Cyberangels ^Å^ Support

I've tried to break the sites I've found into special need categories, but many of them overlap. In addition, knowing that other sites exist where children who are exceptional (and their parents) can share good and bad things with others who understand their concerns can inspire parents of all children. So, I've jumbled them all together here, in one group, without trying to categorize them. You should check each of them out. They inspired me, and I hope will inspire you.

The Mining Company has a great general site for parents, and a few wonderful sites devoted to parenting children with special needs. The featured areas include medical discussions and some help parents deal with day-to-day issues of parenting special children.

Our Kids is a website (a list serv) designed to give support to parents of disabled children. (Actually it's to all caregivers, but since this book is written for parents . . .) Randy Ryan, the one who keeps the Our Kids site going, explained that primary caregivers of a severely disabled child (who is cognitive enough to want entertainment) find it extremely hard to network with other parents. The listserv offers the advantage of the ability to participate on their own schedule plus get input from "a LOT of other parents that have already gone through the same things as [the parent is] asking about, far more input than [they] would be able to get via "live" networking. And support is always just a keyboard away."

The average subscriber to the Our Kids list has a child with long term disabilities and 99 percent of them have children with mental/behavioral issues in addition to a physical/genetic disability. The site focuses on broad interest in physical/medical/behavior issues. It's a great place to go when you need the support and help of other parents of Our Kids.

There are a few special parent resource sites I want you to know about, also.

Family Village is a "global community of disability-related resources." It provides resources for mentally retarded people and people with other disabilities, and their families, and their caregivers. It contains great resources, especially for recreation and leisure, including information about the Special Olympics.

Parents Helping Parents is also an all purpose resource site for parents of children with disabilities or special medical conditions. There is a database of resources searchable at the site. They also have a list of support groups listed by medical condition or disability. Its a very special site with a lot of information.

Apple Computer Inc.'s sites are a rich source of support for parents and children with special needs too. One site, The Disability Connection , lists equipment available to help adults and children with disabilities use computers and get online.

Another site sponsored by Apple is their Convomania site for children battling serious illnesses (mania.apple.com). It features live chats, cybercolumns, Ask "Margot" (the "Dear Abby" of the seriously-ill kids set) and discussion groups. It's written by kids for kids, and it shows.

In addition, they have a refrigerator door page, where kids can submit artwork responsive to the topic of the month (a recent topic was expressing pain, through artwork). Convomania then posts the submissions at the site.

Apparently (and thankfully) I wasn't the only one to notice this very special site. In Spring 1998 a musical theater production of Convomania opens. Based on the life stories of the Convomania kids themselves, a script is being prepared using comments and ideas submitted by the kids at the site. Anyone can add ideas for improving the script and developing the story line. It'll be fun to watch the script develop . . . like a story built around the campfire. I want a front row seat.

Another resource, just for kids with hearing disabilities, Internet for Deaf Cyber Kids is a list serv for deaf kids, from ages 3-19. It also sponsors an IRC channel for deaf kids chats twice a week. I've heard only good things about this community for deaf kids.

It's hard enough trying to find toys that make our kids happy, but to find them for exceptional children is next to impossible. A good resource for toys for exceptional children is the Dragonfly Toy Company, Inc. site (www.dftoys.com/). Dragonfly produces toys for children with special play needs. At the site you can either search for a toy that matches your child's needs or register (like a wedding gift registry) for toys your child would like to receive.

WOW Online is a website maintained by Winners On Wheels, a non-profit organization for children who use wheelchairs. This isn't a site for parents, it's for the kids themselves. The sites contains some very good basic Internet skill training. In addition, kids can post their artwork or writing at the site and find cyber penpals across the United States.

If you're looking for hard to find products and devices, I've found another very helpful site. Disability Information and Resources isn't a glossy site with a lot of graphics, but it is loaded with a lot of information. Everything from special computer accessibility products to exercise devises are listed at the site, in an easy to read list. It also has a searchable list of links to other sites for disabled and special needs resources. This is a good site to use first when you're looking for a site for special needs kids.