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It might be considered a truism that disability affects the incomes of the afflicted and their families, especially when it is defined in terms of inability to engage in gainful activity. Effects are manifested in either or both levels and sources of income. One population of disabled people was reported to have virtually no private sources of income and to be dependent on the spouse's earnings, relatives, and public programs. Indications are, however, that the financial impact of disability may vary considerably, depending on certain characteristics of the disabled and of their families. The purpose of this article is threefold. First, it describe changes in the individual and family incomes of a sample of disabled workers. Second, it identifies some of the important factors in these changes. Third, it examines the relationship between income change and motivation to work of workers in the sample. The findings this article lend some support to the hypothesis that disability behavior may be affected by economic considerations. It is necessary, however, to be cautious in generalizing these results.

The article discusses the scope and controversy over the implementation of the P. L. 93-112, The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in the U.S. The Act is one of the most significant measures ever enacted by the Congress to aid the handicapped in the country. The legislation that surrounded it was significant because the Vocational Rehabilitation program, which is operating in every state of the nation, is generally considered to be one of the most popular and successful programs ever initiated by the federal government.

The article discusses the effect of the mentally retarded label on the individuals being labeled as such. In some studies, it was found that when labeling was isolated, it enables differences between labeled and unlabeled groups to be attributed to the label. The evidence uncovered failed to specify precisely the notion regarding devastating, long lasting, and traumatic effects of being labeled as mentally retarded.

The article presents an ecological study of identified mentally retarded persons in a moderate-sized city in California. Persons labeled to be mentally retarded were predominantly Anglo, middle-, and upper-class, and resided in areas of better housing and neighborhood quality in contrast to the usual result that mentally retarded people belongs to poor and ethnic minorities.

The article discusses the study on the application of spatial paralogic attitude inventory (SPAI) as a measure of attitude or self esteem of people with disabilities. The study constitutes three investigations including the test for the construct validity of the SPAI using a known group procedure, using college students who volunteered to work in a program with disabled individuals and the relation of the SPAI to other variables that are relevant to attitudes toward disabled people. The study indicated that people with multiple sclerosis rated significant disability on the SPAI. SPAI had a low positive correlation with measure of attitudes toward the disabled (ATDP).

The article discusses the provisions of the German legislation titled "Law on the Equalization of Benefits for Rehabilitation" passed on October 1, 1974. The basic aim of the law is to improve significantly the socio-political situation of some four million disabled by supporting their rehabilitation and reintegration into society, the classroom, and the employment market.

This article presents news briefs and new laws in German social politics. Two laws for severely disabled has been reformulated. There has also been a proposed draft change for the health insurance and old age pensions for the handicapped. There is also research being conducted on humanising the work environment.

This article discusses the laws and social protections for invalids in Germany. The author argues that the law should provide for all types of disabilities, regardless of how the individual incurred them or whether the disability is mental or physical. The law, however, does differentiate between them. The author also discusses how the handicapped are able to collect disability benefits, as well as other social benefits offered by the government.

This article presents information on programs, materials and techniques for people with disabilities. The MWM Program for Developing Language Abilities is a well organized kit for language training. The intent of the program goes beyond identifying a language disability and provides a series of intervention activities to increase performance in the 12 language areas identified by the Illinois test of psycholinguistic abilities. A review of the book "Educational Games for Physically Handicapped Children," by Bryant J. Cratty and James E. Breen has been presented. The book "Sound Wheel No. 2: A Remediation Aid for Speech Therapists and Remedial Reading Teachers," by Paul T. Moskau is a neat gadget which many teachers may wish to add to their phonics resources. "Phillip and the White Colt," reviewed by a reader Hannah Miller, is a variation on the classic film theme of a boy and his horse. It is an excellent point of departure for a guided discussion of feelings about someone who is handicapped.

The article focuses on the social group work with disabled young men. Although the aged form the majority group of residents in facilities providing skilled nursing or extended care, a small percentage of residents are young. These younger adults are chronically ill or disabled persons who, because of their need for full-time skilled care, must reside full time in a rehabilitation facility. These patients are usually mentally alert, intellectually active, and capable of being fully involved in life. An inherent disadvantage of any full-time facility or total institution is that life may be so structured and routinized that the nonmedical needs of residents are overlooked. Thus although there is no atrophy of tendon or tissue, there may be a subtle wasting away of intellectual powers or of social interest. The young full-time resident of a facility offering skilled nursing care has had to sacrifice much of his autonomy, mobility, and choice as a result of his physical disability. However, his need for intimacy must be fulfilled, as must his need to be active in making decisions that concern his own life and that of his peer group. He needs help in dealing with problems that arise in the course of daily interaction with other residents and staff members.

The article presents information on social services in Scotland, which were consolidated at the local level of authority into unified social work departments. Personal social services in Scotland were administered previously by several governmental and voluntary agencies. The arguments for unification of personal social services in Scotland stemmed from prevalence of such problems as gaps in service, the complexity and inaccessibility of service, overlapping services, waste of resources and inefficiency in using the scarce resources of skilled professional staff. These problems all of which are familiar to social workers in the United States indicated Scotland's need to develop a coherent social policy. To develop the new social policy the old systems had to be restructured. Some consequences of the Social Work Act of 1968 are firstly local social work services for child care, welfare, mental health, and probation were unified. Secondly local authority social work departments were established. Thirdly area teams with ten to fifteen members, many of whom had a variety of levels of training, were established to serve approximately 50000 people and home helps were also available to serve them. The act indicated specifically the responsibilities of the social work departments to administer a variety of institutions for children and the elderly and to provide hostels for the handicapped.

The present research was undertaken to explore the relationship between auditory ability and oral form discrimination in individuals with varying degrees of development in speech and language. The results of the 2 studies lend support to the motor theory of speech perception, which posits that accurate interpretation of speech involves not only an adequate auditory system but also feedback from the speaker's own articulatory movements. The groups studied included achieving and underachieving second-, third-, and fourth-grade children as well as selected deaf, blind, and normal children. Future studies should be conducted to further delineate the role of oral kinesthetic sensitivity and its relationship to speech perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Disabled Persons (Employment) Acts 1944 and 1958 offer a degree of assistance to registered disabled persons seeking employment. But in practice many handicapped people are not registering under the statutes although they are eligible. Many employers ignore the requirements of the Act with apparent impunity. The repeal of these acts is currently being canvassed, but it is not clear what it is to take their place. Some of the legal facets of employing handicapped persons are discussed in this article by our legal correspondent.
Like other disadvantaged groups, the disabled receive scant attention from the thrusting world of modern business. Somehow they slip between the legal textbooks as well as the treatises on management. Nevertheless, some legislation applies peculiarly to them such as the Disabled Persons (Employment) Acts 1944 and 1958. The common law has generally regarded them sympathetically but the relevant law is somewhat fragmented and it seems obvious that a re-assessment is now needed.
There are reliably reported to be about 600 000 registered disabled persons although some who are eligible decline to register because they have little faith that the registration system will find work for them. The value of these two statutes is being questioned on a wider front and their repeal is mooted. Like the able - bodied, the disabled have rights under the law although they are noticeably reluctant to assert themselves in the courts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which evaluates the prophylactic effect of lithium therapy on mentally defective patients who were suffering from frequently recurring affective and behavioral changes. The number of weeks ill during the year on lithium was significantly less than the number of weeks ill during the year on placebo. There appeared to be less effect on the actual number of episodes of illness. The number of episodes during the year on lithium was less than that during the year on placebo, but the difference was not statistically significant.

This paper describes some characteristics of the speech of 12 adult aphasic patients, as compared with the speech of 12 control subjects. From transcripts of subjects' speech a number of measures are determined which may be useful as general descriptions of speech and which may be sensitive to various sorts of language disorder. This information permits some evaluation of the divergence of a particular aphasic record from the control data, as well as its divergence from each of the other aphasic records. To obtain running samples of free speech, 20 cards from the Thematic Apperception Test were administered to each subject; all responses were tape recorded and subsequently transcribed. The transcripts were processed so as to provide for each subject a list of minimal free forms, their sequence, and frequency of occurrence. For some purposes the transcript items were classified in terms of the following form classes adverb, adjective, verb, noun, pronoun, other neologism, unusual use, period, pause, and vocal gesture.

The article studies the peculiarities of thought that characterize patients with sensory aphasia. This study attempts to characterize the intellectual peculiarities of patients with sensory aphasia. Long and detailed observation of more than 50 patients has shown that the most important factor in these cases is the inability to differentiate between speech sounds. This in turn affects other language levels, semantic, syntactic and grammatical, and also the personality and intellectual activity of the patients. The effects of aphasia on these features and on the comprehension of speech and the active speech behavior of the patients are described.

The article presents information on the comparability of complete oral and booklet forms of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The MMPI as currently published can be presented to the subject either in a card form for individual use or in a booklet form suitable for individual examination or large scale testing. However, attempts to investigate the personality characteristics of illiterate, semi-literate, or otherwise seriously handicapped persons by means of either of these two forms are obviously hampered. In such situations, the availability of a comparable oral form of the MMPI would be highly desirable.

The article discusses the approaches to rating the mute patients. In the course of this study, three different approaches to for estimating the total morbidity score for the mute patient were tried: (a) the Ranking Method; (b) the Score Based on Total Distribution Method; and (c) the Forced Choice Method. By using the rank position given the patient in the global impressions ranking, it is possible through interpolation to calculate a score for the mute patient in the Lorr morbidity ranking. In the Forced Choice Method, raters are asked to rate all items, guessing at those they consider unratable because of limited communication from the patient. The Distribution Method provides scores for all the factors, but for only little of the factors is this score based on the patient's actual behavior.

The article discusses evaluation of a modification of the thematic appreciation test for use with physically handicapped children. If this identification is facilitated, one should expect the handicapped child to be more productive on the new cards than he would on the original TAT cards. In addition, one might reasonably feel that the cards would promote the production of specific reactions to the peculiar conditions and situations which the handicap unposes upon the child in contrast to physically normal children. The subjects used in this study consisted of two groups of thirty-one children each who were obtained from a public school for exceptional children in Syracuse, New York. The children were all classified as orthopedically handicapped. The two groups were matched on the basis of age, sex, grade, intelligence, and type of handicap.

This article presents information regarding the full-range picture vocabulary test. The Full-Range Picture Vocabulary Test was developed to meet the need for a simple test of verbal comprehension ability which could be quickly administered and could be used with physically handicapped individuals as well as normals. Any analysis of the PV test must consider the fact that it is more than a test of vocabulary, it tests verbal comprehension and the ability to communicate. Afro-Americans, particularly Southern Afro-Americans, live in a different cultural environment from that of whites.

The article presents information on personality characteristics of selected disability groups. Counseling programs for veterans provide a unique opportunity to collate disability data and objective test results. Veterans were discharged with medical diagnoses in large enough numbers to permit the study of relationships between these disabilities and other factors. The arthritis group is characterized by dominate neurotic elevation with the many obvious physical complaints of hypochondriasis. Femininity, education, and intelligence were significantly lower for all disability groups than for the non-disabled.

This article focuses on types of vocational counseling problems which came out through a study of two hundred disabled male veterans. In order to ascertain the types of vocational counseling problems, it was first necessary to establish a frame of reference that could be used in analyzing case-study records. This was done on an empirical basis, as follows: After working for several weeks as a vocational appraiser, the investigator began to observe that the men with whom he was dealing differed with respect to their need for counseling.

The article presents an adaptation of a speech about rights of handicapped citizen given at the National Topical Conference on Career Education for Exceptional Children and Youth in New Orleans, Louisiana from February 11-14, 1973. There is an increasing number of handicapped citizens who are turning to the courts to secure their rights. The right to a human physical and psychological environment, the right to an individual program fitted to their capabilities and right to privacy are some of the rights of citizens residing at state schools and hospitals.

The relationship of self concept of ability to performance is discussed, and the need for a measurement device for the self concept of work ability of educable mentally retarded adolescents is identified. A scale described in this article employs an interview technique and is intended to be used by teachers and vocational workers. Statistical evidence concerning reliability and internal consistency are presented. The scale is offered for both research and program evaluation as well as client centered diagnostic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research findings reporting teacher-counselor ratings of deal children from differing home and school settings show significant differences in assessments for maturity. An analysis of various developmental crises lot which deafness has a definite impact is presented, based on Erikson's theory of epigenetic development. Both research findings and theoretical analysts point to the conclusion that immaturity is not a necessary consequence of auditory deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article acquaints those interested in programs utilizing semiprofessionals with some of the problems at viewed by semiprofessionals. These problems cluster around three main areas: conflicts resulting from changes in self concepts, suspicion toward middle class supervisors, and problems with new careers. The source of there data was sensitivity training for semiprofessionals being prepared for a new program designed to screen children for deviations in development, hearing, vision, and articulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the general provisions of P.L. 91-230, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1969: Title VI, The Education of the Handicapped Act in the U.S. The amendment which was signed into law by President Richard Nixon has significant impact on the education of special children. It encouraged the increasing efforts of special education to empathize the humanity of people with disabilities and to dissent mechanical categorizations of them as extensions of particular affiliations.

The idea of training a new kind of professional person who would have competency in the dual role of teaching and mobility instruction in the area of the visually handicapped is discussed. The professional preparation and responsibilities of the teacher and the mobility instructor are examined to point out overlapping areas that already exist. Consideration is given to the advantages of this approach, as well as to some likely criticism and to some unresolved questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to compare the acceptability of different anomalous or disabled persons in certain social situations. A group of 94 subjects composed of college undergraduates, graduate students, and psychiatric technicians ranked 10 anomalies with respect to desirability in a friend and as a self affliction. They also filled out a social distance questionnaire. Results suggested that six dimensions probably combine and interact in the formation of stereotypes of anomalous persons—visibility, communication, social stigma, reversability, degree of incapacity, and difficulty in daily living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the expansion of the Smith-Hughes Act and the Georgia-Barden Act through PL 88-210, the Vocational Education Act of 1963 in the U.S. This legislation is responsible for the huge development of vocational education programs throughout the country. It extended vocational education services to people with disabilities. The initiative is realistic in the sense of actual employment opportunities and ability to benefit from occupational training. On the other hand, the provisions of the vocational educational amendments of 1968 is also discussed.

Policies governing the acceptance of physically disabled college students into teacher training programs were surveyed in 1,291 colleges and universities. Responses from 678 (58 percent return) were analyzed by size and type of school and type of disability. Since no consistent policies emerged, some possible reasons for the reported practices are explored and some specific recommendations are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scale measuring client verbal expressivity in the context of a client counselor interaction was designed and initial estimates of its reliability and validity were assessed, utilizing a sample of 28 institutionalized retarded subjects and a control group of 9 nonretarded subjects. Both inter- and intrarater reliabilities were found to be satisfactory. The initial validity studies suggest (a) that the scale discriminates differently in retarded and nonretarded populations, (b,) that the diagnostic information provided by the scale might be useful in addition to that which is provided by standardized tests of intelligence and language ability, and (c) that changes in client verbal expressivity might be expected to occur over the course of counseling. Restrictions on the interpretation of these results are noted, and guidelines for future research are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with severe hearing impairments due to complications of Rh factor were studied relative to their psychological adjustment, educational achievement, prevalence and nature of multiple handicaps, level of intelligence, audiometric responses, and psychodiagnostic evidence of brain damage. Among the major findings were that over 70 percent of these youth are multiply handicapped, the mean IQ was 94, education achievement of those eligible for school was one half that of the normally hearing, ability in written language was appreciably below that of most deaf children, and psychodiagnostic measures reflected a high prevalence of central nervous system dysfunction. Audiometric and psychological findings are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implications of a classroom towards learning in children with mental disabilities in the U.S. A room affects mentally disabled children on two ways, either it contributes to the difficulties which a class of disturbed children already have, or it facilitates their growth in living and learning together. The best assurance that the physical setting will be used constructively is to determine the sensitivity of children to the implications and effects of specific aspects of the physical setting.

A method was evaluated for coordinating the efforts of the classroom teacher and the physical therapist in two phases of physical therapy: (a) inspection of therapeutic equipment, and (b) methods of facilitating locomotion. Programed demonstrations were provided for 20 student teachers in two groups; one group received programed instruction in methods of locomotion used by physically handicapped children; the other group received programed instruction in the inspection and adjustment of therapeutic equipment. Judges observed and recorded locomotion behavior of the children and inspecting behavior of the student teachers to determine whether training had transferred to the orthopedic classroom. Predictions about the effect of the pro gram on inspection and adjustment of therapeutic equipment were sustained. The methods of locomotion pro gram did not produce the predicted classroom behavior differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship of premature birth to deafness is investigated, with particular emphasis on the role of prematurity as a factor in multiple handicaps among deaf children. One thousand sixty-eight cases are involved in the research. Those born prematurely are carefully studied in terms of: (a) multiple handicaps, (b) educational achievement, (c) psychological adjustment, (d) intelligence, (e) audiometric responses, and (f) psychodiagnostic evidence of brain damage. Results of these behavioral and physical variables are quantified and compared to normative data and to data on other groups of deaf children having different etiologies of hearing loss. Significant differences are found among the premature deaf youths. The neurophysiological origins of these are discussed, and implications for the future are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this report is to help prospective applicants present the best possible applications for grant support under Public Law 88-164, as amended by Public Law 89-105. In order to do this, a study was made of all applications submitted to but not funded by the Handicapped Children and Youth Grant-in-Aid Program. Twenty-four shortcomings were found to occur repeatedly. A number of suggestions are presented to help applicants avoid these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently therapy for young stutterers has been largely ignored. Public school speech therapists, confronted with the many problems these children present, struggle along as best they can by attempting to modify adult stuttering therapy to fit the children. This report presents a goal oriented experimental program of therapy and the results of preliminary testing with several children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the advances made through congressional legislation and attempts to provide insight into federal activities that concern all handicapped children and youth. Four people-oriented federal activities are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempted to determine the amount of learning which would take place among cerebral palsied children and noncerebral palsied crippled children as compared under conditions of listening to a normal speaking rate (175 wpin) and a rapid rate (275 wpm). There were significant differences between the two samples on the comprehension test of the selection presented at 175 wpm but, contrary to expectation, the samples did not differ significantly on comprehension of the selection presented at 275 wpm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specific superior skills have been found in behaviorally retarded persons (idiots savants). Kiyoshi Yamashita's graphic genius is given as an outstanding example. The suggestion is made that we design prosthetic environments not only to restore average behavioral function to handicapped individuals, but also to develop special skills to the point of superiority. Supporting examples and an interpretation of specific superiority are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the signs of a potential renaissance and a new era in the education of visually impaired children in the U.S. One of the researcher wrote that education of visually impaired children entered a new era when it was recognized that use of vision seldom if ever results in damage, even where serious impairments are present. Further evidence of vigorous research activity reveals an apparently predominating interest in research in the area of test performance, adaptation, or construction.