Independent Living Resource Center has produced this resource guide on basic San Francisco services available to people with disabilities. Services listed include
assistance
employment
public benefits
rights
transportation
and other extremely useful information!
It is a comprehensive introduction to disability services in the city. The booklet is also available in Spanish and Chinese.
You can download the booklet directly from the Disability Resources Library, which is available to each One Stop via the Internet. Don't know how to access the online library? Don't remember your login and password? Ask your Manager or contact the Disability Program Navigator at disabilityprogramnavigator@gmail.com or 415-544-0124. We can help you over the phone or even set up a time to visit your One Stop in person.
Part III of the LEGACY Disability Awareness training series is coming up on Friday, November 20th! You must be registered for the entire series and complete online modules in advance. Contact the DPN for more details.
LEGACY Training #3: Substance
Awareness Training Friday, October 23, 2009
9:00AM-1:00PM
50 Van Ness, 2nd Floor Conference Rm.
The LEGACY Disability Awareness Training Series
The series includes 3 in-person trainings and 8 online lessons. Once complete, participants will be certified as Disability Service Specialists. Each One Stop is required to have at least one person go through the full training series, start to finish. Triage Specialists are also required to attend. Remember to complete online lesson L107 (Substance Dependence) prior to Nov. 20th. How to access the online lessons:
To get started with the self-paced lessons, go visit the website below and select "Northern California" as your location: http://www.employ-ability.org/legacy/register.asp
You MUST complete all online lessons and attend all 3 in-person trainings to get your Disability Services Specialist certificate. Certificates should be turned in to Marc Majors upon completion.
If you have any questions, please contact Patrick Regan: pregan@cve.org
Last Thursday November 5th, the Disability Program Navigator was at the Mental Health Association of San Francisco's 12th Annual Conference on Hoarding and Cluttering. This week's resources focus on the issue of compulsive hoarding and cluttering in San Francisco.
The San Francisco Task Force on Compulsive Hoarding estimates there are 12,000-25,000 adults in San Francisco with hoarding behaviors. Compulsive hoarding requires coordinated attention before reaching a crisis point which can lead to eviction, other loss of housing, and homelessness. Compulsive hoarding can be considered a disability for purposes of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The Task Force published a final report, Beyond Overwhelmed: The Impact of Compulsive Hoarding and Cluttering in San Francisco and Recommendations to Reduce Negative Impacts and Improve Care, which offers eight recommendations for reducing monetary and human costs of compulsive hoarding.
California Telephone Access Program http://www.ddtp.org/
The California Telephone Access Program (CTAP) offers free specialized phones for people who have difficulty seeing, hearing, speaking, remembering or moving. There is no cost, obligation, age, or income requirement for this State mandated program.
To be eligible, the person must:
Live in California
Have telephone service at their residence, but it does not need to be in their name
Be certified to have one or more of the following disabilities either temporarily or permanently:
Deaf/Deafened
Hard of Hearing
Cognitive
Mobility
Blind/Low Vision
Speech
There are all types of telephones available! Phones that:
turn up the volume
make dialing easier
allow hands-free operation
flash incoming calls
display conversations in text
remember numbers
There are even the Jitterbug cell phones, which you may have seen commercials for. The cell phone is free and all you pay for is the service charges, which can be as low as $14.99 per month.
To request an application, contact the CTAP Call Center:
If you went to the LEGACY Training #2 on October 23, we want to hear your feedback! It only takes 5 short minutes to complete the survey (click on the link above).
This feedback is extremely useful for us! We use it to make sure that your time is well spent and you gain the most possible from the trainings we provide.
NAMI-San Francisco sponsors a free monthly membership that is open to the public and features speakers addressing issues relating to mental illness, including research, medications, social security benefits, and job-training programs.
From the NAMI-San Francisco website: NAMI-San Francisco is one of more than 1,000 local affiliates of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, known by its acronym NAMI. It is a self-help organization of family members, mental health consumers, friends, professionals and other interested citizens, united to provide support, education and advocacy for persons with severe mental illness.
The next upcoming meeting is:
"Out of synch and Out of sorts: Schizophrenia" Wednesday, November 19th Family Service Agency 1010 Gough (at Eddy), San Francisco 6:30pm-9:30pm
Presented by: UCSF faculty: Dr. Daniel Mathalon, PhD, MD, a psychiatrist, and Dr. Judith Ford, PhD, a neuroscientist.
For more information, call 415-905-6264 (905-NAMI). There is no registration required to attend.
There is a new face on the DPN team and her name is Cristina Mitra. She is the new DPN Librarian. Her main job is to help you -- the San Francisco One Stop staff. Each Friday, you'’ll receive a "Resource of the Week" email in your inbox from Cristina that will point to to this blog. On the blog, you will find an organization, program, campaign, or service that might help you better serve job-seeker with disabilities. Usually, this will be a resource from the San Francisco Disability Resource Library (sfDRL), which you should be able to access.
She will also help you by:
Keeping the sfDRL up-to-date with the most current info while adding new resources every week. Have a question about the database? Cristina can help!
Visiting the One Stop centers each month with the DPN and also outreaching to employers, job-seekers, non-profits, and other organizations.
Helping coordinate trainings on a wide range of topics to help you do the best job possible.
She will be in the office part-time from Wednesday through Friday each week. Contact her at disabilityprogramnavigator@gmail.com or 415-544-0124. She is also bilingual in Spanish.
This week the DPN is launching its online Disability Resources Guide!
This web-based guide is your One Stops' personal library of disability and employment information. It was created by the Disability Program Navigator for SF One Stops in order to centralize information on services for individuals with disabilities.
Each One Stop must provide a permanent email address to serve as your site's username.
Orientation sessions will be held: Fri, August 21, 3-4pm Wed, August 26, 3-4pm Fri, August 28, 3-4pm
LOCATION: CVE office, Computer Lab, 1425 Folsom St., San Francisco
Please let us know if you will attend. disabilityprogramnavigator@gmail.com 510-544-0124 office
Quick and Easy Guide to SSI and SSDI This free booklet answers common questions about SSI/SSDI benefits, definitions of disability, how to apply, how to appeal, amount determinations, and In Home Support Services. Published in 2007, it is available in English, Spanish and Chinese from the Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco (ILRCSF). ILRCSF runs Latino and Chinese outreach programs, workshops, support programs, and special services for individuals with hearing loss.
With budget constraints ILRCSF is not currently able to provide free printed copies of their publications, so we have posted this Quick and Easy Guide to SSI and SSDI, along with several other ILRCSF pubs, on the DPN's new Disability Resources Guide (launching this week). Contact the DPN to access the database and sign up for an orientation session.
To preview this publication in English, click here.
This week we're focusing on screen readers, a form of accessible technology to help users with low-vision or blindness. Screen reader software can also be very helpful for users with learning disabilities or cognitive problems caused by medication, illness or brain injury.
Introduction to Screen Readers JAWS is the most common and robust screen reader. It is also the most costly ($1000). For One Stops, JAWS may be more powerful than necessary. Below is a comparison of free screen readers compiled by Jane Berliss-Vincent at the Center for Accessible Technology. These will be the most useful for One Stops.
Additionally, the following software also has audio features that can help users with vision loss or learning disabilities:
ZoomText Magnifier/Reader ($500)
EasyTutor from Dolphin Computer Access ($335), orKurzweil 1000 (for the visually impaired, $1000 and up) and Kurzweil 3000 (for those with reading difficulty, $2000 and up)
