VIDBE-Q Volume 67 Issue 4
happy engaging lives can be achieved, and that they can then be full of hope for
their future.
The establishment and maintenance of this Center has been made possible
through the Texas Deafblind Multiply Disabled (DBMD) Medicaid Waiver, and
this provides the ongoing financing needed to sustain the Center as an operating
business. (See section titled Advocacy at National & State levels.)
We need more of these day activity centers around the state and the nation
for those who are deafblind once they have aged out of the school system. Parents
shouldn't have to worry about having to quit their jobs to care for their adult
children, and they should have the comfort of knowing that their children are
engaged in the community and have richer lives.
Sally & Mike Prouty, Minnesota
Our son was born with CHARGE Syndrome in the early1980's, and soon
after his birth he was diagnosed as deafblind. We learned of the intervener concept
from Canadian educators, and became strong proponents of the concept in the
United States. We moved to access an intervener program when our son was a
toddler. We also hired college students to work as interveners with him during
summer vacations. The intervener concept was an obvious solution to provide our
son with access to learning. More than forty years later, it's astounding that
children who are deafblind today do not automatically have access to interveners.
