Voices From the Field: Interview with Meedra Surratte

Supporting Families

Meedra-Surratte

Meedra Surratte is the Executive Director of Parent Information Center of Delaware, Inc. (PIC), serves as the aRPy Ambassador for Delaware and is a proud parent and grandparent. She represents the needs, concerns, and interests of children with disabilities and their families on several statewide councils. Her area of focus lies in education and capacity building, particularly in the areas of special education, family engagement, and strengthening sustaining partnerships between families and schools.

Read More

IDEA46 | Transcending Barriers, Past and Present

IDEA 46

By Katherine (Katy) Neas, Deputy Assistant Secretary
Delegated the authority to perform the functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services

This month marks 46 years since the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was enacted. I couldn’t let this anniversary pass without sharing some reflections about the importance of IDEA, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and reaffirming the commitment of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) to upholding this landmark civil rights law.

Read More

Celebrating American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller

A black and white photo of Helen Keller wearing a dark wide-brimmed hat and a fur stoal, next to the symbols for Closed Captioning, Audio Description, and Sign Language.

While most coverage of Helen Keller freezes her as the “eternal child” in that “aha” moment at the water pump with teacher Anne Sullivan (immortalized in The Miracle Worker), this new documentary American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller shatters that disability myth, transcends that image, takes back the narrative, and unlocks multifaceted aspects of her life and commitment to social justice, disability rights, veterans with disabilities, women’s rights, voting rights, civil rights, early support of the NAACP and ACLU, her involvement with setting up State Commissions for the Blind, “talking books,” and her work as an international goodwill ambassador … to name a few.

Read More

Ella

NOTE: October is Blindness Awareness Month as well as Learning Disabilities / Dyslexia / Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Awareness Month.

Ella and Beth Johnson

Ella and Beth Johnson

My name is Ella, and I’m a junior at Irondale High School in Minnesota. This school year, I’m busy studying for advanced placement courses, playing percussion and coordinating audio equipment in my school’s band, and making time to read book recommendations from friends. I was diagnosed with dyslexia in fifth grade, and reading print books has always been challenging for me compared with most of my classmates. However, accessible digital books from Bookshare give me the same opportunities to learn, engage, and show what I know.

Read More

What’s New at the National Instructional Materials Access Center

NOTE: October is Blindness Awareness Month

NIMAC Project Director, Nicole Gaines

NIMAC Project Director, Nicole Gaines

When typical textbooks don’t meet the needs of students with reading disabilities, visual impairments, or physical disabilities, the OSEP-funded National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) helps ensure that these students can obtain the accessible formats they need to engage and contribute alongside their peers.

Read More

I Thought I Knew It All

Moxie and Meriah

by Meriah Nichols

I really thought I knew disability. I thought I knew what it feels like to have a disability; I thought I knew how it is to navigate a world that often does not understand or appreciate the presence of disability. I thought I knew the feelings that a disability can bring with it: the hurt, the pain, the joy, and the delight. I really thought I knew it all.

Read More

Forming a Disability Identity as a Dyslexic

NOTE: October is Learning Disabilities / Dyslexia / Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Awareness Month.

By Rachelle Johnson, a member of the Young Adult Leadership Council of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

As a child I was diagnosed with dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Adults told me I was “differently abled” and to not categorize myself negatively, as in “disabled.” This introduced me to a societal view of “the disabled” and how to navigate an ableist society by distancing from the term disabled. The adults wanted this so I would not be treated in the negative ways people with disabilities often were.

Read More