Students with Disabilities ... New Book in Whittaker Library

College for Students with Disabilities: We do Belong

This new book is a series of chapters by different authors, and the ultimate endorsement is a foreword by the autistic 'Animal Professor', Dr Temple Grandin.

It'll reach the shelves of the Whittaker Library in the next few days - look out for it on the new books display.

• Book details - click here

What is Bipolar Disorder doing on a Library Blog?

It's a time of year when emotions run high - first Christmas, then prelims. Enough to unbalance the most balanced of people!

This came up on an American higher education website:

Help! My Best Friend is Bipolar: How to be an ally to a person with a psychiatric disability.

 

The link might be helpful if you're keen to support someone with this disability.  Click HERE.

Would it Help if You Heard your Papers Read to You? Well, You Can!

The Adobe Acrobat "Read out Loud" feature was designed primarily as an accessibility feature, to help readers with visual or other reading impairments. 

You might not even know the facility is there, but it also happens to be a valuable writing tool.  If you hear your work read back to you, you can spot repeated phrases, illogical progressions from one argument to the next, or other irritating sentence structures that just don't sound right. 

Karen explains how it works, HERE.  (It's a pdf for you to practise on!)

Read about an Autism-Friendly Circus App (Guardian Culture Professionals Network)

Show and Tell Circus App

Theatrical and circus performers will be intrigued by this new app, developed by Circus Starr.  It's featured on the latest Guardian Culture Professonals Network blogpost.

"We wanted to produce an app that could somehow capture and convey the essence, magic and unpredictability of circus for a very literal audience. We needed to prepare a child who didn’t like surprises for a show full of surprises … without ruining the surprise", says Circus Starr.

To find out how they did it, you'll need to read the posting!  HERE. 

Studying with Special Needs: Some Personal Narratives

Back in 2005, when Karen was in a group for academic librarians providing disability support, she wrote an article for Library Review, about studying with special needs, and how libraries can help.

The article is still attracting interest - Emerald reminded her that there's a live link to it, if your library subscribes to Library Review.  So, here it is:-

Title:	Studying with special needs: some personal narratives
Author(s):	Karen E. McAulay, (Music and Academic Services Librarian, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, UK)
Citation:	Karen E. McAulay, (2005) "Studying with special needs: some personal narratives", Library Review, Vol. 54 Iss: 8, pp.486 - 491
Keywords:	Academic libraries, Disabled people, Scotland
Article type:	Conceptual paper

Live Link

Opera for the hearing - hard of hearing - and deaf

A Quiet Life

Whittaker has just seen a tweet about this project, which involves making an opera for people who can’t hear – and people who can:- 

"Annie is an astronomer. She knows all about time and space, but she isn’t so sure about life and death. And she’s just gone deaf. 'A Quiet Life' is a new, multi-sensory opera based on the life of Annie Jump Cannon, exploring ways of hearing and the relationship between the Universe and ourselves. An opera for people who can hear and people who can’t." 

For further details, please visit the website - here. 

Pathways to the Profession: Scottish Dance Theatre Symposium

Pathways to the Profession Symposium

West Park, Dundee.  19th-20th January, 2012 

Royal Conservatoire Research Lecturer Anna Birch is Documentation Advisor for this industry changing Symposium!

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ln January 2012, Scottish Dance Theatre and partners host the Pathways to the Profession Symposium which will explore the issues inhibiting the inclusion of physically and sensory disabled people in the performing arts.

Website