by Shannon Coe, CFILC’s Reuse & Finance Coordinator During the weekend of November 19th and 20th, I got the chance to attend the Abilities Expo in San Jose. There were new faces and animals at the event. I saw horses giving rides to people with autism as a form of therapy. There was a hot…
September is National Preparedness Month In his proclamation designating September as National Preparedness Month, President Barack Obama stated, “In April of this year, a devastating series of tornadoes challenged our resilience and tested our resolve. In the weeks that followed, people from all walks of life throughout the Midwest and the South joined together to…
By Dr. Bob Segalman, President, Speech Communications Assistance by Telephone, Inc. People with speech disabilities are asking others to help urge the FCC to update technology regulations to improve their telephone access. The FCC is considering whether Speech-to-Speech (STS) should be upgraded to include a video component, called Video Assisted Speech- to-Speech (VID-STS). The information provided…
This is a guest post by Jeff Symons, MSE, ATP, a rehabilitation engineer located in Northern California. Jeff provides AT and ergonomic assessments to individuals and clients of the California Department of Rehabilitation as well as other agencies. I recently got feedback from a counselor that many of the clients that I assessed had quit…
Shannon Coe, CFILC’s Reuse & Finance Coordinator, interviewed Nellie DeMeerleer, YO! Volunteer As students are getting ready for the new school year, I wanted to find out what kind of AT youth are using these days in college. So I decided to interview Nellie, a youth volunteer for the Youth Organizing (YO!) Disabled and Proud…
By Allan Friedman, CFILC’s Technologies Manager California made a BIG bet in March. We (the disability community, caregivers and the legislature) bet that AT devices for a few at-risk individuals will save the state $140 million dollars in prevented hospitalizations. And if we’re wrong? A cut to IHSS hours for all. When SB 72 was…
By Shannon Coe, CFILC’s Reuse & Finance Coordinator Yesterday, as our country celebrated Independence Day with friends and family, I also got to enjoy a clean Independence Day with my husband and friends with the help of Wally. No, Wally is not a dog or a cat. He is cleaner than any dog or fury…
It’s time for an AT Network success story.Sometimes the difference between living on one’s own and requiring skilled nursing care can be as simple as a single assistive device. “Mary” (not her real name) is a senior living in the Santa Barbara area. She lived by herself in the home she and her late husband purchased…
A Call to Action: The California Department of Health Care Services has proposed to cap benefits for several categories of “optional” services under Medi-Cal in the Governor’s budget proposal now before the legislature. These caps will limit the maximum annual fiscal year reimbursement that Medi-Cal will pay for such things as hearing aids, wheelchairs, IV…