Newsletters from
DIAL
"Promoting Self-Advocacy"
DIAL, Inc, is currently involved in a new partnership
between Centers for Independent Living and the New Jersey
Department of Education, Special Education Programs to
promote self-advocacy for students with disabilities and
enhance the process of transitioning.
Each center will offer self-advocacy, self-determination,
and self-help programs and services for students with
disabilities and their families with the most effective
materials and resources available.
DIAL, Inc, will be working with students from school districts
in Passaic and Essex Counties, free of charge.
The ‘Promoting Self-Advocacy’ project is expected
to achieve the following objectives:
Increase the number of students, families, and school
personnel that are aware of and use the resources and
services of the Centers for Independent Living in New
Jersey;
Increase students’ knowledge of rights, responsibilities,
and resources;
Increase students’ use of self-advocacy, self-determination,
and self-help skills in their daily lives; and increase
students’ participation and decision-making in the
transition planning process with specific regard to postsecondary
resources, services and linkages.
Please contact Barbara Schank at (973) 470-8090 for more
information.
"INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT DISABILITY"
The following facts are taken from material produced for
VSA art’s program Express Diversity!. All text is
protected by copyright.
Homer, ancient Greek writer of “The Iliad” and
“The Odyssey,” was blind.
The typewriter was invented as a private writing device
for a blind member of a royal family. Other developers of
early typewriters also designed for individuals who were
blind.
English King George III (1783-1820) ruled England during
the time of the American Revolution. He took the throne
in 1760, had repeated bouts of mental illness during his
reign, and was removed form power after an extended period
of mental illness in 1811 by his son George IV. George IV
officially took the throne in 1820 after the death of George
III.
In 1776, Stephen Hopkins referred to his Cerebral Palsy
when he signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence saying,
“My hands trembles, but my heart does not.”
French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
developed Rheumatoid Arthritis late in life and required
a wheelchair to get around the last few years of his life.
In order to continue painting, Renoir employed assistants
who would dip brushes in paint for him and strap the brushes
to his hands. Renoir later paintings are celebrated for
their looser brushwork. It is
probable that his looser brushwork is the result of his
arthritis.
Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was born with an overly large
head and had developmental disabilities which slowed his
early motor and language skills. Doctors claimed he would
be “an invalid”. Edison’s school diagnosed
him as “mentally ill” and “unteachable”because
he could not complete his academic work. His mother Nancy
Edison, a former teacher, removed her son from school and
home-schooled him. She struggled to find methods to accommodate
for Edison’s developmental disabilities and dyslexia,
and eventually found that Edison had to see and test things
for himself. Edison went on to become one of the most recognized
inventors of all the time. He patented over a thousand inventions;
among his most famous are: the phonograph (1877), the electric
light bulb (1879), the dictating machine, and the motion
picture (1896). In 1882 he also designed the first hydroelectric
plant in Appleton, Wisconsin.
When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876,
he was attempting to convert speech to visual representation
in order to accommodate for his wife’s hearing loss.
Unfortunately Bell’s invention failed to convert sounds
to visual representations, though it extended verbal communications
in ways Bell never could imagine.
In 1984 Gallaudet University football quarterback Paul Hubbard
created the “huddle” to prevent the opposing
team from seeing the signs the Gallaudet team used to communicate
their next play to their teammates.
Baseball hand signals used by umpires to signify balls,
strikes, out and safe originate from Outfielder William
Hoy’s request to umpires that they use sign language
because he was deaf and could not hear the umpires’
verbal calls.
"Statewide Partners in the Arts Festival"
New Brunswick, NJ… Registration is underway for the
VSA arts of New Jersey Annual Statewide Partners in the
Arts Festival on Tuesday, May 25, 2004 at Middlesex Community
College in Edison for 9:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Partners in the
Arts is a festival that fosters the integration of individuals
with and without disabilities in the celebration of the
arts. Children and adults, individuals and school groups
are invited to this enjoyable, enriching, fun-filled day
of performances, arts workshops, exhibits and much more.
Interested participants are also invited to register to
present exhibits and performances for the festival audience.
This event is offered free of charge.
The festival is one of many projects of the VSA arts of
New Jersey, a statewide nonprofit organization to enriching
the lives and promoting creative power of individuals with
disabilities throughout New Jersey. Cosponsors for this
event are the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission
and Middlesex County College.
This program is made possible in part by funds from New
Jersey State Council on the Art/Department of State, a Partner
Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the central
office of the VSA arts, under and award from the U.S. Department
of Education.
Individuals, schools, and organizations are invited to participate
in the event. Please contact Karen Singer for registration
materials at VSA arts of New Jersey, 703 Jersey Avenue,
New Brunswick, NJ 08901, (732) 745-3885, (732) 745-5935
or (732) 745- 3973 (TTY) or infor@vsanj.org Registration
deadline is April 20, 2004.
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