Share Your Story, Take Action Steps for the Alliance in Support of Athletic Equity for Students with Disabilities
Calling all athletes with disabilities! Are you a student with a disability who has struggled to receive equitable treatment in your school? Have you found a way to successfully participate in physical education or athletic programs in your school? If not, do you feel like you have missed opportunities to participate or have been relegated to the sidelines? If this is you, the Women's Sports Foundation wants to know your story. It is collecting stories about individuals with disabilities who have overcome or who continue to have equity struggles within their school's physical education and athletic programs. Your stories will educate the public and the media about the current opportunities that individuals with disabilities are being offered in schools to help ensure that all students have access to sports and physical activity participation.
Submit your story at http://www.WomensSportsFoundation.org/DisabilityStory or, if you have questions, call (301) 657-5829.
Survey to Provide Input on the Upcoming CDC Disability & Health Website
The Disability and Health team at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in the process of improving its website, including the development of an online interactive database application to store and display data about people with disabilities compared to those without disabilities across a variety of health topics. The team is conducting a 30-minute survey to find out information needs, what features would be useful, and how this tool can be most effective and user-friendly.
To access this survey, go to http://webeffective.keynote.com/v.asp?inv=CDC_DisabilityHealth_WebSurvey.
New Research Trial to Study Impact of Exercise on Parkinson's Patients
Officials at the new Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute have announced the center's participation in a novel Parkinson's study aimed at determining the physical and neurological impact of simple exercise on Parkinson's patients. Participants' brains will be monitored to determine if increased physical activity actually helps protect the neurons in the brain from the disease. The study is being conducted in partnership with Arizona State University and is funded by the National Institutes of Health.
To read more, go to http://www.news-medical.net/news/20091204/New-research-trial-to-study-the-impact-of-exercise-on-Parkinsons-patients.aspx.
Video Games May Have Potential Health Benefits
Does "Dance Dance Revolution" burn more calories than physical education class or improve Parkinson's patients' balance? Researchers intend to find out. A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative is exploring how digital games can improve health for people of all ages.
To read more, go to http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/11/30/prsf1204.htm.
Video Presentation: Healthy, Physically Fit and Ready for Action: Addressing the Physical Education and Activity Needs of Individuals with Disabilities
Three members of the National Consortium for Physical Education and Recreation for Individuals with Disabilities, Garth Tymeson, Bob Arnhold, and Linda Webbert, have been working with the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) to complete a video project on Adapted Physical Education. The project completed taping in November, and is now ready to be disseminated.
National Disability Organization Applauds Senators for Introducing "Rosa's Law" to End Discriminatory Language, Silver Spring, MD, November 18, 2009
The Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) applauds Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Michael Enzi (R-WY) for introducing bipartisan legislation to finally eliminate the harmful and demeaning term "mental retardation" from our federal laws. "Rosa's Law" (S. 2781), a bill based on a Maryland state law by the same name, replaces the term "mental retardation" with 'intellectual disability' in specific federal health, education, and labor laws, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Developmental Disabilities Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. The bill does not expand or diminish services, rights, or educational opportunities. It simply makes federal language consistent with that used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and the President's Committee on Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities.
Disability and Health Journal Accepting Submissions for 2010
Disability and Health Journal is a scientific, scholarly, and multidisciplinary journal for reporting original contributions that advance knowledge in disability and health. Such contributions include reports of empirical research on the characteristics of persons with disabilities, environments, health outcomes, and determinants of health; systematic reviews and tightly conceived theoretical interpretations of research literatures; and evaluative research on new interventions, technologies, and programs. The focus will be on public health, health promotion, health education, wellness, and prevention, reducing the incidence of secondary conditions and medical conditions.
For more information, go to http://ees.elsevier.com/dhjo/.