logo of AT video contest: says show off your Assistive Technology 2015 video contest with side yellow leaves framing it

2015 AT Video Contest – It’s an Exciting New Year with Ability Tools!

Ability Tools just recently opened a nationwide contest where participating contestants could potentially win $500! The purpose of the contest is to showcase the creative ways people with disabilities use assistive technology (AT) in their daily lives. Many people with disabilities use AT to accomplish tasks they otherwise could not. Sometimes they modify a commercial…

picture of Christina in the driver's seat of her van using hand controls next to the steering wheel and she is smiling

Driving Discrimination

by Christina Mills, Deputy Director of CFILC Having the ability to drive is definitely on my top 10 list of things that make feel independent. As a person born with a disability to non-disabled parents I really had no idea that driving would ever be an option for me. It sounds strange, being that I’m…

woman holding up hot spot in front of dap poster

FREE Hot-Spots and $10 /Month Internet!

The Digital Access Project, a program of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (CFILC), and Basic-Internet.com are providing free hot-spots to people with disabilities and their families who currently do not have Internet service at home. “The best gift possible is giving someone affordable Internet at home,” said Kim Hogan, Digital Access Program Coordinator. …

top picture of an elderly black gentlemen with headphones on and an expressive expression and the bottom a latina older woman with the same look

Music & Memory

by Samantha Garcia, Office & Logistics Coordinator Henry lives in a nursing home. He has dementia, rarely speaks and rarely moves. But when he is given headphones attached to an iPod with music specific to his age and known memories, he is moved – to dance, to sing, to speak about what it has given…

Posterized style acrylic painting titled - Unsung Hero

The New Aged Veteran

by Jose Guerrero, CFILC Creative Designer & Web Developer Re-integrating into civilian society is not an easy task for any veteran, let alone a veteran with a disability. Fortunately through programs, benefits, and support groups, this veteran managed a moderately successful transition. One might ask – why only moderately?  Well, for as many programs as…