After year adrift Special-needs children still seek help

One year after schools shuttered, the fears of many parents of California’s special-needs students have been realized. Many of those students — whose disabilities can range from autism to deafness, and most of whom have gone more than a year without in-person services such as speech therapy — appear to have regressed physically and academically. “No one is publicly saying, ‘Hey guys, all hands on deck, we need to rally around these kids, we can’t let them fail,’” said […]

People with disabilities direct service providers what they need to know about COVID-19?

Direct Service Providers (DSPs) include personal care attendants, direct support professionals, paraprofessionals, therapists, and others. They provide a wide variety of home and community-based, health-related services that support people with disabilitiesexternal icon. Services provided may include personal care, activities of daily living, access to health services, and more. DSPs have close and consistent contact with people with disabilities and those providing healthcare support services in day and residential programs for people with disabilities. DSPs are […]

Often Overlooked In Pandemic Response Are People With Intellectual Disabilities

Peter Prater’s family wasn’t thinking about COVID-19 when the call came that he had been taken to the hospital with a fever. It was April, and the Tallahassee Developmental Center, where Prater lives, hadn’t yet had any COVID-19 diagnoses. Prater, 55, who has Down syndrome and diabetes, became the Florida center’s first known case, his family said. Within two weeks, more than half of the roughly 60 residents and a third of the staff had […]

ACHIEVING A BETTER LIFE EXPERIENCE (ABLE) ACCOUNTS — 2021 Edition

INFORMATION ABOUT TAX-FREE SAVING ACCOUNTS FOR DISABLED INDIVIDUALS The Stephen Beck, Jr., Achieving a Better Life Experience Act (ABLE) became law on December 19, 2014. The law aims to ease financial strains faced by individuals with disabilities by making tax-free saving accounts available to cover qualified disability expenses. IMPORTANT FACTS TO KNOW ABOUT THE ABLE ACT The designated beneficiary of an ABLE account is the eligible individual who owns the ABLE account. He or she […]

A Dating Study – Love on the Spectrum

It is that time of year where love is on everyone’s mind. There are pink hearts, red roses, and chocolate practically everywhere. While there have been many advances in services designed to improve the lives of people with autism, one thing has been crucially missing: romance and dating. “Netflix recently released Love on the Spectrum,” a show which aims to spread awareness about some of the difficulties people with autism experience when pursuing a romantic […]