Health, Safety, and Accessibility

This page contains collections of online resources that will help you address important issues at school that are not part of the core curriculum:

• Health and Physical Education
  These are noncommercial sites that deal with common illnesses and physical activities.

• Safe, Drug Free and Nonviolence Resources
  Here you'll find resources that can help your students deal with smoking and drug use, trauma, and nonviolence. There are also sites that address acceptable and appropriate use of the Internet.

• Digital Equity, Accessibility and Special Education
  Using technology in the classroom presents its own special problems for children with limited access to technology or who have physical or learning disabilities.

Health and Physical Education

• The Body
  This is an AIDS/HIV information resource. The Body provides information collected from more than twenty-two organizations: AIDS basics, testing, demographics, safe sex questions and answers, treatment, diet and nutrition, depression, anxiety, mental health, financial and legal issues, spiritual counseling, etc.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  This government site covers health and disease topics from A to Z.
• FirstGov: Health and Consumer Safety
  This official U.S. Government Web site provides resources for all Americans regarding health, diseases, drugs, food and nutrition and consumer safety. It is sponsored by the Office of Citizen Services and Communications, U.S. General Services Administration.
• American Lung Association Home Page
  With stories, reports, and support networks.
  
• HealthWeb
  This site contains a collection of links to noncommercial Web sites on specific health topics, evaluated and selected by health sciences librarians.
• Library in the Sky
  NWREL's Library in the Sky Health Department contains links to over 100 Web sites that focus on health-related issues, with lesson plans and resources.
• Infectious Diseases
  Here are some excellent resources on current infectious diseases:
  • World Health Organization: Alert and Response Operations (with timely information about Avian Influenza outbreaks)
  • Center for Disease Control: Information for specific groups and settings, and information about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
  • Fight the Bite! West Nile Virus information from the Center for Disease Control.
  • West Nile Virus: The latest "Real-time" science event on the YES I Can! science site is a resource package of background information for the teacher student reading selections, and classroom activities designed to increase knowledge and awareness among students in grades K-6 about the West Nile Virus and ways to minimize the risk of infection.

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Safe, Drug Free, and Nonviolence Resources

These resources deal with physical and mental safety, conflict resolution, and intellectual honesty for students using online resources.

• 911 As History
  The nonprofit Families and Work Institute recently published 16 lesson plans concerning the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "Looking Back, Moving Forward" seeks to help educators teach children to "respond to traumatic events with resiliency and hope." This educational initiative offers Web-based tools, including resources, curricula and tips, to help adults and youths of all ages reflect on and be intentional in their response to the anniversary. The lesson plans may be downloaded from: the Lesson Index.
• A WebQuest Series on Creating Nonviolent Schools
  This resource for teachers and students was created by Tom March of SBC Pacific Bell Applications. In his words, "The following series of activities is designed to help people explore issues related to school safety. Some engage you in learning new information, some help you understand what you feel about these issues, and others throw you into discussions and problem-solving."
• Health and Human Development Programs
  This EDC Web site contains features on cyberbullying, suicide prevention, and other resources on health and safety.
• Helping Young Children Cope with Trauma
  This site was created by the American Red Cross. How a parent or other adult reacts to a child following any traumatic event can help children recover more quickly and more completely. This online brochure contains general information to help you in this task.
• In The Mix: Lesson Plans and Discussion Guides
  PBS has collected twenty excellent health and fitness lesson plans. Safe and drug-free topics cover alcohol; dating violence; depression, mental health, and suicide; drug abuse; gun violence; media literacy; schol violence, conflict, resolution, and anger management; self-image; sex; smoking; teen immigrants; and more!!
• Joe Chemo
  Joe Chemo is an anti-smoking parody of Joe Camel, and the JoeChemo.org web site is intended as a tool for teachers, health educators, and parents to reduce teen smoking. The site is highly interactive and allows visitors to test their "Tobacco IQ," get a personalized "Smoke-o-Scope," and send free Joe Chemo E-Cards.
• The Jigsaw Classroom
  The Jigsaw Classroom is a cooperative learning technique that reduces school violence and racial conflict among school children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience. The Web site was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, and it contains free resources, tips, links, and information on cooperative learning.
• Partnership for a Drug-Free America
  This Web site provides accurate and authoritative resources for information about illegal drugs and their consequences.
• PBS Kids Web Site
  Contains activities for children such as drawing, coloring, and storytelling, related to popular PBS children's TV shows. Relevant sites for teenagers include It's My Life and Don't Buy It!
• School and Community Safety
  The National Education Association and NEA's Health Information Network for school safety released a new Web site that is designed to be a comprehensive resource for teachers, educational support professionals, and parents.
• Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program
  The Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools maintains this page with current, full-text versions of its publications. Some are online, while others are .pdf files that require Acrobat Reader. One very useful online publication is: Growing up drug-free: A parent's guide to prevention
  This full-text document addresses talking to children about drugs, prevention, what to do if you suspect drug use, and where to get help.
• Safe and Responsible Use of the Internet: A Guide for Educators
  Written by Nancy Willard, this 272 page guide provides guidance for districts in the implementation of a comprehensive education and supervision approach to address safe and responsible student and staff use of the Internet, that is in compliance with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The Responsible Netizen Institute also contains links to other pertinent articles by Nancy Willard.

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Digital Equity, Accessibility and Special Education

"All children can learn" and "No child left behind" in an age of technology means that teachers and children need affordable access to technology and online resources. It also means that learners with special needs must be accommodated via assistive technology, specialized software, universally designed curriculum, and accessible Web pages.

• Digital Equity Portal
  Digital Equity addresses inequitable access to learning technology resources for all learners. The Digital Equity Portal is an initiative developed by the PT3 Digital Equity Task Force for the US Department of Education. The portal is a prototype application that offers a catalogue of proven digital equity strategies, materials, and research that PT3 grantees can utilize; creates personalized resources; locates and connects PT3 grantees who share similar projects and interests; and in the future will offer focused technical support to PT3 leaders as well as an application for responding efficiently to questions and requests.
• Digital Equity Toolkit
  Developed as a free resource for educators, professional developers and teacher-education faculty, the Digital Equity Toolkit contains information about where to get free e-mail, free Internet service, affordable Internet service for schools, how to find comunity technology centers, and other useful facts about reducing the digital divide.
• The Functional Independence Skills Handbook
  An assessment and a full curriculum with lesson plans designed to assist people with developmental disabilities in gaining more functional independence. Domains of learning include adaptive behavior, affective skills, cognitive abilities, sensorimotor, socialization, speech and vocational. Some sample lesson plans and other materials are available on the site.
• Know Your Users
  This Web site, from Fresno State University, focuses on accessible Web sites from the users' point of view. There is a short video clip in which users with disabilities discuss the problems they face when attempting to view Web sites that were not created using the principles of Barrier Free Web Design. An instructional video is also available for order online.
• LDOnline
  This site is an interactive guide to learning disabilities. It has information for parents, teachers, and other professionald dealing with learning disabillities. The teachers's page is designed for educators who need assistance in dealing with students with learning disabilities.
• National Center for Accessible Media: Guidelines
  WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media published an updated and expanded set of guidelines for making software and Web sites accessible. Making Educational Software and Web Sites Accessible: Design Guidelines Including Math and Science Solutions deals with images, multimedia, forms, tables, textbooks, interactivity, graphs, and mathematics software.
• National Center for Learning Disabilities
  The National Center for Learning Disabilities is a national, non-profit organization that supports children and adults with learning disabilities, as well as parents and educators dealing with LD. NCLD's Web site provides extensive information and resources on learning disabilities, including a glossary of basic LD terminology, comprehensive resources listed by state, and a section specifically for adults and teens actively dealing with learning disabilities.
• Special Education Resources
  Resources from the Awesome Library, categorized by type of disability. There is a good section on Individualized Education Plans. Topics include visual and hearing impairmments, attention deficit disorder, behavior exceptionalities, and also resources for gifted/talented students.
• Teacher Resources for Disabilities
  This site has a fine set of links to resources for Special Education, autism, attention deficit disorder, physical disabilities, and the like.
• TELE-Web
  Developed by Carol Sue Englert and Yong Zhao and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, TELE-Web is a curricular approach to support the literacy performance of emergent readers and writers, including students with mild disabilities. Through this approach, students can generate solutions to problems that they identify as they address the larger problem identified in the assignment. Students use the TELE software to create and read texts that are in a collective project database on the Internet. TELE students can search the database for information, organize notes into informational structures, publish their notes, comment on other students' notes, and publish reports and stories.
• Web Accessibility Sites
  The Internet can be a great tool for students with disabilities. However, many Web sites are not accessible. Learn about the steps that you can take to make sure that your - and your students' - Web sites are accessible to all. These resources also provide links to other resources.
  • Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
    This is the official site of the World Wide Web Consortium that deals with universally accessible Web sites.
  • Designing your Web Site for the Disabled
    Issues and tips from Larry Hull
  • Bobby (Now titled WebXact)
    Bobby was created by CAST to help Web page authors identify and repair significant barriers to access by individuals with disabilities.

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