The Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities and Creative Housing are continuing to offer incentives for people to try remote support, which can increase privacy and safely reduce the need for on-site staff. People served by FCBDD and who have a Medicaid waiver can receive up to $50 a month for 12 months to pay …

As a college student, direct-support professional, service coordinator and, eventually, a department manager at the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Lindsay Holt always kept to a highly structured and stable routine. “There was never a time that I thought I’d make a decision like this,” she said, smiling. “I have a conflict between my …

For many people with physical disabilities, the path to true community inclusion often stops at the bathroom door. That’s because there are hardly any public places with accessible restrooms that also include an adult-size changing table. “It makes you isolated, even more than you already feel as a person with a disability,” said Kim Boulter, …

Bill Ryan admits to being skeptical about hiring Emma Snailham as a bus assistant for the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities. After so many surgeries on her hands, he worried she wouldn’t have the dexterity to safely secure a wheelchair. Ryan may never have been so happily wrong. Not only could Snailham handle the …

Boundless Health is welcoming patients to a newly renovated facility that will serve as a hub for primary, dental and behavioral-health care for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. “We are going to be one of only a few organizations in the entire country who provide this unique care,” Dr. Patrick Maynard, president and CEO …

Had it not been for a visit to a special-education classroom with a college dormmate, Dr. Angela Ray might have kept to her initial plan and wound up with a job in public relations. But the school experience affected her deeply. “These are the people I need to serve,” she remembers thinking. Ray graduated from …

For almost all of his life, through childhood and adolescence and well into middle age, Tom Gisler had no way to understand why he felt so different. When he finally was diagnosed with autism, he was 59 years old. “Turns out I wasn’t lazy, I wasn’t stupid,” Gisler, who’s now 63, said with a smile. …

During the early days of the pandemic, with most schoolwork and socializing taking place on a screen, Sierra Olsen came to an important realization about her future. “I decided that I didn’t want a job where I just sat in front of a computer,” she said. That knowledge eventually led to a summer position with …

The DownSyndrome Achieves (DSA) Biobank is now offering at-home services to families willing to donate biological samples for use in medical research projects. “We’ve partnered with a third-party phlebotomy company to collect blood samples in participants’ homes,” said Lito Ramirez, CEO of DownSyndrome Achieves and the parent of a teen with Down syndrome. “This will …

When it came to reading, Ethan Boerner didn’t make a lot of progress in school. “It just seemed so hard,” said Boerner, who has Down syndrome. “I wasn’t interested.” He never really got the chance to discover whether he might have been more successful as an older student. His educational programs moved along, and Boerner …