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Do you wanna start by giving me[br]a little overview of

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what your job is and [br]what you do overall?

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I work as the coordinator for the [br]LINK department at YAI.

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LINK stands for linking individuals to [br]necessary knowledge.

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So what we do is information referral[br]resource for the entire YAI network.

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Typically what we do is respond to[br]inquiries from families, professionals,

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and the people we support in regard to a [br]whole range of different things.

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What services they might be in need of,[br]general information, explaining the[br]OPWDD system.

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So explaining what the office for people [br]with developmental disabilities does.

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How to get eligibility with them.

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We review evaluations for people.

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Typicallly we get about 400[br]inquiries a week.

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That's kind of the main part of my job.

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In addition to that we also run some[br]programs out of my department including,

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independent living skills program.

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Which is for adults 18 and up [br]who are interested in learning a wide

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variety of different topics.

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We also have some social [br]skills groups, a ballet yoga program

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that we provide in Brooklyn, as well as[br]some programs for 17 to 21 year olds

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here in Manhattan.

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Oh wow that's a lot. So now you've [br]created this database with information

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about COVID-19 so who came up with[br]that idea?

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It really started from getting a lot of[br]information from a lot of really good

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meaning people who were sending us[br]resources directly related to COVID.

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Typically, on a normal day in LINK we have[br]our IDD resource library.

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Which is where we keep information that's [br]just general knowledge that would help

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someone that has an intellectual or[br]developmental disability.

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Things like links to different resources [br]at libraries, different benefits packages.

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Things like that so they can research[br]and understand different resources

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that are out there.

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Once COVID began, we started getting[br]a lot information where people asked,

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"Can you add this to[br]your resource library?"

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And what we realized is, adding it[br]to the resource library

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is going to make it really difficult [br]for families to find it.

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So we started adding it to a page,[br]but the page became really bogged down.

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The page was huge and it became[br]again, tedious to look through.

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So the wonderful Cathy Bechler, who works[br]partially in my department and partially

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in communications. She actually went[br]ahead and created a database where we

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could enter all this information[br]that we were getting.

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And it's been growing from there.

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Pretty much everyday we're getting at[br]least 1-2 resources to add to that page.

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So linksters who work in my department[br]will go through these resources,

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determine if they're going to be [br]useful to the people we support.

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How to categorize them so they're easy[br]to search for the people that are

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looking at the database.

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Who decided which resources to include?[br]And can you give me an overview of what

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kind of resources you have in this[br]database?

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We have a lot of different ones. There are[br]a couple different categories.

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We have everything from entertainment,[br]information on different zoos and

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aquariums that are doing[br]online viewing of their animals.

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All the way to these are emergency[br]resources for accessing food, these are

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emergency resources for accessing[br]financial help.

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Information on updates that the[br]government is giving that are

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specific to people with IDD as well as [br]just to the general population.

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In terms of who came up with the idea. [br]It was really the brainchild of a couple

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different people. Cathy definitely did the [br]infrastructure work.

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In terms of determining what goes up there[br]a lot of times it's people sending us the

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information, but then a linkster, someone [br]who is an information specialist or

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supervisor in the LINK department is [br]reading through it and deciding.

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What does this mean to somebody?[br]Is this something that's useful for our

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population, should this resource [br]replace another one?

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Maybe there's outdated information[br]and this is an update.

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So every single day the linksters are[br]reading through the new information

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that comes in and determining[br]how it should be categorized.

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How to put it up there, what age group it [br]applies to. What kind of category.

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Is it an entertainment resource?[br]Is it an app?

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Is it a mental health resource?

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Categorizing it so that it's easy for[br]families and professionals to really

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look though it and find it quickly.

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And are these resources tailored to people[br]with specific disabilities?

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Or are they for everyone,[br]disabled on non-disabled?

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A lot of the resources could be used[br]by anybody.

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We do try to highlight those that are [br]specific to the IDD community.

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There are some resources that specifically [br]say this is for somebody diagnosed with

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autism., but in reality, a mindfullness[br]app is useful for anyone who is able

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to get into the app. A lot of social [br]stories could be used with any age

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of child or any diagnosis. [br]Although it might say specifically

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that it's for someone with autism,[br]it doesn't mean that somebody that[br]

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doesn't have autism won't[br]find it helpful.

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And how about accessibility?[br]Did you have a specific concept in mind so

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this database is accessible for everyone?

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So we're trying to keep the language to [br]typically around the second grade level.

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When we're describing the information, [br]we want to keep it pretty basic.

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We do have an entire category that is [br]only Espanol.

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Those are all resources that are either [br]in Spanish or that we've been able to

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translate into Spanish.

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So one of my colleagues, Mara [br]Henriquez, she is our Spanish linkster.

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So she has been doing a lot of work[br]translating this is what this means.

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Reading through those resources that are[br]specifically in Spanish to make sure that

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we're catering to that population.[br]That they have the same access

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as an English speaker would have.

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There was a lot of criticism around [br]government efforts that didn't

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quite include people with disabilities.

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So was this somehow a motivation for [br]you to create this database?

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I mean definitely. We really want to make [br]sure people with IDD and their families

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are supported in this.

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There is so much going on right now and [br]it's really overwhelming. And when you add

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in the fact that somebody is either a [br]person with a developmental disability

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or supporting someone with a[br]developmental disability, it compounds

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upon that and makes those stressors[br]more difficult.

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It makes explaining COVID more difficult.[br]So trying to find those resources

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that help break it down into language[br]somebody's going to understand,

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and helping those parents and caregivers[br]stay mindful and help reduce their stress

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and anxiety, and of course always helps[br]the people that we support.

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We want to give them all the resources[br]we can so they stay calm and therefore

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are better able to serve the people that [br]we are helping to support.