Mary Fran's Online Policy Bookmarks Fact Sheet
Prepared by Mary Fran Laverdure and Marka Hayes
RESNA Technical Assistance Project
March, 1999

Mary Fran Laverdure is the RESNA Technical Assistance Project's Disability Policy Specialist. She is an avid user of web resources in her policy work. In this fact sheet her favorite sites are listed with descriptions of the information that can be found there. These policy sites can keep you current on the many policy issues that affect the lives of individuals with disabilities.

The resources are listed in six categories that include the five goal and activity areas of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998: a) community living, b) education, c) employment, d) health care and e) telecommunications. The categories are designed to be a guide. When the descriptive information indicates the site could be relevant to another category that information is presented in ALL CAPS. The final category "GENERAL" covers several of the more mainstream, widely used policy-related sites.

COMMUNITY LIVING

The Arc
http://thearc.org/welcome.html
The Arc (formerly Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States) Arc publishes online the "Capitol Insider" every Monday. This newsletter details major legislative events especially those Affecting the lives of individuals with disabilities.

Administration on Developmental Disabilities
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/add/index.htm
From this web page you can link to all of the Protection and Advocacy Agencies, the National Information Center on Developmental Disabilities and University Affiliated Programs on Developmental Disabilities.

The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD)
http://www.c-c-d.org/
CCD is a coalition of approximately 100 national disability organizations. CCD has task forces in many areas including THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY TASK FORCE, that deals with issues related to telecommunications and assistive technology access in education, employment and independent living. There is also a CCD HEALTH CARE Task Force - living. There is also a CCD HEALTH CARE Task Force - http://www.c-c-d.org/healt-tf.htm

Disability Rights Activist
http://www.disrights.org/
The purpose of this site is to synthesize information about Federal legislation and regulations that affect the lives of individuals with disabilities so that effective action can be taken. This site has links to disability rights publications; disability news; disability organizations; and federal sources of information, such as THOMAS, the Library of Congress site containing information pertaining to federal legislation. (See the GENERAL category for more on THOMAS.)

National Parent Network on Disabilities
http://www.npnd.org
The National Parent Network on Disabilities site publishes the "Friday Fax," among other documents. The Friday Fax is a weekly bulletin about issues that affect children, especially issues related to children with disabilities and their families.

EDUCATION

The National School Boards Association
http://www.nsba.org/
NSBA is the national association of local school boards and a National resource for school administrators. On this site you can find thecomments of the NSBA to proposed IDEA regulations and also a link to the site for the Council of School Attorneys.

Council for Exceptional Children
http://www.cec.sped.org/
Click on public policy and legislation for information on Legislation affecting the education of children with disabilities.

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/index.html
The OSEP site contains information on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and its implementation, publications including portions of a guide titled "Technology for Students with Disabilities: A Decision Makers Guide."

EMPLOYMENT

The President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities
http://www.pcepd.gov/
The Committee has a bimonthly publication online, "Washington FAX" which contains information about legislation that affects the employment of individuals with disabilities and other policy information related to employment, such as ADA enforcement. You can reach JAN through this web page. The web site also has an online listing of employers seeking employees with disabilities.

HEALTH CARE

Families USA
http://www.familiesusa.org/
Families USA is a national nonprofit nonpartisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality affordable health Care for all Americans. The site includes information on federal managed care bills and child health expansion. It also provides links to Family USA's issue-oriented web sites on Managed Care and Medicaid. You can also join Family USA e-mail mailing lists to get timely information about health policy through e-mail.

Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA)
http://www.hcfa.gov/
HCFA is the federal agency that administers the Medicare, Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Programs (CHIP or SCHIP). The web site contains information on HCFA's major policy initiatives including its Children's Health Insurance Program.

The National Health Law Program
http://www.healthlaw.org/
The National Health Law Program is a national public interest law firm that seeks to improve health care for America's working and unemployed poor, minorities, the elderly and people with disabilities. The news portion of this page is very good and contains current news articles from a variety of sources on health care issues.

Social Security Administration
http://www.ssa.gov/
This site can lead you to fact sheets of basic information as well as updates and testimony of Administration officials as Congress continues to examine the future of social security and possible restructuring of these important programs. The Administration's report on Social Security Income (SSI) is available online.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
http://www.fcc.gov
The site contains information on the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and a link to the Disability Issues Task Force that contains documents regarding information accessibility.

The U.S. Access Board
http://www.access-board.gov/
The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board), an agency with a primary mission is accessibility, has decided to establish an advisory committee to assist it in developing a proposed rule on accessibility standards for electronic and information technology covered by the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. The Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee includes organizations which represent the interests affected by the accessibility standards for electronic and information technology. Watch this page for notices of future meetings. Notices will also be published in the Federal Register.

GENERAL

Media Resources

C-Span
http://www.c-span.org/
C-Span, the public affairs channel on television and radio publishes this web page. From this site you can connect to House and Senate calendars and a Congressional Glossary. To check a definition or termused in Congress go to: http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/

CNN
http://cnn.com
The Cable News Network's web site contains news stories of the day.

Congressional Quarterly
http://www.cq.com
CQ is recognized as one of the authoritative news source on Congress and national politics. CQ has a top story available online daily and information about how to subscribe to the publication.

Roll Call
http://www.rollcall.com/
Roll Call is one of two prominent newspapers on Capitol Hill. Lead stories and some policy briefings are available online, others are available by subscription. The Roll Call site has a directory where you can find your Member of Congress by zip code.

The Hill
http://www.hillnews.com/
"The Hill" is the other widely read newspaper on Capitol Hill. Like Roll Call the online version carries lead stories and policy briefings. Other information is available by subscription only.

Resources Related to Congress

United States House of Representatives
http://www.house.gov/
From this site you will find links to Members' offices, Committee offices, leadership offices, and schedules of weekly activities on the floor and in Committee.

Office of the House Majority Whip
http://majoritywhip.house.gov/
The Whip is a member elected by his/her party to count potential votes and promote party unity in voting. From this site you can request to get daily or weekly e-mails about legislative activity. On this page you can get the Whip Notice, a notice sent to members and interested parties on current floor activities or upcoming votes.

Office of the House Minority Whip
http://davidbonior.house.gov/daily/today.htm
The minority whip is the number two ranking member in the Minority Leadership. From this web site you can obtain schedules The "Whip Wind-Up" provides an easy-to-read, daily outline of the business on the House floor, including a clear description of each bill.

United States Senate
http://www.senate.gov/
From the United States Senate home page you can link to individual Senator's home pages, Committee home pages, and find the Senate schedule of legislative activities.

The Library of Congress, Thomas Web Page
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas2.html
On this site you can check the status of any bill, do searches for bills under particular topics such as "Assistive Technology" or "Rehabilitation". You can search for bills and check votes from the 101st to 105th Congress 1989-1998.

Government-Related Policy Resources

Federal Web Locator
http://www.law.vill.edu/fed-agency/fedwebloc.html
For sites of other federal agencies and departments not described in this fact sheet, use the Federal Web Locator search site. You can look through a list of agencies and click on the agency name of interest or search using the name of the organization.

The Government Printing Office (GPO)
http://www.gpo.gov/
On this site you can access and search for government documents, including House and Senate Reports. Many documents can be downloaded from this site.

The White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Welcome.html
Check this page and the link to the briefing room for updated press briefings and releases. From this page you can also find executive orders on important issues when they are released.

The RESNA Technical Assistance Project, Grant #H224A50006, is an activity funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), U.S. Department of Education, under the Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988, as amended. The information contained herein does not necessarily reflect the position of NIDRR/ED or RESNA and no official endorsement of the materials should be inferred.