Recent Blog Posts
Voting- Key Dates for Florida 2024
Polling places are designed to be accessible through features like ramps, accessible voting machines, assistance from poll workers, curbside voting, and clear pathways, ensuring all voters, including those with disabilities, can participate.
The 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)!
This month marks the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law on July 26, 1990.
Happy Pride Month: The Evolution of The LGTBQIA+ Flag
This month represents the entire community, including queer, intersexual and asexual individuals. Across the nation, people come together for festivals and marches to celebrate this unifying month. Many symbols have even been made to represent gay pride, most popularly the rainbow flag.
Hurricane Preparedness: Emergency & Evacuated Assistance Program (EEAP)
With hurricane season approaching, make sure to get ahead by registering for the Emergency & Evacuation Assistance Program (EEAP). This program is designed to provide evacuation support to residents that may need specialized transportation assistance or those whose medical needs prevent them from evacuating themselves.
Benefits Information 24-06
A payee must use benefits in the best interests of the beneficiary, according to his/her best judgment.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month (2024)
Remember Help is always available – The 988 Lifeline provides 24/7 Free and confidential support. It’s never too late to get help.
The View From Here (24-05)
While sometimes a whisper can give you a loud and clear message, maybe it’s in those moments where the message actually roars, that wakes you up to listen just a little bit more. I’m beginning to see it’s those times that my disability is teaching me something. Sometimes it takes a loud cry from someone, something, or some event in our lives, to wake us up to the changes that are happening, or should be happening, right in front of us. While you may not see them as a positive at the time, there may be a lesson there, in the roar. A lesson in acceptance and leaning into that change.
Benefits Information 24-05
Community Work Incentives Coordinator can provide thorough, timely, and accurate information, a variety of benefit scenarios, and facilitate the beneficiary to make informed choices about work, benefits, and financial stability and as a result the SSA beneficiaries with psychiatric disabilities will be able to:
Develop economic security and the ability to support oneself and/or family
Develop assets and achieve financial goals and
Achieve a higher socioeconomic status
Can’t I Just Plug Autism into my GPS?
Along with “just love them,” I’ve discovered a few other self-guiding principles. I’ve learned the importance of not exhausting oneself. It’s tempting to run yourself ragged, getting your children to therapy after therapy, convincing yourself that every therapy is “crucial” or driving a great distance to find the “perfect” school. “Perfect” doesn’t exist and every therapy is not “crucial.” I’ve learned that while seeking good therapies and good schools is desirable, it is more important to focus on peace within the family, to give my children a safe home base where they can comfortably be themselves.
Benefits Information 24-04
If you receive Social Security benefits and you have a job or are looking for one, there are specially trained professionals known as Community Work Incentive Coordinators (CWIC) to help you make sense of complex employment and benefit-related issues.
The View From Here (24-02)
There is a saying, “Just because I carry it so well, doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy.” But I think this “carrying it well” goes for most of us, doesn’t it? While you may not suffer from a disability or have to deal with the types of challenges those of us who are disabled do, most of us have things in our lives that we just don’t discuss. Things that we hide away to just get through the day, so we don’t have to share it with anyone. We put the makeup on, or the business suit, we take and post the glamorous selfie, when, in fact, behind the scenes, our lives aren’t exactly what we dress them up to be. We present an image we think the world wants to see, instead of sharing the difficulties we deal with day-to-day, when it’s the sharing that may actually be the thing that helps others.
Bottoms Up!
Yes, colonoscopy prep is inconvenient, but a cancer diagnosis is life altering. Chemo kills the cancer, but it also poisons the body. There was neuropathy, sensitivity to cold, fatigue, nausea, and constant diarrhea for six months. I also had the unfortunate luck of being the only person I know who gained weight on chemo! The physical part was easier than the mental. Somehow I did it, because what other choice did I have?
Why Voting Matters
Be Election Ready in 2024. Use your vote and be counted. It matters.
Vote the Way that works for you.
Be Election Ready in 2024. There are three ways to vote in Florida.
Update Your Signature
Be Election Ready in 2024. If the signatures don’t match your vote will not count.
Register to Vote.
Be Election Ready in 2024. The deadline to register for an upcoming election is 29 days before that election.
March 19, 2024, is the Presidential Preference Primary Election in Florida.
Be Election Ready in 2024. This year only registered Republicans voters are eligible to vote in the Presidential Preference Primary Election in Florida.
The View From Here (24-01)
So, I took a deep breath. Reminded myself that I could, actually, “Do it scared,” and I forced myself through the fear. While as a young girl on that hill years ago, I needed someone to help me get through that fear and walk back to my family, the years since and the trauma I’ve endured from my SCI have helped me now have the tools to work through the crippling fear on my own. I remembered all of the work I’d done, remembered that I actually now had the ability, and that I couldn’t let this fear keep me from moving forward. I pushed through, and I walked back to my house, by myself, using only the cane. Despite the fear trying its best to keep me from getting there.
Guest Blog – Making the Internet a more inclusive place with accessiBe by Sheldon Lewis.
The reality is that only 3% of websites are accessible to disabled people. accessiBe has products and solutions to help any business or developer make their website and resources accessible, so that everyone can use them.
The Miami Inclusion Alliance (23-11)
To institutionalize our work, we have made our resources and tools available to all on the Disability Independence Group Inc. website under Projects and on the Miami Inclusion Alliance YouTube channel.
