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...
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 an...
–Gerry Hinson, Service Coordinator/Nursing Home Transition & Diversion Waiver Program As a Service Coordinator within a Medicaid Waiver program, I work for an Independent Living Center. Under this program’s rules, set by the DOH, each participating person with whom I work in this program must have a Plan for Protective...
Okay its two days before Thanksgiving, I’m leaving at 1PM for the holiday, and I have tons of critical work to do. But the muse has struck me and I must write. THE TIMES THEY ARE A’CHANGIN? Here in Westchester, after 6 years under a conservative County Executive who happily...
by, Mel Tanzman, Executive Director Recently, the Journal News the lower Hudson Valley’s newspaper of record had comprehensive coverage of the sexual offender civil confinement law for psychiatrically disabled individuals called “Connie’s Law”. It gave a quite balanced view of an emotionally and politically sensitive issue and suggested in an...