President’s Plan To Improve Lives of PWD

After months of delays and months of coordinated advocacy from the disability community, Congress passed another coronavirus relief bill which did not address critical needs of disabled people, their families and service providers, according to the Association of People with Dis- abilities (AAPD). AAPD issued the following statement. “Our community is hurting. Our community is dying. More than 40 percent of the nation’s coronavirus related deaths have been people with disabilities in congregate settings, and yet the recent COVID-19 relief bill provides no dedicated funding to support people with disabilities living…

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Access-A-Ride (AAR) has made various policy changes for the safety of its employees and customers. Below are updates on some of those changes. Beginning in January, MTA New York City Transit resumed fare collection on all Access-A-Ride services. The AAR fare is $2.75 per trip and is collected in cash. Customers must have exact change ready at boarding. Customers who use AAR TransitChek may use the coupons for payment again. Each coupon is good for full payment on one trip. As always, where authorized based on customer eligibility…

Howdy Homemade Ice Cream in Dallas Texas is an ice cream store providing jobs to employees with disabilities. Before opening Howdy Homemade, Tom Landis had a restaurant chain called Texadelphia. On a busy night at the restaurant Landis saw Colman Jones, a man with Down syndrome, jump in immediately to help with orders. After seeing Jones working at the restaurant, Landis was impressed and saw his potential and leadership. He wanted to continue to work with…

When it comes to do-it-yourself projects, training one’s own service dog doesn’t typically show up on anyone’s to-do list. A service dog organization has launched an online program to help owners train their own dogs. Training a service dog is a long and complicated process that until recently, was only done by specialized trainers. It usually takes more than two years to get a service dog from a reputable organization and the costs can go up to $25,000. Learning how to do it oneself makes sense, when most people are stuck at home. “You can’t start training service dogs without a good deal of guidance, even if you’re an experienced pet dog trainer,” said Jennifer Cattet, executive director at Medical Mutts, an group that specializes in medical detection dogs. make mistakes.”