Site aids parents of disabled kids

A new Web site created by the IU-based National Center for Accessibility aims to help the parents of children with disabilities find a suitable camp this summer. The Discover Camp Web site, ncaonline.org/discover/, was devised by the NCA to expand upon a booklet published with much the same information a year ago by the group, said Jennifer Skulski, director of marketing for the NCA.\n"We realize that many parents of children with disabilities have used the Internet to do lots of research on their children's disabilities," she said. "We hope to tap into this savvy with this Web site."\nThe project was funded by the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The center received a grant from the Division of Human Development and Disability at the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\nThe site itself was made by Instructional Consulting Technology Services in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.\nSkulski said NCA worked with the staff of Bradford Woods Outdoor Center, a camp operated by IU for children with disabilities, in developing Discover Camp. It helps parents ensure that the camp they are sending their children to has adequate accessibility as well as "readily accessible medical care."\nMartha Jacques, the director of Disability Services for Students at IU, said the new Web site is important for parents.\n"For many parents, sending a child to camp is a scary proposition," she said, "but when their child has a disability, it becomes much more complicated."\nSkulski said camp is valuable for children with disabilities because they live in a world where so much emphasis is placed on medical care that recreation becomes less important. Skulski said recreation is just as important for them as it is for other children. \nThe NCA, which just celebrated its 12th anniversary, is a program run by the Department of Recreation and Park administration within the HPER. It was developed by the U.S. Park Service and IU to help promote the recreation of people with disabilities.\nJacques said NCA and the camp at Bradford Woods are helpful because they fill a niche and there are few other organizations doing the sorts of programs they sponsor.\n-- Contact staff writer Michael Zennie at mmzennie@indiana.edu.