind Baltimore, Maryland (June 25, 2009):

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit today against Arizona State University (ASU) to prevent the university from deploying Amazon’s Kindle DX electronic reading device as a means of distributing electronic textbooks to its students because the device cannot be used by blind students. Darrell Shandrow, a blind ASU student, is also a named plaintiff in the action. The Kindle DX features text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks aloud to blind students. The menus of the device are not accessible to the blind, however, making it impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions available on the Kindle DX. In addition to ASU, five other institutions of higher education are deploying the Kindle DX as part of a pilot project to assess the role of electronic textbooks and reading devices in the classroom. The NFB and ACB have also filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, asking for investigations of these five institutions, which are: Case Western Reserve University, the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Pace University, Princeton University, and Reed College. The lawsuit and complaints allege violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “Given the highly-advanced technology involved, there is no good reason that Amazon’s Kindle DX device should be inaccessible to blind students. Amazon could have used the same text-to-speech technology that reads e-books on the device aloud to make its menus accessible to the blind, but it chose not to do so. Worse yet, six American higher education institutions that are subject to federal laws requiring that they not discriminate against students with disabilities plan to deploy this device, even though they know that it cannot be used by blind students. The National Federation of the Blind will not tolerate this unconscionable discrimination against and callous indifference to the right of blind students to receive an equal education. We hope that this situation can be rectified in a manner that allows this exciting new reading technology to be made available to blind and sighted students alike.”

Darrell Shandrow, a blind student pursuing a degree in journalism at ASU, said: “Not having access to the advanced reading features of the Kindle DX-including the ability to download books and course materials, add my own bookmarks and notes, and look up supplemental information instantly on the Internet when I encounter it in my reading-will lock me out of this new technology and put me and other blind students at a competitive disadvantage relative to our sighted peers. While my peers will have instant access to their course materials in electronic form, I will still have to wait weeks or months for accessible texts to be prepared for me, and these texts will not provide the access and features available to other students. That is why I am standing up for myself and with other blind Americans to end this blatant discrimination.”

Click here to read an additional article on this story.

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