FEATURED STORY
Department of Education Helps Students With Disabilities. Don't Let It Disappear!
If the U.S. Department of Education disappears, millions of students with disabilities will face even greater barriers to getting the education they deserve. When we take away the protections and resources that make education possible, we don't just fail them. We fail as a society. Calls to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education have begun to appear on mainstream platforms, with members of Congress openly advocating for its elimination. This proposal isn't just a bureaucratic shift; it's an existential threat to students with disabilities and their families. While IDEA would remain law, without federal oversight, there would be few mechanisms to ensure states follow it.
HIGHER ED HIGHLIGHTS
ADA Compliance for Educational Institutions: Why Accessibility Is Critical?
Title II of the ADA, published on 24th April 2024 by the Department of Justice, provides that no qualified individual with a disability be excluded from participation in or denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity. Examples of State and Local governments also include public schools, community colleges and public universities. Compliance deadlines for a city school district will use the population of the city to know when to comply. Similarly, county school district will use the population of the county whereas an independent school district will use population estimates.
17 States Sue To End Protections For Students With Special Needs
16 states have joined Texas in a lawsuit asking the court to declare Section 504 unconstitutional. For all intents and purposes, Section 504 would cease to exist and, with it, any requirement for states to meet the needs of students with special needs who currently benefit from 504 plans, or any such students in the future. If the Trump administration goes through with plans to dissolve the Department of Education and turn IDEA funding into block grants that states can use for any purpose, students with special needs will suffer a double hit. A decision for these 17 states will reverberate through all 50 & for individuals of all ages.
Deaf pupil wins legal fight for BSL interpreter
A deaf teenager has won a legal fight against Fife Council to have a British Sign Language interpreter in her class for school lessons. Niamdh Braid, 16, from Glenrothes, launched an action against her local authority last year after missing out on essential learning. During the case, Fife Council had argued that there was no spare capacity to assign Niamdh regular input and BSL support without the need to recruit additional staff. The tribunal rejected the complaint. The tribunal's ruling said the failure to provide advanced BSL support meant the claimant was "missing things in class and does not know what she is missing".
IN CASE YOU MISSED!
Top 5 Common PDF Accessibility Errors
PDF is one of the most widely used format to present information on the web. PDFs are used to publish brochures, product user manuals, student text books, student manuals, bank statements, annual reports, application forms, company policies, utility bills etc. Being such a widely used file format for publishing information, one might think PDFs are capable of making the information available to a large number of users. However, people with disabilities are often excluded from getting access to the information as the PDF documents are not necessarily authored keeping accessibility in mind.
About 247 Accessible Documents
247 Accessible Documents - Your trusted partner for document accessibility. Get in touch with us for PDF Remediation, PDF Form Remediation, PPT Remediation and Word Remediation.
