Ella, Riley, and Victoria's Stories: Life Can Change in the Blink of an Eye
Public service and advocacy run deep in the LaVigne family.
Our Daughter Becca Is an HCBS Success Story: Let’s End Waiting Lists Now!
Thanks to the support of Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), Becca is able to direct her own care and decide where she wants to live.
Why We Must Eradicate HCBS Waiting Lists
Why do people with disabilities and their parents have to jump through so many hoops to access the funds that keep them at home and in the community where they thrive?
My Son’s Nurse Can’t Survive on What She’s Paid
She cried as she told me that the health insurance she is offered doesn’t cover her or her daughter’s monthly medications, and she just can’t go on without making ends meet.
Wear a Mask at School! Protect Our Children!
Now imagine having a child with this condition during this global pandemic and you can maybe emphasize with a fraction of the terror we feel daily in making basic decisions like, should my son go play outside with friends?
What the ACA Means To Me
Getting my social work degree is the long-delayed answer to a professional calling to a helping profession. A calling I ignored for over a decade because good health benefits, so critical for my family, kept me tied to my old job.
“Thought in Action”: Art & Advocacy with Angela Weddle
I’m a BIPOC, queer, autistic, and disabled visual artist, poet, and autistic advocate originally from New Orleans, LA. I currently reside in San Antonio, TX.
Everyone Should Be Eligible for Organ Transplants
It had never occurred to me that my daughter’s intellectual disabilities could be a reason to deny her the lifesaving kidney transplant she needed.
Independence Can’t Wait: An Interview with Ande Kolp about Home & Community-Based Services
Growing up in Iowa, I was fortunate to attend a school that was highly inclusive. I’m fairly sure that was not typical back in the 70s.
Why I Fear for My Child’s Safety
Autistic children and adults are especially vulnerable to police violence due to the common behavior of elopement, which is wandering off to escape anxiety, overwhelming sensory stimuli, or to simply seek out enjoyment such as interesting places or the sensation of running.
Poetry & Autistic Advocacy: An Interview with Nathan Spoon
I developed a love for poetry in my late teens. My parents were supportive of these interests and, even with our limited family income, I had my own books (which I kept stacked on my bed, beside my pillow!) and access to art supplies.
Sharing the Journey with Jeneva: Amy Silverman & Sophie Stern on Journalism & Disability Representation
We are still super early in the discussions around plain language translation. It's tricky – you really you really can't automate it, even the plain language translations need to be fact checked and lawyered.
Sharing the Journey with Jeneva: Loving Anian with Meeka Caldwell
When Anian was younger and first starting school, I looked for books about Down Syndrome to read to his class. I noticed they were difficult to find and impossible to find with a Black child with Down Syndrome.