Tue 01/30/2007 9:31 PM

disability news 1/23-1/29

I haven't been feeling well these past couple of days, so I'm a tiny bit behind on the news summaries.

Equal opportunity education for disabled faces hurdles: officials
The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the US Agency for International Development held a joint seminar last week in Hanoi to discuss ways to increase school attendance among disabled children and to improve the quality of special education.

Technology for People With Disabilities
At the Assistive Technology Industry Association's eighth annual conference last week, Microsoft, and over thirty assistive technology companies with whom they have been working, revealed an array of products and services for people with disabilities which will be available upon the launch of the Windows Vista operating system and Microsoft Office 2007 on Tuesday. Historically, disabled users often had to wait up to eighteen months for assistive technology products to support a new operating system.

Roosevelt students learn about disabilities
Students at Roosevelt Middle School in Oceanside, California got a small sampling of what it is like to live with various disabilities last week during a four-day "ability awareness fair". Twelve stations were set up in the school's auditorium, each simulating a different disability, including vision, hearing, and mobility impairments.

Specialist call service takes taboo issue of disabled sex head on
In Japan, where the subject of disability and sexuality is still taboo (not that it's not still somewhat so here in the US), the magzine Cyzo is tackling the issue head on. It has even profiled a Tokyo sex service that caters exclusively to the disabled.

Mentally disabled man writes book about childhood memories
Under the suggestion of his cousin after the two had been reminiscing about their childhoods, Russell McLeland began to write about his memories. Little did he know that these jottings in a tablet of paper which he would then type up to e-mail to his cousin, would one day be a published book.

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