By Michael Avella I joined the WDOMI team in August of 2021. I come to WDOMI with over forty years of business experience from both the private and public sectors. After spending nearly 20 years in the telecommunications industry, life pointed me in a different direction where I worked in...
by Charles Italiano, Assistant Director Independent living centers such as WDOMI endeavor to promote the independent living of people with disabilities. Independent living has a range of definitions depending upon the circumstances and demographics of the individual with a disability. For instance, to an older adult, independent living may mean...
By Lindsay Miller – Executive Director of the New York Association on Independent Living (NYAIL). NYAIL is a statewide, not-for-profit membership association created by and composed of Independent Living Centers (such as WDOMI) across New York State. The COVID-19 pandemic has, obviously, been a global tragedy and has forced all of...
WDOMI has New York State of Health certified Navigators who can assist New York residents in qualifying for and enrolling them in an affordable health plan. Residents of NY State – Ages 0 to 64 can get full coverage from $0 monthly premium to obtaining financial assistance to reduce the premium...
March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020 Westchester Disabled on the move, Inc. mourns the loss of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a champion for disability rights. She authored the majority opinion in the 1999 Olmstead v L.C. This decision prohibited unjustified segregation into institutions of people with disabilities...
By Maria Samuels By now, you have heard all the precautions, and I hope you are carefully following them. One thing I will take away from this crisis is that thanks to my disability, I have advantages that others don’t. Thanks to my blindness, I am already careful about where...
This is the first of 2020 tributes to the icons of the Disability Rights Movement. Here’s to the misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo....
by Carole Conklin – WDOMI staff When was the last time you took a walk through a garden and stopped to appreciate the beautiful scenery of plants and colorful flowers and breathe in the aroma of their scents? Since losing my sight back in 1991, I haven’t honestly had...
Emmanuel Segarra-Otero, Fair Housing Investigator from Westchester Human Rights Commission, talks about housing laws and protected classes at our May Monthly Housing Workshop. At a recent event, a person in the audience vented his frustration at me. He was angry that I, that my agency, was not doing enough about...
DISABILITY RIGHTS LEADER FATHER OF INDEPENDENT LIVING MACARTHUR FELLOWS (“GENIUS GRANT”) RECIPIENT GOOGLE DOODLE HONOREE “The greatest lesson of the civil rights movement is that the moment you let others speak for you, you lose.” – Ed Roberts Every field, every group has its hero. The exceptional person you can’t...