Indiana Institute FYI

Week of June 4, 2007

FYI at a Glance

· Correction
· June ADA-Indiana Audio Conference
· The Arc Network
· Blogging @ the Library
· Bloomington Professional Council
· Library Corner

Coming Up

Correction: This Editor inadvertently titled our Early Childhood Center's Summer Institute incorrectly. The title of the June 18-22, 2007 Summer Institute should read - How to Assess School Readiness in Children and Families: Preparing for Kindergarten. “To Err is Human, To Forgive Divine…” Or as my daughters would say, “My Bad!” Movin' on…

June ADA-Indiana Audio Conference: Join ADA-Indiana for this month's audio conference entitled Performance versus Disability: What is the difference? As the workforce ages, employers are experiencing more and more issues associated with employees who face difficulties in doing their job. One of the major questions facing employers is whether or not performance issues experienced by their employees are due to a disability which may require reasonable accommodation. Sharon Rennert, Senior Attorney for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, will address the issue of performance versus disability and the steps that an employer should take to ensure that they are not discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities.

This audio conference will be held on Tuesday, June 19th from 2:00-3:30 p.m. (EDT) in five different Indiana locations. Employers, human resource professionals, people with disabilities, and other interested community members should mark their calendars and plan to attend. No pre-registration is required. CRC and SHRM credit is available to attendees and the session is free at locations sponsored by ADA-Indiana.

ADA-Indiana Site Locations:

Bloomington, IN (2:00-3:30 p.m. EDT)
Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, Building L
2853 East Tenth Street

Evansville, IN (1:00-2:30 p.m. Central)
University of Southern Indiana Campus
Science Center, Room 1212 (SC 1212)

Indianapolis, IN (2:00-3:30 p.m. EDT)
Indiana Government Center, Conference Room 2
402 West Washington Street

Indianapolis, IN (2:00-3:30 p.m. EDT)
Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services
4701 North Keystone Avenue, Suite 222

West Lafayette, IN (2:00 - 3:30 p.m. EDT)
Purdue University - West Lafayette Campus
Purdue Memorial Union, Room 260

If you are not able to attend at one of ADA-Indiana's sponsored sites, individuals and organizations can purchase access to the audio conference by visiting http://www.ada-audio.org. The cost is $25.00 (for not-for-profits) and $40.00 (for-profit entities). For more information about these sessions, visit http://www.adaindiana.org or contact Matt Norris at 1-800-825-4733 (e-mail adainfo@indiana.edu).

Coming July 17th: Join us as we mark the 17th Anniversary of the ADA and celebrate the on-going efforts of the federal agencies to enforce the rights of individuals with disabilities. This audio conference, entitled ADA Update: 17 Years Later, will feature John Wodatch, Civil Rights Division Chief for U.S. Department of Justice and Sharon Rennert, Senior Attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

What's New

The Arc Network: The Arc of Indiana is launching a two-year project, supported by the Family and Social Services Administration, to strengthen the network of self-advocates and family members of people with developmental disabilities. 

The goal of The Arc Network is to locate, hire, and train a self-advocate and a family member of a person with a developmental disability in each of the eight Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services (BDDS) districts. The role of these local advocates will be to work collaboratively as a team to carry out training, outreach, and, assistance to people on the Medicaid waiver and on Medicaid waiver waiting lists.   

For over fifty years, The Arc has been instrumental in achieving positive change for people with developmental disabilities and their families at the state and national level.  Assuring that all families and self-advocates are aware of programs, services, and basic rights is a critical goal of The Arc of Indiana. This project will provide a great resource to families and self-advocates throughout the state.

For job descriptions and applications for the self-advocate and family-advocate positions for The Arc Network, visit http://www.arcind.org.

Blogging @ the Library: Staff at the Center for Disability Information and Referral are always looking for new ways to share information and hear from our users... So we've decided to maintain a blog. We will use this blog to highlight interesting resources, share book reviews, spotlight topics of interest and much more. Feel free to leave comments with suggestions of things you would like to see covered, or materials you would like to see added to our collection. Visit us at http://cedir.blogspot.com/.

Kudos

Bloomington Professional Council: In April, Bloomington professional staff members voted in this year's elections for representatives on the Bloomington Professional Council. Congratulations to Bev Vicker, Speech Language Pathologist, of the Institute's Indiana Resource Center for Autism, on her election to the Council. Vicker will serve the University as Unit 7 Representative over the course of the next three years. The work of the Bloomington Professional Council is to provide leadership in the continual improvement of Indiana University policies and practices that enhance the quality of life of the professional employee, while supporting the institutional mission.

Honoring its mission, the Council shall:

· Provide for the exchange of relevant information among professional staff and xwith Indiana University administration;
· Promote the active role of professional staff in decision-making processes;
· Support the development and implementation of sound management policies
xand practices; and
· Initiate and support professional staff development opportunities.

Library Corner

New Items: The following new materials may be borrowed by Indiana residents from the Center for Disability Information and Referral (CeDIR) at the Institute. To check out materials, contact the library at 1-800-437-7924, send e-mail to cedir@indiana.edu, or visit us at 2853 East Tenth Street in Bloomington.

Cuskelly, M., Jobling, A., & Beckley , S. (2002). Down syndrome across the life-span. Philadelphia, PA: Whurr.

Hartas, D. (2006). Dyslexia in the early years: A practical guide to teaching and learning. New York: Routledge.

Snowling, M. & Stackhouse, J. (Eds.). (2006). Dyslexia, speech, and language: A practitioner's handbook. London: Whurr.

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