The Connecting Point Volume 2 Issue 5
Date August 9, 2004

In This ISSUE:    

1) New Washington State DDD-Mental Health Web Page
2) New "ADA Game" Builds Accessible Online Communities

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1) New Washington State DDD-Mental Health Web Page - The DSHS DDD internet has a new page related to Mental Health issues for people with developmental disabilities.  This site will host a variety of items of interest to those persons providing supports to individuals with developmental disabilities and co-occurring mental health issues.  The page is just up and running and will gradually have more information.  Items available now include:

• * Cross System Crisis Plan templates.
• Epocrates - a MAA computer-based information product that allows physicians and other prescribers to look up drugs, their side effects, possible replacement drugs, and other up to date information.  This will be of special interest and assistance to our physicians and prescribers who work with MAA's drug formulary. 
• Al Vechionne's outline for the workshop he did at the Annual Behavioral Health conference.  Many providers who attended the conference asked for this information. direct link to page is: http://www1.dshs.wa.gov/ddd/mental.shtml

2)    New "ADA Game" Builds Accessible Online Communities - On July 26, 2004, the 14th anniversary of the passage of the ADA, the new online "ADA Game" had its public unveiling. The "ADA Game" is available online at http://www.adagame.org.
The "ADA Game" is a new training, leadership, and community-building resource for anyone interested in the ADA and the rights of people with disabilities.  The "ADA Game" challenges players with multiple-choice questions about the law and how it is applied to real-life situations. Players who answer questions correctly can earn points. These points can be applied to individual or group advocacy efforts. Players can use their points to make one of eight virtual "cities" in the Southeast Region more accessible for people with disabilities. Players can also discuss advocacy strategies or other ADA issues on the discussion boards.
The "ADA Game" is fully accessible and easy to play. It is a powerful training and advocacy tool for anyone interested in disability policy, personal advocacy, or community enrichment. Players work together to improve accessibility in their virtual "cities" in the areas of program access, public accommodations, transportation, employment and communication. Players can also build their individual leadership scores in the areas of collaboration, ADA knowledge, problem solving, persistence and charisma. Players can only "win" the "ADA Game" by working together to build partnerships for accessibility in their virtual communities. The "ADA Game" was designed to be fully accessible for all players, including people with disabilities.
The "ADA Game" website meets the federal Section 508 standards and is AAA-compliant with the industry-based World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines. Because the "ADA Game" is available online, players can access the game 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The lead sponsor of the "ADA Game" is the Southeast Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC).  The Southeast DBTAC is hosted at the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access at the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information about the "ADA Game", visit the website at http://www.adagame.org or send an email to the Southeast DBTAC at sedbtacproject@catea.org

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Reference Points: Transition updates from the TATRA Project is administered by PACER Center www.pacer.org as a joint technical assistance activity of the TATRA Project and the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition http://www.ici.umn.edu/ncset/ . Reference Points features resources and updates to help parent organizations, advocates and professionals better serve adolescents and young adults with disabilities, and their families. You can Subscribe or Unsubscribe to Reference Points on the web at http://www.pacer.org/tatra/list/signup.asp . Visit our web sites for access to a wealth of additional resources and information!
Readers are invited to send information about new resources on secondary education, transition and vocational rehabilitation topics to tatra@pacer.org . Approved items will be posted. Please note that Reference Points is not a discussion group. Questions about Reference Points should be directed to Deborah Leuchovius, National Coordinator of Technical Assistance on Transition and Vocational Rehabilitation, PACER Center at tatra@pacer.org.
The National Center on Secondary Education and Transition is funded by and is a partner with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, cooperative agreement # H326J000005. The TATRA Project is funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/RSA/index.html .
There are no copyright restrictions on this document. However, please credit the source and support of federal funds when copying all or part of this material.

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