Litigation

Assistance for Parents With Disabilities

By Michael Kaplen

A new National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families has been established in Berkeley, California under the auspices of Through the Looking Glass, a non-profit organization founded in 1982.  The Center will oversee several national research studies concerning parents with disabilities and their families, as well as provide consultations, trainings and publications to parents, family members and professionals.

The research and resources of the Center will address the nearly 9 million U.S. parents with disabilities ? 15% of all American families.  Parents with disabilities include mothers and fathers in all disability categories ?  such as parents with physical disabilities, deaf parents, blind parents, parents with psychiatric or cognitive disabilities.  The Center is funded by a $500,000 per year federal grant for three years from the Washington, DC-based National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NITER), U.S. Department of Education.

The new Center will focus its research and resource activities on four critical areas that impact parents with disabilities: custody, family roles and personal assistance; paratransit; and, intervention with parents with cognitive disabilities and their children.  One of the notable activities planned over the next three years is a scholarship program for high school seniors and college students whose parents have disabilities.  The Center will be staffed by nationally recognized experts regarding parents with disabilities, most of whom have personal or family experience with disability or deafness.

More information about the Center and Through the Looking Glass is available at the organization?s website , through two toll-free numbers, 800-644-2666 (voice), 800-804-1616 (TDD/TTY), or by email

Full post as published by Brain Injury News and Information on October 28, 2008 (boomark / email).