If you have used article marketing as a way to enhance your visibility on the web, establish your expertise, or drive traffic to your online business, then you may also have considered public speaking. In fact, promoting your business via public speaking may prove to be an even better option than article marketing, as it lends that personal touch upon which so many “people businesses” rely. Giving a talk to a group is a great way to get “face time” with potential customers, acquire lucrative connections and establish yourself as a trusted industry resource. Unfortunately, for many people public speaking ranks high on the list of greatest fears. So, how can you maximize your speaking opportunities without maximizing your blood pressure? How can you stop those maddening “what if…” questions that paralyze you? One of the best strategies you can implement is to take the time to ask, and then answer those questions. If you are plagued by public speaking paralysis, here are a few ways to cope with your nagging nerves.

What if they all laugh at me?

First of all, they are not “all” laughing. It is doubtful that anyone is laughing. To prepare for this “what-if”, try to empathize with your audience. Imagine yourself in their place. Your audience is seeking either enlightenment or entertainment. They do not want you to fail. If you succeed, then they are getting value for their time or money spent. If you put on a great performance, they will be entertained, informed, and inspired. Your success is their success. No one wants you to waste their time. Your audience is actually rooting for you. When you look at it that way, it’s hard to think of the audience as an adversary.

What if I forget what I’m supposed to say?

Your audience does not have the text of your speech in front of them. They have no idea what you planned to say. If you have to ad-lib, they will have no idea. If you sheepishly admit you’ve gone blank, while you stutter and stammer and stumble around, then you will unnecessarily call attention to your lapse. If you are concerned about losing your place, simply allow yourself notes. Notes can be camouflaged numerous ways; Taped to the back of a chair that is tucked under the head table, affixed to the reverse side of a flip chart page, pinned to a side curtain, anywhere. Think creatively about how you’ll hide your cue cards and ticklers. Simply by taking a proactive approach, you’ll be more relaxed and less likely to forget your content.

What if my equipment fails?

Have a plan B. However, if you are so dependent upon your slide show that you cannot function without it, perhaps you might rethink your presentation technique. Make printed versions of your slides, if possible. If there is a technical problem, during a break you can make copies for the audience to read. Pack extra projector bulbs, extension cords, and duplicate files on flash drives. Bring your laptop, too.

What if the staging or seating is set up incorrectly?

Arrive early. If possible, find out who the facilities event crew will be, and get the name of the specific person in charge of setting up the room. Not the name of the hotel desk clerk, company event planner or the hotel concierge, get the name of the actual person who will be setting up the room. Provide him with a checklist in advance, and say, “Let’s work together to get this done.” If you behave like a demanding diva, you just might arrive to an empty room, and be forced to set it up yourself. Afterwords, be sure to show appropriate appreciation to all support personnel who assisted you.

Take the time to prepare a list of “what if” questions, and then answer them. Simply by strategizing for the unforeseen, you’ll feel more in control, and therefore more relaxed. Consider that nervousness doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. To borrow a line from the film, ‘Being Julia,” nerves are the respect we pay our audience. Sometimes, excitement can be mistaken for nervousness. Allow yourself to enjoy your performance. Your enthusiasm will be infectious, and your audience will want to join the party.

Copyright 2009 by Laura Legendary All rights reserved.

By: Laura Legendary

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The internet offers freedom for visually impaired people and people with other types of disabilities. It offers them the opportunity to go shopping, talk with friends, run a business, and generally stay informed. This is something that not many people with good eyesight think about. For an experience that many of us view as primarily visual it is hard to grasp the importance of good content and a well designed site for people with these types of disabilities. However for web designers and SEO practitioners this should be of prime importance. Unfortunately, often it is not.

There has been great advanced in assistive technology recently for the 10+ million of Americans who are visually impaired. This includes screen readers and Braille devices which give them an alternative way to view a site. I was involved in a demonstration of this technology recently which is very impressive. Unfortunately the results from badly designed sites or poorly optimized sites greatly reduce the user experience of the visually impaired. Keyword stuffing, poorly written content, gibberish alt tags, stuffer anchor text, and graphical designs all weigh in to reduce the experience and make web sites, in some cases, almost impossible to comprehend.

Many web designers and SEO practitioners are not supportive of this group’s needs. They have been slowly coming around to the fact that great content offers an enhanced experience for the human visitor and for the search engine spiders. However by taking this a step further and incorporating techniques that aid assistive technology, rather than bog it down, they will be on their way to offering a first rate experience for all groups of internet users.

Let’s make a stand to help the quality of life for people with disabilities. Whether you are a site owner, web designer or SEO practitioner become informed of the needs of ALL of your user groups. Work to raise the awareness of their needs in your community and your industry. By making these efforts we will be doing our part help to improve the quality of life for disabled users. Is there any more noble cause?

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]]> http://www.aaate.org/help-visually-impaired-visitors-to-view-your-website/feed 0 http://www.aaate.org/how-do-interactive-whiteboards-assist-students-with-disabilities http://www.aaate.org/how-do-interactive-whiteboards-assist-students-with-disabilities#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 13:57:40 +0000 admin http://www.aaate.org/how-do-interactive-whiteboards-assist-students-with-disabilities

Fortunately experts have been analyzing the problem for education of disabled people for a very long time and they have come up with the perfect solution for those people with disabilities, which is nothing but the gift of technology, interactive whiteboards.

These useful gadgets have made life easier for all kinds of people who wish to learn from others or express their thoughts and the highest achievement of this product is that they are capable of helping even the people who have visual and hearing disabilities. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Act of the year 1997, this device is the best solution for these problems and the companies which manufacture them are being flooded with positive comments and suggestions for improving the products even more. The best part of this is that buying an interactive whiteboard is a onetime investment to a healthier and useful tomorrow.

The method of using a device or an idea to assist someone with a disability is scientifically termed as assistive technology. The term can further be explained as the method of acquiring an item or a product that is available commercially or with a custom request, for increasing, maintaining and improving the capabilities of the people with disabilities. The interactive whiteboard functions as a display larger than that of the computer screen; it is possible to use as a display by interfacing the product with a laptop or a desktop which contains the material for conveying to others. People can either use the interactive whiteboard for accessing the computers features directly or can use virtual software for the keyboard to take notes and to display them.

This being the case, many institutions which have been started using this for teaching knowledge to the students with disabilities and it has been quite successful in achieving greater support each day from almost everyone in the world. It is said that by using technology in the right way to help everyone, irrespective of their abilities and disabilities, we can minimise the additional costs that might be incurred to the institutions in the future. The interactive whiteboard is the perfect way of teaching people with disabilities as they are capable of using audio, visual and interactive methods of conveying something to a person and for receiving a message from others.

The board is useful for those who are hard of hearing as they provide excellent visual quality of text, motion picture, slides and art in the most realistic colours available for viewing. By this simple design, such people can benefit greatly by learning the subjects of different categories. Students with visual impairment may use the audio facilities in the board to interact with the same and learn the finest points of all subjects at hand. People cannot write and walk may use this facility to study, by voice activated commands, prompting the board to do different tasks for them. Such a wonderful innovation has made life of the students with disabilities, as easy as possible.

By: Thomas Radcliff

About the Author:

The New York State Early Intervention Program (EIP) is part of the National Early Intervention Program that focuses on infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. It was created first by Congress in 1986 under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); the EIP is administered by the Department of Health in New York through the Bureau of Early Intervention. The Early Intervention Program is established in Articles 25 in New York of the Public Health Law and has been in effect since July 1, 1993.

In order to be eligible for services, children must be 3 years old and under. They must have a confirmed disability or established developmental delay, as defined by the State in New York, in one or more of the areas of development such as physical, communication, social-emotional, cognitive and adaptive.

The Early Intervention Program provides a variety of therapeutic and support services to eligible infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families which include the following:

Education for family and counseling, home visits, and groups of parents support Special instructions given Audiology and speech pathology Physical and occupational therapy Psychological services offered Coordination of services Nursing services Nutrition Social works Optimal services Assistive technology services

The main mission of the Early Intervention Program is to identify and evaluate as early as possible. For those infants and toddlers whose healthy development is compromised and provide for accurate intervention, are enhanced in order to improve child and family development.

Early intervention services are provided to help the children grow and develop, this may also help parents to support and promote their children’s development. Available services include evaluation services such as hearing and vision screening, home visits, physical, speech and other therapies like child development. Any child from birth to the age of three with a developmental delay, disability or any condition that affects development may need help as much as possible.

Early Intervention Program is funded and regulated by the Department of Health in New York State. It is a free program that helps to evaluate children who are under three years of age and have a suspected delay, such as in motor functioning. After doing the evaluation, the child may receive therapies to help these delays either if it is in a pre-school near home of just in the home since it is a comprehensive interagency program.

The Early Intervention Program helps to support infants and children with developmental delays in their efforts to realize their potentials. This helps reduce the likelihood of delays among at-risk children and empowers their families to meet their children’s as well as their own needs. The program also entitles children regardless of their race, ethnicity or income to services through Early Intervention Program. Children are given the opportunities to enhance their lives with this type of program.

By: Simon Bukai

About the Author:

Stairlifts are used by individuals with disabilities to help them move from one place to another. There are several different varieties of these lifts and each is chosen for the specific needs of the user. A stair lift is installed where there is a staircase in the house, which enables the user to safely go upstairs. The type chosen will be determined by the user’s weight and the width of the staircase it needs to be fitted to.

Most of these types of stairlifts run off of a battery operated motor, or possibly two batteries, depending on the size of the stair chair. In the event of a power outage, the chair will run off of the battery that is used as a backup. The most common form of stairlift used for a staircase is one that runs on a type of track system that is installed to the staircase or the wall. The chair follows the route of the track or rails. The chair on the stair lift will come with non-skid parts and equipment for the user’s safety. You can purchase optional accessories for a stair lift such as a phone or call button that will summon help if needed.

Most stair lifts can hold approximately 400 – 500 pounds. In order to purchase the correct lift for the persons needs, they will need to call a company that provides and installs the lifts. Each lift meets the specific needs of the house it will be installed in and of the person who will be using it.

The time required to install a stairlift will vary. If the house is equipped with a wide staircase and doesn’t need to be refurbished for the installation, the installation time will be shorter. Some staircases are narrow and will need to be widened for the lift to work properly. If you hire and purchase a stairlift from a professional company, and your staircase is of the proper width and design, installation should only take a few hours. Keep in mind that there may be a few alterations they will need to do which will cause the installation time to run somewhat longer.

The cost of a stair lift can be quite expensive depending on the type chosen and the alterations that need to be done. It can cost an estimated three thousand to ten thousand dollars (higher end models) for some lifts to be bought and installed, and unfortunately most insurance companies do not pay for this. Each individual case is different though, so it would be a good idea to check with any insurance policies you have including your health and home owner’s insurance policy.

By: Stephanie Stanton

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