Hi all,

I just joined today and am scouring the archives to get to know you all a 
bit better. I will likely have a few questions soon for a project I am 
working on.

However, I found this post - though now 2 weeks old - and wanted to direct 
you to a source of some photos for your handouts and such.

The post said (#548) says in part,
"Digital photos of medical equipment, syringes, body parts or even
medication could easily be organized on a computer, matched with simple
text, and then customized and printed out for patients. For example a
series of pictures --close-up with little in the background-- could be
used to demonstrate how to give an insulin injection. Or you could have
pictures on file of different common medications and put a photo of the
prescribed number of tablets of each kind, matched with the pictures of
sunrise, noon and sunset. '

The writer was suggesting background-free photos. This is a common 
technique for language systems, schedules, pre-teaching, and social stories 
for people with autism and others who use photos for communication systems. 
Removing the background keeps students focused.  It has been a 
long-standing practice, that is research-based, though I don't have 
citations handy. A Mom of a boy with autism has created a number of CDs 
with background-free photos. I use them all the time with my son and to 
create visual tools for independence for people with intellectual 
disabilities. You might find something helpful there, and the cost of the 
software is very reasonable. Her website is http://www.silverliningmm.com .

Also, if you have photoshop or probably other photo tools, you can usually 
use the magnetized lasso to go around the piece of the image you want to 
highlight and then lift it out of the picture, pasting it into a new frame 
with a white background.

Take care,
Joan

Joan Guthrie Medlen, R.D., L.D.
Program Director, Creating Solutions
14535 Westlake Drive
Suite A-2
Lake Oswego, OR   97035
(v) 503.443.2258         (f) 503.443.4211
TheEditor at disabilitysolutions.org
www.creating-solutions.info
www.disabilitysolutions.org