CULTIVATING COMMUNITY RESILIENCY

HOUSING AND THE DISABILITY LIVED EXPERIENCE

STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
JANUARY 20TH @ 11:00 AM

disABILITYsa has partnered with the San Antonio Area Foundation-SALSA (Successfully Aging and Living in San Antonio) and City of San Antonio Disability Access Office to host a series of panel discussions sharing the lived experience from the diverse perspective of the disability community.  The panelists will share their experiences and thoughts for identifying barriers in finding affordable and accessible housing and opportunities for change.  

Join us at our fifth session to build strategies for action items to move our community forward.  You are welcome to watch the recordings of our prior sessions and join us for the final conversation.  
EDUCATION
Moderated by Deborah Scharven
Proposed discussion: Identify which audiences need information and what types of documents need to be created for those audiences (or what exists that need to be better known - resource list)

LEGISLATION & POLICIES
Moderated by Melanie Cawthon
Proposed discussion: What policies do we need to be influencing and how? Primary focus on San Antonio Internal policies (eligibility criteria, demographic questions, )

ADVOCACY/OUTREACH
Moderated by Jane Paccione
Proposed discussion: How do we get educational materials into the right hands? How do we advocate and educate on policies and what needs to be in the training (curriculum)?
ATTEND ONE SESSION OR ALL FIVE
11:00 am – 12:00 pm 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
  • January 20th: Housing Strategies Workshop
DECEMBER 16TH PANELISTS:
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TRACI LEWAND
Traci serves as the director of events for Hemisfair, has been married to her spouse for 16 years and is the mother of three. Her youngest son has a diagnosis of bilateral schizencephaly. Living the journey with her son was the inspiration for launching a community initiative "Changing SA" which seeks to raise awareness about the need for and lack of adult size changing tables in our community.
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JENNIFER JANES
Jennifer is a mom of grade-school aged twins and two rescue mutts. She loves reading, writing, and singing, and is a coffee addict. She has served the community as a former hospice social worker, and considers herself compassionate, funny, and straightforward.  

Jennifer has lived in San Antonio off and on since 1989 and lives with 5 autoimmune diseases, a genetic connective tissue disease, has had over a dozen surgeries, and is on 30 medications.  She considers herself American’s number one utilizer of the medical-industrial complex.
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SUSAN GARZA
Susan has been living with autoimmune since I was 16 and I am currently 35. She is considered chronically ill however throughout time she has developed disabilities as a result of her disease progression. She recently experienced a health crisis where she was on a ventilator for 10 days and went home with a peg tube and tracheostomy. Susan is currently bedbound and therefore familiar with transferring and wheelchairs. 

I am very familiar with physical adaptations from a microscopic level of finding tools and organization that help with daily living and minor home modifications such as wheel chair ramps, stair lifts and walk-in showers. I would love to be able to provide insight and my personal experience in order to help others that are needing help adjusting to their lives with old and new disabilities.​
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SHERRI SMITH
Sherri is an Ombudsman Outreach Specialist with Alamo/Bexar Area Agency on Aging.  Her husband has advanced Parkinson’s Disease and requires the use of a walker and wheelchair.  Her son became paraplegic from a virus in 2017 and uses a wheelchair full time. She currently lives in a single- family home with her husband and son. ​
DECEMBER 2ND PANELISTS:
Photo of Yenter Tu (Male, Taiwan) wearing red shirt against cream colored blank wall
YENTER TU
Yenter is the National Liaison for No Barriers Communication or NOBACOMM, a non-profit organization advocating for equal access to information, communication and services that can impact a person’s independence and quality of life. Yenter joins the panel as a person who is deaf and uses American Sign Language as his primary language who currently owns his single -family home.
Photo of Michael Torres (Male, Hispanic) wearing blue and black striped shirt standing infront of solid blue wall.
MICHAEL TORRES
​Michael is retired as a professional chef from Lackland AFB and has degrees in Business Management and Information Technology. He currently enjoys his free time playing guitar and piano.  Michael joins the panel as a person who is legally deaf and legally blind who currently lives in a single-family home.
Photo of Charles Morris (Male, Anglo) smiling face in front of grey background with glasses on top of his head
CHARLES MORRIS
Charles is a person with low vision who is also hard-of-hearing. He serves as the co-founder and Chief Program Officer for Southwind Fields, assisting adults with ASD/IDD to live independently within the community. Charles has worked in this field for over 30 years and has a passion for seeing populations at risk of being underserved to reach their full potential.
Photo of Robert Dittman (Male, Anglo) wearing long-sleeved maroon shirt sitting in front of dark tan background
ROBERT DITTMAN
Robert has been a licensed attorney since 2013 and practices in the areas of criminal indigent defense, family law, disaster response law, and administrative and government affairs. He is a serving officer in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary since 2001. Robert joins the panel as a person who is blind and uses both a white cane and a Seeing Eye® dog for navigation who currently lives in a multi-family apartment environment.
NOVEMBER 18TH PANELISTS:
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JAMES R MEADOURS
​James got into the self-advocacy movement back in 1989 and has been advocating for individuals living with disabilities for the past 37 years. He was the first self-advocate to be on the Arc Board of Tulsa OK in 1990. In 1994, James got involved with the national self-advocacy movement and served as the treasurer, vice president, and finally as president from 1999-2000.  In 1997, he moved from OK to Louisiana to work for the state and start self-advocacy chapters in that area of the country, and then in 2005, he moved to Austin to work for the Arc of Texas for two years, and transitioned to Disability Rights of Texas where he worked from 2007 - 2013.  Throughout the decades, he's received numerous awards for his work in the self-advocacy and sexual assault education movements.
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ANDRE GREEN
Andre is a proud District 5 resident and San Antonio transplant.  His move to San Antonio was the result of a car accident which cause a traumatic brain injury and he was encouraged to move to San Antonio, leaving his family and supports behind, for the best possible treatment and recovery.  Having to learn to do things all over again, finding housing presented its own challenges.  Andre is a great advocate for connectivity and close proximity and is currently serving on the 2022-2027 Streets & Sidewalks Bond Committee for D5. 
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PAMELA KELLY
​​Pam is the former Executive Director of Reaching Maximum Independence, Inc. having served 35 years in leadership providing residential programs for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in San Antonio.  She was innovative in securing housing within neighborhood and apartment settings and helped numerous individuals securing a greater sense of independence throughout her tenure. 
NOVEMBER 4TH PANELISTS:
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ANNE LARME
​Anne Larme is a retired medical anthropologist formerly with UT-Health.  She has served on both the City of San Antonio's and Bexar County's advisory committees for persons with disabilities.  Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a progressive disability, in1989, she has been using a wheelchair for 15 years.  Although she lives on her own in an older home built in 1954, it has miraculously been able to be adapted to wheelchair use through several remodeling projects.
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TODD HARGRODER
In 1986 at the age of 19, Todd sustained a C5/6 spinal cord injury. A few years after the accident, he started ADI out of a small garage on the family property with one product originally designed for himself. Over a twenty plus year period, he grew the business to have multiple product lines and positioned ADI as a leader in the wheelchair mobility industry with worldwide sales and distribution. In 2015, Todd sold ADI to Stealth Product a division of Pride Mobility.

Todd continues to enjoy technology and studies many industries for design inspiration. He holds multiple US patents, has been awarded multiple NIH grants with research partner University of Pittsburgh and most recently was recognized as one of the top innovators in the history of mobility (link).

Through new endeavors in design, innovation and research, he continues his work of developing life changing technology for ALL.
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CHRISTOPHER SALAS
Christopher Salas moved to San Antonio from Houston as a teenager. In April of 1997, a car accident changed his life forever. Due to a broken neck, Chris was paralyzed and began a new chapter of his life as a wheelchair user. After years of physical and mental therapy, he found his calling as he began to volunteer as a visitor to individuals who were just beginning their recovery journeys.  In January of 2010, he started Rolling Inspirations, a local nonprofit organization that hosts support groups and programs for those with ambulatory disabilities. Rolling Inspiration gained national attention from National Spinal Cord Injury Association, now United Spinal. 

Christopher has served the community by working at the Alamo Community College District under the vice chancellor of facilities assessing campuses and making sure they are ADA compliant and convenient; as an official peer mentor for the Christopher Reeve Foundation; and by assisting in the start and growth of the STRAPS sports program with athlete recruitment and development. 

Christopher has been recognized as United Way volunteer of the year in the group category for the city of San Antonio; inducted onto both the Warm Springs wall of fame as well as Morgan's Wonderland walk of fame; and was recently honored to give a Tedx speech as well.
Most things are possible when you assume problems can be solved.
-- Judith Heumann 
Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking.
-- Stephen Hawking
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”  — James Baldwin
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