This presentation from the 2023 AACPDM Community Forum presents and overview and a model creating opportunities for employment for individuals with disabilities.
As spring approaches, millions of high school seniors get one step closer to their career and to becoming the person they have dreamed about growing into since they were children. Receiving college acceptance letters is one of the most profound experiences in a young adult’s life. Moving out of your childhood home and stepping into the real world is a majorly exhilarating life event.
Setting up a comfortable home office is key to optimizing work/life balance.
This webinar is with Ketrina Hazell, Ms. Wheelchair 2018, a young woman with cerebral palsy and Debbie Fink, Vice President of Education and Inclusion at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, overseeing its flagship “Just Say Hi” program. This webinar is about Ketrina's lived experience in the school system and community and what worked or didn't work as she was growing up.
This webinar with Rachel Byrne, Ashley Harris Whaley and Debbie Fink, focusses on the shifting attitudes towards disabled individuals and authentic representation in media, social media and more.
This webinar with Rachel Byrne, Executive Director of CPF, Ashley Harris Whaley, Director of Communities and Engagement at CPF and individual with with CP, and Debbie Fink, Vice President of Education and Inclusion at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, overseeing its flagship “Just Say Hi” program, focusses on concepts and definitions addressing disability and how language has evolved.
This webinar, with Ashley Harris Whaley, Director of Communities and Engagement, Rachel Byrne, Executive Director of CPF, and Debbie Fink, Vice President of Education and Inclusion at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, overseeing its flagship “Just Say Hi” program, focusses on the terms "ableism" and "allyship" and ways to facilitate making connections in the schools and communities.
This webinar with Rachel Byrne, Executive Director of Cerebral Palsy Foundation, Ashley Harris Whaley, Director of Communities and Engagement, and Debbie Fink, Vice President of Education and Inclusion at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, overseeing its flagship “Just Say Hi” program.This video series is a partnership with the New York City Department of Education and the Cerebral Palsy Foundation "Just Say Hi" Disability Education Curriculum. This series is meant to educate and empower parents of students with diverse needs.
This webinar with Jennifer Lyman, Content Manager for CP Resource and parent of a teen son with with CP, and Debbie Fink, Vice President of Education and Inclusion at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, overseeing its flagship “Just Say Hi” program. This webinar aims to help parents adapt and support academic success and participation at school and in the community.
This webinar with Ashley Harris Whaley, Director of Communities and Engagement, Rachel Byrne, Executive Director of CPF, and Debbie Fink, Vice President of Education and Inclusion at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, overseeing its flagship “Just Say Hi” program. It It aims to provide an overview of disability history and laws.
This webinar with Jacqueline Wentworth, Pediatric Occupational Therapist and individual with with CP, and Debbie Fink, Vice President of Education and Inclusion at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, overseeing its flagship “Just Say Hi” program. This webinar aims to help parents adapt and support academic success at home.
Medicaid Waivers, Katie Beckett or TEFRA are all forms of benefits that an "waive" medicaid financial restrictions for parents of children who have a developmental disability acquired prior to the age of three. Kidswaivers.org has provided a comprehensive, interactive website of all available medicaid waiver programs by State across the US.
This IEP Checklist should provide helpful support when preparing for, setting goals, maintaining communication and achieving student success!
A new school year means new teachers, a new grade, new friends, new goals and maybe even a new school. Our friends at Learning Disabilities Online have put together these helpful tips to help you and your child or teen transition back to school a little easier.
Many people do not know the difference between SSI and SSDI. It can be very confusing for a family or individual to understand what is available, and whether they will qualify. Very often, the recipients and their families do not even know which benefits they are receiving. But it is important to understand some basic information about government benefits. This post will focus on the two most common government benefits and give you a brief overview of how they work.
Setting up a Third Party-Special Needs trust as part of estate planning is essential if the individual with a disability is or may be eligible for means-tested government benefits. A properly set up Third Party Trust ensures that the funds left to the individual, whether through gift or inheritance, are not considered countable assets when applying for means tested benefits
Individuals with disabilities have opportunities to work, receive employment training and coaching, benefits counseling and save money without losing means tested benefits. This podcast discusses these options.
In 2014 the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act was passed. The ABLE account is a tax-advantaged savings account for individuals with disabilities. The individual with the disability is the account owner and anyone can contribute to the account – the account beneficiary, family, friends, even a Special Needs Trust.
A special needs trust is a written legal agreement that enables an individual with a disability to qualify or remain qualified for means tested government benefits, such as medicaid, SSI or even medicaid waivers.
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR), operated by the Department of Education, can be utilized for their many tools to aid those with disabilities in the preparation for the job search, finding gainful employment, and maintaining this employment.
We got the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy when Lelia was 18 months. I was really happy, as we didn’t know what was wrong with her before then. She had low tone. She couldn’t roll over. She couldn’t sit up. Of course she didn’t walk. The diagnosis gave it a name, something I could work with, and I became a kind of vigilante mother, determined to get the best care for my daughter.
Almost all of us can vividly conjure up an episode of being bullied that occurred in our own lives. Hopefully, fewer of us will have memories of being the bully. These experiences and remembrances often are formative, perceived as hurtful, and can have a long term impact on our health and well-being. For me the memory of being the center of attention in a negative way never quite fades, but with age, the perspective changes to a challenge.
As cities and states across the countries are lifting the COVID-19 lockdown orders, people are returning to work at their offices. However, since the virus is still very much going around, employers must be vigilant about keeping their workplaces as safe as possible. Although we might be seeing a sense of “normalcy,” there’s still a long way to go before reaching the pre-pandemic normalcy—if we
Around the age of six all children are going off to school. Children move from explorative play, which is fairly informal to a much more formal day. That can be a lengthy day and it's quite structured. There are a lot of challenges faced by children with cerebral palsy throughout the school year.
There are a couple of key things to think about in helping children and adolescents make the transition into young adulthood and independence. One of those things is called mastery motivation and we can see mastery motivation early in life. It's the ability to persist in the face of challenge. If you're growing up with a disability, it can be harder to do things. If you are not challenged, if the environment is not set up correctly, or if you don't have the resources, then you start to feel that you can't master certain kinds of tasks.
