By Karen Gaffney | TedxPortland
Karen Gaffney, Self-Advocate and World-Renown Swimmer, presents her TEDxPortland talk, “All Lives Matter” and makes the case against termination of pregnancies diagnosed with Down syndrome. Articulate and persuasive, this is worth 15 mins of your time.
By Andrew Kelly | www.rt.com
A UK man, who holds the world record for being the oldest living man with Down’s Syndrome, has celebrated his 76th birthday.
When Kenny Cridge was born alongside his sister Dorothy in 1940, their mother Iris was unaware she was having twins. Doctors initially thought Kenny was a stillborn and set him aside, focusing on the birth of his sister. When Kenny showed signs of life, however, the hospital staff resuscitated him.
by BuzzFeedVideos
Model Madeline Stuart transforms into six different high fashion Disney princesses.
by Ivana Kottasova | money.cnn.com
After decades of building pirate ships, race cars and haunted castles, Lego has come up with something new: a wheelchair.
The Danish toymaker has unveiled its first ever disabled minifigure on Thursday. The figure of a hat-wearing boy in a wheelchair was first spotted at the Nuremberg international toy fair in Germany and featured on fan blogs.
The company later confirmed the tiny wheelchair will be part of a new Lego CITY set that will come out in June.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/28/news/companies/lego-wheelchair-minifigure/
by Kara Bettis | http://newbostonpost.com
BOSTON – When Carl and Julie Stone discovered four years ago that their third child, Josiah, would be born with trisomy 21, or Down syndrome, they didn’t blink.
“It didn’t frighten us, it didn’t scare us, it didn’t make us sad,” Stone said. “We simply wanted to spend the last 20 weeks of the pregnancy doing everything we could to give this child every possibility to succeed.”
The Carver resident’s story is not unusual. But it isn’t common, either. Many expecting families who discover the child might be born with trisomy 21, a form of Down syndrome that comes from having an extra chromosome, don’t know where to turn, or what kind of life to expect for their baby.
by Shaun Heasley | disabilityscoop.com
More episodes are on the way for a new television show focusing on the lives of young adults with Down syndrome.
A&E Network said it has renewed “Born This Way” for a second season.
The show, which debuted in December, follows seven young adults with the chromosomal disorder and their families in Southern California.
https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2016/01/12/tv-down-syndrome-return/21757/
by Laurie Udesky, The Hechinger Report | disabilityscoop.com
Last spring, Julia Kim’s students with disabilities at Fairmount Elementary in San Francisco were ready to take a new standardized test. They were excited that it had been built especially for them.
In past years, students with visual perception disorders had test questions read out loud. This time, the students sat in front of their computers awaiting the new technology designed to help them complete the test on their own for the first time.
But as soon as the first question appeared, students complained that the print was too small.
https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2016/01/12/special-ed-testing-backfire/21760/
Consider an online gift to support our education and cognition efforts at the 3-21 Foundation. Your tax-deductible donation will go towards quality research and programming to help families and children living with Down syndrome.
Thank you.
By Matt Weber | gse.harvard.edu
In 1975, public schools in the United States accommodated only 1 out of 5 children with disabilities. Many states had laws that explicitly excluded children with disabilities — including children who were deaf or blind, children who had been labeled “mentally retarded,” and children suffering from certain types of mental illness — from attending public school. But thanks in large part to greater exposure in the media, along with a number of lawsuits challenging the exclusion of these children from school, federal legislation was adopted that allowed for positive change in the U.S. On November 30, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]) into law.
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/15/11/harvard-edcast-evolution-disabilities-education
By Alyson Klein | edweek.com
The newest proposed version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—dubbed the Every Student Succeeds Act—has officially been released.
Votes in both chambers of Congress are expected over the next couple weeks. If all goes as planned, the bill will reach President Barack Obama’s desk by the end of the year—and he’s expected to sign it.
So what is in the ESSA, when it comes to accountability, testing, programs, and more? And how does it compare to No Child Left Behind Act, Classic Edition, and the Obama administration’s NCLB waivers?
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2015/11/esea_reauthorization_the_every.html