With Fewer Kids Learning Braille, Schools Told To Step Up

Amid concerns that many with visual impairments are not learning to read Braille, federal officials are reminding schools that they have a legal obligation to teach the tactile writing system.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter this week, the U.S. Department of Education said that under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act schools must provide Braille instruction to students who are blind or visually impaired unless a thorough evaluation finds that teaching Braille would not be appropriate for the child.

Read more at:  http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2013/06/21/with-braille-schools/18205/

Disabled workers paid just pennies an hour – and it's legal

Disabled workers paid just pennies an hour – and it's legal

By Anna Schecter, Producer, NBC News

One of the nation's best-known charities is paying disabled workers as little as 22 cents an hour, thanks to a 75-year-old legal loophole that critics say needs to be closed.

Goodwill Industries, a multibillion-dollar company whose executives make six-figure salaries, is among the nonprofit groups permitted to pay thousands of disabled workers far less than minimum wage because of a federal law known as Section 14 (c). Labor Department records show that some Goodwill workers in Pennsylvania earned wages as low as 22, 38 and 41 cents per hour in 2011.

"If they really do pay the CEO of Goodwill three-quarters of a million dollars, they certainly can pay me more than they're paying," said Harold Leigland, who is legally blind and hangs clothes at a Goodwill in Great Falls, Montana for less than minimum wage.

"It's a question of civil rights," added his wife, Sheila, blind from birth, who quit her job at the same Goodwill store when her already low wage was cut further. "I feel like a second-class citizen. And I hate it."

Read the full story at:  http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/21/19062348-disabled-workers-paid-just-pennies-an-hour-and-its-legal?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=1