I'm writing on behalf of the Committee on Chemists with Disabilities (CWD) of the ACS. We are revising our manual, Teaching Chemistry to Students with Disabilities, with a pretty tight deadline. The manual is aimed at chemistry educators, secondary school and higher, to make them aware of the nature of disabilities that their students may have and the best ways of addressing them for testing as well as in the classroom and the chem lab. Disability services personnel will of course give the instructor guidelines, but many students do not go through disability services at the post-secondary level and guidance such as this can supplement these guidelines.
My main concern is Chapter 9, Speech Impairment. In the last edition of the manual, this had been folded into the chapter on hearing, but it's obviously a much broader topic so we have separated it out. To be honest, I'm in a tight corner. We have planned a workshop to review all the material at the end of June, so that we can present the completed manual to CWD for approval at the ACS national meeting at the end of August, and right now we don't even have an author for this chapter, since the original volunteer is unable to do it for personal reasons.
Would there be anyone on the listserve or among your contacts who would be willing to write this chapter? I will be more than happy to share the prospectus for the manual, a sample completed chapter, and the guidelines for the chapter, if you email me. The length is up to the author, but we're probably looking at no more than 6-10 pages, less if appropriate. Our goal is to make the instructor aware of a student's needs and how to best address them in different academic settings (classroom, testing and chemistry labs), not to replace the expert.
To be upfront, there is no monetary value for this, since the manual will be distributed by CWD at no cost. It would, however, qualify as a peer-reviewed professional publication.
Patricia Ann Redden, Ph.D.
Emerita Professor, Chemistry Department, Saint Peter's University
Fellow, American Chemical Society
Fellow, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
SAINT PETER'S UNIVERSITY
The Jesuit University of New Jersey
