Blog Stories

As the election season draws to an end, months of debates, lawn signs, and TV ads have given way to “I Voted” stickers. The 2020 election is taking place in the middle of a pandemic, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives in the U.S. alone. People of all walks of life have been affected, but vulnerable groups have borne the brunt of the casualties.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York in March, most in-person services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) disappeared overnight. This put many people at risk for losing years of hard-won progress in education, socialization, and crucial life skills.

Creativity. Independence. Talent. These are the qualities that unite the artists in YAI Arts. Pre-pandemic, the group would have regular studio hours with YAI’s artist mentors. Over the past eight months, the group has hosted remote sessions and the artists have flourished.

For months we’ve marveled at the successes—and suffered through the failures—of in-person activities translated to a virtual format. At YAI, the virtual Central Park Challenge toppled fundraising expectations without a single footstep in the park itself. But what some event producers and political campaigns have managed to do beautifully has tripped up universities, religious organizations, and dramatists. The question: how can we duplicate a genuinely human experience in a digital sphere?

YAI is partnering with the largest local social services agency and the largest urban university system in the country in a unique effort to prepare people for careers supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). In September, students interested in entering the profession began a 12-week training course at CUNY's Kingsborough Community College designed and taught by YAI staff.

Sometimes people on the margins aren’t first on the list to receive information that others take for granted. According to a 2010 study published in Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , most emergency preparedness strategies fail to ensure that vulnerable receive necessary information during a crisis.

Because of the pandemic, YAI rethought its traditionally frenetic calendar of springtime events this year to reach the digital sphere. The results, which surprised many, helped deliver new perspectives on disabilities to international audiences.

“I don’t speak with words, and my friends don’t speak in sign, but they will stand by me and make contact, we gesture to make ourselves clear,” said Luis Mandato, resident at YAI’s Flatbush residence in Brooklyn and a former graduate of the American School for the Deaf (ASD).

Not even the pandemic can stop the back-to-school spirit from energizing YAI’s two affiliate schools. Though online learning took parents and students by surprise in March, a summer of preparation has brought focus to virtual learning platforms at the International Academy of Hope (iHOPE) and Manhattan Star Academy (MSA).

Long-term job placements for people with disabilities can yield improvements in their quality of life, according to a 2018 systematic review in the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. This unsurprising fact has been a cornerstone of YAI Employment Services’ ethos for many years. But a new focus on job retention and maintaining strong employer relationships is one silver lining of the otherwise catastrophic COVID-19 public health crisis.