Happy Cesar Chavez Day! Did you know that March 24th – 31st is Farmworker Awareness Week? CalAgrAbility and Ability Tools are celebrating – along with others in the state of California and across the country – the important jobs of farmworkers by sharing stories about their lives and livelihoods. The California AgrAbility Program (CalAgrAbility) is…
by Janet Nunez, AT Specialist, Parents Helping Parents iTECH Center Yesterday I met up with an old acquaintance of mine, who I hadn’t seen for 10 years, at a neighborhood coffee shop. Leslie and I sipped our first cup of coffee reminiscing and the next cup trying to catch up. The third cup finally brought…
By Kim Cantrell, CFILC’s Program Director When Medi-Cal pays for durable medical equipment (DME), like a wheelchair or a scooter, the recipient actually gets the device from a DME vendor. Vendors are independent businesses that contract with the state of California to provide DME to Medi-Cal recipients. Sounds simple, right? It gets complicated when we…
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…
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…
The field of AT is ever-changing, multifaceted and oh-so-dynamic! Sometimes it gets overwhelming to think about new and constantly evolving technology and the fact that there is always more to learn. Well, the following blog writers can help you make sense of it all, and figure out which AT could work best for you and…
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…
What is crowd-sourced fundraising? Crowd-sourced fundraising allows an individual or group to raise funds online. There are many different user-friendly websites that build your page for you for free or a very small fee. Crowd-sourced fundraising is beneficial because small funding requests can be sent quickly to large groups of people via email and social…
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…
by Christina Mills, Deputy Director of CFILC I’ve been around a number of people with all sorts of different disabilities. When I served on the State Independent Living Council, I had a colleague, Loretta Moore, who was blind. Loretta became a dear friend of mine. Loretta and I both lived in San Diego and since…