This article demonstrates how teachers can represent a different culture in their instructional planning while still meeting state-mandated content standards. It shares the lessons learned by practicing and pre-service teachers through an experience designed to help them become more culturally responsive teachers. Participants spent a month in…

Although inclusion has provided access to the general education classroom for students with disabilities, there are significant questions about whether these students have gained full access to the curriculum. To design curricula for diverse learners, designers must have a clear picture of the obstacles and barriers that some students encounter.…

Barriers to classroom participation for postsecondary students with disabilities are often addressed through accommodations via disability resource offices. However, the use of individualized accommodations as the sole method for resolving access barriers in the classroom is neither sustainable nor equitable. Furthermore, this somewhat flawed…

The recent reauthorization and regulations of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004) encourage the use of school-wide interventions including response to intervention (RTI; Bradley, Danielson, & Doolittle, 2007). RTI refers to a multi-tiered system that addresses the academic needs of all students by using…

Despite federal regulations requiring measurable individualized education programs (IEPs), IEPs are often vague and unfocused, making them difficult to use in guiding instructional planning. Although a well-written IEP can be time consuming and labor intensive, a clearly written IEP, based on documented student needs, can and should be a guidepost…

In most western countries, the problems of effective university-controlled and largely university-based initial teacher education (ITE) have been apparent for many decades: whatever is achieved in the university, the teaching practices and attitudes that student-teachers usually learn to adopt are those currently dominant in the schools. So it is…

The option for specialization is explored to address expanding roles for rehabilitation counselors. Several important considerations are identified for Rehabilitation Counselor Education (RCE) program faculty opting for a specialization. Development of specialty tracks in psychiatric and developmental disabilities are offered as viable options for…

Benchmarks and standards have become an important part of the teachers' instructional focus since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. As educators they all recognize the importance of having high expectations of their students. Standards help schools articulate these expectations clearly to students, their parents, and the community. Yet, there…

The article describes a one-page form ("Collaborative Options--Outcome Planner") to provide a format for prereferral consultation by special or regular educators. Designed to help educators in the self-questioning and problem solving process, the form can be implemented in four steps. (DB)

This report is intended to provide publishers and product developers with a summary of background information about strategy instruction for disabled learners. It also offers suggestions for how media and materials could be produced and designed to facilitate the teaching and learning of strategies. The first section looks at cognitive and…

Principals and teachers need a framework that will allow school personnel to reach and teach all students within the general education setting. One such framework is universal design for learning (UDL). UDL is achieved by means of flexible curricular materials and activities that provide alternatives for students with disparities in abilities and…

In today's educational climate of increased accountability for learning, parent involvement in the education of children is a topic that permeates educational discussions. Schools urge parents to support their child's learning at home by assisting with homework and reading every night, to participate in school committees, and to volunteer in…

This paper discusses issues that are central to accessible online education. A recent research project investigated the accessibility of online courses for students with disabilities by evaluating existing courses, developed by academics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). The evaluation revealed evidence that some aspects of the courses…

In order to better prepare rehabilitation counselors to meet the needs of older workers, Kampfe, Wadsworth, Smith, and Harley (2005) suggested that aging issues can be infused into the curriculum of rehabilitation education programs. This article is a follow-up to the earlier publication that called for infusion of aging issues into the…

The Parent Outreach Program in Toronto, Ontario, was developed to assist parents in home teaching of children with developmental delays. The program uses computers in direct service delivery, for assessment of adaptive behavior and goal attainment, development of teaching activities, and telecommunications. (JDD)