blind_html [Fwd: Fred's Head Companion - American Printing House for the Blind]
- From: Nimer <nimerjaber1@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: blind_html@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:06:20 -0700
Look at the last article, although they are all good.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fred's Head Companion - American Printing House for the Blind
Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:12:51 +0000
From: Fred's Head <fredshead@xxxxxxx>
To: nimerjaber1@xxxxxxxxx
Fred's Head Companion - American Printing House for the Blind
<http://www.fredshead.info/>
Link to Fred's Head <http://www.fredshead.info/>
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/FredsHeadCompanion/%7E3/O9zyMysZGdE/individuals-with-disabilities-education.html>
Posted: 04 Mar 2009 01:43 PM PST
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law ensuring
services to children with disabilities throughout the United States.
IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention,
special education and related services to more than 6.5 million eligible
infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.
IDEA was formerly known as the Education for All Handicapped Children
Act but has grown considerably since. IDEA became a federal standard by
an act of Congressional adoption in 1975 but has been amended many times
since. The IDEA was most recently amended in 2004, which was a
significant update.
Infants and toddlers with disabilities (birth-2) and their families
receive early intervention services under IDEA Part C. Children and
youth (ages 3-21) receive special education and related services under
IDEA Part B.
IDEA is considered to be a civil rights law. However, states are not
required to participate. As an incentive and to assist states in
complying with its requirements, IDEA makes funds available to states
that adopt at least the minimum policies and procedures specified in the
IDEA regarding the education of children with disabilities. Since its
inception, all states have chosen to participate.
As of 2006, more than 6 million children in the US receive special
education services through IDEA. Many U.S. states are still resistant to
educating special needs children appropriately even though they continue
to accept federal funding. The federal and state enforcement agencies do
not use strong enforcement methods or penalties.
The definition of related services in IDEA include, but are not limited
to: transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other
supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability
to benefit from special education, and includes speech-language
pathology and audiology services, psychological services, physical and
occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation,
early identification and assessment of disabilities in children,
counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation
and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation
purposes. The term also includes school health services, social work
services in schools, and parent counseling and training.
The US Department of Education, 2005 regulations that implemented IDEA
states: "...to the maximum extent appropriate, children with
disabilities including children in public or private institutions or
care facilities, are educated with children who are nondisabled; and
special classes, separate schooling or other removal of children with
disabilities from regular educational environment occurs only if the
nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular
classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be
achieved satisfactorily."
For more information, visit the IDEA website: http://idea.ed.gov
<http://idea.ed.gov>.
Article Source:
Disabled World <http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/education/idea.php>
I Want My Stuffback
<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/FredsHeadCompanion/%7E3/s7oVqBMPJpM/i-want-my-stuffback.html>
Posted: 04 Mar 2009 01:05 PM PST
Every day, thousands of valuable portable items are inadvertently left
behind in airports, taxicabs, coffee shops, and other public venues.
Dealing with the loss of sensitive data is often more agonizing than the
time and money required to purchase and reprogram a replacement device.
The smaller the device, the easier it is to leave behind.
Lost and found departments are bursting with smart/cell phones, PDAs,
laptops, jump drives, digital cameras, eyewear and countless other
items. Most finders would prefer to return the item to its rightful
owner, but without proper identification and a convenient return
service, the vast majority of items never make it home safely.
StuffBak is a loss protection and recovery service. Confidential ID
labels combined with StuffBak's return service make it easy (and
compelling!) for Good Samaritans, lost & found personnel and police
departments to return lost or stolen items. Proven 75% recovery rate.
Simply purchase labels from the Stuffback website. Place the label on
your portible device. If the device ever gets lost, the finder can
contact Stuffback with the information provided on the label and can
return your portible device to you. There's no service charge until your
item is recovered.
For more information, contact:
Stuffback
6800 79th Street, H-207
Niwot, Colorado 80503
Toll Free: 800-800-8257
Fax: 303-652-0855
Email: Info@xxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:Info@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Web: http://www.stuffback.com
Yougetitback.com
A similar service is Yougetitback.com. This is a straightforward,
no-nonsense, 24/7 lost & found service that makes it easy for people who
find lost items bearing Yougetitback.com security tags, to return them.
Users simply buy a YouGetItBack.com security tag, adhere it to their
valuable, and activate it online. If the item is lost, a finder can
easily call the 800 number and connect with the owner. YouGetItBack
reports a 75% retrieval rate. At this time, the service is only
available in the UK.
Click this link to learn more about http://www.Yougetitback.com
<http://www.Yougetitback.com>.
A More Aggressive Approach
Personally, I like this option better than anything I've seen so far for
stolen laptops. Front Door Software Corp.'s Retriever program displays
your contact information as your computer boots up. There's even space
for a plea to a Good Samaritan. A message like "$50 for my safe return"
might be enough to help an honest person return the machine.
But here's where the program gets cool. Retriever lets you log on to a
Website and check a box indicating the computer is missing. Now during
start-up, a big yellow and red banner appears on the screen, boldly
declaring the laptop lost or stolen. This message is set to reappear
every thirty seconds, no matter how many times the thief closes the window.
You can remotely switch on a second password prompt if you fear the
thief has also stolen your regular Windows, Macintosh or Linux login
information.
Behind the scenes, Retriever uses built-in Wi-Fi to sniff out nearby
networks, then figures out what Internet service providers power them.
With that information in hand, you can file a police report and get help
locating the criminal.
While waiting for law enforcement to come through, you can even let off
steam by sending new messages to the nagging "Stolen Computer!" screen.
The latest version is even more aggressive. Now, when the "stolen"
screen pops up, the laptop cries for help. Use a canned message ("Help,
this laptop is reported lost or stolen. If you are not my owner, please
report me now.") or create one of your own.
You can learn more about Laptop Retriever by visiting
http://frontdoorsoftware.com <http://frontdoorsoftware.com>.
Play An Audio Version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire At Your Next
Party or Convention
<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/FredsHeadCompanion/%7E3/CpgUZTjjpbs/play-audio-version-of-who-wants-to-be.html>
Posted: 04 Mar 2009 01:04 PM PST
It won't be long before the Kentucky School for the Blind's
<http://www.ksb.k12.ky.us> Alumni Association meets for another year of
fun and memories. We have a reunion on campus every year, usually close
to graduation. This gives us a chance to reconnect with old friends, and
to make some new ones.
This year I thought of doing a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire trivia game
night. I really like doing these kinds of events, especially with the
game show theme. I want to make the experience as real as possible, even
using the music if I can find it.
The first place I went to start putting the event together was Google
<http://www.google.com>. Every search starts with Google it seems. I was
looking for three things, a basic guide and instructions for the game,
audio files, and some way to play those files in the same way the TV
show does.
It wasn't too long before I came across Brendan Harris' website
<http://www.brendan.quinteweb.com> and discovered his "How to make your
own Who Wants to be a Millionaire TV show
<http://www.brendan.quinteweb.com/millionaire.html>" page. This is
great, but a little too complicated for me. I don't need cameras and
lighting and all that fancy stuff. I was able to find the Who Wants To
Be A Millionaire sound effect files
<http://www.brendan.quinteweb.com/wwtbam_mus.zip> from his site. I
bookmarked this page and continued my Google search.
My search soon turned up James J. Cochran's paper on Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire: The Classroom Edition
<http://ite.informs.org/Vol1No3/Cochran/>. This gave me some great ideas
of how to modify the original gameplay so the maximum number of people
could play the game. I wasn't interested in using his Power Point
presentation, but it did look cool.
Now, I have the rules and the sounds. All I need to complete this little
project is some way to play the sounds. One thing that I love about the
TV show is that the music is almost constant, and very coordinated with
the gameplay. How could I pull this off?
I sat around for most of an evening trying to figure this out. I soon
remembered some very basic games for preschool children. I specifically
remember a program that allowed the keyboard to play audio files with
the press of a key. That's all it did. If I could find a program like
that, I'd be in business. Well, it's back to Google again.
This time, my search found something rather quickly from the Freeware
World Team website
<http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php?page=3&cat=016>. Scroll
down the page and you'll find a program called Baseball Audio File
Player
<http://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/mr_3/15/brianpostma/run/playwav/playwav.html>.
"This program allows you to create banks of sound effects you can play
by pressing a button with your mouse or just pressing one of the keys on
your keyboard. Pressing a number key (0-9) will switch the soundbank,
pressing a letter key (a-z) will play a sound. The program uses a config
file in which the key-to-sound mapping is specified."
I immediately downloaded this program, and loaded the audio files I had
previously downloaded for the game. It worked great. Now, we will have
the correct sound for whatever is going on. Now all I have to do is find
some trivia questions, not a difficult job with all the websites out
there that specialize in trivia. Wouldn't this be cool for playing
Family Feud or Greed?
You Grow Girl and The Science of Gardening
<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/FredsHeadCompanion/%7E3/lgn4t81zMGI/you-grow-girl-and-science-of-gardening.html>
Posted: 04 Mar 2009 01:03 PM PST
While surfing around for gardening sites, I found this great site called
You Grow Girl. The site is speech friendly, and is packed with information.
First of all this site has great forums. Take your time there if you
enjoy the forum community. Other sections include Grow, Garden, Explore,
Play, Use, and Journals.
* Grow - This is where you will learn about plants and how to care
for them. You will find articles on plant care information, seeds
and propagation, featured plants, bulbs, tubers, & corms, save
your, and good bugs/bad bugs.
* Garden - this is where you find the heart and soul of gardening,
not to mention a ton of great Do It Yourself gardening tips. Here
you will learn about composting, planting tips, tools, and
preparation.
* Explore - learn about new plants, hey, you may find something you
want to add to your garden.
* Play - This is where some fun stuff is hiding! You'll find
wallpapers, art, e-cards and much, much more.
* Use - Learn uses for the herbs, vegetables, and flowers that you
plant. This section is filled with recipes.
* Journals - read journals of other gardeners, and share in their
triumphs and disasters.
This is a great gardening site, that will have you coming back regularly
as your garden grows.
You Grow Girl http://www.yougrowgirl.com <http://www.yougrowgirl.com/>
The Science of Gardening
This site is cool. Not just because of the videos, but because you
really do learn the science of gardening.
Feed - This section has two videos: one about how carnivorous plants
work and one about a garden in California and compost tea. They are both
really interesting; you won't be disappointed. This section also
contains the interactive area called Garden Variety about the history of
food and an article called The Dirt on Dirt.
Control - This section also has two videos: one on subzero gardening and
one on competitive growing. Both were pretty interesting, especially the
Subzero Gardening video about hydroponics and get to see a garden in
Antarctica. There are also two photo essays: Garden Lore talks about
strange remedies and A Truckload of Pumpkins is full of pictures from
Half Moon Festival and information on how they grew those giant
pumpkins. This section also tells you all about saving seeds and how to
make hybrid plants.
Bloom - This section has my favorite video, a Little Patch of Dirt. A
community in San Francisco decided to turn a median into a garden. The
government is now providing this great community project with free
water. There are also two interactive sections. The Secret Lives of
Flowers teaches you all about flowers from their parts to what kinds of
animals they attract. Hello Dahlia is a great section that tells you all
about this very versatile flower.
Exploring all of this great site's goodies took up most of my morning. I
can't believe that I learned so much more about gardening.
Click this link to learn The Science of Gardening:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/gardening/index.html
<http://www.exploratorium.edu/gardening/index.html>.
Customize Your Cane
<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/FredsHeadCompanion/%7E3/69r1_Dsj-NQ/customize-your-cane.html>
Posted: 04 Mar 2009 12:05 PM PST
I am one of those low vision people who didn't really need to use a
white cane. If I bent over and stared at the ground three feet in front
of me, I would only occasionally trip over a miscalculated step. I would
bump into people, but that was just because I wasn't paying attention.
To quote my teenage son--"NOT!"
Now I would feel naked if I left the house without my cane. I will admit
that my change of attitude was not an easy process for me. It took a few
years and a lot of soul searching to reach this point. I can thank the
writers who wrote the many wonderful articles on cane travel that
appeared in the Braille Monitor over the years for their perspective and
encouragement.
The simple fact of the matter is that, by not using a cane, the only
person I was fooling was myself. It is the old story that everyone knows
you are blind but you. I know the final realization for me was that I
would rather walk tall as a competent blind person than walk down the
street bent over trying to see where I was going--and not giving a very
good impression.
How much easier travel is now! My problem wasn't my vision . . . it was
my attitude.
This attitude was even conveyed to my son. When I first started using my
cane, I was self-conscious, and my son said, "Mom, put that thing away,
everyone is looking at you." As my attitude changed, so did his. He
later said to me, "Hey, Mom, everyone is looking at you because you are
doing such a good job." Out of the mouths of babes!
When I talk to kids about using a cane, they always say that people will
notice them. My answer is, "Sure, people will notice, people notice
everything: whether you are thin or fat, short or tall, or if you have
red hair. Some people are even dying their hair green to become more
noticeable! So what if they notice you use a cane. You don't have to
hide your cane, it is a symbol of your independence."
A car owner will wax and wash his car. It is his symbol of freedom and
independence. He feels he can't travel without it. So I take care of my
canes for the same reason. I have never been known to leave well enough
alone, so I have customized my canes.
I have an NFB telescoping cane. But let's face it, it is plain white, so
why not spruce it up with a fancy handle. I have found a variety of
grips that I add to my canes. My favorite grip is a steering wheel
cover. They are available in a variety of styles and colors and can be
found in most discount stores.
Other grips you might like to use are golf grips and tennis racket
grips. (That's as close to a steering wheel and tennis racket I'm going
to get!) They look great and they are practical as a non-slip grip when
you are wearing gloves.
So you can have a sporty cane or a fancy cane or an elegant cane. You
can pick the style you want to match the occasion. You can now buy
reflective tape in most discount or hardware stores (similar to
ScotchLite but easier to apply). You can't tape the telescoping canes,
but I put some reflective tape on my rigid cane for at night. I feel
more comfortable knowing I am a little more visible at night.
I also use the California Cane. This cane is the best cane I have found.
It is lightweight and, when the joints slide together, it has the feel
of a rigid cane. Unlike many other folding canes, this cane comes apart
easily and you don't have to fight with it to get the joints separated.
When it snows I use a rigid cane. I added a red reflective tip to my
"snow cane" because I have heard that it is very hard for people to see
a white cane in the snow. If it is snowing hard, I will increase my
visibility by wearing an orange hunter's hat.
You can add some variety to your cane collection. I have a cane with
wood grain Contact Paper on it for walking in the woods. I am a radio
operator in the Civil Air Patrol and I have an all black AmbuTech
folding cane to meet the uniform requirements (all accessories must be
black). I also have a Camouflage cane.
If you aren't using a white cane, it does not qualify under the law, but
many states have a broad definition to extend to all mobility canes.
Check with the white cane laws in your state.
When I first started using my cane I would carry it in an umbrella case
so no one would see it. Now I have a cane for all occasions and a few
spares.
It's all in your attitude, so have fun!
Customizing Your Canes by Jody W. Ianuzzi was previously printed in the
TravelVision website by Kathy Zelaya and is reprinted here by special
permission from the author.
Bonus Tip
Just wanted to share a solution that we came up with to address the
problem of people who have difficulty pulling the elastic loop at the
end of the folding cane over the folded shaft sections, could be useful
for people with arthritis, who lack fine motor (hand) coordination, lack
strength in their arm/hand.
I bought a product at Staples called "Velcro One-Wrap" (a pack of 5 sold
for about $6).
1. Put the "Velcro One-Wrap" strip through the elastic loop, thread
it through the hole at the top of the "Velcro One-Wrap", and keep
it permanently attached to the elastic loop of the cane (it does
not interfere with cane usage).
2. After you fold the cane, grab the shaft sections in one hand like
you always do, but closer toward the side that you would normally
pull the elastic loop over.
3. Hold the "Velcro One-Wrap" in the other hand, and bring it right
above your hand holding the shaft.
4. Wrap the velcro around the shaft.
This holds the cane together nicely without the need to pull the elastic
loop over the top. For people who have difficulty grabbing the velcro
strip, you can easily attach a plastic ring to the end of the velcro
strip and just grab for the ring to pull the cord around the shaft.
Contributor:
Steve Greenberg
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