Multicultural Issues in Rehabilitation and Allied Health
This new book includes articles on topics such as "Ethical Issues in Diversity," "Addressing the Independent Living Needs of Ethnic/Racial Minority Groups" and "Rehabilitation Research From a Multicultural Prospective." The volume was edited by Paul Leung, Carl Flowers, William B. Talley and Priscilla Sanderson. Contact Jason D. Andrew, Ph.D. CRC/R NCC, Aspen Professional Services, 63 Duffers Drive, Linn Creek, MO 65052, (573) 317-0907 office, (573) 286-0418 cell to order.

Executive Recruitment DVD
DiversityInc brought experts together for a frank discussion about the supposed inability to find enough "diverse" executive candidates. The experts conclude that in reality, the inability is a failure to look at capabilities instead of qualifications. The nation's leading diversity-recruitment executives share strategies including: looking beyond a set list of requirements to find true talent; developing pipelines of talent; closing the time to hire; whether or not to use external recruiters to supplement internal teams; cultural competency requirements for executive hires. Some of the executives interviewed during this hour-long film include Andrés Tapia, Chief Diversity Officer, Hewitt Associates and Deborah Dagit, Executive Director, Diversity & Work Environment, Merck & Co. The DVD costs $49.95 and can be purchased online.

"It's My Life: Employment" - Transition Framework
Casey Family Programs - an organization that serves children and families in the child welfare system - recently posted the "It's My Life: Employment" guide online. "It's My Life: Employment" is the first in a series of seven guides that make up the It's My Life integrated transition practice framework. Each guide will focus on one of seven life domains including Cultural and Personal Identity Formation, Supportive Relationships and Community Connections, Physical and Mental Health, Life Skills, Education, Employment, and Housing. The guides will provide specific recommendations, strategies and resources for young people transitioning from foster care. This guide is available online.

DiversityShop Resources on Disability and Employment
Are you interested in learning more about disability and employment issues? Are you an employer? An educator? A service provider? A job seeker with a disability? DiversityShop carries books and videos on issues of disability and employment.

Job Seeker Video Profiles Online
Silicon Valley (CA) based Project HIRED helps connect people with disabilities to employers. They use online videos to introduce some of their job-seekers to area employers.

Ten Small Business Mistakes
This thirteen-minute video identifies common mistakes that small businesses make when trying to comply with the ADA and addresses the importance and value of doing business with 50 million people with disabilities. The video features statements by store owners expressing their doubts or misunderstandings about the ADA followed by responses from Department of Justice employees explaining the law in common sense terms.

Networking: Overcoming Cultural Barriers
Over and over, research and experience have shown "networking" to be the most effective job search tool. Disability-related issues can complicate networking. For job seekers from different cultural backgrounds, networking activities can be considered to be inappropriate. This little paper from the Institute for Community Inclusion contains some helpful tips for overcoming these barriers to networking.

ForEmployers.com
The most successful companies have identified strategies to retain, retrain, and hire a diverse employee base. The ForEmployers.com website helps businesses tap into a growing labor pool that includes people with disabilities. Whether the concern be age-related conditions, injuries on the job, or bringing on new staff with disabilities, this website can help. Topics include accommodations, demographic data, and success stories. We encourage disability and employment professionals to use ForEmployers.com as an information source for businesses in your network.

Growing America Through Entrepreneurship
DOL's PROJECT GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship) can help you get training and find funding sources needed to create or expand your business or future business. Learn more by calling toll-free 1-866-677-GATE (4283) or www.projectgate.com.

On-Line Financial Literacy Tool for Youth
The National Youth Employment Coalition and the National Endowment for Financial Education recently launched an on-line financial literacy tool for youth, called "Get Paid and Stay Paid."  The site was developed to help youth learn about money and how to manage it.  Through the tool they'll learn where their money comes from and where it goes, how to set financial goals they can accomplish, where to keep their money, and how to plan and save for the future. They will also learn about their paycheck, income and expenses, checking and savings accounts, credit cards, and loans.

Bilingual Booklets
A series of 40 inexpensive, bilingual (English/Spanish) informational booklets, language tests, and other encouraging educational materials are available online. The resources were designed for use at parent meetings, parent-teacher conferences, parent information/education workshops, tutoring groups, student organizations, motivation for college preparation, and more.
Some of the topics covered in the booklets currently available include “Don’t Drop Out Of School,” “Questions And Answers About College,” “Young People, Start Now To Plan Your Life For Future Success.” All booklets are $.95 cents, but there are volume discounts and special offers. Contact Moreno Educational Co. at (619) 461-0565 or stevemoreno@cox.net for more information.

Money Smart Education Program
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has a free training program called Money Smart, geared to teach adults outside the financial mainstream how to enhance money and backing skills. The program consists of 10 instructor-led modules on basic financial topics and presents an interesting opportunity for organizations interested in training persons with disabilities. Out of the 49 million Americans with disabilities, one in three persons lives at or below the poverty level.

Open Futures CD
Although people with disabilities often face barriers moving into the world of work, many do succeed. Many discover exciting jobs inspired by their interests and abilities. The Open Futures CD-ROM features Role Models who have a range of educational backgrounds, occupations, and disabilities.

Futures Features
Role model profiles include answers questions on 6 topics: What is your work?; How did you decide on it?; What was your path?; What challenges did you overcome?; Why is working important to you?; Any advice for young people? Browse through Role Model profiles in interest categories including building, inventing and designing, helping our communities, doing business, exploring science, technology and nature and more. While this CD-ROM is primarily designed as an individualized learning tool to be used on a personal computer, it could readily be hooked into a digital projector and selected Role Model interviews could become part of a presentation to a larger audience.

All options available to a mouse-user are accessible by the keyboard. All on-screen text uses large, easily read fonts. All screen text can be read aloud by your computer's built-in text-to-speech capability. When using the keyboard, all button names are also read aloud. All videos are open captioned.

Goodwill Industries GCF Global Learning Courses in North Carolina
This is a free online career and computer training program administered by Goodwill Industries of Eastern North Carolina, Inc. Classes offered include Computer Basics, Email Basics, Internet Basics, Math Basics, Money Basics, Career Development, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. Classes are self-paced or instructor-supported. Students who successfully complete the instructor-supported classes earn a certificate that reflects Continuing Education Units earned. Classes are available in English and in Spanish.

Books and DVDs Related to the Arts and Disabilities
ArtsAccess compiled a list of books and DVDs related to the arts and disability that is available online. There are resources for children, adults, parents and teachers. The list includes titles such as The Cinema of Isolation: A History of Physical Disability in the Movies, by Martin F. Norden, Making an Entrance: Theory and Practice for Disabled and Non-Disabled Dancers, by Adam Benjamin and Christopher Bannerman, and Deaf Side Story: Deaf Sharks, Hearing Jets, and a Classic American Musical, by Mark Rigney. DVDs that have audio descriptions include Daredevil, Road to Perdition and Moulin Rouge.

NCD Cultural Diversity Review
In 2003 the National Council on Disability (NCD) released “Outreach and People with Disabilities from Diverse Cultures: A Review of the Literature.” The purpose of the review was to explore what research literature shows about outreach and its feasibility as a viable method to reach under-served populations, especially people with disabilities from diverse cultures. Visit the NCD website for a review of findings and recommendations.

Transition Coalition
The Transition Coalition has a helpful website for professionals engaged in transition planning for students with disabilities. Resources on the site include searchable databases of transition programs and projects from across the US, online training seminars, and some free publications.

Strategies to Facilitate Community Employment
Training and Technical Assistance for Providers (T-Tap) offers an online self-study course on organizational change strategies that can help organizations shift away from facility-based employment programs for people with disabilities and move successfully into community-based employment services.

Fast Facts For Faculty - Tips for Instructors
Ohio State University developed concise and helpful guidelines to enable its instructors to be more proficient at meeting the needs of students with disabilities. Available online in HTML, Word and pdf formats, they can be a great resource to any educator, instructor or trainer.

Postsecondary Rights & Responsibilities
In order to enhance the educational experience of students with disabilities and to avoid unnecessary confusion or delay in their access to postsecondary pursuits, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education developed a brochure that explains the rights and responsibilities of students with disabilities who are preparing to attend postsecondary schools. This pamphlet also explains the obligations of a postsecondary school to provide academic adjustments, including auxiliary aids and services, to ensure that the school does not discriminate on the basis of disability. The content of this pamphlet is now online. For more information visit their website.

Identify Training Opportunities Across US
The Training Calendar on the American Indian Disability Technical Assistance Center web site is wonderful resource for those in search of knowledge. It offers full details on a variety of training topics at locations around the country.

Some training topics include early intervention specialists, rural economic developers, educators, employment specialists, health care professionals, housing specialists, tribal managers, social services providers, people with disabilities, elders, family members, rehabilitation personnel, and transportation providers.

EXCEL! Networking Group
EXCEL! is a career development and education organization created by people with disabilities. The organization works to develop employment and professional opportunities for people with disabilities in the Washington, DC area. Members can interact with a network of professionals and attend workshops about self-assessment, job targeting, resume writing, networking, interviewing and negotiation. There also are monthly meetings to help connect job seekers with mentoring and employment opportunities.

My Own Business: Free Internet Course on Starting a Business
Entrepreneurs who are looking for information on starting or improving their own business should visit www.myownbusiness.org. The Web site provides a 12-session business course in English and Spanish about how to start and run your own business. The best thing is that it is totally free! Users can start the course at any time, and complete it at their own pace. Topics covered in the basic business course include: deciding on a business, the basic business plan, accounting and cash flow, location and leasing.

Telecommuting Information
Worksupport.com's Brown Bag Series includes an informational session about telecommuting for people with disabilities. It includes a 35-minute video moderated by Debra Ruh, C.E.O. of TecAccess _ a company at which 75 percent people with disabilities, and successfully practices telecommuting.

Employing People Who are Deaf
The Canadian Hearing Society's manual "Breaking the Sound Barriers - Employing People Who are Deaf, Deafened and Hard of Hearing" gives employers all they need to know about hiring and workplace issues for people who are deaf or have hearing loss. The manual includes terminology and definitions, communication tips and accommodation plans.

Job Accommodation and the ADA
"New Workplace Accommodation: Challenges for the 21st Century" is the Job Accommodation Network's answer to controversial or challenging ADA issues for employers. The report describes specific accommodation situations and suggests solutions. The situations are often followed by the outcomes of real life court cases about the issue being discussed.

Mediating ADA-Related Disputes
Mediate.com has an ADA section with interesting guidelines, perspectives and information on effectively mediating ADA-related disputes. Recent articles include "ADA Mediation Guidelines: An Ongoing Endeavor" and "Mediating Reasonable Accommodations for ADA Cases: What Every Mediator Needs to Know."

My Own Business: Free Internet Course on Starting a Business
Entrepreneurs who are looking for information on starting or improving their own business should visit www.myownbusiness.org. The Web site provides a 12-session business course in English and Spanish about how to start and run your own business. The best thing is that it is totally free! Users can start the course at any time, and complete it at their own pace. Topics covered in the basic business course include: deciding on a business, the basic business plan, accounting and cash flow, location and leasing.

Information About How to Find and Keep a Good Job
The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is committed to increasing the employment rate of people with disabilities. Readers will find links to organizations which recruit and assist people with disabilities in searching for jobs, and articles about attaining/retaining employment including job interviewing for people with disabilities, and much more.

Free E-Newsletter on Workforce Disability
Interested individuals are invited to subscribe to a free online E-Newsletter from the National Center on Workforce Disability (NCWD). They also have a press release available for distribution to the workforce community at-large that describes NCWD's mission and available services. You can join the NCWD mailing list by completing the short subscription form on the NCWD web site.

California Website on Employment of Disabled People
The California Governor's Committee for the Employment of Disabled Persons (GCEDP) has a website with information about upcoming training opportunities and other events, job search information, links to employment opportunities, and employment resources for the media/entertainment industry.

Latino Migrant Workers
El Centro por los Trabajadores serves Latino migrant workers in Champaign County, Illinois, regardless of legal status. This organization provides legal, educational, health, and other services. One focus is on advocacy for Latino migrant workers who are being exploited or taken advantage of by their employers.

Legal Issues Relating to Disability and Employment
The American Indian Disability Technical Assistance Center (AIDTAC) has updated its resources on laws, disability, and employment. Here you will find links to disability legislation information, ADA and other employment laws, as well as legal information on accessibility (transportation and architectural barriers).

Resources on Self-Employment for Persons with Disabilities
The Research and Training Center on Rural Rehabilitation Services offers a web resource on information about self-employment for people with disabilities. The website contains fact sheets on self employment, a guide and tools to becoming self-employed, and information on how vocational rehabilitation agencies can help customers become self-employed or start up small businesses. It also has links to additional websites and guides to self-employment in addition to providing ordering information for published books and manuals on self-employment.

Employment Resource for People with Epilepsy Available
Job Talk, a new section at the Epilepsy Foundation's website, provides some answers to employment-related questions for people with epilepsy. ADA specialists and executives will answer any questions submitted. The website also offers a chat room, discussion list, and information on an employment service program.

Diversity World: Disability
This website is focused on "enriching workplaces and reducing employment barriers." The site lists job search engine specific to those with disabilities, including a federal job bank. In addition to providing links to engines, it also links to sites that offer tips on finding employment, legal issues regarding employment, and information on job accommodation. There are also links to sites that are devoted to advancing self-employment among persons with disabilities.

Self-Employment Training Manual
The manual is designed for trainers to use in teaching rehabilitation staff the principles of business development, but can also be used to guide the development of key elements in business planning, business feasibility, marketing and sales strategies, etc. The manual is $10 per copy (shipping included). If you are interested please contact Nancy Maxson at maxson@selway.umt.edu or via phone at 406-243-2458.

Tips for Employing People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
This is an online resource for employers looking to hire a diverse work force including those with hearing disabilities. It provides information on job accommodation, the need for diversity in the workplace etc. The University of Arkansas developed the content of this website.

National Alliance for Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker Vocational Rehabilitation Organization
This is a newly formed organization committed to enhancing "career, employment and other opportunities for Migrant and Seasonal Farm Workers with disabilities and their families that will lead to self-sufficiency by promoting advocacy, collaboration, coordination and sharing of knowledge and resources among individuals and other entities with similar goals."

Los Caminos
This is a publication about employment for people with disabilities from the University of North Carolina, giving general information for disabled young people and parents of disabled students/young people about the job search process.

Rural Institute on Disability
This site of the Rural Institute on Disability deals with unemployment issues regarding disabled people. This publication offers information about the issue of disability within the worker cooperative structure in rural America.

UCP: United Cerebral Palsy Organization
The UCP web resource offers links to employment information for persons with disabilities, including job search tips, legislation information, as well as jobsite accommodations. The organization offers help to high school, college, and graduate students in finding employment, resume writing etc.

Hispanic Online Career Center
This is an online career resource for Hispanics in the US. There is a job search option as well a listing of articles pertaining to the job search. One feature is a personal job search agent online that can look through the job bank for you.

Training Book Available for New Entrepreneurs
The Washington Community Alliance for Self-Help (Washington CASH) has a training book targeted at individuals who are thinking of starting a new business. The book, entitled "Let's Build a Business! A Workbook for Microenterprise Training Classes" by Wanda Fuller, includes information about personal finance and the basic skills needed to start and manage a business.

Washington CASH is a community-based, nonprofit organization whose mission is to foster self-sufficiency and self-employment for low-income women, including women with disabilities, through access to credit, business training and peer support. The organization believes that self-employment offers a viable alternative to welfare dependency and poverty. In addition to their training book, Washington CASH offers training programs and other services in Washington state. For more information about the book or the organization and its services, visit their web site or contact them via the information below:

Washington Community Alliance for Self-Help (Washington CASH)
4710 University Way NE
Suite 103, Seattle, Washington 98105
(206) 729-8589
washcash@nwlink.com
http://www.washingtoncash.org/about/publications.html

Free Online Computer Training in Spanish and English
The GCF Global Learning website now allows you to take a free online computer class. Classes offered include MS Office 1997 or 2000, MS Word 2000, MS Power Point 2000, and MS Excel 2000. You can take a class with an instructor or simply take a class at your own pace without a teacher. Both types of classes are Internet-based and available in both Spanish and English. Check their website to see when each particular class is offered. The website also provides links to register for the classes. Registration is free but necessary in order to participate. This website is available in English and in Spanish.

Self Employment Training Opportunity
People with disabilities can benefit from one-day the Rural Institute's training sessions on self employment. Trainings topics include a variety of self employment issues including marketing and sales for small business, and negotiation and problem solving for small business owners. The Rural Institute conducts trainings 20 times a year at locations across the country. The trainings are designed for:

• People Starting Businesses
• Case Managers
• Job Developers
• Job Coaches/Employment Specialists
• Vocational Rehabilitation and Workforce Investment Personnel
• Community Economic Development Specialists
• Transition from School-to-Work Specialists

If you serve someone who has a disability, or have a family member who has disability and is looking for work, this training is for you. The trainings introduce:

• First Steps to Conceptualizing a Business
• Supports that contribute to Business Success
• Local & Global Resources Available to Test Business Ideas
• Market Development and Customer Identification
• Pricing and Costing of Goods & Services
• Refining the Business Idea

Trainings concentrate on low-cost, functional methods for identifying market niches for products and services in the local community and beyond. A short business simulation is used to introduce the concepts of pricing, supply chains, customer service, marketing, and competition. Contact Marsha Katz at mkatz@selway.umt.edu or (406)-243-5467 for information about upcoming training locations and dates.

Rural Institute
634 Eddy St.
University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
http://ruralinstitute.umt.edu

Virtual Volunteer Opportunities Available
Doing volunteer work can be a good way to boost your resume, earn student internship credit at your university, or obtain a professional reference that you can use with potential employers. The Chamber of Commerce for Individuals with Disabilities (CCID), a national cross-disability consumer volunteer organization, currently has several volunteer opportunities available. Many of their volunteer positions are virtual, which means that volunteers can do their work from anywhere in the world.

CCID is a consumer-run disability organization that uses business principles to improve the economic status of people with disabilities. For more information on CCID activities and how they can help people with disabilities find work via the Internet, go to http://www.chamber4us.org.

For more information on the virtual volunteer opportunities currently available at CCID, follow the relevant links below. Individuals interested in volunteering for CCID may contact chamber4@airmail.net.

1. Architect or Architectural Draftsman
2. Business Analyst Volunteer
3. ColdFusion Application Developer
4. Data Mining "Wrap Tool" Software Developer
5. Computer Graphic Artist
6. Graphic Artist / Web Developer
7. Research Analysis Reporter
8. Project Manager

In addition to the above virtual volunteer opportunities for individuals anywhere in the world, CCID also has some additional volunteer opportunities available for people who live in the Dallas, Texas, area. These opportunities are listed at http://www.volunteermatch.org/results/org.

Guidebook on Self-Directed Transition Planning
The Nisonger Center University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCDD) at the Ohio Sate University recently completed "Take the Next Step: A Guidebook to Support Inclusive and Collaborative Practices in Teaching Students Self-Directed Transition Planning." Students, teachers, and parents helped develop the publication. The guidebook is meant to assist special and general educators in collaborating effectively to teach self-directed transition planning within the general curriculum. The guide is broken into for sections: Student Benefits; Inclusive Classrooms; Collaborative Planning and Teaching Relationships; and Connections to School Reform Efforts. For more information about the guide, contact: Tom Fish, Tel: 614-292-7550; Email: fish.1@osu.edu.

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