Innovative Approaches to Providing Outdoor Education for Handicapped Students. Outdoor Education for the Handicapped.

Overview & Synopsis

This publication describes 12 outdoor education programs/centers serving persons with disabilities in their program curriculum. Each program is described in detail and each description includes an overview of purposes and goals, facility/site description, administration structure, program emphasis for disabled populations, and source of funding and annual operating budgets. The programs are geographically representative of the United States and incorporate "state-of-the-art" techniques/approaches utilized for outdoor education program planning development and implemented for the disabled. Included are examples of mainstreamed and segregated programs serving all types and ages of disabled persons in either residential or day programs. There are also examples of cooperative approaches to program design/development utilizing parents of disabled children, educators, and park and resource management personnel as members of planning teams. Other programs describe techniques used for fundraising and integrating outdoor education into the overall curriculum. Programs described are Babler Outdoor Education Center for the Handicapped; Bradford Woods Outdoor Education, Recreation and Camping Center; Camp Confidence; Colorado Outdoor Education Center for the Handicapped; Courage Center Outdoor Education Programs; Eckerd Wilderness Education System Camping Program; Georgia State Camping Program for the Handicapped; Lathrope E. Smith Environmental Education Center; Minnesota Outward Bound; Mt. Hood Kiwanis Camp; Nassau BOCES Outdoor and Environmental Education Program; and Santa Fe Mountain Center. (NEC)