Raising a child with a disability can be a challenge for even the most prepared parent. While many are primarily concerned with fulfilling basic care giving duties, parents who are raising a disabled child have additional worries.

They're concerned about the disability's effects on their child. They wonder if s/he's receiving the best medical attention and therapy available. They even have fears that this   condition will isolate the child from peers. And when there's a language barrier, these concerns are intensified.

However, by obtaining the proper information and guidance, parents can put their worries to rest and know they're doing the most for their child. That's where NICHCY comes in.

Formerly known as the National Information Center for Handicapped Children and Youth (NICHCY), the National Dissemination Center for Children, as it is currently known, is an information and referral center that serves as a resource for programs and services for infants, children, and youth up to 22 years of age with disabilities. The Dissemination Center also provides information regarding Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the nation's special education law; No Child Left Behind, the nation's general education law; and research-based data on effective practices for disabled children.

"We have information on autism, cerebral palsy, deafness, epilepsy, learning disabilities - a whole variety of disabilities," Kyria Dragoo, NICHCY's Information and Research Specialist, explained.

"We don't do advocacy, but we refer people if they're looking for advocacy," Dragoo added.

Based in Washington, D.C., most of NICHCY's services are accessible through their website in both English and Spanish.

"In the last three or four years, we've been doing a lot of outreach to the Spanish-speaking community. Our bilingual staff has been on Univision and Telemundo and various Spanish-language TV and radio shows to give out information about what we do. It's definitely the fastest growing section of our resources, publications and website," Dragoo said.

Because of the scarce information on disabilities available in Spanish, the NICHCY website is not only accessed in the U.S., but around the world as well, according to Dragoo.

"There's not that much information out there on disabilities anywhere in Spanish, so we get emails from South America, from Europe, all over," she said. "Our pages are really popular throughout the world in Spanish."

More than half of NICHCY publications are currently available in Spanish.

As many as 5,000 people access the NICHCY website daily and the Dissemination Center receives some 30,000 inquiries a year via email, letters and telephone calls. Most of these contacts are requests for information about a particular disability or special education.

Through the center's online resource library, NICHCY offers publications pertaining to specific disabilities, early intervention services for infants and toddlers, disability resources in every state, special education services for school-aged children, educational materials for parents and much more. The Dissemination Center is actively working on adding more entries in the resource library and state resource list.

NICHCY recently launched a free email service available through its website in which users can create a profile and receive information useful to them.

"So people fill out the user profile and say what topics they're interested in and we'll email them news about that topic as we come across it and they'll get those news alerts as they come up," Dragoo explained.

In an effort to improve programs and services for disabled children, the Dissemination Center also is involved in the collection and distribution of information about effective educational practices for children with disabilities.

In fact, the National Dissemination Center's online efforts have not gone unnoticed. The NICHCY website has received numerous awards including the Outstanding Site Award from PediatricNeurology.com, the NetWellness Consumer Health Excellence in Information Award, and the Med411.com Medical Award for content of interest to healthcare professionals. It has also been recognized as a Five Star Site, a Kid Friendly Site and a Recommended Site by various organizations dealing with disabled children.

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