Assistive Technology Advocacy

Nebraska Advocacy Services was contacted by the mother of a 14 year old with Autism. She had been trying to obtain a positioning chair for her son to use at home. He was using a similar chair at school and it was very helpful to keep him positioned while he ate his meals.

His mother had many problems with the provider of the chair. NAS case advocate suggested using a different provider. The necessary documentation and evaluation was obtained by the new provider and submitted for coverage. With persistent advocacy by the NAS case advocate, the mother received the new positioning chair for her son.

Employment Advocacy

A 39 year old female with an intellectual disability contacted Nebraska Advocacy Services with employment problems. She is employed at a grocery store and was having great difficulty with a person in Human Resources who changed and reduced her hours. Due to these changes, she was going to lose her health insurance and she couldn’t take the bus home from work due to the late hours.

NAS case advocate interviewed our client and assisted her in preparing an accommodation letter that was submitted to her employer. While she was waiting for a response by her employer, the person who originally changed and reduced our client’s hours was suspended for other reasons. Our client was given her reasonable accommodations and her hours were reinstated and she was given hours that allowed her to take the bus home from work and keep her health insurance. She is now very comfortable with her job and is again very happy working for this company.

Public Accommodation Advocacy

An inspection and a few phone calls result in a curb cut fixed and a woman with a disability is able to access her job. A 59 year old female with a disability that causes balancing issues contacted Nebraska Advocacy Services for help. For her job, she uses a cart to transport materials to and from the buildings. Even though there was a curb cut, it was separated from the street and it was impossible to use. The curb cut was examined by NAS case advocate and it was determined that the city was responsible for the streets up to the curb cut.

Case advocate contacted the city public works department and was informed that the city was working on improving curb cuts throughout the downtown area but they were not aware of this particular curb cut. The city public works department then requested a work order to have it repaired. The repair was made to the street and now she can use the curb cut for work.

Special Education Advocacy

Quick action by NAS staff results in an 8 year old child being allowed to attend school. A mother of an 8 year old with Autism contacted Nebraska Advocacy Services because the school was not going to allow the child to attend school at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year. The school claimed that he was not a resident of the school district. NAS staff moved quickly to establish residency and negotiate for his immediate entrance into school. NAS case advocate attended the child’s IEP meeting. The focus of the meeting was to re-establish the relationship between the educational staff and the parent. Our client has made incredible academic progress this school year.