 Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include the HOD of New York and New England where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Center Vermont Habitat for Humanity and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montpelier Medical Center of the Bronx, Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx. Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter and the Society of Professional Journalists. Welcome to this edition of Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns and achievements of the differently able. I'm your host Lauren Seiler. I'm Lauren Seiler. And on this year end 2021 edition, I know it's been a strange year with COVID, but let's take a look back of what we saw this year in 2021 in the field of special needs on Ableton on Air. But before we do that, we would like to say special thanks to our sponsors, Green Mountain Sports Services, Washington County Mental Health and many others, including the partnerships of the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired and many others, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Montpelier Sustainable Coalition and Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity and many, many others as well. Now let's take a look at our year in review for 2021. First up, I recently completed a history class at Southern New Hampshire University. Part of my last assignment was to do with permission from the college, Southern New Hampshire University online, was to do a project on the work of President John F. Kennedy and his family. Let's take a look at two parts. Part one, the Rosef Kennedy in the Bronx has a wonderful program for people with disabilities. Back in the 1960s, it was set up with services such as occupational and physical therapy and many others, you know, many other services. Let's take a listen to co-director Joanne Siegel of the Rosef Kennedy Center. Let's take a look at this clip. Tell us the missions and goals of the Rosef Kennedy Center and its work in Bronx, New York. Sure. The Rosef Kennedy Center for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities basically established in 1966 with the ground breaking on the grounds of Jacobi Medical Center. And it was part of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and today it remains the leader in our work in developmental disabilities. The purpose of the Kennedy Center was actually part of the 1966 legislation that was signed by John F. Kennedy. It was the Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities Construction Act. With that legislation, monies were set aside for university settings to provide science research, community education and clinical services for people with, at that time, the language was mental retardation. We now use the terminology intellectual disabilities and we also include developmental disabilities, which is a little broader spectrum of people having certain conditions that appear before the age of 22. I'm sorry. My question, I'm sorry for interrupting. Why was the language different back then versus now? Why was the language, you said mental retardation, why was the language different back then versus what it is now? Okay, so essentially many of the language evolves, okay? Language is never stagnant. And the words mental retardation were actually clinical terms that were part of the diagnostic manual for medical conditions. Over the years, through advocacy, the terminology has changed and mainly because of the negative connotation or the negative connections that people have when they use the term mental retardation, it had become, over the years, a derogatory term. And so people that are self-advocates actually spoke up and asked for that terminology to be changed. And so the terminology that we now use today is intellectual disabilities. Now, let's take a listen to our second clip from the Kennedy series, from the Roosevelt Kennedy series of Abel Denner later. The second part is Dr. Herbert Cohen of, you know, Amritus. He's also a lecturer now also with the Roosevelt Kennedy Center. Let's take a listen to his work in pediatrics and people with special needs. Let's listen to his interview. Let's take a look at this. A lot of your work and let's start there. What has been your work in the field of pediatrics and working with special needs for many years? Well, I came to Albert Einstein Medical School under the mentorship of Dr. Larix Taft who established our program in 1956. And I came there as actually a fellow of his from 1962 to 1964 and I stayed, eventually became the assistant director and then became the director of the center, which I did until about 12 years ago when I became an America's director. And I've continued to teach and until a year and a half ago see patients of my own and follow them over the years. So I have been a became a specialist in developmental pediatrics, which includes taking care of children, adolescents and some adults with developmental disabilities. So I became a specialist in the field beginning in 1962, really, and then continuing on for the rest of my career until the current time. I'm now an emeritus professor and I am semi retired. I still give some lectures, but I've not done any hands-on work with any patients for the past year and a half. Okay, let's take a listen and look at Team 2 of Washington County Mental Health. One of our sponsors here are Abel Denanera. Let's listen to their interview. Well, Team 2 is a statewide training for first responders really in a nutshell. The missions and goals are really to build the relationships necessary for first responders to be able to collaborate in responding to a mental health crisis call. So we offer the training in five regions around the state with the purpose of building those relationships with fellow first responders who you might be responding to a call with in that region. So for police dispatchers, mental health crisis workers, EMTs, emergency department personnel are invited because of that handoff in a mental health crisis. I also invite state's attorneys to attend. And that's about who gets, you know, notice of the trainings and the dates and things. So the goal is really just to hear about what's working in that region for them, what isn't working to give some people some ideas about how to better collaborate and come to a really peaceful resolution in a mental health crisis. Okay. Like my wife says, let's take a look at Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity. Abel Denanera was recently there at a house building. Let's take a look at this. Yeah, why don't you, let's come inside because it's raining today. This is actually quite an improvement from where it was a year ago in the UK. Which is Bruce Landry. That's Bruce, yeah. So Bruce, do you want to? Yeah. So today what we're going to do today is if the weather permits and it looks like it's not going to, I wanted to get the shed roof on. Recently in the news, there was someone who did the Boston Marathon. His last name was Hoyt. Let's take a look at that show. Let's take a look at this. Who has ran marathons while pushing his son dies at 80. This is according to the New York Times and other newspapers. He finished more than a thousand road races with his son, Rick, who is in a wheelchair. They were best known for competing in the Boston Marathon. Now here's a man, despite his challenges. If you look at video, he was getting older and so on and so forth. Yes, Dick Hoyt pushed his son Rick in the Boston Marathon in 2006. And the two competed in the race nearly every year from 1980 to 2014. And how to get out of them, part one and part two. Okay. Back in 2021, we did two shows on, back in 2021, we did two shows on scams. Let's take a look at both of them. Let's take a look at this. Or there's a term used, taken to the cleaners in terms of being scammed out of large amounts of money. Okay. Recently, I need dental work in the state of Vermont. And recently I had gone to affordable dentures in Burlington, Vermont. Now affordable dentures is a large discounted or a corporate chain of dentists. So come to find out when I go there, they couldn't help me anyway because I have seizures. Almost had a seizure in the chair and I told them to stop. They stopped and they're giving me my money back. However, due to some of the people that I've spoken to, why is it that it takes a company 10 days to two weeks to give you your money back? They owe me a large amount of money, $2,255. So turns out, I disputed it with the bank and the bank is going to be giving me some money before affordable dentures is. Recently, back in 2021, Ron Rondon stopped by and he did a show on sports because he does a show in Brooklyn called Road Trip with Ron Rondon. Let's listen to his interview. Now, Brick Arts Media staff shortages are a huge problem. Let's listen in. Back in the Bronx, we have a friend, his name is Luis Torres. He's been a friend to me as a journalist for many years and also here on Abledon on Air and with my former show, Special People Special Issues in the Bronx. But Luis Torres also teaches the direct workers, the direct support professional classes in the Bronx. Let's listen in to his interview. Let's take a look at this and see how we can work together to fix the staff shortages when it comes to working with people with special needs. Let's listen in to Luis Torres' interview. You've been training people to work in the field of special needs for many years. For those that don't know, what is a DSP and how has the position been dealt with during the pandemic or even before the pandemic? People with various disabilities, autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy. It used to be known as a DSP or previously known as a direct care worker. The reason for the change is because operations become independent or just as much as they can do for themselves. What type of training do you do in terms of the classes you teach at the Equal Opportunity Center? Let's start there. You're different than a person with Down syndrome and the same with somebody with cerebral palsy. 6th Annual Cerebral Palsy Conference. Oh, Green Mountains Cerebral Palsy Conference. Who happens to be a sponsor on Ableton on Air? Did their 6th Annual Cerebral Palsy Conference virtually? Let's listen in to Mr. Smith, their Executive Director, talk about the virtual conference. Let's take a look at this. You've been on the show before to talk about conferences and so on and so forth. Since we are in a COVID mindset at this point, we're talking about the 6th Annual Cerebral Palsy Conference. You can go to www.CerebralPalsyConference.org and also gmssi.org. Josh, why don't you talk about the conference and what you guys are doing this year? This is our 6th Annual Conference and we're super excited to do this. This is the second year we're doing it virtually this year. One of the things that we've done differently this year is that we have three peers of registration. The first one is free. We've never been able to do it for free, to give people free admission. Ultimately what it is that we're doing it for is for people living with cerebral palsy, for friends and family who are living with cerebral palsy. This is a great opportunity for people to network and share education and share stories. We are to do that. It's super important to make sure that we have the ability for people to come out of any background, any location because it's all virtual and all you really need is an internet connection. Mental Health and Homelessness with Malin Brown. Montpelier and State of Vermont has a huge homeless problem. There's a situation where hotels are being put into either homeless shelters by Good Samaritan Haven or homes to get people out of homelessness. Let's listen in to Advocate and Activist Morgan Brown talk about his plight from homelessness to house. Let's listen in to his interview. Morgan Brown on Able Denyne. You know the kind of work you do, obviously advocacy is a thankless job. First off, it's not a job for me. It's always been a labor of love and I've always done it on a volunteer basis. I never have been tied with other organizations but I network a lot, you know, share information and things. But I've always been an independent operator and basically when I get started, mostly I just observed and listened and watched what's going on and obtained information, especially when I started going up to St. House in 1991 after I moved to Montpelier. One thing I knew to do instinctively is just go sit in on various committees that I knew that certain legislation would come up before those committees, you know, down the road. So I'd go sit on those committees when they're taking up certain bills and stuff to have nothing to do with the things I'm interested in necessarily. And what that helped do was I was able to learn what was important to certain legislators. What kind of questions do they ask? And that helped with a number of things including, you know, some people when they go to the legislature, they go like a bull in a china shop and they're saying, we want this and we want that. And the legislators go, yeah, and okay. And they don't necessarily listen to them and stuff. If you go in prepared and you've done your prep work, you're not going to get all excited necessarily. You go in, you go in calm and you just let, you know, develop relationships and stuff. And the other thing that helps is they get to see you. They don't necessarily know who you are or what you want, but they've seen you. And that helps. And the other thing, a real important thing is you go to the cafeteria and go have lunch. And it's open to the public. Well, we would like to say thank you for listening in and watching Abledin Arnair in 2021. There will be a more powerful 2022 despite COVID-19. We would like to thank our sponsors and partners and especially Orca Media for giving us this opportunity to have a wonderful show for people with special needs. We would like to thank the following. We would like to thank Orca Media as well as Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health and many partners such as the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired as well as the Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, the Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity and many, many, many, many others. Also, we'll leave you with one last clip. The Association for the Blind of and Visually Impaired of Vermont came by and showed us many things on how to work well in the kitchen despite your visual impairment to working with your prescription medication and seeing the prescription better despite your visual impairment. Let's take a look at Daniel Norris of the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont and we leave you with that. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. Happy Belated Hanukkah and many other holidays on Abledin Arnair. See you in 2022. We would like to say welcome to Dan Norris, the Director of Adult Gay Services of the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The Vermont Association for the Blind. Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired who is here today to discuss how to be independent in your apartment, house or life if you are blind and low vision and visually impaired. Welcome to Abledin Arnair. Mr. Norris. Happy to be here. Tell me the missions and goals of the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Sure. The title is pretty long so we shorten it to VABVI sometimes. So VABVI is dedicated to helping Vermonters of all ages to be able to be independent and to reach their goals and their aspirations as they live their lives as visually impaired individuals. Okay. I see that you brought a treasure trove of things that we're going to show. Do you want to ask any questions, Abledin Arnair? Yes. Since you said that you can go ahead with your treasures that you had brought with us. Excellent. And as far as, you know, there's a lot of technology that's come out over the past several years that's still tried and true and there's new stuff where I'm going to show you a bit of everything here. But there are high and low tech solutions for people. And what is the difference before you start showing things? What is the difference between high and low vision technology and is it expensive? Yes. How can we, as people with special needs and who get services afford this stuff, knowing that it is, it can be expensive? Absolutely. So I'll answer that question by first saying, when I say visual impairment, that's a huge spectrum. Some people, to drive in Vermont, you need to have a corrected visual acuity of 2040. Right. And so if you cannot correct a 2040, technically that does not meet the driving requirements. And there's some field requirements there too. But when we talk about vision loss, there's a wide spectrum from needing glasses that can correct the refraction so you can see better. To maybe, like in my case, I'm legally blind, which means my visual acuity does not correct better than 2200 in either eye. And I have no central vision as well in either eye. I have peripheral issues so I can't see you on the side of me. Oh, so put us together and we're set. So I don't have any central vision. You have some peripheral issues. Some people have spots of vision, cataracts, strokes, all those things can lead to different kinds of vision loss. And so there's a wide variety of visual impairments out there. And so if you have what's sometimes called functional vision, we call it low vision sometimes. And then you can be legally blind, which means you're beyond the 2200 correction or you have less than 20 degrees field of vision. And then blindness, that term kind of covers a full spectrum of having very little vision to having no light perception. And so as I showed stuff today, I'm going to be talking about high-tech solutions include technology. Low-tech solutions are simple day-to-day things that you can find that can help. And so hopefully I can show you a wide variety of those today. Okay, open your treasure chest. So just to start off with, here I have a chart with lots of different tactile dots on it. This is a sampler that comes from a catalog called Maxiades. And as you look up and down the form, there are lots of different shapes, sizes, and textures and colors of dots that can be affixed to things like your washer, your dryer, your microwave, your thermostat, your remote control. Whatever you can think of that could use a tactile locator button or dot, this can help. And they even make dots that are even smaller than this if you need to have something very, very small, like on a cell phone. What about Braille oven knobs or things like that? Is that tactile? Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community. Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM, and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include Yihad of New York and New England, where everyone belongs. The Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity, and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition. Montpelier Medical Center of the Bronx, Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx. Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications. Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Parrot Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists.