Q&A: IDEA and child care

This 4-page brief explains the basics of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to child care providers, including early intervention for children under the age

Disability Rights

  • All disabled people need to know we are together fighting. Not just adults. All kids need to know the big community . Meeting people like me who made the choices of life changed all. Then I am knowing I want this life. It is hard to not have once you see.

This Is Autism by Henry Frost

Best place for all autistic people, all disabled not disabled people, all families to speak together. Speak together for acceptance, inclusion, communication, and rights for all people. I am thinking when you look closely, this is what autism is.

You are not wrong.

Know you are not a burden or trouble for being. You are a person who has every right to be. A family that is saying love but saying you are so hard so wrong for not being as they wanted. The family is wrong. Not You. A school segregating is wrong. Not You.There are many if the disability community that are here for you.

I Am Disabled and I Am Proud

‎"Polite society often tells us that we need to take the 'dis' out of disability, but maybe... just maybe, we should spend some time putting it back in. Take the "dis" out of disability and you remove the core of what has shaped my life. Disability puts the "D" in diversity, but in order to make that a real difference we've got to own that spot. It took me 35 years to respect and honor that truth. Others shouldn't have to wait that long..." Lawrence Carter-Long

How to Ignore the Media and Learn to Love Autism

Here are some suggestions on how to tune out the media's negativity and learn to love autism: 1)  Read Jim Sinclair’s “Don’t Mourn for Us”. 2)   Tell your parents, family and friends that are close

Wanting More and Finding Disability Justice

White House Champion of Change recipient Mia Mingus is writer, organizer, and member of the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collaborative. Disability was always framed as a sad or bad thing, as something unfortunate that happened

Having to Prove Competence

But now and then I meet someone who has. They believe they are doing a good thing, a noble thing. They believe they are helping. They believe that the people they are trying to help

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Assistive Technology/ Universal Design

Good to Know

La Familia

You are not wrong.

Know you are not a burden or trouble for being. You are a person who has every right to be. A family that is saying love but saying you are so hard so wrong for not being as they wanted. The family is wrong. Not You. A school segregating is wrong. Not You.There are many if the disability community that are here for you.

How to Ignore the Media and Learn to Love Autism

Here are some suggestions on how to tune out the media's negativity and learn to love autism: 1)  Read Jim Sinclair’s “Don’t Mourn for Us”. 2)   Tell your parents, family and friends that are close

My Sisters. My Allies.

My sisters are good allies. Not just the ally because I am their brother. .Allies knowing all people have the right to inclusion,communication, and civil rights. Knowing not necessary to earn these rights. These are rights for every person.

  • Photograph of Issy Stapleton. Light skinned blonde girl with shoulder length hair looks out a car window. She is wearing sunglasses and a pink tshirt.
  • It Is Wrong to Murder Your Autistic Child by Judy Endow on Ollibean

IT IS WRONG TO MURDER YOUR AUTISTIC CHILD

  I know how it feels to be the victim, the mother, the caregiver and the social worker. And I know this: IT IS WRONG TO MURDER YOUR AUTISTIC CHILD. It's Wrong to Murder Your Autistic

  • I fear that Hillsborough County School Board is standing on the wrong side of history.

Disabilty and Civil Rights: Standing On the Right Side of History

"If we were to go back to the 1960s and we were to talk to those leaders who were vehemently against desegregation, we would hear the conviction in their voices of them stating why they believe their decisions and what they were doing to those children were just. Just as I believe that some of you and some of the board members that have spoken believe that their decisions are just. But, I fear that the Hillsborough County School Board is standing on the wrong side of history."

Sensory Tool Kit or Purse ?

Notebooks, silly putty, colored pencils, a favorite book.. I did many of these suggestions with all three of my kids when they were little. A mom carries around ever so many things in her purse to

Lifestyle

  • Green rectangle with boy in profile. Boy has olive skin and brown hair and is wearing a hearing aid and white tshirt with orange sleeves. Dark green text " Accessibility is a right not a privilege." Ollibean

Accessibility Is a Right Not a Privilege

Accessibility is a right not a privilege. 20 posts on Accessibility, Universal Design, and Inclusion   It's Time to Go Beyond Access Creating Equal Opportunities For ALL Students to Participate in School Athletics State

The Importance of Opportunity

Dillan Barmache, a 14 year old autistic student, delivers his powerful 8th grade commencement speech using his iPad and brings the crowd to their feet.

  • Image description: Who Cares About Kelsey DVD Cover. Photograph of light skinned girl with brown hair wearing a black sweatshirt and jeans, leaning up against a locker, turned to the side face looking to her right. Students in the hall in the background. Text reads Failing grades + ADHD + Self mutilation + Abuse white equal sign with red slash indicating “not equal”. Dropout. Festival Awards listed on left side of screen. "Who Cares About Kelsey? a documentary by Dan Habib. Education Kit.

Who Cares About Kelsey? We do.

We first saw Who Cares About Kelsey ? at the National Center on Inclusive Education’s Summer Institute and instantly connected to the film's message of empowering students.

  • A dark blue outline of a person with no distinguishable facial features curled up with arms resting on bent knees. Figure is surrounded by text that reads: "Am I okay? Am I really that different? Sometime I struggle. Do others struggle? Weaknesses? Strengths? Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. What makes me different? Are there others like me? I want to be me, and find what works for me. I am unique, and that is okay. I may have different needs, but I am not a burden."

Welcome to the Autistic Community

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network and the Autism Now Center have created "Welcome to the Autistic Community! " It is a must read for anyone who wants to learn about autism.

Judith Snow ~ Relationships & Inclusion

"The research shows that when a child who is not academically gifted is included in a regular school, not only do the academics improve across the school, and I did say that, I didn’t say “in the classroom”, I said “across the school”, not only do the academics improve, but drug use and violence goes down."

  • Image description: Photograph of screenshot of C-SPAN a light skinned man with black hair. He is wearing glasses and a dark grey suit, light shirt and maroon tie. Ari Ne'eman Autistic Self Advocacy Network

The Importance of Supports

"If we invested a mere one-tenth of the amount of money that we currently pour into causation into empowering Autistic people to communicate, that young man and hundreds of thousands more like him would be able to communicate their needs to us today. I am not here today to speak for every Autistic person – that’s impossible. What I am here for is to argue for every Autistic person to have the same opportunity to communicate that I have come to enjoy thanks to the support that I have been lucky enough to receive in my life." Ari Ne'eman

You are not wrong.

Know you are not a burden or trouble for being. You are a person who has every right to be. A family that is saying love but saying you are so hard so wrong for not being as they wanted. The family is wrong. Not You. A school segregating is wrong. Not You.There are many if the disability community that are here for you.

I Am Disabled and I Am Proud

‎"Polite society often tells us that we need to take the 'dis' out of disability, but maybe... just maybe, we should spend some time putting it back in. Take the "dis" out of disability and you remove the core of what has shaped my life. Disability puts the "D" in diversity, but in order to make that a real difference we've got to own that spot. It took me 35 years to respect and honor that truth. Others shouldn't have to wait that long..." Lawrence Carter-Long

Wanting More and Finding Disability Justice

White House Champion of Change recipient Mia Mingus is writer, organizer, and member of the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collaborative. Disability was always framed as a sad or bad thing, as something unfortunate that happened

  • .There’s none exempt from this disability community, and as a matter of fact we’re the cool community, because we accept everybody.” Keith Jones

Disability Activist Keith Jones on Community

"So let us remember that when we teach, when we educate, we make policy, we make decisions that we do it with a conscience and that we remember that we are leaving fingerprints on forever." Keith Jones

  • White rectangle with black text that reads Who cares about Kelsey ? Kelsey is written in red handwritten font.Who cares about Kelsey ?

Who Cares About Kelsey

Kelsey Carroll lived with homelessness, self-mutilation, abuse and ADHD.  She was a likely high school dropout — until she encountered an education revolution that’s about empowering, not overpowering, teens with emotional and behavioral disabilities. Kelsey’s story, a story of trying to be seen for her potential rather than her past behavior.

Judith Heumann: Changing the System

Her activism is clearly rooted in a strong sense of justice. Early on she learned that if she wanted to be part of society she was going to have to fight for the right. "I

Judith Snow

Judith Snow, MA is a social innovator and an advocate for Inclusion – communities that welcome the participation of a wide diversity of people. Inclusion is an opportunity for EVERYONE!

The Power of Presuming Competence

"Thasya", a mini film by Dan Habib, highlights the power of presuming competence, differentiated instruction and augmentative and alternative communication. Inclusion works.

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Books We Love

Pharrell’s “Happy” in Sign Language

Beautiful American Sign Language interpretation of Pharrell Williams's "Happy." An expression of music in ASL composed by Rosa Lee Timm and Azora Telford. The video was produced by a

Get Your Happy On

Love this video by Tina and Paul Sirimarco. Tina is an ASL interpreter and has been teaching her husband to sign. The videos they have created are so free spirited

ASL University

We love this free American Sign Language resource- ASL University !

Closed Captioning Helps All Students

"Not only were students talking about how much having the captions helped them as they took notes, their test scores went up," Collins said. During the first year of a

Senator Harkin Delivers Speech in ASL Upon ADA Passage in 1990

Upon passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 13th, 1990, Senator Tom Harkin delivered a speech on the Senate floor in American Sign Language. Harkin, whose brother Frank was deaf, was the lead Senate author of the ADA, which was enacted later that year. His speech is the first in American Sign Language to be delivered from the Senate floor.