TWO STORIES

Today on the blog, two stories that have to do with general disability issues:  1] First, beware if you use Amtrak--there have been problems with accessibility.  2] Children with autism are helped greatly by using tablets, such as Ipads, etc.  Read on:

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The nation’s passenger rail system remains plagued by accessibility problems with poor planning hampering efforts to improve accommodations for people with disabilities, an audit finds.
In the last two years, Amtrak has made “limited progress” in improving compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to an internal inspector general’s report.
The failure to make substantial improvements stems largely from ineffective management and the lack of a written strategic plan, the report indicates.
As of 2011, only 48 of the 482 stations Amtrak serves were ADA compliant. Accordingly, Amtrak committed roughly $100 million to address the problems during 2012 and 2013.
In that time, several property surveys and facility assessments were completed and three stations were made more accessible. However, the inspector general found that nearly half of the funds allocated went toward management activities.
What’s more, $6.5 million was spent on designs for projects with no construction plans in place and an unknown amount went toward repairs considered “good” that that did not meet ADA standards.
In response to the report, Joseph Boardman, president and CEO of Amtrak, committed to management changes for the ADA program and said a strategic plan will be established. Boardman also said that Amtrak representatives will meet quarterly with national disability groups to address accessibility issues.

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Even with intervention, many children with autism continue to struggle with communication, but new research suggests that using iPads and other tablets can help maximize language skills.
In a study of 61 kids with autism ages 5 to 8, researchers found that those given access to a tablet with a speech-generating app during therapy were able to make “significant and rapid gains” in their use of language, far exceeding the progress of children who participated in treatment sessions alone.
All of the children in the study were minimally verbal and participated in two to three hours of therapy each week for six months that focused on improving language, play skills and social gesturing like pointing.
In addition to the therapy, half of the kids were given a tablet with a speech-generating app to use during the sessions. The app was programmed with pictures of objects being used in the therapy which allowed the child to touch an image and hear audio of an object’s name.
Ultimately, children who used the tablets were more likely to begin using language on their own, according to findings published recently in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
“It was remarkable how well the tablet worked in providing access to communication for these children,” said Connie Kasari of the University of California, Los Angeles who worked on the study. “Children who received the behavioral intervention along with the tablet to support their communication attempts made much faster progress in learning to communicate, and especially in using spoken language.”
Children appeared to retain their new skills when they came for a follow-up three months after the study period ended, researchers said.
Incorporating the tablets was most effective when used from the start of the treatment, the study found.

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