About the Nonprofit
Visit Our Website
ABOUT DISABILITYSA
OUR VISION: To make San Antonio the #1 community where people with disabilities want to live, learn, work, and play.
OUR MISSION: The mission of disABILITYsa is to educate, advance, and engage individuals with disabilities by building connections, exchanging information, creating opportunities, and strengthening our disability community in the greater San Antonio area.
disABILITYsa connects people with all types of disabilities and their families to information about local resources, programs and opportunities that promote independence and inclusion where they live, work and play.
OUR OBJECTIVES
EDUCATE: Exchange information, resources, ideas and support between people with all types of disabilities and the organizations that serve them.
ADVANCE: Advance public attitudes, awareness, respect and consideration for success of individuals with disabilities.
ENGAGE: Engage individuals with disabilities as active participants in their communities.
STRENGTHEN: Strengthen organizations that provide services which benefit people with disabilities.
disABILITYsa provides multiple levels of service to support disabled people in San Antonio. Some of our major program offerings include:
· Our website, disABILITYsa.org, is an online hub connecting the disabled community and their caregivers to resources, information, and programming as well as providing educational resources. The website receives over 6,000 unique visitors annually and for many is an ongoing source of connection.
· AccessAbility fest, help each October. This daylong fair connects over 4,500 people living with all types of disabilities, their caregivers, and the general public to over 100 service organizations with a series of interactive workshops, exhibits, and participatory activities. The goal is to create connection, access to resources, and also to build pride and understanding in San Antonio’s vibrant disability community.
· The much-loved Fiesta Especial® program. Each year Fiesta Especial® prepares a cohort of young disabled San Antonio to participate in Fiesta, building unique pride and leadership skills. Participation encompasses a Royal Court leadership and life skills development program, in-class educational curriculum, Celebration Day community-based instruction program, and Inclusion 5K & Parade. The program provides leadership and community engagement opportunities to over 3,000 people as part of San Antonio’s Fiesta® celebrations. Over 2,800 students from 75+ special education classes and numerous day habilitation programs engage in the Fiesta Especial® education programs and Celebration Day; and over 500 members of the general public and disability community join together in friendly competition during the Inclusion 5K & Parade, which features nine adaptive competitive divisions. Fiesta Especial® is truly special in combining building disability pride and awareness with San Antonio’s unique Fiesta traditions.
· Conversation 360°, a bi-monthly forum to educate community leaders, educators, individuals with disabilities, caregivers, providers, and the public through an interactive dialog on issues faced by the disability community and how we can all take a role in affecting change.
· The Service & Leadership Fellow Academy (SFLA), a program designed to identify opportunities and provide training for individuals with disabilities who are interested in serving the San Antonio community by engaging in volunteerism, service on nonprofit boards, and participation in strategic conversations about the future of our community. While there are other opportunities for people with disabilities to learn to advocate for themselves, there are few programs that expect, encourage, and empower these citizens to advocate for and serve others.
· In 2022, assuming we can gain remaining funding needed, we hope to launc the Mobile Changing Unit (MCU) program, a 20ft trailer retrofitted with fully accessible toileting facilities for individuals with ambulatory and developmental disabilities who need facilities beyond standard ADA compliance. The MCU will be made available for rent to nonprofit (at reduced rates) and other agencies to enhance their accessibility initiatives at resource events and emergency sheltering. Based on successful models (www.mobiloo.org.uk), the MCU will ensure adequate toileting facilities for over 12,500 individuals with disabilities annually, so that they may engage in the community with increased safety and hygiene, and a greater sense of dignity. This would be the first such technology in the US, though it is in widespread use in the United Kingdom and represents a new frontier of access and inclusion, putting San Antonio on the map as a leader iin creating a truly inclusive community for people with disaiblities.
Our of these combined programs, disAbility SA has built a robust network of individuals within the disability community, as well as with community leaders, health experts, and over 100 resource providers and service organizations. Our superpower has been to link these various individuals and groups together around the common cause of amplifying disability voices and perspectives and advocating for access and inclusion. Currently, disABILITYsa's leadership serves on over 14 local committees, including the City of San Antonio’s Disability Access Advisory Committee and the Bexar County Technical Advisory Committee for Persons with Disabilities. In our work with these committees we strive to enact changes in policies and practices that improve the quality of life for all those living with disabilities in the region.
In the past year, we have strengthened our network significantly, mobilizing efforts around immediate community impact initiatives such as the COVID Recovery & Resiliency, Policing Service Review, and Partners in the Disability Vote. Recent policy achievements of note include:
· In 2021, disABILITYsa was awarded a grant from Texas A&M and the State of Texas Department of Health and Human Services to implement a COVID-19 Vaccine Education and Outreach program within the San Antonio disability community. The program is part of state-wide efforts to ensure most vulnerable populations in Texas communities have the information and resources needed to understand, access, and receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
· In 2021-2022, we provided extensive feedback on the City of San Antonio’s latest Strategic Housing Plan, adopted in December 2022, and played a key role in bringing disability perspectives and needs into the plan.
· We recruited a person with disabilities to serve on the City Housing Committee, resulting in a bond requiring that 100% of new housing constructed using City bond funds be universally designed with an accessible route. This is a historic achievement since despite the fact that 23% of people in public housing have a disability fewer than 200,000 public housing units nationwide are universally accessible.
· We initiated conversations that led the City Council to include a disability identification question on all city surveys, allowing the city of San Antonio to begin collecting comprehensive disability demographic information for the first time in its history.
As these examples illustrate, disABILITYsa is playing a critical role as a catalyst for change, helping building access, inclusion, and understanding toward our vision of making San Antonio the #1 city for people with disabilities in the US.