News

Through the Looking Glass (TLG), a nationally-recognized center for families with disabilities, is offering a new free program, called Chatterbox, for parents with learning difficulties or intellectual disabilities and their young children. TLG describes the program this way:  Chatterbox is a parent-child interactional therapeutic play/care group designed to give parents with intellectual disabilities or learning difficulties the tools to encourage language skills …

There’s something new afoot in the jobs market.  A better mousetrap, so to speak.  Venturocket.com is offering a completely new way for job seekers and employers to connect with each other that eliminates the worst part of the process for both parties. For the job seeker there’s no more endless, stressful hours of searching, tweaking resumes, writing cover letters and filling out forms.  With …

Maybe I’m a bit late to the game, but I’ve only just discovered Josh Blue.  Wow, he’s fantastic! A stand up comedian with cerebral palsy, Josh’s heart-warming humor breaks down stereotypes  of people  with disabilities. After gaining national recognition by winning NBC’s Last Comic Standing competition, Josh appeared on Fox, CBS, ABC, NPR and MSNBC.  He was the first comedian to perform stand-up …

Did you know you no longer have to go to Washington, D.C., to visit the Smithsonian Institution?  The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has created an online exhibit called EveryBody: An Artifact History of Disability in America. The exhibit presents history from the perspective of people with disabilities and features sections on disability and history, people, places, technology, and civil rights.  …

Recent scientific studies have shown that sitting for long periods, even for two hours, is unhealthy.   According to the Mayo Clinic, any extended sitting–whether behind a desk at work, in front of a TV or in a wheelchair–can be linked with a number of health concerns, including obesity and metabolic syndrome, increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and …

 Raise your eyebrows and open your eyes as wide as possible.  At the same time, open your mouth and stretch the muscles around your nose and chin and stick your tongue out.  Hold this stretch for 5-10 seconds. OK, so you might not want to do this at the office.  But when you’re by yourself . . . hey, why not?  It’s …

The Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center has created six “know your rights” videos in American Sign Language (ASL) with English captioning.  These videos, the first of their kind in the nation, provide critical legal information on a variety of employment issues in a format that’s accessible to deaf and hard of hearing workers.  The video titles are: Discrimination in the Workplace …

If finding suitable housing is a concern of yours, you should know about the Housing Workshop 101 offered by the Center for Independent Living (CIL).  Conducted by Housing Consultant Max Dolan, some of the topics covered include: Housing subsidy information Updated housing leads Roommate registry Project-based Section 8 listings Housing search skills Senior resources While Max specializes in housing in …

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.”  If you think about it, it does make sense–after all, our body components are built from and maintained by the nutrients we take in.  What we eat is very important to our health and well being. With this in mind, the World Institute on Disability (WID) is putting out a …

California residents who receive Supplemental Security Income, food stamps (SNAP), MediCal or other public assistance, or who meet certain income guidelines, can receive free cell phones through the federal Lifeline* program provided by Assurance Wireless.  Roughly 4.6 million California households could be eligible. Those who qualify for Assurance Wireless will get a basic cell phone, plus 250 free minutes and 250 text …