Paralympic manual revisions due to offensive language

In a follow up to an earlier Maine VRC post, here's some video about the recall of the volunteer manual for the 2008 Paralympic games in Beijing due to start September 6.



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Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy

There's an upcoming conference at Stonybrook University in NY which sounds fascinating.

"Cognitive disability: A challenge to Moral Philosophy"

"The realities of cognitive disability pose a significant challenge to certain key conceptions philosophers have held. Philosophers have conceived of the mark of humanity as the possession of rational cognitive capacities. They have traditionally extended the mantles of equality, dignity, justice, responsibility, and moral fellowship to those with these abilities, whom they speak of as "persons." What then should we say about those with severe cognitive disabilities? How should we treat these individuals and what sorts of entitlements can they claim? Should we grant the arguments of some philosophers who want to parse our moral universe in ways that depend on degrees of cognitive capacity, not on being human? How do claims for the moral consideration of animals bear on the question? Is it morally acceptable to consign some human beings to the status of "non-persons"? Philosophers have rarely faced these questions squarely and systematically."

Further information notes that the main focus of the conversations will be regarding those with Ausism/ Aspergers, Alzheimers and "those labled 'mentally retarded'."

The conference runs from September 18-20. See Stonybrook's site for more information.

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Questions for Cash for Breast Cancer research

Purina Cat Chow will donate $1 for every person who takes a breast cancer awareness questions.

" In celebration of the loving support ourcats provide, we're donating $175,00 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.
And you can help. For every person who completes our breast cancer awareness questions, we'll donate an additional $1.00 (up to $50,000 above the $175,000 minimum donation). "

Get over there now

Via the Freebie Blogger (thanks)


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ADA revisions (mini golf concerns revisited)

I've been amazed how the minature golf piece has been reported and re-reported over and over regarding the ADA changes. Amazing.



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"Assistive Technology: A video tour of Accessibility"

A good collection of videos demonstrating various assistive technologies. Demonstrations include screen readers and magnifiers, speech to text software, an AT vendor in the UK's You tube page with various demonstrations of their equipment, and web accessibility.

Word of warning though, the videos I checked were not captioned, and I'm not sure whether any of them are. That aside There's plenty there to browse and learn about assistive technology (AT), so leave some time or return often to wade through the collection.

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Post Partum Depression

Good video on Post Partum Depression from Parents TV





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Attention span

"The addictive nature of web browsing can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds - the same as a goldfish,” said the BBC in 2002. “Our attention span gets affected by the way we do things,” Ted Selker, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told the British news agency. “If we spend our time flitting from one thing to another on the web, we can get into a habit of not concentrating.”

-As quoted by Sitepoint

Though focused on the web design aspects of attention (and not making our pages too long), it raises some interesting points regarding the way we receive information and the impact it has on us when we're required to attend to something for longer periods. I have felt for a long time that the way we receive information is contributing to this short attention span, even when we're watching a movie or a show that lasts and hour or more, scenes or camera shots rarely last more than a few seconds.

Thinking of our minds as a muscle, we need to train it to either sprint or do distance.

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