Resource Center · Staff
For staff and educators.
Public professional learning starting points on accessibility, communication, disability language and transition, from the organizations that set the standards. These are references, not AHM policies. Follow AHM and Kean University procedures for anything that involves a specific student.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Topics on this page: ableism · disability language · disability justice · presuming competence · AAC · switch access · eye gaze · partner-assisted scanning · assistive technology · Universal Design for Learning · accessible documents · alt text · captions · plain language · Easy Read · self-advocacy · person-centered planning · transition · community-based instruction
Accessibility and universal design
CAST: UDL Guidelines
The Universal Design for Learning guidelines: many ways to take in information, many ways to show what you know and many ways to stay engaged, designed in from the start.
Fewer after-the-fact accommodations when the lesson is built for everyone.
Best for: Staff
Topics: UDL, lesson design
W3C WAI: Images tutorial
The web standards body’s tutorial on alt text: when an image needs a description, what to write and when an image is decorative. The same WAI site covers captions and other media.
Every newsletter, slide and web page staff make can be read by a screen reader if the images are described.
Best for: Staff
Topics: Alt text, captions, accessibility
Section508.gov: Create accessible documents
Federal guidance on making Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF documents accessible: headings, alt text, reading order, tables and checking your work.
The step-by-step checklists for the documents we send home.
Best for: Staff
Topics: Accessible documents, PDFs
Communication and AAC
AAC is communication. The entries below cover switch access, eye gaze, partner-assisted scanning, aided language modeling and wait time in a few sentences each.
ASHA: AAC Practice Portal
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s professional summary of augmentative and alternative communication: what it is, who uses it and what the evidence says.
When someone tells you a device will stop a child from talking, this is the evidence that says otherwise.
Best for: Staff, Families
Topics: AAC, speech-language, evidence
CommunicationFIRST
A disability-led organization that advances the communication rights, autonomy and dignity of people who cannot rely on speech to be understood, including people who use AAC.
It gives families and students language for a simple truth: AAC is communication, and being understood is a right.
Best for: Families, Students, Staff
Topics: Communication rights, AAC, autonomy
AHM note: it fits AHM’s belief that every voice matters.
ASAN: Easy Read guide
How to write Easy Read documents: short sentences, one idea per line, pictures that support the words.
Useful for anything staff want students to read themselves.
Best for: Staff
Topics: Easy Read, plain language
-
Augmentative and alternative communication is every way of communicating that adds to or replaces spoken words: picture boards, sign, gestures, writing, and speech-generating devices and apps.
-
A device, a board or a sign is not a substitute for a voice. It is the person’s voice. AAC supports language; it does not hold it back.
-
A look, a reach, a sound, a body turn, a smile, a refusal: all of these communicate. Communication partners learn to notice and respond to every form.
-
The communication partner points to or selects symbols on the person’s own system while speaking, so the person sees the words being used before being expected to use them.
-
Many people need more time to process a question and to organize a response, especially with a device or a body that moves slowly. Pausing, and staying quiet while you wait, gives the person room to answer.
-
The partner offers choices one at a time, by speaking them or pointing to them, and the person signals yes when they hear or see the one they want.
-
Making a choice by looking. It can be as simple as looking at one of two objects, or it can use a device that tracks where the eyes are looking to select words on a screen.
-
A switch is a button a person can press with any reliable movement, such as a hand, head or knee, to operate a device, make a choice or take a turn.
Disability language, identity and ableism
Person-first and identity-first language are both used and respected; the person’s own preference comes first. The Understanding Disability page has a plain-language introduction you can share with families and students, and the glossary defines the terms.
APA: Choosing words for talking about disability
The American Psychological Association’s guidance on person-first and identity-first language and on words worth reconsidering.
A neutral reference when a family or colleague asks which words to use.
Best for: Staff, Families
Topics: Disability language
NIH: Person-first and destigmatizing language
The National Institutes of Health style guide entry on respectful, non-stigmatizing language about disability and health.
Short, official and easy to share.
Best for: Staff, Families
Topics: Disability language
ASAN Resource Library
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network’s library of plain-language and Easy Read resources on self-advocacy, autism acceptance, community living, transition and rights. Written by disabled people.
Students can read many of these themselves.
Best for: Students, Families, Staff
Topics: Self-advocacy, plain language, rights
Sins Invalid: 10 Principles of Disability Justice
A short, foundational statement from a disability-led arts and justice organization. Its principles include wholeness, interdependence, collective access and cross-disability solidarity.
It says plainly that disabled people are complete human beings, which is where good practice starts.
Best for: Students, Families, Staff
Topics: Disability justice, interdependence
AHM note: shared as education, not as political advocacy.
Presuming competence
Assume a student can understand, learn and communicate, then provide the access they need to show it. Model language on the student’s system, wait, and accept every form of response. When in doubt, presume competence.
Transition, community-based instruction and self-advocacy
NJ Transition Toolkit
The New Jersey Department of Education’s toolkit for students, families and professionals on planning the move from school to adult life.
It explains what should happen in the IEP from age 14 on, including Pre-Employment Transition Services.
Best for: Students, Families, Staff
Topics: Transition planning, Pre-ETS, IEP
Planning for Adult Life
A statewide program funded by NJ DDD for young people ages 16 to 21 and their families: employment, postsecondary education, benefits, eligibility, legal and financial planning, health, housing, self-direction, relationships and community life.
It walks families through transition one topic at a time, with guides and webinars.
Best for: Transition-Age Students, Families
Topics: Transition, employment, benefits, planning
Transition guides, including “It’s Time to Travel: A Roadmap to Transition”
AHM note: especially useful for families of students in L.I.F.T., especially in the last years before 21.
DDD: Person-Centered Planning
Planning that begins with the person: strengths, preferences, communication, culture, relationships, needs, goals and choices.
It is the same starting point AHM uses when we plan with a student, carried into adult life.
Best for: Transition-Age Students, Families, Staff
Topics: Person-centered planning, service plan
ASAN: Roadmap to Transition
A handbook for young people with disabilities about moving into adult life, written for the young person to read.
A transition guide addressed to the student, not only to the parents.
Best for: Students, Transition-Age Students
Topics: Transition, self-advocacy
Pre-ETS: Pre-Employment Transition Services
Services for students with disabilities ages 14 to 21, based on need, in five areas: job exploration counseling, work-based learning experiences, workplace readiness training, counseling on postsecondary education, and instruction in self-advocacy.
Pre-ETS begins while a student is still at AHM, so the work does not wait until graduation.
Best for: Students, Transition-Age Students, Families
Topics: Pre-ETS, work experience, self-advocacy
At AHM
Career and Transition describes community-based instruction and work experiences at AHM, and L.I.F.T. covers the transition program for students ages 15 to 21. Life After AHM is the family-facing guide to adult services.
Assistive technology
NJDOE: Assistive Technology
The New Jersey Department of Education’s page on assistive technology in special education, including how AT is considered in the IEP.
It explains how to ask for AT through the IEP, in the state’s own words.
Best for: Families, Staff
Topics: Assistive technology, IEP
AT4NJ
New Jersey’s assistive technology program: device demonstrations, short-term loans, reuse of donated equipment, training, information and referral.
You can try a device before anyone buys it.
Best for: Families, Students, Staff
Topics: Device loans, demonstrations, reuse
Assistive Technology Advocacy Center (ATAC)
Disability Rights NJ’s assistive technology program, which helps people with disabilities learn about, find and advocate for the technology they need.
If a device is being denied or delayed, ATAC knows the funding routes and the appeals.
Best for: Families, Students, Staff
Topics: Assistive technology, advocacy, funding
Classroom tools staff use
Only programs AHM actually uses in 2026-27 are listed. Student-facing platforms are on the Learning Tools and Family Connections page.
Baamboozle
What is it? Game-based review that a teacher runs on a classroom screen.
How might AHM use it? Whole-group review games.
Can it be used at home? It is designed for the classroom.
Login? Teacher account.
Twinkl
What is it? Printable and digital teaching resources.
How might AHM use it? Adapted materials and visuals.
Can it be used at home? Materials are provided by the teacher.
Login? Teacher account.
This page holds public professional-learning links only. Passwords, student information, private forms, IEP files, student schedules and internal IT procedures never appear on the website. Outside resources are provided for informational purposes and do not constitute an endorsement by A. Harry Moore Laboratory School or Kean University. Programs, services, eligibility requirements, funding and availability may change. Families should contact each organization directly and work with their school team or appropriate service coordinator when applicable.
Last reviewed: September 2026