The Arc of Northern Virginia promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and actively supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes. Founded in 1962, The Arc of Northern Virginia represents and serves individuals with IDD—such as autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and rare chromosomal disorders—and their families. There are an estimated 34,000 people with IDD throughout Northern Virginia.
The Arc of Northern Virginia has a long record of providing vital information and education for people with IDD and their families so that they can connect to the community-based programs and services that will best meet their individual needs. Building upon years of successful efforts, they established the Transition POINTS (Providing Opportunities, Information, Networking, and Transition Support) so that they could serve individuals with IDD across the entire lifespan. Through that program, we launched a series of six guides:
Starting Life with Your Child with a Disability
Getting the Most form Special Education
Entering the World of Work
Finding a Home for Adults with Disabilities
Aging with a Disability
Securing a Future for Your Child with a Disability
These guides include 50 to 60 pages each on the array of planning, services, supports, and resources available for each stage of life with IDD.
These six different Guides are incredible resources for families, but at the time had been only been available in English, which prevented them from better serving the diverse population of Northern Virginia, with one of the highest percentages of foreign languages spoken in the country. In order to be sure that people with disabilities of all ages in these communities are being served throughout the lifespan (and especially during the critical years when Early Intervention can make a key difference), they wanted to translate these guides that can greatly assist families.
A grant from the Foundation for Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and the Civitan Club of Tysons helped complete the translation of all six lifespan guides into the top five non-English languages in Northern Virginia: Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic and Mandarin Chinese.
As a result of this grant, barriers to accessing vital disability information for thousands of families have been removed. Now, these families are able to access the services, supports, and solutions that help their loved one with a disability achieve lives of their choosing in the community.
The translated guides can be found in the The Arc of Northern Virginia’s Transition POINTS resources here: https://thearcofnova.org/programs/transition/#guides-translations