Beth Mineo
Associate Professor, Education; Director, Center for Disabilities Studies | University of Delaware
Newark, DE, UNITED STATES
Prof. Mineo's Research focuses on autism and other communication disorders, particularly language disorders.
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Biography
Dr. Beth Mineo is the Director of the Center for Disabilities Studies, Director of the Assistive Technology Unit at the Center, and Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Trained as a speech/language pathologist and specializing in supports for individuals with significant learning and communication disabilities, she has extensive experience in project design and implementation, services for individuals with disabilities, and assistive technology development, utilization and policy. She currently conducts research and implementation projects focusing on accessible instructional materials, language representation, and utilization of assistive technology with children 0-5.
Industry Expertise (1)
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (4)
Assistive Technology Development
Accessible Instructional Materials
Speech and Language Pathology
Communication Difficulties
Media Appearances (5)
Former Milford hospital’s gift shop becomes a hub for assistive tech
Bay to Bay News online
2022-06-23
Beth Mineo, director of CDS, said the resource center houses equipment, software and toys for those with disabilities. Everything from communication devices to support people with vision or hearing loss to modified eating utensils and textured playthings are available. “There is literally something in there for anybody with a disability,” Ms. Mineo said, adding that the center anticipates working with clients of other Wellness Village patients, like a new ventilator unit and PACE Your LIFE. “We looked at lots of different locations, but this was really perfect because there are so many other organizations located in this space that support the same group of people that we do,” she said. “So when someone is visiting another organization, and someone there suggests something they should try, they can just walk over here, borrow it and try it. So we’ll be cross-referring people back and forth.”
Infrastructure law includes money for transit access
NY1 online
2021-12-17
Now, a $1.75 billion investment in the bipartisan infrastructure law that President Joe Biden signed last month aims to bridge the accessibility gap through a new grant program for the more than 920 stations around the country — or 20% of all stations— that don’t meet ADA standards, according to the Department of Transportation. “Even though we have a law that's been in place for over 30 years, lots of our transit infrastructure was grandfathered in under the law,” said Dr. Beth Mineo, director of the Center for Disabilities Studies at the University of Delaware.
Delaware piloting new internet-based voting system for disabled, overseas voters
Delaware Public Media online
2020-05-01
Albence adds the digital ballot marking tool in the new system has greater compatibility with accessibility devices some disabled voters use than the old, in-house system did. Beth Mineo, director of the University of Delaware’s Center for Disabilities Studies, says this is important. “A lot of people who are reliant on assistive technology already have their own personal product, whether it’s for communication or computer access,” she said. “In order to register their vote on a paper ballot, they would have to engage somebody else to take that step at their direction, which at times can open up the question of whose vote was it. But this is much more direct from the person to the system.”
Building Better Special Education Leaders One State at a Time
Education Week online
2020-01-31
The state already offers a special education director credential, but it does not specify what knowledge or skills individuals must have to quality—and only 42 percent of the state’s special education directors have the credential, said Beth Mineo, the director of the University of Delaware’s Center for Disabilities Studies. To close that gap in skills and preparation among administrators, the Delaware Department of Education and the University of Delaware will launch the Special Education Administrative Leadership (SEAL) program this summer using a five-year, $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. “There is no guarantee that even when someone holds the credential currently, that they’re going to have the array of knowledge and skills that we know to be really critical in this role,” Mineo said. “Leadership is critical for setting the tone, making sure that everybody is functioning not just within the law, but reflecting evidence-based practices.”
Two sides of disability housing debate
The News Journal online
2014-11-30
"The fact is, consumers prefer to live at home," said Beth Mineo, director of the University of Delaware's Center for Disability Studies, "and lots of families prefer that their family members live at home. They need the supports to do that." Mineo said she talked with an older couple some years ago who cared for their adult son – lifting him in and out of the tub each day to bathe him. When the father had a heart attack and the mother developed chronic back pain, they saw only one option – moving their son out of the house to a setting where his needs could be met.
Articles (5)
Communication in Children and Youth with Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral Palsy2020 Communication is a broad construct that subsumes a variety of purposes, modalities, and levels. Communication arises from an interplay among physical, sensory, cognitive, and linguistic domains, and disruptions in one or more can influence both the development and use of communication skills. Communication difficulties are present in a very large proportion of children and youth with cerebral palsy and manifest as speech, language, literacy, and interpersonal communication challenges. This chapter reviews communication development in children and youth with CP relative to speech, language, and literacy domains and discusses both assessment considerations and prevalent intervention approaches across all three domains.
Communication Services and Supports for Individuals With Severe Disabilities: Guidance for Assessment and Intervention
American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities2016 The National Joint Committee for the Communication Needs of People With Severe Disabilities (NJC) reviewed literature regarding practices for people with severe disabilities in order to update guidance provided in documents originally published in 1992. Changes in laws, definitions, and policies that affect communication attainments by persons with severe disabilities are presented, along with guidance regarding assessment and intervention practices. A revised version of the Communication Bill of Rights, a powerful document that describes the communication rights of all individuals, including those with severe disabilities is included in this article. The information contained within this article is intended to be used by professionals, family members, and individuals with severe disabilities to inform and advocate for effective communication services and opportunities.
Twenty Years of Communication Intervention Research With Individuals Who Have Severe Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities2010 This literature review was conducted to evaluate the current state of evidence supporting communication interventions for individuals with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. We reviewed 116 articles published between 1987 and 2007 in refereed journals meeting three criteria: (a) described a communication intervention, (b) involved one or more participants with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, and (c) addressed one or more areas of communication performance. Many researchers failed to report treatment fidelity or to assess basic aspects of intervention effects, including generalization, maintenance, and social validity. The evidence reviewed indicates that 96% of the studies reported positive changes in some aspects of communication. These findings support the provision of communication intervention to persons with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities. Gaps in the research were reported as were recommendations for future research.
Engagement with Electronic Screen Media Among Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders2008 This study investigated the relative engagement potential of four types of electronic screen media (ESM): animated video, video of self, video of a familiar person engaged with an immersive virtual reality (VR) game, and immersion of self in the VR game. Forty-two students with autism, varying in age and expressive communication ability, were randomly assigned to the experimental conditions. Gaze duration and vocalization served as dependent measures of engagement. The results reveal differential responding across ESM, with some variation related to the engagement metric employed. Preferences for seeing themselves on the screen, as well as for viewing the VR scenarios, emerged from the data. While the study did not yield definitive data about the relative engagement potential of ESM alternatives, it does provide a foundation for future research, including guidance related to participant profiles, stimulus characteristics, and data coding challenges.
Moving Targets: The Effect of Animation on Identification of Action Word Representations
Augmentative and Alternative Communication2008 This study examined the conditions under which action representations - presented in both static and dynamic formats - were most readily identified. Preschoolers without disabilities selected graphics corresponding to a spoken word from a computerized four-choice array. Although pre-tests confirmed that the children had all of the stimulus words in their lexical repertoires, their demonstration of that knowledge when the stimuli were presented in graphical form was less robust. The children were generally more challenged by the static representations than the dynamic ones, and their performances were most accurate with the most realistic dynamic representations. A developmental effect was noted, as children's symbol identification became more accurate across the range of representational forms as they got older.
Education (3)
University of Pittsburgh: PhD, Communication Sciences & Disorders 1985
University of Pittsburgh: MA, Speech Pathology 1981
Penn State University: BS, Speech Pathology & Audiology 1979
Links (3)
Languages (1)
- English
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