IDS Co-Director Honored in Washington DC

The AUCD President's Award was presented to Royal P. Walker, Jr., JD, Institute for Disability Studies, University of Southern Mississippi in recognition of his most sucessful term of office (service as President from 2006-2007)

See the write-up on the AUCD site.

Consumer and Family News

Friends by Terry Boisot
In this article, Terry Boisot writes about her experiences, frustrations, hopes and joy at being Ben's mother. Terry's articles are published regularly in Disability Matters, a newspress.com publication. Click the first link to read Friends. Select the second link to go to newspress.com and read more of Terry's articles.

By permission from the News-Press as published in Disability Matters at www.newspress.com

Section 255 Mandates
Electronic Accessibility
The Federal Communications Commission has adopted rules to require telecommunications manufacturers and service providers to make their products and services accessible to people with disabilities, if readily achievable. The rules implement Section 255 of the Communications Act. Where it is not readily achievable to provide access, Section 255 requires manufacturers and providers to make their devices and services compatible with peripheral devices and specialized customer premises equipment that are commonly used by people with disabilities.

To find out more about section 255, point your browser to http://www.fcc.gov/cib/cdtac/section_255_factsheet.html .

People First Language
How do we think about and refer to persons with disabilities? Kathy Snow provides a thought-provoking perspective in her article "People First Language". She asserts that the language we use has a large impact on persons with disabilities and on the perceptions of persons without disabilities. To read more click here.