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Approved-By:  Bill McGarry <wtm@SHELDEV.SHEL.ISC-BR.COM>
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Date:         Mon, 23 Nov 1992 17:30:49 EST
Reply-To:     Bill McGarry <wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com>
From:         Bill McGarry <wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com>
Subject:      Handicap Digest # 3033

                             THE HANDICAP DIGEST

                                 Issue # 3033

                          Monday, November 23, 1992

Today's Topics:


                                ******


                         School woes for AD/HD child
                           TDD modems and software
              Fear of Insurance Loss Haunts Disability Families
             Assistive Devices for differently abled or disabled
                        Mental Health Trainees Sought
                        Nordic Journal special issue
                            gopher on disability


                                ******


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thoughts in the next issue, please send electronic mail to
Bill McGarry at any of the following addresses:


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                              Bill McGarry (Moderator)
                              (203) 337-1518



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Subject: School woes for AD/HD child
From: arielle@NeoSoft.com (Stephanie da Silva)
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900


My six year old has recently been diagnosed as being Attention
Defecit/Hyperactive, something we've long suspected but which came
out full force when he started attending grade school.

He's having a lot of problems adjusting.  The school has
acknowledged that he has special needs by putting him in Special
Education.  We've taken him to his pediatrician over this who has
put him on ritalin which helps, but doesn't solve the problem.

My concerns are this:  The school is punishing him on a daily basis
for things like not paying attention, not sitting still, not
following directions, throwing temper tantrums, etc.  In other
words, things that are all characteristic of his disability.  There
have been days when he spent several hours sitting in the office
for bad behaviour.  I mean, really.  He's only six!  I get notes
saying "Jonathan's a nice kid, but...." Should I rip a note back
saying, "But he's *handicapped*!"?  It seems that they're more
concerned with making him conform to the rules of conduct than they
are about meeting his needs and educating him.

Is there anything I can do about this?  Does he have any rights
that I can stand up for?  Any suggestions or pointers in the right
direction would be very much appreciated.





------



Subject: TDD modems and software
From: barth@nodc2.nodc.noaa.gov (Dick Barth)


In Digest 3017, Mike Harris said...

> From: morris@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Mike Morris)
> Organization: College Park Software, Altadena, CA
> ...
>
> Apparently a request came in to his Lions club for a software program
> that will allow a PC equipped with a modem to function as a TDD
> answering machine, and as a TDD.
>
> While I myself know nothing about TDDs, I do remember from a old article
> in a ham radio magazine that TDDs use a special set of tones (at lease
> the early ones did), and no standard modem (i.e. a 3/12/2400 baud) will
> talk to them.  So I told my friend that a special modem would probably
> be needed.  this would not be a problem, if we knew where to get it.
>
> Can somebody point us to some decent software?  My friend said that he's
> looking "for a TDD version of ProComm or Telix or Boyan, plus a TDD
> answering machine function."
>

You have a good memory, Mike.  You're right -- the standard TDD
uses an oddball tone pair (1400 MARK, 1800 SPACE) that will talk to
another TDD but not to an ASCII modem.  TDDs use the Baudot code,
which makes them incompatible with standard comm programs.  The TDD
modem uses the same tone pair in both directions.  If all this
sounds very much like the RTTY communications you've seen on ham
radio it is.  This may be because Dr.  Robert Weitbrecht, who
invented the TDD, was a ham.  :-)

There are certain TDDs -- primarily the newer and more expensive
ones -- that have a built-in ASCII capability.  These usually talk
at 110 or 300 baud.  Some also are able to answer phone calls and
take short messages.

Early computers had a cassette port, used to generate tones that
could be recorded on tape and later read files back from the tape
recorder.  These ports could also be used to generate and receive
TDD tones from the phone line, and public domain software is
available to do this on an (original) IBM-PC, a PCjr and a Radio
Shack Color Computer.  Current versions are TDD ver 5.6 (for the
IBM pair) and TDD ver. 4.3 (for the CoCo).  Both are downloadable
from file area two of the HEX BBS as TDD56.ZIP; see the
.signature below for phone number.

Any old computer can talk to a TDD using a special modem and
software.  Both are commercially available.  For a list, download
the file COMPARE.TTY from the same place.  Some of these products
can also function as answering machines for TDD and/or 300 baud
ASCII calls.  I use the Phone-TTY model CM-4 modem on the HEX, with
software I wrote, to run a BBS with ASCII/TDD capability on one
phone line while it uses a standard Hayes clone on the other.

73

--
            HEX - the Handicapped Educational Exchange BBS
301-593-7033 (TDD, 300 baud)  --  301-593-7357 (300/1200/2400 baud ASCII)
Dick Barth, W3HWN                     Internet: barth@nodc2.nodc.noaa.gov


..




------



Subject: Fear of Insurance Loss Haunts Disability Families
From: ndallen@r-node.gts.org (Nigel Allen)
Organization: Echo Beach, Toronto

[Note from Bill McGarry - this is from the sci.med newsgroup]

Here is a press release from the Epilepsy Foundation

 Fear of Insurance Loss Haunts Disability Families
 To: National Desk, Medical and Health Care writers
 Contact: Peter Van Haverbeke or Miriam Dowtin, 301-459-3700,
          both of the Epilepsy Foundation

   LANDOVER, Md., Nov. 12  -- The biggest fear of parents of
children with epilepsy used to be that the child would have a
seizure and be injured.
   That's still a worry, but an even bigger one is taking its place
-- the fear that the family will lose health insurance coverage
because of the child's condition.
   Toll-free calls to the Epilepsy Foundation of America, now running
at the rate of some 30,000 per year, reflect that concern.
   "People call us about many things, but we're seeing a big increase
in calls about health insurance -- where to get it, how to keep it,
and what they can do if they lose it," said Cheryl Lawson, chair of
the Epilepsy Foundation's Public Information and Education Committee.
Lawson's fight for the rights of her own daughter with epilepsy has
made her an expert in spotting insurance pitfalls.  "Unfortunately,"
she adds, "there are no easy answers."
   Epilepsy, like other chronic medical problems, is classed as a
"pre-existing condition" by insurance companies.  And more and more
insurers, even in group coverage, are excluding individuals and
families in which a member has a pre-existing condition.
   "It's not just that the affected person can't get coverage for
epilepsy," Lawson explained.  "That would be bad enough.  But what's
often happening is that no coverage at all is available for that
person, and in the worst cases, the whole family has to go without
coverage because of one member.  In today's world, when an
appendicitis or an accident or even a bad attack of the flu can cost
from one to several thousand dollars, lack of insurance is truly
frightening."
   Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain in which normal electrical
activity becomes temporarily disrupted, producing seizures of various
kinds.  About 2.5 million Americans have the disorder.
   While the majority of people with epilepsy do well with treatment
and can live normally, about 20 percent have frequent seizures and
associated disabilities that require special services and assistance.







------



Subject: Assistive Devices for differently abled or disabled
From: goldman@bert.eecs.uic.edu (Jonathan Goldman)
Organization: University of Illinois, Chicago

I am looking for any sources people might have on databases or
information leading to databases containing commercially available
products in the "assistive devices" category that are used by differently
abled people.

If anybody has any information on data bases that can be accessed
through the internet, IBM PC based bulletin boards, or Compuserve,
it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

        Replies can be sent via e-mail to:      goldman@bert.eecs.uic.edu

-jon goldman


--


-jon
-goldman@bert.eecs.uic.edu




------



Subject: Mental Health Trainees Sought
From: RQPO%UORDB4.BITNET@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Robert Pollard)

[Note from Bill McGarry - this is from the DEAF-L mailing list]

                            Announcing:

                    A PROGRAM FOR DEAF TRAINEES
                              at the
              UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER
                     DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY

The National Institute of Mental Health has funded a program to
train mental health professionals who are deaf or hard of hearing
at the practicum, internship and fellowship levels.  This program,
the first of its kind in the country, was established at the
University of Rochester Medical Center by Assistant Professor of
Psychiatry (Psychology) Robert Pollard, Ph.D.

Four training positions will be available annually during the
three year course of this grant -- one for a postdoctoral
psychologist, one for a predoctoral psychologist, one for an
individual with one or more years of graduate education in
clinical social work or a related mental health field, and one for
a BSW student.  A modest stipend is paid for all post-
baccalaureate positions.  Applicants must be deaf or hard of
hearing and fluent in American Sign Language.  In accordance with
the ethnic-compatibility intent of this NIMH grant, the emphasis
for these deaf trainees will be on serving deaf patients but not
exclusively so.

In this program, multidisciplinary as well as discipline-specific
didactic and experiential training is provided, where assessment,
treatment, consultation, and research activities are interwoven.
Each trainee will receive a rich, linguistically accessible, and
culturally appropriate training experience that will ready them
not only for independent practice but for advancing to leadership
positions involving service, teaching, and/or research in the high
need area of deafness and mental health.

The trainees will receive experience in a number of outpatient and
inpatient treatment settings that serve a broad array of deaf (and
hearing) patients.  The majority of the clinical work will take
place in the University of Rochester Medical Center's Department
of Psychiatry.  Trainees will also be assigned rotations in three
Rochester area mental health facilities that have special programs
for deaf patients -- an inpatient alcohol clinic, a residential
treatment facility for deaf children, and the psychological
services division of the National Technical Institute for the
Deaf.

The faculty of this program includes five sign-fluent mental
health professionals, two of whom are deaf.  These individuals,
along with the other deaf professionals employed at each of the
four training sites, provide supervision and serve as role models
for these trainees.  Ample sign language interpreting services are
also provided in this program, for those times when trainees
interact with non-signing faculty, staff, and patients.  An
additional attraction of this program is its location in the
acclaimed deafness-sophisticated environment of Rochester, New
York, home of the largest per-capita deaf population in the world.

Applications are now being accepted for all positions.  The 1992-
1993 positions will be filled on an ongoing basis until all four
candidates are selected.  Their program will begin as soon as
possible thereafter, hopefully by March of 1993.  Applications for
1993-1994 positions are also being accepted at this time, although
these candidates will not begin their program until the Fall of
1993.  To request application materials or for further
information, contact:

                    Robert Pollard, Ph.D.
                    Department of Psychiatry
                    University of Rochester Medical Center
                    300 Crittenden Boulevard
                    Rochester, NY  14642
                    (716) 275-3544 v/TDD
                    Bitnet:  RQPO@UORDBV




------



Subject: Nordic Journal special issue
From: I.Greftegref@AVH.UNIT.NO (Irene Greftegreff)

[Note from Bill McGarry - this is from the Sign Language Linguistics List]


I'm posting the following on behalf of the Editors.



------

---


Volume 15, No. 2 (1992) of
Nordic Journal of Linguistics will be a special issue
devoted to sign language linguistics.

This collection of papers, small though it is, fully demonstrates the
diversity of sign language linguistics and how far this field of study
has advanced. It is only appropriate that two of the papers deal with
American Sign Language (ASL), as ASL has been much more thoroughly
than any other sign language. Of the remaining three papers, one takes
its studied data from Taiwan Sign Language, one from Danish Sign Language,
and one from Norwegian Sign Language.

The papers are:

Debra Aarons, Benjamin Bahan, Judy Kegl & Carol Neidle:
"Clausal Structure and a Tier for Grammatical Marking in
American Sign Language"

Aarons et al. make five fundamental claims about the clausal structure
of American Sign Language, challenging a number of accepted claims about
ASL syntax. The authors posit an underlying clause structure for ASL,
which is argued to be recoverable on the basis of evidence of various
sorts, including constraints on the spreading of non-manual scope-
indicating signals.


Jean Ann:
"Physiological Constraints in Taiwan Sign Language Handshape-
Change"

Ann's paper deals with the physiological phonetics of signed languages,
specifically with how hand physiology constrains attested handshape-
changes in signs taken from Taiwan Sign Language. Her study should be
viewed as a prolegomenon to the study of marked and unmarked features
of handshapes and handshape-changes across sign languages.


Irene Greftegreff:
"Orientation in Indexical Signs in Norwegian Sign Language"

On the basis of her critical appraisal of some proposed analyses of hand
orientation and movement directionality in sign language phonology,
Greftegreff, drawing on her native knowledge of Norwegian sign language
(NTS), proposes to redefine the traditional "locus" (or "tab") concept as
the area which the hands move in relation to in the production of a sign,
rather than simply the place where the sign is executed.


Karen van Hoek:
"Conceptual Spaces and Pronominal Reference in American Sign
Language"

Van Hoek's' study of the use of pronominal signs in American Sign
Language has led her to adopt a new conception of the function of those
points in the signing space that are termed "referential loci". She
demonstrates that such points may invoke not only a mental
representation of a given referent but also a representation of the
conceived context in which referents are embedded.


Elisabeth Engberg-Pedersen:
"Point of View in Danish Sign Language"


Engberg-Pedersen argues for the replacement of the undifferentiated term
"role shifting", as applied to sign language discourse, by terms referring to
three phenomena that should be kept apart because they do not necessarily
coincide in utterances: "shifted reference", "shifted attribution of
expressive elements", and "shifted locus".


Non-subscribers to Nordic Journal of Linguistics may purchase this
single issue by writing to:

Scandinavian University Press (Universitetsforlaget AS)
P.O. Box 1959 Toyen
N-0608 Oslo
Norway
The price is US $ 38.00, or NOK 220,-.


Thorstein Fretheim, Editor




------



Subject: gopher on disability
From: leavitt@acsu.buffalo.edu (Jay Leavitt)
Organization: University at Buffalo


                      Announcing a Gopher on Disability

                                    CODI
                   (Cornucopia of Disability Information)

        CODI may be accessed by typing:

                      gopher val-dor.cc.buffalo.edu 70

                                        Jay Leavitt
                                        leavitt@ubvmsd






------






                                ******

                  End of Issue # 3033 of the Handicap Digest

                                ******
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU