Obama Accomplishments pt2: Funding for Individuals with Disabilities

Obama Administration Accomplishments List

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• Accomplishment: Provided $12.2 billion in new funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Act though the American Recovery and investment Act
• What is it? 
  Funds detection, early intervention, and assistance to families with infants and toddlers (ref)
  
  
• Why does it matter? 
  For economical reasons alone it makes sense, because children with disabilities who receive help early in their life are more likely to overcome challenges presented by disabilities and become contributing members of our economy.  Not to mention increased happiness of the children and everyone close to them.
  
  This topic is close to home for me, because I have more than one person to whom I'm very close with a form of learning disability, and one who suffers from a serious physical disability.  I see the difference in their lives, between one who attended a school that had no detection or assistance programs in place for learning disabilities, and another who was detected at a very early age, receiving the correct treatment necessary to adjust and have a productive and happy education.
  
  
  The friend mentioned above, who went undiagnosed, is one of my closest friends.  Her Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD) was undiagnosed until her 20s.  She struggled with grades and took no pleasure in her academics.  Finally, in college, she was encouraged by a professor to get tested for a learning disability.  When she learned about NLD and how to work with it, she quickly soared to honor student, began to love learning, and continued to earn a double Masters degree.  She received no free passes and put in the extra time and money (audiobooks turned out to be an extremely useful but expensive tool) that it took to overcome her obstacles. Without educators trained and funded to notice telltale signs, she lost the majority of her educational years fighting a losing battle to achieve.  Imagine how much happier and productive her young adult years would have been if her school had been properly funded to detect and assist learning disabilities at an early age.