Revised regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will take effect March 15, 2011. These revised rules are the department’s first major revision of its guidance on accessibility in 20 years.
The regulations apply to the activities of state and local government and more than seven million places of public accommodation, including stores, restaurants, shopping malls, libraries, museums, sporting arenas, movie theaters, doctors’ and dentists’ offices, hotels, jails and prisons, polling places, and emergency preparedness shelters. The rules were signed by Attorney General Eric Holder on July 23, 2010, and the official text was publishedin the Federal Register on September 15, 2010.
The department is also releasing a new document, “ADA Update: A Primer for Small Business,” to help small businesses understand the new and updated accessibility requirements. In addition, the department is announcing the release of a new publication explaining when the various provisions of its amended regulations will take effect. Both documents will be available tomorrow on the department’s ADA website, www.ada.gov.
I believe that the new regulations will also apply to summer camps and programs, private schools,
day care centers, and other places of public accommodation for children.
For more information about the ADA, call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at
800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TTY), or access the department’s ADA website at www.ada.gov.
Showing posts with label ADA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ADA. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Has anyone noticed that I have not been very good about keeping this blog up to date. We have been enjoying the hot summer weather and taking some time out for vacation, friends and family.
The biggest news story since I last posted is the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Patricia Bauer at Disability News has a good summary of media coverage.
Read more on the anniversary:
ADA at 20: A Nation Transformed, in which Senator Tom Harkin refers to the ADA as the "Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities."
More federal resources from ADA.gov
Are you encouraged or discouraged about where we are as a country when it comes to the rights of people with disabilities?
The biggest news story since I last posted is the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Patricia Bauer at Disability News has a good summary of media coverage.
Read more on the anniversary:
ADA at 20: A Nation Transformed, in which Senator Tom Harkin refers to the ADA as the "Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities."
More federal resources from ADA.gov
Are you encouraged or discouraged about where we are as a country when it comes to the rights of people with disabilities?
Monday, June 21, 2010
Avoid the Guilt Trap
One of the common threads shared by parents of children with disabilities is the feeling of guilt for advocating for your child. Peter Atwood, a fellow advocate and education attorney for families said it well in the following:
“I guess another thing about the guilt trip is that human beings are not created for the convenience of school districts, nation, states, or other institutions whose only justification to exist is that they should serve the needs of human beings. And the various district people will not die, or even cease to get paid, if they have to break their heads over how to give your kid what is needed.
It is actually to the advantage of the state to do for your kid what is needed now anyway, rather then to be stuck with a non-functioning individual later at far greater expense.
And finally, if we sacrifice for one another, we're not doing anyone a big favor. We all need at various times to be cared for and rescued by others. No one has made it on his own. None of us could even find our own way to the breast when we came out of the belly. When we get help for our kids, those that help are doing no more than what they have needed or will some day need for themselves. We're not doing anyone a favor when we act with mercy, except ourselves, since what goes around comes around. We're just paying our insurance premiums.
Get over the guilt thing. As a parent of a child with a disability, there is ample opportunity to beat yourself up about SOOOOO many other things. Whether you are the best parent in the world or the worst, it is the district’s legally mandated responsibility to educate your child- not yours. Working with lots of kiddos in the foster care system, I have proven this over and over to district’s.”
If worse comes to worse, do an open records request of the Special Education Director and Superintendents salary, contracts and expenses as well as district legal fees, and when they remind you of how much they do for your son, remind them how much of yours and everyone else's taxes do for them.
“I guess another thing about the guilt trip is that human beings are not created for the convenience of school districts, nation, states, or other institutions whose only justification to exist is that they should serve the needs of human beings. And the various district people will not die, or even cease to get paid, if they have to break their heads over how to give your kid what is needed.
It is actually to the advantage of the state to do for your kid what is needed now anyway, rather then to be stuck with a non-functioning individual later at far greater expense.
And finally, if we sacrifice for one another, we're not doing anyone a big favor. We all need at various times to be cared for and rescued by others. No one has made it on his own. None of us could even find our own way to the breast when we came out of the belly. When we get help for our kids, those that help are doing no more than what they have needed or will some day need for themselves. We're not doing anyone a favor when we act with mercy, except ourselves, since what goes around comes around. We're just paying our insurance premiums.
Get over the guilt thing. As a parent of a child with a disability, there is ample opportunity to beat yourself up about SOOOOO many other things. Whether you are the best parent in the world or the worst, it is the district’s legally mandated responsibility to educate your child- not yours. Working with lots of kiddos in the foster care system, I have proven this over and over to district’s.”
If worse comes to worse, do an open records request of the Special Education Director and Superintendents salary, contracts and expenses as well as district legal fees, and when they remind you of how much they do for your son, remind them how much of yours and everyone else's taxes do for them.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Restraint and Seclusion Information
Congressional Hearings - Examining the Abusive and Deadly Use of Restraints and Seclusion in Schools, May 19, 2009
GAO Report Issued May 19, 2009
National Disability Rights Network released shocking report on seclusion and restraint in U. S. schools -- "School is Not Supposed to Hurt: Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in Schools," January 2009
Speech by Sen. Dodd (Connecticut) discussing new report on use of seclusion and restraint in schools
Restraint & Seclusion Information from Wrightslaw: A great deal of information is provided.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Reading - A National Crisis
More American children suffer long-term life-harm as a consequence of reading difficulties than from parental abuse(1), accidents, and all other childhood diseases and disorders combined. In purely economic terms, reading related difficulties cost more than the war on terrorism, crime, and drugs combined.
We need to reframe our society's thinking about what's at stake and what's involved in learning to read.
www.childrenofthecode.org/Tour/c1/index.htm
13 videos segments outlining the dimensions of the reading crisis and its individual and collective costs.
We need to reframe our society's thinking about what's at stake and what's involved in learning to read.
www.childrenofthecode.org/Tour/c1/index.htm
13 videos segments outlining the dimensions of the reading crisis and its individual and collective costs.
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Accommodations are adjustments in the presentation of information or tasks that enable children with disabilities to complete the same work as their peers. Examples include sitting near the teacher or extra testing time.
