Website helps Hoosiers with disabilities find resources
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WISH) — Indiana now has a website designed to make the lives of individuals with disabilities and their families a little easier. The AWS Foundation announced their FINDER program to help Hoosiers.
Fort Wayne parent and advocate Kelly Pence has two sons diagnosed with autism.
“I think that is the hardest part in the whole autism journey, is just feeling like I’m alone, and I don’t know where to turn,” says Kelly.
FINDER is meant to change that uncertainty.
“What took me years and years to get for my own family, I could’ve done in a really short amount of time if I would have had FINDER available at that time,” said Kelly.
When you log onto to IndianaDisabilityResourceFINDER.org, you’ll be asked questions catered to your specific disability resource needs like age, topic of interest, diagnosis, where you’re located or how you want the information to be distributed to you.
The website was developed over the past year in Fort Wayne at Aptera, and is user-friendly, especially for those that would need to use the site.
“We want to make sure everything is ADA compliant, so people with disabilities can use the website just as easy as able-bodied individuals,” explains TK Herman, president and CEO of Aptera.
“They pulled their staff together and talked with parents of their own team members that had children with disabilities. … It was more than just the technical knowledge that they had, it was the heart and soul that they were committed to do what was right for the community,” says Vicki Lee Johnson, director of system navigation at AWS Foundation.
Kevin Showalter currently works at The League, advocating for those with disabilities, and has his own.
“We’ve needed it for a long time. I think it’s really going to help not only parents, but professionals in the field like myself, have quicker access to the resources that we need not just for ourselves, but for our consumer base that we work with,” said Showalter.
Showalter said if FINDER had been around when he was growing up, it would have made life smoother for him, and his parents.