Access 2 Independence » Uncategorized

Access Iowa City: The Independent Living Network: Part 1 or Part 1

accesstoindependence — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:28:10 +0000

Access Iowa City: The Independent Living Network: Second Part of Part 1

accesstoindependence — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:22:56 +0000

Access 2 Independence to Offering a Free Living Well with a Disability Class in Cedar Rapids!

accesstoindependence — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:10:07 +0000

The Living Well course is a five week wellness workshop for people with disabilities that helps participants achieve full participation through health maintenance and health promotion activities. When appropriate, individuals are encouraged to consider health behavior as one tool for increasing participation. Individually chosen goals are the centerpiece for building skills in healthy reactions and communication, managing depressed mood, seeking information, physical activity, nutrition, advocacy, and maintenance of health living habits.

Participants report improvements in outlook and positive changes in daily activities, such as new employment, returning to school, or active social lives. Many participants report the session on systems advocacy as their first exposure to disability rights advocacy. And, individuals with participated in Living Well also report less limitation due to secondary health conditions and reduced health care costs.

Class and materials are provided at no cost to the participants. For more information, contact the Cedar Rapids office at 319.366.0642.

Access Iowa City: Assistive Technology #3, Dragon Natural Speaking Pt. 1

accesstoindependence — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:54:05 +0000

Access Iowa City: Assistive Technology #3, Dragon Dictate Pt. 2

accesstoindependence — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 02:28:41 +0000

The UI Carver College of Medicine and the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital Autism Center Are Pleased To Present

accesstoindependence — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:25:32 +0000

“My Experience with Autism:

A Medical Look at How

People with Autism Think”

Dr. Temple Grandin

Wednesday, April 18

4:00 -5:00 pm

MERF 1110A

Temple Grandin is a Professor of Animal Science who has Asperger’s Syndrome. Born in Boston, it was four years before she showed signs of social and academic development. Having attended private schools, she achieved academic excellence and obtained her B.A. at Franklin Pierce College and her M.S. in Animal Science at Arizona State University. Dr. Grandin received her Ph.D. in Animal Science from the University of Illinois and currently is a Professor at Colorado State University.

Based on her own experiences, she advocates early intervention and supporting teachers who can direct fixations of the autistic child to fruitful directions. She has described her own overt sensitivity to noise and other sensory information, as well as the need to visualize everything. She became well-known after being described by Oliver Sacks in the title narrative of his book An Anthropologist On Mars, and has lectured about autism around the world and on many television programs. Professor Grandin is also author of several best-selling books, most notably, The Way I See It and Thinking in Pictures.

This presentation is in addition to the

UI Lecture Committee special event at 7:30 in the IMU

when Dr. Grandin will present

“Animals, Humans, and Sensory Thinking”

For more information concerning this presentation, please contact

Lisa Kemmerer of the UI Children’s Hospital Autism Center at lisa-kemmerer@uiowa.edu or call (319) 467-5658

Robin Paetzold of the UI Carver College of Medicine at robin-paetzold@uiowa.edu or call (319) 353-5762

Documentary Examines Public’s Perception of the Disabled

accesstoindependence — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:51:52 +0000

Janelle Rettig looked a bit like a baby learning to walk Thursday morning as the wheelchair-ridden Johnson County supervisor pulled herself, hesitating to consider her movements, into the board chamber for a meeting.

The night before, she’d been darting around energetically at a United Way event, snapping photos and greeting friends.

Sujit Singh stood nearby filming Rettig’s every move, capturing the confusion that ensued. The footage will be part of a documentary the 29-year-old is filming, titled “Through My Eyes.” He hopes the film will help people understand what it’s like to live with a disability.

“We kind of want to gauge the natural reactions,” said Singh, associate director of operations for Access 2 Independence, a local nonprofit run by and for people with disabilities. “Yesterday she was her normal self and today she’s in a wheelchair. What happened? How do people react to her being disabled? That kind of brings it around to the original concept of how is disability viewed to the non-disabled public?”

Singh, who is working on the film with the help of about a dozen interns, hopes to finish it in time to be shown at Iowa City’s Landlocked Film Festival this fall, as well as at a handful of other festivals.

So far, the University of Iowa graduate has rounded up 13 volunteers, including several UI professors, who have agreed to spend time on camera — some for only a few hours and some for a full day — simulating a disability.

Joe Sulentic, a UI entrepreneurship professor, will be next to take on the challenge. In a few weeks, he’ll teach a class of unsuspecting students while various people whisper to him through a hidden earpiece, an activity designed to simulate schizophrenia. At the end of class, Sulentic will tell his students about the project.

“Then we’ll get the personal interaction, of ‘What were they thinking?’” Singh said. “If you had to go through the rest of the semester with Joe jumping in and jumping out, how would you be able to go through class that way?”

Sulentic said he expects it will be challenging to teach the class normally, but he’s happy to participate in a project that pushes the boundaries of a typical lecture.

“I think it’s fantastic when students show initiative outside of the classroom to improve their learning or make the world a more informed or a better place,” he said. “So I applaud him.”

Iowa City Councilor Jim Throgmorton also has agreed to participate, Singh said.

One of the volunteers will experience being mute and, in place of speaking, will select pictures on an iPad that will then “speak” for the person. Singh said he envisions him or her then going to a restaurant and observing the server’s reaction.

“They don’t see the person; they see the disability,” he said. “They talk to the person next to them, saying ‘OK what does he want?’ instead of talking to the person who has the disability.”

The idea for the project came from watching TV shows where skinny models put on fat suits to see if they were treated differently, Singh said.

“It got me to think, people look at size and how different races are treated, but no one’s ever looked at disability,” he said.

The project also was encouraged by Singh’s personal experience with disability. He’s lived with a form of epilepsy for 18 years, a struggle he said has made him more aware of the world around him.

“It’s kind of made me the person I am,” he said. “I have to take a bus instead of being able to drive. … It made me have to learn to be more independent to get things done because I have what I have. Having it made me have to learn more and do more and make myself more aware of what’s going on in the community in order to live life.”

At the end of Thursday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Rettig explained her wheelchair. Although she’s an avid cyclist, she said she suffers from meningitis and fibromyalgia, and pushing the wheelchair around was more difficult than she expected.

“I was already very sore,” she said. “I think this is going to be an interesting experience today.”

Reach Tara Bannow at tbannow@press-citizen.com or 887-5418.

PATV Needs Your Help!!!!

accesstoindependence — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:34:55 +0000

Dear Friends -

Public Access Television is renewing our contract with Iowa City, and we
need your help! On Monday, April 23 there will be a public hearing in
support of PATV in City Hall. It sounds alarming, but it’s really just a
chance for local citizens to let Iowa City know that they value PATV.

If PATV has been helpful to you or your organization, would you consider
letting the City Council know? At 5:30 PM on April 23, we need a large
group of our supporters standing with us in Harvat Hall (Council Chamber)
at 410 E. Washington Street in Iowa City.

If you’d like to speak out in support of PATV, there will be an open
microphone for us to address the volunteer telecommunications commission.
Soon a transcript of public comments and testimonials will be presented
to the City Council when they vote on our 3-year contract renewal later
this Spring. If public speaking isn’t your thing, will you come fill the
City Council chamber with us? We’d love to have 30 or more individuals,
voting with their feet!

Can’t make it? Would you be willing to send someone else from your
organization to help us fill the room? We’d also appreciate short notes
in support of PATV, to be read aloud that Monday evening.

Public Access Television is about to get three more fantastic years to
make accessible community media possible for Iowa City and beyond – but
WE NEED YOUR HELP. Monday, April 23rd at 5:30 PM, come to the City
Council Chamber to stand and be counted with PATV!

Iowa City Area Asperger/Autism/PDD Group Meeting

accesstoindependence — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:15:28 +0000

The next lunch meeting of the Iowa City Asperger/Autism/PDD group will be held on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at Parkview Church in Iowa City.

As usual, we’ll meet in Room 108 at the church, starting about 12 noon. Bring your own lunch and drinks. We usually stay 1 to 1-1/2 hours, but you can come and go whenever your own schedule dictates.

Directions to the meeting: Foster Road intersects Dubuque Street just south of Interstate 80. If you are coming north on Dubuque from downtown Iowa City, turn left on Foster Road and take another left into the church parking lot. If you are traveling on I-80, take Dubuque St (exit 244) south toward Iowa City, then take the first right which will be Foster Road.

Contact Meigen Fink (339-1866, keir100@aol.com) with questions about the lunch.

For local information about autism-related resources, check our Asperger/Autism/PDD group’s website: http://www.aspergers-ic.org/.

Access Iowa City: Assistive Technology Pt 2. What is Available? Pt. 1

accesstoindependence — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 03:57:53 +0000