Industry analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Industry analysis - Essay Example The forces have profound impact on the industry and on the organization. The global economic recession will affect both the national economies and the organization. The consumers' disposable income will be reduced. The weak economy negatively affected software sales, increasing pressure on software firms' gross margins. This means that higher marketing and operational capabilities should be more important than R&D capabilities i.e. the ability to rapidly innovate. The technological environment consists of the skills and equipment used in design, production and distribution. R&D capabilities are thought to be particularly important in software industry. In this industry,being first to market is often essential to becoming the de facto standard. Given the rapid rate of change in the software industry, we would expect that firms having higher R&D capabilities would have a distinct advantage (Slaughter & Shanling & Shang, 2006). The demographic forces result from changes in the nature, composition and diversity of a population. More and more households use the Internet. The baby boomers age i.e. people that are over 54 are interested in using a computer.The education and entertainment software segment is growing very quickly (U.S. Department of Labor, 2006). On the business side, computer networks are pop... The trend in business customers is to have their data accessible, secure and private. On the other hand, the task environment includes immediate persons involved in producing, distributing and promoting the offering and therefore it includes internal and external factors that are influenced by the general environment. The task environment forces are suppliers, distributors, customers and competitors. The suppliers provide organization with inputs. The managers of the organization need to secure reliable input sources. The suppliers provide raw materials, components and even labor. In the case of the software industry the suppliers provide mainly components and service. It can be hard to work with suppliers' shortages and lack of substitutes. Suppliers who are in a good bargaining position are those that possess scarce items so they can raise the price. Managers' preference is to have many similar suppliers of each item. The distributors are organizations that help others to sell goods. Microsoft, which is a leader of the software industry, uses mainly wholesalers for selling its products to the SOHO market whereas Microsoft sells directly to the large customers. The distributors can threaten not to carry your product unless a strong brand name is established as it is in Microsoft's case whereas the actual power is in the hands of the producer. Customers are the people who buy the goods. For Microsoft, there are business, home and government buyers. The competitors are other organizations that produce similar goods. The most serious force facing managers is the rivalry between competitors. High levels of rivalry often means lower prices and profits become hard to find. Software industry is characterized by intense rivalry but due to the fact that the R&D

Organisational change Essay Example for Free

Organisational change Essay The author Gareth Morgan, uses a metaphor when describing organisational change. The title of his book Riding the waves of change suggests that change is a very dynamic process and for like surfers, managers and their organisation have to ride on a sea of change that can twist and turn with all the power of the ocean. The ocean representing the organisations internal and external environment. John Harvey-Jones (1993, p21) once said organisations need to adapt or perish. This is still as relevant now as it was in the 1990s. Change is due to a number of internal and external triggers. External triggers include, political, economic, social, technological and environmental factors and an increase in competition. Internal triggers are changes within the organisation. Change is now a major issue in which organisations, managers and their employees have to face. Organisations who fail to adapt to this dynamic environment in a suitable and appropriate manner, could face organisational failure, causing problems for individual jobs and careers. Managers need a pro-active mindset where they need to anticipate and confront challenges of the future, rather than manage in relation to events that have already occurred. When facing organisational change, managers must consider the people whom the change is affecting. These would include the people within the organisational environment, for example, staff, and the people outside the organisation, for example, customers and other stakeholders. There are many types of organisational change, each type affecting the individual in a different way. Change can be distinguished by considering how deeply the change affects the organisation. Buchanan, Claydon and Doyle, (1999) carried out a survey of management experiences of change. The findings suggest that organisational change can create fear, fatigue and cynicism. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1969) found that when dealing with something traumatic and stressful, people go through a number of phases, known as the coping cycle. This has been used to understand peoples responses to organisational change, a situation where people often find it hard to cope. The five stages of the Kubler-Ross response coping cycle disguises peoples individual differences. We may omit some stages, revisit particular stages or pass through them more or less quickly than others. From an organisational outlook, this can be a useful tool when trying to detect where in the response cycle a person may be, during organisational change and guidance and support can be offered when necessary. Managers need to contemplate how much pressure staff can take from organisational change. The relationship between pressure and performance can be described in the Yerkes-Dodson law (1908). The law states that task performance increases as our state of arousal increases, and that beyond some optimal point, we become overwhelmed by the level of stimulation or pressure, and our performance starts to fall. With changes being imposed, people have to spend time learning new things, adapt to new systems and procedures, develop new knowledge and use new skills and behaviours. The organisation cannot stop functioning while this happens and this can lead to the initiative fatigue which Buchanan, Claydon and Doyle found during their survey, mentioned earlier. Peoples arousal levels can be pushed beyond their optimum performance point where change initiatives are frequent. However, Morgan feels it is important to view people as key resources, encouraging them to relish change, blending specialist and generalist qualities, managing in an environment of equals, and making education a continual process. If people have skills in a number of jobs within the organisation, they will be more flexible to change. Management need to know what levels of pressure people are experiencing. There are a number of indicators which can reveal, among other things, that people are working under too much pressure prompting management to reduce the pressure. These measures may include: * Unexplained absences * High rate of sickness * Labour turnover * More customer complaints * More employee grievances * Accidents and mistakes Resistance to change is common, however, people find change threatening. Those involved are presented with new scenarios, new problems and challenges. Change can be ambiguous and unclear. Many people find change, or the thought of change frustrating. Where Huczynski and Buchanan emphasise that change can be a problem for existing employees, Morgan focuses on the importance of managers recruiting people who enjoy learning and relish change and to motivate employees to be intelligent, flexible and adaptive. Tony Eccles (1994), identified thirteen possible sources of resistance which managers should consider when managing chance in the organisation: * Ignorance This may cause a failure to understand the problem * Comparison A solution may be disliked because an alternative is preferred * Disbelief People may feel that a proposed solution will not work * Loss The change may have unacceptable personal costs * Inadequacy The rewards from change are not sufficient * Anxiety People fear of being unable to cope with the new situation * Demolition This is where change threatens to destroy existing social arrangements * Power cut Sources of influence and control will be eroded * Contamination New values and practice are repellent * Inhibition The willingness to change is low * Mistrust Management motives for change are considered suspicious * Alienation Other interests are more highly valued than new proposals * Frustration The change will reduce power and career opportunities There are potentially as many different reasons for resisting change as there are individuals affected by change in the first place. Through a set of approaches which involves the use of a range of management techniques and stakeholder analysis, resistance to change can be managed. Stakeholders are those people or groups with an interest in the organisations activities. There are three types of stakeholder, each should be managed differently: Internal stakeholders exist within the boundaries of the organisation. They are employees and management Connected stakeholders are those outside the organisation, such as suppliers, customers and shareholders External stakeholders include the state, local authorities, the public, pressure groups etc People within an organisation are affected by change and therefore respond differently to specific change proposals. Anticipating responses becomes possible when one understands the stakeholders concerned with a particular organisational change. John Kotter and Leo Schlesinger (1979) identified six methods for overcoming resistance: 1. Education and commitment Managers need to inform the people whom the change involves and affects about the nature of the problem prompting change. Their objections, perceptions and knowledge should be shared with these people to avoid misunderstandings which can cause resistance. It helps to get the facts straight, and to identify and resolve opposing views. There must be a large amount of trust between management and employees if this approach is to be used. Managers should pay special attention to skills that increase their power to communicate, to create shared understanding. 2. Participation and involvement By involving those people who resist change in the planning and implementation of it, their fears will be reduced about the impact of changes on them. Collaboration can reduce opposition and encourage dedication. If managers are to use this approach, it is important that the individuals have satisfactory knowledge and ability to contribute effectively. 3. Facilitation and support Peoples feelings may be altered towards change and they may be able to accept it if they are offered support to overcome the fears and anxieties. 4. Negotiation and agreement When imposing change, it is important to consider those affected who have a certain degree of power over the organisation. A mutually agreeable compromise may be necessary, through trading and exchange. 5. Manipulation and co-optation When proposing change to a particular group or stakeholder it may be necessary to deliberately appeal to their specific interests, sensitivities and emotions, deliberately emphasising the benefits and playing down the disadvantages. Co-optation involves giving key resistors direct access to the decision making process, perhaps giving them for example, high status management positions. 6. Implicit and explicit coercion This is where management abandons any attempt to reach an agreement and results in the use of non-violent force or threats. This could mean firing the individual, demoting them or to obstruct their promotion and career prospects. This may be appropriate when no agreement is being made between management and those concerned with the change. For effective change implementation, managers should enforce change with full cooperation. Employee involvement is very important for managers to overcome resistance and encourage employees to welcome the prospect of change in the organisation. Management should carefully think of leadership styles to managing change because this can help reduce the resistance to change. By adopting a collaborative style of management, employees will willing participate in key decisions affecting their and the organisations future. One experience of organisational change that sticks in mind was the appointment of a new manager at a hotel where I was employed. When I first began working there, the original manager lacked leadership skills. Internal communications were poor, for example, when the restaurant opening times changed, staff were not informed properly or not informed at all by management. Staff had to rely on word of mouth from other members of staff which often led to misinterpretation. Management did, not listen to problems which staff encountered. Management didnt care which led to staff not caring. The hotel had room for improvements, but these improvements were not implemented. The customer was not the focus of any decision-making and their requirements were not met. This resulted in a great loss of business over a short period of time. When new management was appointed, I experienced complete change in the organisation. Staff views were listened to, their ideas for improvement in the hotel were taken into consideration and often carried out. Internal communications were improved and staff felt more involved with the business. With the manager being focused, this led to staff sharing this attitude. Customers were at the focus of every business making decision, their opinions were listened to. The hotel experienced complete innovation which staff and customers were happy with. Within a short time, business picked up again and still continues to. Morgan agrees with Huczynski and Buchanans view that people resist change, but feels that if people are educated and trained to do more one job in the organisation there will be a lesser feeling of loss of security and certainty. He believes in schemes that guarantee employees an income and a role in the organisation, but not a specific role. In this way, security is defined in financial terms-rather than in terms of the right to discharge a particular set of duties or responsibilities- and the organisation provides suitable retraining and development programs. Change demands innovation, and innovation demands that the creative potential in people is unleashed. Many people have come to see themselves as having a clear place in their organisations, whether in terms of their immediate job or career. This trend needs to be reversed to create a situation in which people recognize and accept change, and rise to meet the challenges it brings. Huczynski and Buchanan tend to focus on the negative effects people experience when change occurs, which I believe to be an old fashioned view. I agree with Morgan, who talks more about the positive aspects of change people experience, where people today, like a challenge and have more opportunities and are encouraged to learn more skills. Negatives are seen as opportunities. Morgan believes that it is important to view people as a key resource, encouraging them to relish change, blending specialist and generalist qualities, managing in an environment of equals, and making education a continual process. When managing change, managers need to consider the people whom the change is affecting. Staff should be considered and informed to ensure widespread participation within the business when the change takes place. Management should try to build a culture where their employees share their values and aims, and a company wide acceptance to the change is adopted. The common problem of resistance to change can be helped and possibly overcome through a number of management techniques and leadership styles. Staff should be asked to identify and develop new opportunities in the organisation. This kind of orientation can invigorate and empower people to reach the leading edge of change and stay there. It is also important to consider the customer when managing change in the organisation because in todays marketing orientated attitude to business, all decision making and planning must be based around customers requirements. This is an important factor contributing to the success of the organisation. Connected stakeholders, for example suppliers, also need to be considered and informed of the change. Their views and opinions need to be heard and taken into account. When dealing with stakeholders who have a certain degree of power over the organisation, it may be appropriate to negotiate and compromise with them. This will reduce any conflict which could lead to major problems for the organisation in the long run. Managers should use the views and needs of customers and other key stakeholders as a mirror in which they see and understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and act on these insights to reshape their relations with the environment. It is also important to consider the organisations competitors when managing change. Is the change going to create an advantage or disadvantage to competitors? Will the change encourage new competitors? Clearly, any program of change involves a high degree of skill in people management since people are at the very centre of the change. By considering the people factors when managing change, the change will be successful.

The History of Rap Music :: Rap Music Jamaican Culture Essays

The History of Rap Music Rap music originated as a cross-cultural product. Most of its important early practitioners-including Kool Herc, D.J. Hollywood, and Afrika Bambaataa-were either first- or second-generation Americans of Caribbean ancestry. Herc and Hollywood are both credited with introducing the Jamaican style of cutting and mixing into the musical culture of the South Bronx. By most accounts Herc was the first DJ to buy two copies of the same record for just a 15-second break (rhythmic instrumental segment) in the middle. By mixing back and forth between the two copies he was able to double, triple, or indefinitely extend the break. In so doing, Herc effectively deconstructed and reconstructed so-called found sound, using the turntable as a musical instrument. While he was cutting with two turntables, Herc would also perform with the microphone in Jamaican toasting style-joking, boasting, and using myriad in-group references. Herc's musical parties eventually gained notoriety and were often documented on cassette tapes that were recorded with the relatively new boombox, or blaster, technology. Taped duplicates of these parties rapidly made their way through the Bronx, Brooklyn, and uptown Manhattan, spawning a number of similar DJ acts. Among the new breed of DJs was Afrika Bambaataa, the first important Black Muslim in rap. (The Muslim presence would become very influential in the late 1980s.) Bambaataa often engaged in sound-system battles with Herc, similar to the so-called cutting contests in jazz a generation earlier. The sound system competitions were held at city parks, where hot-wired street lamps supplied electricity, or at local clubs. Bambaataa sometimes mixed sounds from rock-music recordings and television shows into the standard funk and disco fare that Herc and most of his followers relied upon. By using rock records, Bambaataa extended rap beyond the immediate reference points of contemporary black youth culture. By the 1990s any sound source was considered fair game and rap artists borrowed sounds from such disparate sources as Israeli folk music, bebop jazz records, and television news broadcasts. In 1976 Grandmaster Flash introduced the technique In 1979 the first two rap records appeared: "King Tim III (Personality Jock)," recorded by the Fatback Band, and "Rapper's Delight," by Sugarhill Gang. A series of verses recited by the three members of Sugarhill Gang, "Rapper's Delight" became a national hit, reaching number 36 on the Billboard magazine popular music charts. The spoken content, mostly braggadocio spiced with fantasy, was derived largely from a pool of material used by most of the earlier rappers. The backing track for "Rapper's Delight" was supplied by hired studio musicians, who replicated

Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities

NCAC Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities: The Promise of Universal Design for Learning This report was written with support from the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC), a cooperative agreement between CAST and the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Cooperative Agreement No. H324H990004. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, and no official endorsement by the Department should be inferred. ———————————————— Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities: The Promise of Universal Design for Learning Written by Richard M. Jackson, Director of Practice and CAST’s Liaison to Boston College for the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum â €”———————————————- Edited by Valerie Hendricks ————————————————- This report addresses the following questions: * What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? * What are low-incidence disabilities? Why are schools and communities particularly challenged in serving students with low-incidence disabilities? * What are the needs of students with low-incidence disabilities? * What curricula and instructional practices are currently used with students with low-incidence disabilities? * What planning models are in use for students with low-incidence disabilities? * How can IEPs ensure greater access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities? * What approaches exist for enabling students with low-incidence disabilities to participate in state- and district-level assessment systems? How can the UDL framework increase access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities? Acknowledgements When one completes a writing project of this size and effort, there are many to recognize and thank. Foremost is CAST’s Valerie Hendricks, whose editing skills remain unparalleled. Valerie’s critical review, suggested reorganizations, and detailed edits in the final stages of the writing proved enormously helpful, contributing greatly to the overall quality of the work.I am also indebted to Kelly Harper and Lisa White, OSEP-supported research assistants based at Boston College, for their careful and extensive library research and literature summaries. Additionally, I want to recognize and thank other Boston College research assistants who helped with earlier editing and reference checking. They include Xiaoxia Chen, Jennifer Hawthorne and Randall Lahann. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to Chuck Hitchcock, NCAC’s project director at CAST, and David Rose, NCAC’s principal investigator at CAST, for their patience, encouragement, and commitment in seeing this project through to completion.Table of Contents Introductionvi Overviewviii I. What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? 1 Origins of Universal Design1 Universal Design in Architecture2 Universal Design in Education4 Universal Design for Learning (UDL)5 II. What are low-incidence disabilities? 9 Alternative Systems for Classification9 A Focus on Incidence9 III. Why are schools and communities particularly challenged in serving students with low-incidence disabilities?†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 12Insufficient Numbers12 Finding the Le ast Restrictive Environment13 IV. What are the needs of students with low-incidence disabilities? 15 Special Education is Not a Place15 Categories and Characteristics15 Addressing Intense and Complex Needs16 Clusters of Low-Incidence Disabilities17 Blind/Low Vision18 Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing19 Deaf-Blind22 Significant Developmental Delay23 Significant Physical and Multiple Disabilities25 Autistic Spectrum28 Considering Generic Needs29 V. What curricula and instructional practices are currently use with students with low- incidence disabilities?†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1 Curriculum and Instructional Practices31 Toward a Definition of Curriculum33 Facing the Challenge of Curriculum Access35 Blending General and Specialized Curriculum37 Blind/Low Vision38 Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing42 Teaching Approaches43 Inclusion of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students45 Deaf-Blind49 Communication50 Orientation and Mobility50 Individualized Education51 Transition51 Inclusion in Family51 Teaching Strategies and Content Mod ifications51 Significant Developmental Delay52 Curriculum54 Instructional Adaptations56 Significant Physical and Multiple Disabilities60Autistic Spectrum61 Sensory-Motor Therapy63 Communication Therapy64 Social Skills Training64 Applied Behavior Analysis65 Multi-Treatment Programs65 VI. What planning models are in use for students with low-incidence disabilities? 67 The Evolution of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP)67 Person-Centered Planning69 Group Action Planning (GAP)69 Making Action Plans (MAPs)70 Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope (PATH)71 Circle of Friends73 Collaborative Planning and the General Curriculum74 Planning in the Context of the General Curriculum76 VII.How can IEPs ensure greater access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities?†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 78 Expanding Roles and Functions of IEP Team Members78 Origins of the IEP79 Purpose of the IEP80 Limitations of the IEP82 IDEA ’97 Challenges for the IEP82 Addre ssing the General Curriculum with the IEP85 VIII. What approaches exist for enabling students with low-incidence disabilities to participate state- and district-level assessment systems? 91 The Role of Assessment in Standards-Based Reform91 Broad-Scale Assessment Systems92Standards-Based Assessment and Students with Disabilities93 Participation of Students with Disabilities in Assessment and Accountability Systems94 Changes in Assessment Systems for Students with Disabilities96 Accommodations98 Modifications99 Alternate Assessment Systems99 Massachusetts Alternate Assessment102 Issues Remaining with Alternate Assessment108 IX. How can the UDL framework increase access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 113 Universal Design Revisited114 UDL and the Curriculum116 UDL Components117 Goals119 Methods120 Materials121The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)123 Assessment124 Curriculum Flexibility for Students wit h Low-Incidence Disabilities125 References129 Appendices145 Appendix A: Tips for Universally Designed Teaching145 Appendix B: Principles of Universal Design for Instruction (UDI)147 Appendix C: Design Principles for Lesson Adaptations148 Appendix D: Expanded Core Curriculum for Blind/Low Vision Students149 Appendix E: Six Core Principles153 Appendix F: Alaska’s State Recommendations154 Appendix G: Six Guidelines for Inclusive Programs155 Appendix H: Alternate Assessment Approaches157Appendix I: Five Best-Practice Steps for States158 Introduction Twenty years ago, the publication of A Nation At Risk instigated two decades of educational reform in the United States. Yet improving our educational system remains a national priority. Today, various school reform efforts brought about by enabling legislation and funding streams are converging on the goal of providing a single high-quality education for all of America’s students. Expectations of excellence and equal access, a s well as a focus on outcomes, are driving the effort to â€Å"leave no child behind. The goal of much of this reform work is to ensure that children of color, children living in poverty, children learning English as a second language, and children with disabilities encounter no barriers as they receive the best education possible in order to become independent, productive, and participating members of the communities in which they will live as adults. Once, the â€Å"factory† model of schooling in America viewed all children as mere â€Å"raw material† to be measured and then either mainstreamed or side-tracked, with children disadvantaged by color, poverty, language, or disability automatically winding up outside the mainstream.This system of sorting and then tracking children institutionalized inequality and denial of opportunity. Reform efforts of today are directed toward eliminating this ad hoc marginalization of groups of children, such as those listed above, w ho are viewed as â€Å"at risk† in America’s schools. Reforming education, improving schools, and raising student achievement are noble and socially just pursuits, but by what means are these lofty goals to be accomplished?Many of the diagnostic and prescriptive approaches of the past have resulted in practices where presumably the least capable receive significantly less curricula. An alternative approach to understanding student learning difficulties becomes available when assessments are applied to a school itself, or, more particularly, to a school’s curriculum, instead of to students. Measurement can then proceed with the following questions: How accessible and user-friendly is the curriculum? To what extent does the curriculum permit multiple entry and exit points?To what degree does the curriculum allow for wide participation? How accurately and fairly does the curriculum assess student progress? In order to make a single high-quality public school educat ion available to all, the curriculum itself must be examined. The typical lecture-and-textbook curriculum, made accessible only to those who could demonstrably benefit from it, implies that any failure to grasp the material calls for the student him- or herself to be examined for flaws, as has traditionally been the case.Failure to examine the curriculum and to consider modifications to it presents a crucial question: are the problems confronting public schools today rooted in the students or in the curriculum? In the following pages, we take the position that the challenge of educating students with disabilities or students who are not achieving rests with the curriculum, not with the student. In particular, we posit that the problem resides within the static presentation of typical curriculum, which is unresponsive to the many and varied ways in which individual learners differ.In order to begin addressing not the deficits of students but rather the barriers erected for them by tr aditional curriculum, a framework is required for examining the curriculum as it is and for suggesting ways in which it may be made most accessible to all students. One such framework is Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (Rose & Meyer, 2002). UDL takes a trifold approach to assessing curriculum as it examines, first, the ways in which content can be represented; second, the means by which students can respond; and third, the conditions under which students can engage in the learning process.UDL anticipates an increasingly digitized information source for curriculum, which allows a UDL framework to guide the development of future digital media, delivery mechanisms, and technology tools for use in education. Today, an object as static as a textbook can be transformed in seemingly limitless ways when presented digitally (such as audio, CD-ROM, HTML). As schools become more inclusive and democratic institutions, and as technology develops exponentially, unprecedented opportunities lie ahead for all students to reach high standards in their learning and to experience a high quality of life in adulthood.In the discussion that follows, we present practices that hold promise for increasing access to the general education curriculum for our nation’s most vulnerable populations of students with disabilities. It is the general curriculum that prepares children to take on independent, responsible, and productive roles as adults. The general curriculum—delivered through publicly-funded schools (and therefore by or through democratic institutions)—affords a central opportunity for all to pursue the American dream.For students who are blind, deaf, multiply disabled, or significantly developmentally delayed, equal opportunity to pursue that dream is out of reach without advances in how we prepare and employ our teaching force, how we set policy that raises standards and expectations without discrimination, and, above all, how we deliver a curriculum tha t is flexible and widely accessible for all learners. Equal access to the general curriculum implies that all students have the right to strive for the same educational goals.Equal opportunity implies that accommodations are in place to remove or minimize the impact of disability on authentic performance, thus leveling the playing field. Equal opportunity also implies that modifications to entry points to and benchmarks of the curriculum can be made so that students with disabilities are enabled to make progress to the maximum possible extent. The central question at hand is how communities and state and local education authorities organize to provide the best education possible for students with low-incidence disabilities.One answer is that public education, equally afforded to all, can be accomplished through collaboration among stakeholders, including families, educators (both special and general), administrators, and policy-makers. We will demonstrate how adherence to a UDL fram ework for curriculum reform can yield a flexible and accessible curriculum for all students, including those with disabilities. Overview When Congress reauthorized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997 (IDEA ’97), conditions were set for profound change in the ways disability is viewed in the broader context of schools and society.Originally, in the mid-1970s, Congress acted to ensure that no child, regardless of extent of disability, could be denied a free, appropriate, and public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment. At that time, an â€Å"appropriate† education meant a special education—one that would be individually designed to address the needs that result from disability. Now, more than thirty years later, the law states that no child may be denied access to the general education curriculum—specifically, that curriculum which schools and school districts make available to all non-disabled students (IDEA ’04) .Currently, the general curriculum consists of core subject areas plus varying elective subject options. Broad frameworks for core content areas are more or less determined by individual states, which also set requisite standards for grade advancement and graduation. In the larger, national effort to reform education in general, students with disabilities are not to be denied access to the same opportunities afforded their non-disabled schoolmates.In this way, Congress seeks to align opportunities for students with disabilities with those available to the non-disabled student population. Using broad-scale assessment systems, states now measure the extent to which all students, and the schools they attend, achieve intended outcomes. There is less emphasis on analyzing the discrepancy between what schools actually provide and what they intend to provide (inputs) in favor of greater focus on results as measured by standards attainment (outputs). Better results for schools presumably le ad to better adult outcomes for students.Just as schools are held accountable for student learning through standards testing, so too will schools be held accountable for supports and services they provide for students with disabilities in order to allow them to access the general curriculum. Accordingly, students with disabilities are now compelled by IDEA ‘97 and subsequent amendments to participate in all state- and district-level assessment systems. Today, the touchstone of special education law remains the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP), which is a document detailing the range and intensity of services and supports intended for each eligible student with a disability.Unlike in the past, however, the IEP now formalizes the collaborative relationship between general and special education and also aligns the general curriculum with specially-designed instruction and other support structures necessary for enabling access to the curriculum. Some support structures relate to how instruction accommodates a student’s disability without altering standards (e. g. , extra time allotted for task completion, Braille in place of print).Other supports may involve curriculum modifications that adjust performance levels or entry points but continue to address standards’ content domain or framework. Accommodations or modifications stipulated in an IEP to adjust instruction or adapt curriculum for a student also apply to the administration of state- and district-level assessments. For students with significant developmental delays, accommodations alone may be neither sufficient nor appropriate. Alternatively, states and districts may employ alternate assessments to ascertain the extent to which students meet goals delineated on their IEPs.Alternate assessments in these cases are modifications of state standards, but they nonetheless follow the broad frameworks identified for each state’s core knowledge areas. Alternate assessment procedures can be authentic and performance-based. In frequent use are portfolios, evaluated according to rubrics that reveal the depth to which students meet standards. Alternate assessment procedures are labor intensive both to design and to carry out. Scoring by state authorities is also laborious and time-consuming.Presumably, however, the use of alternate assessments is limited to 1–3% of school-aged children, thus minimizing the extent of onerous time and effort. Moreover, time spent by teachers in initially documenting alternate assessments is well invested, as procedures become more routine over time with an IEP’s implementation. To many, this adherence to states’ curriculum standards for students with significant developmental delays appears unrealistic, but, clearly, Congress’ intent in IDEA ’97 and IDEA ’04 is to remove barriers that historically limit access to the same curriculum taught to non-disabled students.This amounts to a zero-rejec t from the general curriculum so that all students must participate in and make progress within the general curriculum to the maximum extent feasible. If one conceives of the general curriculum as the vehicle through which all students can achieve adult outcomes—outcomes understood in a broad sense as independence, participation, and productivity—then, in a just and democratic society, opportunity cannot be denied for students with disabilities.In the discussion that follows, we examine practices intended to improve access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities. For many reasons, this population presents unique and daunting challenges for all committed to meeting IDEA ’97’s mandates. We follow a question-and-answer format in order to address key issues and to arrive at basic understandings concerning students with low-incidence disabilities. Since much of this report refers to a UDL framework, UDL will be defined.Low-incide nce disabilities are then contrasted with high-incidence disabilities to uncover some distinguishing characteristics of this population. Next, particular challenges confronting schools and communities that endeavor to serve these students and their families are examined. We then concentrate on identifying the needs of students with low-incidence disabilities. We also present disability-related needs that are unique to a particular category of specific disability and other, more generic needs that cut across categories.The reason for this is the fact that IDEA retains the use of specific disability categories for eligibility determination and classification. Over the past few decades, however, both professional literature and actual practice have supported alternative approaches for defining and classifying students with low-incidence disabilities. Thus, in order to provide students with low-incidence disabilities with appropriate and effective services, supports, and ancillary aids, it is necessary to examine alternative frameworks, differing from those traditionally in place, for understanding needs.Specialized curricula and instructional practices that hold particular promise for students with low-incidence disabilities are presented. Just as it is important to understand need from multiple perspectives, so too must curriculum and instructional practices be understood as meeting both unique as well as shared needs among students with low-incidence disabilities. We focus on curricula and practices that are highly specialized as well as those that address more typically shared needs.Because IDEA requires access to the general education curriculum for all students, it is necessary to examine ways in which specialized curricula and instructional practices can support or otherwise connect with broader approaches for improved access, participation, and progress for students with disabilities. Curriculum is highly complex. Historically, it has been examined through many different lenses. The complicated nature of curriculum theory and practice makes it difficult to envision innovative ways of making it accessible for students with disabilities.Thus, we will also examine and attempt to demystify some of that complexity. Instructional practices presented in the context of our discussion are intended to bring an effective focus to eliminating or reducing curriculum needs associated with low-incidence disabilities. As with the consideration of need, curricular options and instructional practices can also be both highly specialized to a specific disability and highly generic across disabilities. For example, approaches for engaging students who are blind or deaf can be quite unique to those disabilities, given the varieties of existing communication modes.Other approaches can be quite generic, involving, for example, applied behavior analysis or systematic instruction. After grounding in student need, curriculum, and instructional techniques, we e xamine models for collaborative planning. Students with low-incidence disabilities require services and supports beyond the classroom. These may intensify at various transition points throughout a life span and broaden out to include an array of community agencies. We examine the IEP in turn as a tool for pulling services together in support of access to the general curriculum.We then focus on approaches for enabling students with low-incidence disabilities to participate in state- and district-level assessment systems. Finally, we conclude with a consideration of how access to the general curriculum can be improved for students with low-incidence disabilities through the application of principles of universal design. I. What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? A major premise of this report is that access to the curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities is greatly enhanced by universal design.Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a particular framework that appli es to education. More specifically, UDL is an approach that can guide curriculum reform. A universally-designed curriculum includes multiple means of representation (to allow various ways of acquiring information and knowledge), multiple means of expression (to allow alternatives for demonstrating knowledge), and multiple means of engagement (to challenge appropriately, to motivate, and to allow learners to express and participate in their interests). A number of current contrasting approaches to universal design will be described.We conclude with an explanation of UDL. This will allow the reader to keep UDL in mind while progressing through subsequent sections until UDL solutions for curriculum access are more closely examined in our conclusion. Origins of Universal Design Architecture reveals the extent to which humankind can establish dominion over the natural environment by harnessing resources that it has to offer. Architectural design can be subjected to all manner of criteria , including beauty, convenience, utility, durability, safety, and even exclusivity.Only in recent times has the criterion of exclusivity been successfully challenged. As populations grew, built environments afforded travel and facilitated commerce. The need for standards in architectural design became apparent as built environments became interconnected. Architects needed to consider the preferences and capabilities of those who would access built environments. In more recent times, users of built environments were living longer and, therefore, functioning with less mobility and stamina. Notions of democracy and community were transforming views of belonging and participation.During the 1960s, social movements that began in Europe around such concepts as normalization, deinstitutionalization, and communitization were beginning to have a profound impact upon those who would advocate for the disabled in the United States. Thus, the needs of people who would potentially access the buil t environment were beginning to be understood as complex and diverse. Universal Design in Architecture The passage of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 essentially outlawed discrimination on the basis of disability.So far-reaching was this piece of federal legislation that it took nearly three years for a beleaguered Congress to write the regulations that would ostensibly remove architectural barriers from all publicly supported buildings and properties. During this era, universal design in architecture was born. Like the dream of building inclusive communities for all to enjoy equally, universal design is an ideal with a process to ensure maximum participation for all. The challenge of removing physical barriers and retrofitting solutions to barriers proved to be a costly and cumbersome process, often yielding unsatisfactory results.Universal design sought to embed solutions into features at the design level—features that would benefit all, not merely accommodate the few. Curb cuts intended for wheelchair users, for example, were also found to be helpful for users of baby strollers, shopping carts, skateboardes, among others. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) extended the prohibition against discrimination on the basis of disability to the private sector, requiring all entities doing business with the public to make every reasonable accommodation in providing access.Accessibility standards, while necessary for guidance and compliance monitoring, can appear onerous or threatening in light of the fact that they are government regulations, particularly when coupled with the public’s misperceptions regarding disability. Universal design, as envisioned by Ron Mace and his colleagues at North Carolina State University’s Center for Universal Design, was intended to promote the design of products and environments that would appeal to all. North Carolina State’s Principles of Universal Design are listed below in bri ef form (without associated guidelines). PRINCIPLE ONE: Equitable Use The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities. PRINCIPLE TWO: Flexibility in Use The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities. PRINCIPLE THREE: Simple and Intuitive Use Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user’s experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level. PRINCIPLE FOUR: Perceptible Information The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user’s sensory abilities.PRINCIPLE FIVE: Tolerance for Error The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions. PRINCIPLE SIX: Low Physical Effort The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue. PRINCIPLE SEVEN: Size and Space for Approach and Use Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use, regardless of user’s body size, posture, or mobility. † Principles of Universal Design, version 2. 0 (Center for Universal Design, North Carolina, 1997).Application of these principles has established a framework for developing design standards in architecture, as well as for creating consumer products, that permit the greatest degree of access and usability for the widest possible range of individuals. Today, millions of Americans with disabilities enjoy access to buildings, restaurants, movie theatres, sporting events, transit properties, walkways, commercial vehicles, and bank teller machines—to name only a few venues that were once inaccessible to them.Wheelchair users, once limited to home instruction or restricted to special school buildings, now attend their neighborhood schools alongside their non-disabled agemates. However, although physical access to classrooms and other education facilities is an important first step toward educational equity for the disabled, it is not sufficient to ensure that all students with disabilities have equal access to the general curriculum or enjoy comparable opportunity to derive benefit from what school curriculum has to offer.Additional changes in the classroom environment and in the curriculum itself are also required in order for full equity to be achieved. Universal Design in Education Universal design in architecture recognized the importance of building environments that were more in line with the needs of an aging population and the requirements of those persons with disabilities who were being welcomed into the general community during the 1970s.In the 1980s, attention was brought to bear on the rapidly increasing diversity of America’s students through the publication of A Nation At Risk, a report presented to the U. S. Department of Education by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. According to this report, our nation’s schools—particularly in urban centers—appeared ill-equipped to prepare a diverse population to compete successfully in an increasingly global economy. The findings of the Commission spurred a wave of reform initiatives ith enabling legislation aimed at raising standards and outcomes for our nation’s most under-served students. More recent federal legislation, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997; 2004), seeks to build one education for all students, improve teacher quality, align curriculum with standards, measure outcomes at multiple points, and hold schools accountable for student performance.For no child to be excluded from—or left behind by—the general curriculum, the curriculum itself must be examined and re-designed from a fresh perspective, much in the same way that buildings, environments, and products were critically examined by the original advocates of universal design in architecture resulting in im portant and lasting changes in building standards. Colleagues at the University of Connecticut’s National Center on Postsecondary Education and Disabilities have developed a set of principles building upon and extending the principles originated at North Carolina State’s Center for Universal Design.Note that their educational design principles are essentially the same as those outlined by North Carolina State for architectural and product design (with the addition of principles 8 and 9—community of learners; instructional climate). Their new principles address more educational constructivist perspectives regarding communities of learners and a climate of high expectations and social interaction. Together, these principles set a framework for what Scott, McGuire, and Shaw (2001) call Universal Design for Instruction (UDI).Application of these principles allows postsecondary institutions in particular to dramatically widen the accessibility of course offerings by designing accommodations into course structures rather than retrofitting a series of educational work-arounds to try and meet the specialized needs of individual students after course materials have been prepared. UDI principles are listed and defined in Appendix B. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Calls for critically examining curriculum from a universal design perspective have come from many quarters (King-Sears, 2001; Hitchcock, 2001;Nolet & McLaughlin, 2000; Pugach & Warger, 2001; Rose & Meyer, 2002; Turnbull, et al. , 2002; Wehmeyer, et al. , 2002). The principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as put forth by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST, Inc. ) were first presented in an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Topical Brief (Orkwis & McLane, 1998). Currently, typically taught curriculum in schools is a â€Å"one-size-fits-all† curriculum, best exemplified by the ubiquitous textbook.It generally lacks flexibility in how it presents inf ormation to students, how it permits students to respond, and how it engages students in the learning process. In order for typical textbooks and other curriculum materials to become accessible to many disabled students, they must undergo numerous time-consuming transformations and interpretations, to the extent that the student’s participation in classroom activities is often fragmented or delayed.Several projects supporting universal design and access approaches to the general curriculum were reviewed in Research Connections (Danielson, 1999), a bi-annual review of OSEP-sponsored research on topics in special education. Prominently featured were projects underway at CAST to create a universally designed early literacy curriculum (Scholastic’s WiggleWorks) and a universally designed document processor (CAST’s eReader).Also featured in the review was a framework advanced by the University of Oregon’s National Center for Improving the Tools of Education (N CITE) for designing the ‘architecture’ of effective instructional practices (Kameenui & Simmons, 1999). (Their design principles for lesson adaptations are available as Appendix C. ) CAST’s work is important because it demonstrates how flexible and malleable curriculum can be with the use of digital media and digital technology tools following a UDL framework.The NCITE’s work on the architecture of instruction is important because it draws upon the current knowledge base regarding effective instructional practices and illustrates how instruction can be tailored to learners depending on the degree of explicitness required. Over the years, many proposals have emerged to counter the old factory model approach to mass education begun in the 19th century with graded education.Approaches to individualized, personalized, or otherwise differentiated instruction have made enormous contributions to thinking about teaching and learning processes. What might distingui sh UDL from other efforts to improve instruction in general—or other perspectives on universal design in particular—is that UDL establishes a framework for curricular reform in education (Rose & Meyer, 2002) yet also recognizes the need to maintain a balance between curriculum and instructional practice (Hitchcock, 2001).Moreover, a UDL framework provides a perspective for collaborative teams of special and general education personnel to provide access to the general curriculum while addressing disability-specific needs in multi-level or inclusive classroom situations (Jackson & Harper, 2002). While UDL anticipates the coming digital curriculum with its inherent potential for flexibility and built-in options, it is not wholly reliant upon technology. UDL can ensure accessibility with new media and technology tools, but it depends upon the application of evidenced-based teaching practices to yield desired results (Hitchcock, 2002).To achieve these results, a UDL framewo rk relies upon three guiding principles—multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement—for the development of flexible teaching approaches and curriculum resources. These principles emanate from analyzation of available research on the brain and new conceptualizations of how neuroscience informs our appreciation of learning and knowing (Rose & Meyer, 2000).Areas in the brain that contribute to learning can be grouped roughly into three interconnected networks, each with a fundamental role in learning: (a) â€Å"recognition† networks, specialized to receive and analyze information (the â€Å"what† of learning); (b) â€Å"strategic† networks, specialized to plan and execute actions (the â€Å"how† of learning); and (c) â€Å"affective† networks, specialized to evaluate and set priorities (the â€Å"why† of learning) (Rose & Meyer, 2002).New insights into neurological systems worki ng within these three regions of the brain connected with learning has led to the formulation of the three guiding principles of UDL: 1. To support diverse recognition networks, provide multiple, flexible methods of presentation. For example, when introducing students to a new concept or unit, a teacher may provide multiple structures to present that information, such as a lecture, a digitized text, an activity-based exploration, a demonstration. 2. To support diverse strategic networks, provide multiple, flexible methods of expression and apprenticeship.For example, when a teacher requests student responses to demonstrate understanding and knowledge, he or she could provide a range of tools that allow students to respond in various formats, such as in writing, orally, with a slide show, with a video, with a drawing. 3. To support diverse affective networks, provide multiple, flexible options for engagement. Allow students to select an area of interest within a topic or concept to r esearch or study. For example, allow students to select one of the natural resources in a geographic area under study to research rather than assigning resources (Rose & Meyer, 2002).UDL also establishes a framework for providing access to, participation in, and progress within the general curriculum as first mandated by IDEA ’97. Hitchcock, Meyer, Rose, and Jackson (2002) have defined four main components of the general curriculum: 1. goals and milestones for instruction (often in the form of a scope and sequence), 2. media and materials to be used by students, 3. specific instructional methods (often described in a teacher’s edition), and means of assessment to measure student progress.Each component can be transformed for accessibility and participation by all students by adherence to the principles of UDL. UDL offers new ways to think about teaching and learning. Students with sensory challenges, for example, require curriculum that contains alternative approaches for presenting information. Students with motor challenges, on the other hand, may require curriculum that provides alternative ways of expressing what they know and can do, while students along the autism spectrum may require curriculum that contains alternative ways to become engaged in or connected with the learning process.Broadly stated learning goals may allow students who are cognitively challenged to enter the curriculum at points where appropriate levels of challenge and support can yield both tangible and measurable results. Methods and materials with designed-in supports may permit wider access and greater participation in the general curriculum by all students, including those with disabilities. Instructionally embedded assessments may provide more immediate feedback and more frequent data points for progress monitoring and instructional decision-making.These are some of the promises of UDL. II. What are low-incidence disabilities? Alternative Systems for Classification Students with disabilities can be classified in many ways. IDEA ’97 continues to recognize disabilities in the form of more or less discrete diagnostic categories, such as mental retardation, specific learning disabilities, or emotional disturbance. Other approaches to classification include categorizing disabled individuals by degree of severity of their needs, or by how atypical an individual may be when compared to a norm.Still other approaches may emphasize the level of intensity of supports necessary for an individual to function optimally in home, school, community, and work settings. Each of these approaches has advantages and disadvantages. The categorical approach taken by IDEA may emphasize learner characteristics for each disability, but, in so doing, it could also foster a self-fulfilling prophecy in which all members of a group sharing a categorical label, in a sense, become that label.A severity approach may emphasize developmental milestones at the expense of i gnoring strengths in functional skills. An intensity approach may meaningfully focus on levels of needed support, but, at the same time, limit opportunities for an individual to move to a less restrictive setting. None of these systems of classifying individuals with disabilities are either entirely satisfactory or entirely lacking in merit.For educators, it is important to be aware that several systems of categorizing students with disabilities exist simultaneously, because eligibility criteria, placement alternatives, intervention strategies, and teaching credentials may all vary substantially from school to school, depending on which system of classification is currently being employed. A Focus on Incidence When the issue at hand for students with disabilities centers on the provision of services in local schools, the availability of qualified personnel and the technical sophistication of necessary resources must be carefully considered.In order to provide students with disabilit ies with a free and appropriate public education, it is useful to classify learners in terms of incidence, or how many students with any particular disability or combination of disabilities reside in a community. Under such a system, students with the most commonly-seen disabilities may be more appropriately served by local public schools while students with relatively rare disabilities may not find adequate resources or highly qualified personnel.High-incidence disabilities include— * communication disorders (speech and language impairments) * specific learning disabilities (including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]) * mild/moderate mental retardation * emotional or behavioral disorders Low-incidence disabilities include— * blindness * low vision * deafness * hard-of-hearing * deaf-blindness * significant developmental delay * complex health issues * serious physical impairment * multiple disability * autismNone of the disabilities listed under low-inc idence disabilities generally exceed 1% of the school-aged population at any given time. The relative rarity of students with these disabilities in public schools often poses significant challenges for local schools struggling to meet their needs. Since they encounter these students so infrequently, most local schools have little if any knowledge of how to best educate these students, of what technologies are available to assist them, and of how to obtain needed and appropriate support services from outside agencies.All students with low-incidence disabilities thus experience a commonality: they are difficult to serve in current local public school programs. III. Why are schools and communities particularly challenged in serving students with low-incidence disabilities? Insufficient Numbers Students with low-incidence disabilities are difficult to serve in today’s public schools because none of the low-incidence categories alone can form a group large enough to warrant the pr esence of full-time, school-based, and highly specialized personnel, except in the largest of big-city school districts.Therefore, students with low-incidence disabilities are more likely to be served in less inclusive settings (such as in special classes, separate schools, and residential facilities) than are students with high-incidence disabilities. Local schools that do attempt to provide maximum inclusion most often support these efforts through the use of itinerant personnel, usually teachers/consultants who travel from school to school as needed, often crossing district lines to serve the needs of their students.Each variety of low-incidence disability brings its own unique challenges to a local school system. When intensive, specialized instruction is required, such as the learning of Braille for blind students or American Sign Language (ASL) for the deaf, teacher consultation models of intervention can prove woefully inadequate for the delivery of specially-designed and car efully-targeted intensive instruction.Similarly, when faced with students who present with complex healthcare needs, local schools frequently lack the capacity to respond appropriately to medical emergencies or to provide required routine intensive care. Each group of students with a low-incidence disability has its own set of specialized needs, requiring specialized supports and specially-trained personnel to maximize their educational opportunities. While some generic support services are of use to nearly all students, most are specialized to one group.For example, a deaf or autistic child is unlikely to need to learn Braille, while a blind student will not need the level of constant medical support that a quadriplegic child or one under medical treatment for leukemia is likely to require. The low-incidence nature of these disabilities also makes it extremely challenging to maintain an adequate supply of qualified professionals to serve them. The skills and knowledge sets of these professionals are highly technical, requiring a significant commitment of time and effort to acquire through professional preparation, typically at university centers.Yet the caseloads of these professionals are small and likely to change in composition from year to year. Further added to this supply challenge is the paucity of university-based, professional preparation programs to prepare sufficient numbers of practitioners to adequately serve these students. Moreover, administrative supervision and mentoring of new inductees to the field are frequently inadequate. These professionals are mostly isolated from colleagues, limiting their opportunity for collaboration and shared growth.Opportunities for targeted professional development may be extremely limited. In sum, it is difficult to attract qualified individuals into these fields to begin with and perhaps even more difficult to nurture, support, and retain them once employed. Finding the Least Restrictive Environment Often, the least restrictive environment for students with low-incidence-disabilities cannot be found in their local public school.While IEP teams must presume that a student is to be placed in the public school closest to her or his home, a team may be compelled by assessment findings to urge placement in a specialized setting where highly-trained personnel and appropriate technologies can be concentrated and unique needs can be appropriately targeted for intensive instruction. Although students with low-incidence disabilities are required to have access to the general education curriculum, that requirement does not state that the only way in which such a condition may be met is in a full-inclusion setting in a general education classroom.An IEP team may determine that an alternative and highly specialized setting is the most appropriate, and therefore least restrictive, placement available for meeting the specific needs resulting from a student’s disability(ies), particularly if thei r local public school is not sufficiently equipped to provide a safe and successful educational experience for that student. Thus, in many cases of students with low-incidence disabilities, the true path toward greatest access to the general education curriculum may be pursued more appropriately in a separate setting (for example, in a school for the deaf or a residential school for the blind).However, in some cases, appropriate program planning for students with low-incidence disabilities in local public schools is possible and may be the preferred placement according to the IEP team, which includes the student and the student’s family. Adequate provision for these students in inclusive settings requires broad community engagement and significant systems change. Collaboration and commitment among stakeholders at the local, state, and federal levels are necessary to effect such change.With thoughtful and appropriate approaches to planning, such as those to be described, willi ng communities can amass the supports necessary to ensure high-quality educational services for even those students with the most significant cognitive disabilities or complex healthcare needs. IV. What are the needs of students with low-incidence disabilities? Special Education is Not a Place With the enactment of IDEA ’97, special education is no longer considered a place but rather a network of services and supports designed to enable students to derive full benefit from a public school education (Heumann & Hehir, 1997).As stated earlier, this does not mean that students with disabilities cannot be appropriately served in specialized settings. Rather, the intent of the law is to emphasize that â€Å"placement† or location of services is the last decision an IEP team makes during a team assessment and planning process. In earlier times, a disability-specific label itself would dictate placement, and that placement would define the treatment or nature of interventions for students. Today’s approaches use comprehensive and holistic assessments to reveal the extent of need in suspected areas of risk associated with a student’s disability.Their team then determines the setting in which needed services can best be provided, selecting from a continuum or array of placement options ranging from full inclusion in a general education classroom to residency in a hospital setting (Drasgow, Yell, & Robinson, 2001). An IEP team always starts with the presumption that a student will be placed in the same setting in which he or she would be educated if disability were not an issue, namely, a regular public school classroom (Turnbull & Turnbull, 1998).Thus, in order to place a student in a less inclusive setting, this starting presumption must be rebutted by assessment data before such a placement outside a general education setting can be made. Categories and Characteristics IDEA designates categories of disability with which specific learner ch aracteristics have been associated in the special education knowledge base (Hallihan & Kaufman, 2002; Hardman, et al. , 2002; Heward, 2003; Turnbull, et al. , 2002).These characteristics are correlates of particular disabilities and not necessarily connected with a particular disability—that is to say, they are characteristics that are commonly found in students with these particular disabilities, but for which there are often exceptions, such as cases where a student has a particular disability but not one or more of its expected associated characteristics or behaviors. â€Å"Learned helplessness,† for example, is associated with specific learning disabilities, but not all students with learning disabilities have acquired this psychological adaptation.Rather, they are at risk for acquiring learned helplessness. While there are often litanies of learner characteristics described as unique or disability-specific, the extent to which these areas of risk are observed in a n individual student can vary widely. Careful assessment and observation of an individual student and his or her needs must be undertaken to document actual need for initial intervention and not merely expected need. Such an assessment establishes a baseline of educational need(s) against which progress can be measured.Students with disabilities often become â€Å"handicapped†Ã¢â‚¬â€unnecessarily or unfairly restricted—not by their disabilities in and of themselves, but by the environment in which they live, learn, and relate. Consequently, extent of need cannot adequately be assessed without consideration of broader contexts in which an individual lives. This context includes family, community, and the local public school which would be a student’s default placement location.Thus, a team’s determination of the least restrictive and most appropriate environment for a student must take all these factors into consideration when judging the capacity or prep aredness of home, community, and local school to support and nurture a student in areas of assessed need and in assuring a student access to the general curriculum. It is imperative that any set of disability-specific needs not serve to stereotype a student, to lower expectations for a student, or to contribute to negative self-fulfilling prophecies for a student.So-called unique or disability-specific needs should be taken only as possible areas of risk for IEP teams to investigate, not inevitable features automatically conjoined to a specific disability in question. Addressing Intense and Complex Needs Identified needs of students with low-incidence disabilities are frequently complex and multiple (Browder, 2001). Addressing severe and complex needs of students is challenging for family, school, and broader community.Since the ultimate goal of education is community inclusion and high quality of life, an appropriate education must contain opportunities for each individual to achie ve independence, enjoy community participation, and increase productive and rewarding work to the maximum extent possible. Most children identified by IDEA categories as having low-incidence disabilities possess sensory, motor, or neurological deficits, and, consequently, they are typically identified and managed early in their lives through a medical model.Families of infants and toddlers with established risks receive early intervention services, most generally under the auspices of state departments of public health. Such services prepare a family and their local community to understand and cope with the impact of a child’s disability on their lives. Such services also prepare a family to actively participate in the planning and decision-making processes that accompany transitional events throughout the child’s life. Thus, early intervention and early childhood education can be effective in preventing or minimizing many long-term and predictable consequences of disa bility.Because of the possibility of mitigating many of the consequences of disability early on in a child’s life, possibly to the point where a disability essentially vanishes, IDEA encourages states to withhold disability categorization until age nine. The more generic term developmental delay is used instead, to avoid the stereotyping and lowered expectations that follow disability-specific labeling. However, states still have the option of using, for example, the terms â€Å"blind† or â€Å"deaf† if preferred.According to IDEA ’97),decisions made about a child with a disability must be informed by â€Å"persons knowledgeable about the disability† or by â€Å"qualified professionals. † States must â€Å"qualify† professionals through certification or licensure. Thus, for blind students to receive specially-designed instruction in Braille literacy, deaf students in ASL, and motor-impaired students in augmentative communication, stat es must ensure that an adequate supply of appropriately prepared professionals is available to support such students in educational programs.The need for the specialized knowledge and skills possessed by these professionals is often cited as a basis for retaining IDEA’s system of categorical labeling, as well as states’ systems for categorical teacher certification (Hallihan & Kaufman, 2002). Clusters of Low-Incidence Disabilities Hereafter, low-incidence disabilities are defined and described under the following headings: * Blind/Low Vision * Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing * Deaf-Blind * Significant Developmental Delay * Significant Physical and Multiple Disability * Autistic SpectrumNote that some of these headings do not match with IDEA’s current categories, being more general. Where appropriate, legal categorical definitions are quoted from IDEA ’97 in the text so that readers will note congruence with federal law. Blind/Low Vision According to IDEA ’97, Visual impairment including blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness. Authority: 20 U. S. C. 1401(3)(A) and (B); 1401(26)Historically, students with visual impairment have been referred to as blind, visually handicapped, visually disabled, visually impaired, partially sighted, partially blind, visually limited, or sight impaired. To understand the needs of students with visual impairments, the following factors must be taken into account: age at onset of visual impairment, degree of impairment, site of impairment, prognosis for improvement or degeneration in condition, day-to-day stability of condition, individual tolerance for visual fatigue, nd the extent and complexity of any co-existing additional impairments. Blind children are particularly challenged in understanding and moving about in physical space (Blasch, Wiener, & Welch, 1997). Withou t opportunity to directly observe space during locomotion, blind children have difficulty mentally representing and manipulating spatial concepts. They are also challenged in obtaining, manipulating, and producing many types of information, such as text, graphics, facial expressions, and gestural cues (Swensen, 1999).Achieving self-esteem is also difficult for blind children since self-awareness in the social context of school is often affected by such factors as social isolation, low expectations, and over-protection (Tuttle & Tuttle, 1996). Classroom instruction typically exploits the visual/motor channel of communication and relies upon social mediation for student achievement. Because blind students cannot partake of the visual channel of communication and are often socially isolated, they generally have limited opportunities for incidental learning.This places them at a disadvantage when attempting to participate in classroom activities. Often gaps exist in concept development, making it difficult for classroom teachers to activate prior knowledge, or leading them to make false assumptions in regard to the fundamental understanding these students have of the world around them. Moreover, the need for Braille as a necessary alternative to print creates a challenge for general education classroom teachers to provide invaluable corrective feedback, as very few general education classroom teachers can read and write Braille.Lack of eye contact and the impossibility of visually-based social recognition can have a profound impact on a blind student’s opportunity to form meaningful and cooperative relationships with peers. Such barriers must be carefully examined and skillfully addressed by practitioners in order to provide genuine and valid access to the general curriculum for blind students. Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing According to IDEA ’97, Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that [a] child is impaired in processing linguistic informat ion through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.Hearing impairment means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this section. Authority: 20 U. S. C. 1401(3)(A) and (B); 1401(26) Needs of children who are hearing impaired must take into account factors such as age at onset of disability (in particular, pre-lingual vs. post-lingual deafness), audiometric hearing status (particularly in speech range with amplification), type of hearing loss (conductive, sensorineural, mixed, central) and possible presence of concomitant disabilities.The needs of children who are deaf and children who are hard-of-hearing must be understood as quite distinct when considering communication use. The native language of deaf children is American Sign Language (ASL), but children who are hard-of-hea ring may understand speech with amplification and may not identify with members of Deaf culture. Severity of hearing loss is measured by decibels (dB) or units of loudness. A hearing loss between 15 and 20 dB is considered slight. A person with a hearing loss of 60 dB has difficulty hearing conversational speech without amplification.An individual with a hearing loss of 100 dB is not able to hear a power lawnmower without amplification (Kirk, Gallagher, & Anastasiow, 2000). Children and adults with hearing disabilities characteristically confront significant issues with regard to social and intellectual development, speech and language development, and edu

How Modern Medical Technology is Easing Out Standard Physical Examination Essay

In today’s time-constrained society, medical practitioners are noticeably turning to modern technology to pinpoint health problems of patients. Most new-generation doctors who rely a great deal on sophisticated machines in ascertaining medical issues faced by their patients illustrate a startling reality: the standard physical examination stands to be eased out. While science has made possible quicker, more convenient, and non-invasive ways of spotting and treating health disorders, being overly dependent on technology has its drawbacks. The problem with technology arises when doctors rush to order tests without first performing a thorough physical exam†¦ Doctors may be overly reliant on tests because they have confidence in the results; however, tests aren’t always accurate† (Max, 2009, par. 6). A seemingly better approach that redounds to patient benefit is the combination of modern technology with age-old practices that worked, notably a thorough physical examination — done prior to tests or possible confinement and as part of the doctor’s hospital rounds. There are several factors contributing to the demise or exclusion of the standard physical examination in modern medical practice. For one, there is the shortage of medical personnel in certain localities. Harried doctors and nurses end up employing measures to maximize time. â€Å"Time constraints also discourage performing a complete physical during routine office visits. The managed care system pushes doctors to see patients as briefly as possible† (Obel, 2003, par. 6). The fact is that the physical examination â€Å"can be a valuable guide in deciding which tests to order and letting specialists know where to concentrate their efforts† (Obel, 2003, par. 7). Hence, the standard physical examination can greatly aid doctors in ruling out certain health issues, thereby saving time and money on unnecessary tests. However, new-generation doctors overlook these, believing that using sophisticated equipment is more effective in reaching an accurate medical analysis than conventional routine practices. Indeed, a professional diagnosis relying first and foremost on the standard physical examination appears to have been displaced by modern devices. The downside is the loss of human contact that most patients may still prefer. â€Å"There is an intangible benefit to the contact afforded by the physical exam†¦(it) can go a long way in establishing and building a good doctor-patient relationship† (Max, 2009, par. 11), something which most patients – from the very young to the elderly – yearn for. The emotional bonding between the healthcare giver and the patient is obliterated with less time allocated to examine patients. As seasoned medical practitioners decry the demise of the physical examination, which â€Å"can be therapeutic in itself† (Obel, 2003, par. 35), concerned medical institutions have instigated efforts to train and retrain medical interns on the vast range of medical approaches – including the routine physical examination. The increasingly important role of nurses, who can assume the vital task of resuscitating the fading practice of conducting a thorough physical examination and promoting human interaction, cannot be underestimated. Well-trained nurses who realize the value of human interaction can play significant role in fostering enhanced patient care and faster recovery. The upsurge in electronic technology users is another phenomenon affecting the demise of face-to-face interaction with physicians and the traditional physical examination. With many doctors nowadays dispensing medical advice online by relying purely on patient history and description of symptoms, thereby eliminating the need for a comprehensive physical examination, it becomes clear that modern trends are taking the place of traditional medical approaches. The inescapable fact is that medical practitioners cannot always totally rely on modern technology alone to ascertain patient needs. Even in modern times, there is a need to go back to basics, ingrain patient-oriented skills among the emerging crop of doctors, and revive conventional medical approaches like the physical examination.

A Mount Saint Helens Story essays

A Mount Saint Helens Story essays I went to the mountain with the expectation of seeing firsthand, the explosive remains of a tragic, destructive, volcanic eruption. This turned out to be just the beginning of an extraordinary, educational experience that made me want to learn more. The 1980 eruption on Mount Saint Helens remains the most powerful and most documented explosion in U. S. history. When Mount Saint Helens erupted, 57 people lost their lives. Death was instantaneous for those close to the eruption; an entire family found still sitting in their car, a couple found in a tent with their arms around each other, and several other bodies were never located. Destruction was widespread; old-growth forests were leveled, floods raged, and ash circled the globe. The Cowlitz Indians that reside in the area call the mountain Lawetlia, or smoking mountain. An alpine lake with crystal clear water is at the mountains base. The Cowlitz Indians named it Spirit Lake, because they believe the region belongs to the dead. Certainly the Cowlitz Indians knew of the mountains previous eruption in1837. They knew to listen to the earth and at 8:32 AM on Sunday May 18, 1980, the rest of the world learned to listen, as the mountain came to life again. The eruption completely transformed the cone-shaped peak of Mount Saint Helens, melting city-sized glaciers in seconds, and destroying everything for 19 miles to the northwest. After months of rumblings, Mount Saint Helens has since settled into a slumber, though this may be a fitful sleep. In 1995, U.S. Geological Survey scientists released a study saying, Sufficient time has elapsed for the magma, the liquid and molten rock in the conduit beneath the dome to crystallize and form a plug. The pressure needed to expel the plug could produce an explosion similar in size to the 1980 eruption (Campbell and Barber. Th ...

Redemption essays

Redemption essays In reading the article Conversion to Feminism by Charlotte Wolf the aspect that most comes to mind is the inequality among men and women in society. When first reading the article we learn women are a caste or class, linked together by their sex that they are inferior. These women decided they would no longer stand for such discrimination. They were going to take back their lives. They were going to live as individuals and not just as mothers and housewives. Most joined feminist organizations, joining a feminist organization was a very large first step towards commitment to a new perspective. They were going to redeem their individualism. Furthering studying the article it is evident that women of society who are subordinate often experience feelings that they are not supposed to experience, and they also will have experiences that they cannot name. Through the process of sharing and validating these experiences, women can forge a community based on these feelings and our shared interpretation of them. In many cases women have shared many stories of how they feel as if they do not belong anywhere, they often experience the feelings of being a loaner. Redemption has tied into the theme of this article by the women wanting more. They want to be liberated and feel equal in society, at home, and in everyday life. Women in general want to change the world; they want to be apart and active in the world. They want opportunities, and the chance to live freely, without be obligated to stay home and do their laundry while the family goes out! ...

10 Rewards and Risks of Self-Publishing

10 Rewards and Risks of Self-Publishing 10 Rewards and Risks of Self-Publishing 10 Rewards and Risks of Self-Publishing By Mark Nichol Some time ago, I wrote a highly skeptical post about self-publishing. I stand by my concerns, but I realize my initial assessment could have been more open-minded. Here’s a more neutral evaluation of the pros and cons. Rewards 1. Autonomy In self-publishing, writers control the publishing process. In traditional publishing, the final edit, the cover design and cover copy, and the manner in which marketing and rights are handled are the publisher’s prerogative. 2. Marketing Traditional publishers focus most of their marketing efforts (and other attention) on established authors, attending little to most of the writers whose works they publish. However, writers with an established audience bloggers, speakers, and experts can inexpensively market their self-published books themselves. 3. Timeliness Self-published books can be completed and distributed in a matter of weeks or, at most, months. A traditionally published book usually comes out more than a year after it is accepted for publication. 4. Compensation On average, self-published writers collect roughly half of the sale price, as opposed to ten percent or less for authors of traditionally published books. In addition, self-publishers can deduct many of their expenses when figuring their taxes (but so can other writers). 5. Dress Rehearsal Writers can self-publish to help them determine whether they can succeed through traditional publishing. Armed with one or more successful self-published books, they might have a better chance at getting noticed by a literary agent or a publisher. Risks 1. Isolation The good news is that self-publishers have control over all aspects of publishing, carrying out or outsourcing, as they see fit, the many tasks involved in producing a book. The bad news is, they have to acquire the skills and knowledge to complete the tasks, or find others to do them. 2. Selling Among these tasks is selling the book. It takes time and effort to identify and target your audience, to produce publicity materials, to schedule events and appearances, and so on not to mention actually getting people to actually buy books. 3. Workload Whether you carry out all the steps involved in producing, marketing, and selling your book or delegate some or all responsibilities, doing so will take time and effort. 4. Expenses Self-publishers have to invest in their books up-front, whereas traditional publishers bear the risk of producing a book. (They also often provide an advance and pay out royalties.) One hidden cost is finding a distributor not always essential, but often advised because booksellers seldom buy books directly from an author. 5. Prejudice Despite some major and minor self-publishing successes, the do-it-yourself approach is still stigmatized and rightly so. Most self-published books are poorly written and/or designed, and many readers (and agents) assume again, with some justification that if traditional publishers have rejected your manuscript, there’s a good reason for that decision. (Furthermore, traditional publishers may not consider a self-publishing success a valid reason for considering producing a new edition of that book or accepting another by the same author.) As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m not hostile to self-publishing. (I encourage readers of this post to also check out not only that article but also the comments written in response to it.) But I strongly urge prospective self-publishers to carefully examine their motives and their goals before investing in the endeavor. And though reading about others’ successes is encouraging, it can also be misleading; don’t overvalue anecdotal accounts of lucrative self-publishing at the expense of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:4 Types of Gerunds and Gerund Phrases8 Proofreading Tips And TechniquesPunctuation Is Powerful

Statistical Analyses of Research Question Statistics Project

Statistical Analyses of Research Question - Statistics Project Example Regulation takes two broad forms: formal (constitutes regulation by authorities to prevent society from falling into some ungovernable state; for instance, employment of sanctions by law enforcement authorities) and informal (which involves an adaptation process triggered by socialization – the process of transforming persons with a potentially wide range of behavioral traits to conform to a narrower set of values accepted within the society they are adapting to (Warner, Leukefeld & Kraman, 2003). Yet transforming to an extent of fully conforming to the set social and legal standards that govern a group of individuals is not easy. This not only affects individuals who are new to a locality but it also forms a basis for social and legal strife among members of all ranks. Notably, the transformation process has been associated with challenges, including engagement in drug abuse and alcoholism, burglary among other antisocial behaviors (Fulkerson, Pasch, Perry & Komro, 2008). Research into the effects of informal social control is largely confined within the principles of the social control theory. The theory proposes four types of control: internal, indirect, direct, and control through satisfaction (Pratt, Gau & Franklin, 2011). Informal social control is of specific importance since it involves aspects of the individual’s ability to interact and socialize effectively in order to conform to the desired socio-legal model. Warner, Leukefeld and Kraman (2003) noted that the influence of social ties in mediating conformity to set social standards is unclear. For instance, ghetto-related behaviors tend to mutilate community values, and the resulting community is characterized by ambiguity in value adoption; with a section of the population drifting towards the larger community’s ideals and the remaining section adapting to ideals

Western expansion In Africa and Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Western expansion In Africa and Asia - Essay Example In the 14th century, Europeans mainly concentrated in the old system of trading, which connected Africa and Asia. The best ceramics and silks came from china, which prompted the Western states to develop interest in their products.China’s foremost interest was to obtain slaves from Africa, peacocks from India whereas African required cowrie shells and Maldives from the Indian Ocean (McKay et al 2011) Europeans wanted silk and spices from Asia but, unfortunately, they did not have desirable merchandise to give in return. The desire for Europeans to have full access in Asia led to the establishment of numerous empires and the western Hemisphere discovery where after few decades, they did dominate trading connections and political empires in most parts of the world. Consequently, this yielded to the exchange of cultural values, conversions and resistance due to global interactions besides prompting Europeans to fight with the aim of enforcing their cultural values. This was unto the societies that they encountered with the intention of making them understand the essence of the values (McKay et al 2011). (10) The West and Global Economy New imperialism Imperialism was the domination of a state especially based on political, economic and culture of another country (McKay et al 2011). Mainly, this emanated from the west where due to the growth in the industrial revolution and technology intended obtain materials from the less developed states. This is because of insignificant competition in those states by then who had low intellectual capacity, for instance Africa. Additionally, through this practice, the West used to augment their political and economic power, which enabled them to dominate the entire world through the influence of their affluence. European dominated both the African and china coastal territories but they were unable to the natives living in these regions, for instance, Africans, Chinese and Indians (McKay et al 2011). In the year 1800, Euro pe attained considerable power stability, since states, which had strong regimes emerged while the industrial revolution strengthened its numerous states’ economies. New imperialism emerged due to the economic interests by manufactures’ states who ventured in diverse regions in search of natural resources such as rubber and petroleum. Additionally, these states also wanted to get new and reliable markets meant for their industrial goods, which prompted them to apply political and military power to impose new imperialism. Merchant ships needed bases for taking coal and supplies, which led to the seizing of islands to satisfy their needs. In addition, nationalism was another factor that contributed to political interest in other states especially in the third world, where its states seemed to have uncouth civilization by then like Latin America and Africa (McKay et al 2011). The colonial states of then era encompassed the France, which annexed West Africa whereas its riv al Britain seized nearby lands to stop further expansion. Social Darwinism was another factor that led to new imperialism that was then growing among the westerners who practiced and supported the idea of social imperialism. Mainly, this entailed quest to destroy the weaker race because they deemed it was the nature’s way of improving human species. Trade In Indian Ocean Afro-Eurasian trade’s centralization in the Indian Ocean paved way for commercial and cultural exchange in Africa, Asia and Europe. It did increase trade between 7Th and 14Th centuries though it faced a sharp decline during the Black Death. Traders came together in multicultural forms around cities and ports (McKay et al 2011). Many of cities had attained self-governance, and there was minimal violence due to mutual and self-interest issues among the communities who represented the most developed group in the Southern China owing to their desirable trade merchandise. Africa also played a significant ro le in the then global trade besides economy prior