Brain Storming for a Formal Letter

I am actually excited about my new assignment for my English class. We have to write a formal letter to someone. It can be about anything, as long as there is somewhat of an outcome. I am kind of stuck on three different types of letters.

1. Handicap parking at UNO
2. Mortgage Modification
3. Wheelchair Discrimination

Should Tablets Replace Textbooks in K-12 Schools?

My family recently had a debate about how textbooks should be replaced with tablets. So I did some web surfing and this is what I found.

Publishing for the K-12 school market is an $8 billion industry, with three companies - McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - capturing about 85% of this market. Tablets are a $35 billion industry with roughly one in three adults owning a tablet. As tablets have become more prevalent, a new debate has formed over whether K-12 school districts should switch from print textbooks to digital textbooks on tablets and e-readers.

Proponents of tablets say that they are supported by most teachers and students, are much lighter than print textbooks, and improve standardized test scores. They say that tablets can hold hundreds of textbooks, save the environment by lowering the amount of printing, increase student interactivity and creativity, and that digital textbooks are cheaper than print textbooks.

Opponents of tablets say that they are expensive, too distracting for students, easy to break, and costly/time-consuming to fix. They say that tablets contribute to eyestrain, headaches, and blurred vision, increase the excuses available for students not doing their homework, require costly Wi-Fi networks, and become quickly outdated as new technologies are released.

i am all for tablets rather than textbooks because I believe people are more interactive and there is no worry about damaging the book.

Making places truly handicap accessible

In my English Comp 1 class, we started a new unit about disabilities. So, I decided that I wanted to share an experience I had when my family drove from Omaha to Tyler, Texas, and the different restrooms I had to face while being in a wheelchair.

1. Toilet seats

People with limited mobility in their legs or backs appreciate the hand rails, I'm sure. The rails are good to pull yourself up. However, the emphasis should also be on not having to pull so far. Higher toilet seats can go a long way. All of the seats we came across but one were the same height as all the others. When we did find a higher one, it was like a party in there. We're not asking for seats that automatically lift you, that might be a little much. Just make them higher and we'll be good. This also helps the caregiver who has to use body mechanics to lift the person off of the seat.

2. Space in general

Having one larger stall is fine. But remember that not all handicapped people can walk or are just down to a small walker. Some of us have to get wheelchairs in there, plus a caregiver. We love the restrooms that not only have plenty of space to get a wheelchair into the room itself and around it, but have a stall that the wheelchair can go into and turn easily while also having room for the caregiver to get in and help out. Just adding six inches to the sides for a rail is really no help at all.

3. Trash cans

Trash cans are awesome, we all know this. But not so good when left in the only path a wheelchair can take to get to a stall. Leaving that path completely open is a big help all by itself.

4. Sinks

Some people in wheelchairs can get into most sinks while sitting but may have to lean forward a lot, which can cause pain. For the truly handicap-conscious, one lower sink can be quite groovy. It's also helpful for the kiddies.

5. Monstrously heavy doors

When building a restroom do this little experiment. If you have to grunt or otherwise heave or put effort into opening the door, what good will it do for a person with limited strength and mobility? Those huge doors that seem to be on a vaccu-suck are horrendous if there's no caregiver around. A lot of these people are still able to go out on their own, so cut them a little slack on that door, will you?

6. Hotel rooms in general

Here's a small hint to hotel owners worldwide. If your room is tiny, the bathroom is small, and you have one hand rail on the wall, you shouldn't advertise handicap-accessible rooms. Those are hand rail rooms for those who can walk. If you want to be cool with the wheelchair program, here are some great ideas:

Put lots of room around the bed, at least on one side. We need room for a wheelchair to get in there and turn around. We also need to get past the desk if there is one. If all else fails we'll do without a table, so long as there's good space.

Walk in bathtubs or showers with no lip are fantabulous. Motel 6 is actually a king in our books for great handicap bathrooms, at least in the four or so we stayed in. They had showers you could easily transfer someone into with built in benches for the person to sit on, with removable shower heads to get a full cleaning. Wonderful. In fact we were totally thrilled with the Motel 6 rooms we used. That's only four or five of course so I can't speak on all of them, but those were great. The bathroom should also be pretty big, to get a wheelchair in and allow room for a caregiver to transfer someone to the toilet or shower. Of course, higher toilets also apply here.

No steps up into a room. We ran into one place we had to just leave because there were two concrete steps in front of every door. It is not ideal or possible to pick someone up out of a wheelchair, bring them in, and then bring in the wheelchair (ours only weighs several hundred pounds), and then repeat this anytime you come and go. We're not all bodybuilders.

Conclusion

I know it's expensive to renovate sometimes, but let me tell you, when we come across great bathrooms, we're guaranteed to return to that place. We avoid places we can't get into, and if more public places went truly handicap-accessible, they might just get more business from those who gave up long ago.

Should prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers?

The US and New Zealand are the only two countries where direct to consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs is legal.  In the US, these ads are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure that they are not false or misleading.

Many research organizations and pharmaceutical industry groups contend that the ads are educational, provide consumers with important information that may benefit their health, and help generate sales revenue necessary to offset high research and development costs.

Opponents counter that DTC drug ads are often just sales pitches which pressure doctors to provide unnecessary medications and cause patients to seek unhelpful and costly remedies. They say that the FDA does an inadequate job of making sure drug ads are not false or misleading. 

Here are my reasons why I believe that prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers:

• Direct to consumer prescription drug ads, like most advertisements, are intended to sell the product being advertised. Such ads use marketing tactics that manipulate, create false impressions, and otherwise mislead consumers instead of educating them about the drugs.

• Direct to consumer drug ads cause people to pick medicines based on the effectiveness of the advertisement rather than the effectiveness of the medication.

• Doctors may lose patients if they refuse to prescribe drugs that their patients have seen on television and now want. As a result, some physicians may sign prescription requests just to keep their patients happy and coming back, thereby becoming "rubber stamps" for patient requests. 

• Patients may hear a prescription drug's numerous side effects in an advertisement and forgo needed treatment out of fear without realizing that all medications have side effects. Patients need a balanced view of risks and benefits which cannot be presented in a short advertisement

My Mom Gave Me A Heart Attack

So, today while I was in class, my mom sent me a text saying that my brand new 50" slim 3D tv did not work. Now remember I was in class, so if I decided to scream or cuss, then I would be embarrassed. So, I respond and said what did you do, I just spent over $2,000 on this tv,

As I am trying to focus on the lecture, I am blind sided by my tv problem. My mom keeps texting me and I tell her I am in class, what do you want me to do. As soon as class ended, I called her and asked her what did she do to my brand new tv.

What really made me mad that, she figured it out and that everything was okay. I thought to myself, why did you text me if everything was okay.

PARENTS.