Protected Tomorrows October 2019 Newsletter

In this Issue:

President's Message

Grocery Chain Rolls Out Adaptive Shopping Carts

App Helps Cognitively Disabled Bus Riders Navigate Columbus

Disability rights group training volunteers to help parents advocate for inclusion

This is Where We Will Be...

President's Message:

Dear Clients and Friends,

Happy Halloween! This year it has been fun to see many of the new ideas that have come about over the years to allow our families members to celebrate the holiday safely. New costume ideas, blue pumpkins, and more! Progress in our lives occurs daily. In this article, you will find even more ideas that continue to sprout forward, like the adaptive shopping carts to apps to help bus riders with disabilities. I hope you enjoy this newsletter.

I look forward to the upcoming holiday seasons, but not the cold weather I'm sure we are going to see soon. Have a great month!

Warmest regards,

Mary Anne Ehlert,

Founder & President

Grocery Chain Rolls Out Adaptive Shopping Carts

by Shaun Heasley, Disability Scoop

Thanks to one mom, a supermarket chain is the first to provide carts in all of its stores designed for children with special needs who are too big to sit in regular carts.

Wegmans - a regional supermarket chain with 99 stores in six states - said it will offer the Firefly GoTo Shop adapted carts at each of its locations. Click here to read more...

App Helps Cognitively Disabled Bus Riders Navigate Columbus

by Jerrod Mogan, The Columbus Dispatch

A smartphone app called WayFinder is bridging the gap between the Ohio city's public transit and the disabled community. The tool allows caregivers to find a route and add instructions and notifications specific to the rider.

As Charlie McDonald's COTA bus pulled up to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, his phone buzzed and text flashed across the screen reminding him that his stop was approaching and it was time to exit.

McDonald, 27, is part of a pilot program using a smartphone app called WayFinder to help people with cognitive disabilities use the COTA bus system to travel the city more freely. The program is run by Smart Columbus and Ohio State University. Click here to read more...

Disability rights group training volunteers to help parents advocate for inclusion

By Margaret Reist, Lincoln Journal Star

A disability rights organization is starting a project to train volunteers to help parents of students with special needs advocate for including their children in regular classes.

The volunteers will accompany parents to meetings with school staff to develop a plan - called individualized education programs - for their child's education, and they'll help parents advocate for including those students in regular education classes, said Pat Cottingham, project coordinator for Disability Rights Nebraska, the organization spearheading the advocacy program.