When the schools shut down in New York City, it was hard on all students and their parents. But it was especially difficult for students with developmental disabilities. 

Many lacked the basic equipment they needed to learn from home, but for disabled students, it’s a lot more complicated than getting them laptops or tablets. Many require extra help, like speech therapists and language translators, or home health aides who were no longer allowed to visit. 

Edward Matthews is the CEO of ADAPT Community Network, an organization that provides a variety of programs for disabled children and adults. He joined In Focus to talk about the effects of the COVID shutdown on the students they work to prepare for school. 

It was a little easier, he says, to work with the students who already had spent time in their programs; they knew them and their particular needs. 

The problem came this semester, when adding a new group of three-year-olds they had never met and whose needs they had to assess remotely. 

Matthews says cutting the funding to programs like his would have a devastating effect on the disabled in New York, already struggling to recover from the pandemic. 

He also talked about vaccine access for the disabled, saying he’s grateful that Gov. Andrew Cuomo moved disabled New Yorkers to the front of the line, but says actual access can be next to impossible for many in the community who may struggle with things like transportation, or may have their own hesitancy toward taking the vaccine.