new resources

11/17/99
... a while back ...Glenn Young wrote an impassioned response to
a list member's query about whether it does any good, or makes any
difference,
to have a student identified as having a learning disability. I was
replying
to his comments because this issue is addressed in the Bridges to
Practice
materials and I am interested in this wonderful project that Mary Ann
Corley
and so many others worked on and made available to those of us in the
field
of adult education. Here in New York State, we are using Bridges with
adult
educators in an attempt to make them aware of the "difference in the
difference."
Learning differences are, of course, something we are aware of
and
plan for when planning instruction. Good instruction is designed to
meet
the needs of all learners in the classroom, so we try to plan for
variety
in our instruction, and variety in our teaching activities. The
learning
differences, whether we consider these learning styles, personality
styles,
or the numerous "ways of knowing" that have received so much publicity
recently, are still just that - learning differences. What makes the
difference
into a disability is spelled out in the National Joint Committee on
Learning
Disabilities definition of a learning disability which the authors of
the
Bridges material chose to use in Book 1, and that is what Glenn was
referring
to, if I read his remarks correctly. I would like to quote fom the
book:
"Learning disabilities is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous
group of disorders manifested by SIGNIFICANT difficulties (my caps) in
the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing,
reasoning,
or mathematical abilities...."
Bridges to Practice is designed to assist adult
educators,
who have little or no background in learning disabilities, as they try
to understand the definition of disabilities, the characteristics of
disabilities,
and the identification of disabilities. It also discusses the
importance
of identification of LD for purposes of legal accommodations for the
GED
exam, or for employment purposes. The authors recognized that not all
adult
students who may have a disability will seek a legal diagnosis. What is
important is that adult educators be aware of the need to recognize
learning
differences as differences, but disabilities as disabilities, which
interfere
significantly with major life activities. If it appears that an adult
student
may have a learning disability, the educator needs to know what to do,
where the resources are, and how to explain this to the student. If we
only talk about learning differences, we may be guilty of not informing
an adult of the possibility for additional services for which s/he is
eligible.
This distinction can make the difference between whether the adult can
receive funding for training or can use assistive devices for education
or work. While teachers may not think that the label will make a
significant
difference in how they teach an adult, the adult may be relieved to
learn
that the learning problems s/he is experiencing may have an explanation
that can, in the very least, improve the adult's self-image and make
the
lengthy education process more understandable and less frustrating. My
teaching and training efforts are planned to meet the various learning
needs of the students or professionals who are in my classes, but if I
suspect that a learning need appears to be unmet through good teaching
practices, I consider it my professional responsibility to recognize
this.
Once recognized, I need to be able to understand what the next logical
steps should be for the learner and myself, and I need to be able to
explain
these steps to the learner. I also need to understand how a legal
diagnosis
is made and what the implications are for the learner and the
educational
system of which s/he is a part. For these reasons, I need to advocate
for
a clear understanding about the need for clear definitions of
"difference"
and "disability." Once the entire field understands the
difference/disability
vocabulary, we will have made the progress I referred to in my earlier
posting. Bridges is just one way to do this, but since NIFL made the
material
available to all of us, we need to do our part to get the word out to
the
field!
Patricia Ewins Learning Disability Specialist Coordinator,
Program
for Adult Achievement University of Hawai'i -- Leeward Community
College
96-045 Ala Ike, Pearl City, HI 96782 Phone: (808) 455-0421 Fax: (808)
455-0471

Region 1 (CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT) New England DBTAC Adaptive Environments Center, Inc. 374 Congress Street, Suite 301 Boston, MA 02210 (617) 695-0085 (V/TTY) (617) 482-8099 (Fax) email: adaptive@adaptenv.org http://www.adaptenv.org	Region 6 (AR, LA, NM, OK, TX) Diability Law Resource Project -Southwest DBTAC Independent Living Research Utilization 2323 South Shepherd Boulevard, Suite 1000 Houston, TX 77019 1-800-949-4232(V/TTY) ; 713-520-0232 (V/TTY) 713-520-5785 (Fax) email: dlrp@ilru.org http://www.dlrp.org/
Region 2 (NJ, NY, PR, VI) Northeast DBTAC Cornell University Northeast ADA & IT Center 331 Ives Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 Tel (607) 255-8348 (607) 255-6686 (TTY) Fax (607) 255-2763 Email: northeastada@cornell.edu Internet: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ped/daa/dbtac.html	Region 7 (IA, KS, MO, NE) Great Plains DBTAC ADA Project, University of Missouri/Columbia 100 Corporate Lake Drive Columbia, MO 65203 (573) 882-3600 (V/TTY) (573) 884-4925 (Fax) email: adalh@showme.missouri.edu http://www.adaproject.org
Region 3 (DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV) Mid-Atlantic DBTAC TransCen, Inc. 451 Hungerford Drive, Suite 607 Rockville, MD 20850 (301) 217-0124 (V/TTY) (301) 217-0754 (Fax) adainfo@transcen.org http://www.adainfo.org	Region 8 (CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY) Rocky Mountain DBTAC Meeting the Challenge, Inc. 3630 Sinton Road, Suite 103 Colorado Springs, CO 80907 (719) 444-0268 (V/TTY) (719) 444-0269 (Fax) RegionVIII@mtc-inc.com http://www.ada-infonet.org/
Region 4 (AL, FL, GA, KY, NC, SC, MS, TN) Southeast DBTAC United Cerebral Palsy Association, Inc. Center for Rehabilitation Technology at Georgia Tech 490 Tenth Street Atlanta, GA 30318 (404) 385-0636 (V/TTY) (404) 385-0641 (Fax) email: se-dbtac@mindspring.com http://www.sedbtac.org	Region 9 (AZ, CA, HI, NV, Pacific Basin) Pacific DBTAC California Public Health Institute 2168 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 301 Berkeley, CA 94704-1307 (510) 848-2980 (V) (510) 848-1840 (TTY) (510) 848-1981 (Fax) email: adatech@pdbtac.com http://www.pacdbtac.org
Region 5 (IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI) Great Lakes DBTAC University of Illinois/Chicago Department on Disability & Human Development 1640 West Roosevelt Road Chicago, IL 60608 (312) 413-1407 (V/TTY) (312) 413-1856 (Fax) email: gldbtac@uic.edu http://www.adagreatlakes.org	Region 10 (AK, ID, OR, WA) Northwest DBTAC Washington State Governor's Committee on Disability Issues & Employment P.O. Box 9046, MS 6000 Olympia, WA 98507-9046 (360) 438-4116 (V/TTY) (360) 438-3208 (Fax) email: dcolley@esd.wa.gov http://www.wata.org/NWD