MetroWest Center for Independent Living

01/26/2026

Post-Holiday Open House. January 21, 2026 with Friends, Staff and Consumers.
Thanks to everyone for coming!

01/22/2026

01/21/2026

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) Workplace Accommodation Toolkit helps employers navigate the accommodation process under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act.

The toolkit is for employers, but will also help employees know what they should be able to expect.

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) Workplace Accommodation Toolkit helps employers navigate the accommodation process under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act. This Toolkit will use the term "ADA" throughout to refer to the reasonable accommodation r...

01/21/2026

NPR spoke with many travelers with disabilities. "Accessible" hotels are unreliable at best.

"Despite 35 years of federal law requiring hotels to be made accessible for guests who use wheelchairs, those travelers tell NPR that hotels still fail to fully comply with basic and often easily achieved requirements for accessibility.

NPR interviewed 50 wheelchair users. And more than 200 people who use wheelchairs, scooters and other mobility devices, or their family members and caregivers, responded to an NPR survey. They told NPR they want to travel and use hotels — for work, to visit family and friends, for fun or when they travel for health care — but they frequently run into problems.

"It's anticipation and it's a little bit of dread," Don Bergman of Jacksonville, Fla. says of the moment he opens the door of a hotel room. "You hope for the best, expect the worst and then deal with what you got.""

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/24/nx-s1-5564041/disabilities-wheelchairs-travel-hotels-accommodations

Images: Clockwise from top left: Eileen Schoch, Cory Lee, Kelly Mack and Karen Lohr are wheelchair users who've had to deal with hotel rooms that weren't accessible as promised.

An NPR survey finds that people with disability still find hotels unaccommodating, even 35 years after passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

01/15/2026

https://www.apple.com/accessibility/designed-for-students/

Great video - thanks to Northeast ADA Center for the link!

The Designed for Every Student film highlights how Apple accessibility features can enhance learning so students can succeed at college.

01/15/2026

Many people with disabilities rely on Medicaid for the services that help them live and participate fully in their communities. H.R.1 cuts almost $1 trillion from Medicaid and imposes significant new administrative requirements. These new requirements are set to impact millions of people, incl...

01/15/2026

There's still time to register for our upcoming free webinar titled "Protected Health Information: Deciphering What is Protected Under the Alphabet of Civil Rights and Medical Information Laws."

Join the Great Lakes and Southwest ADA Centers for a legal update and discussion on what laws protect health-related protected information and medical records. This session will review how the ADA, HIPAA, ACA, and other laws may or may not protect the disclosure of health information in situations ranging from employee reasonable accommodation requests, to certification letters for education-related accommodations, to protection of histories of substance abuse disorders. The handling and release of patient health information will also be discussed. We will review existing and new court opinions as well as crucial settlement agreements and conciliations establishing the law of protected health information. We will also discuss misinformation and address questions pertaining to the expectation of confidentiality and privacy of medical information.

Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM Eastern Time Zone
Register now: https://bit.ly/3N5zRBg.

01/15/2026

Happy Testimonial Tuesday, a day REquipment shares feedback about the power of reuse to make a huge difference for our Massachusetts neighbors.

This fall, REquipment provided a complex power wheelchair for a 4-year-old to be able to attend school.

A school-based therapist made the request on her behalf.

The therapist explained that insurance would take "a few months," and in the meantime, this child needed to learn. The plan is to donate this REquipment-provided wheelchair back once insurance comes through.

How long is "a few months" to a child?

Thanks to donations from our generous reuse community, this little girl is keeping up with developmental opportunities and not losing ground.

"This program is amazing!," this school therapist wrote to REquipment. "Many of my students are not able to get equipment due to no or poor insurance coverage, and this program is life-changing for them."

Your donations help children succeed despite insurance hoops and hurdles.

Learn more at DMEreuse.org



UCP of Western Massachusetts
Stavros Center For Independent Living
AdLib Center for Independent Living
Center For Living And Working, Inc
Northeast Independent Living Program
CORD - Cape Organization for Rights of the Disabled
Disability Resource Center
SCIL, Southeast Center for Independent Living
Independence Associates

01/15/2026

01/15/2026

Registration for the 2026 D.C. Leadership Conference is now OPEN for all!

The 2026 Leadership Conference will be a hybrid event. The optional tour, ACB’s Board Meeting, Presidents’ Meeting, Legislative Seminar, and Capitol Hill visits will take place between March 6-10, 2026, at the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel in Arlington, VA.

Registration is now OPEN. You can register through the ACB members site here: https://members.acb.org/. The registration fee for in-person attendees is $115. The registration fee is $30 for virtual attendees. Registration closes on February 28, 2026 at 11:59 PM CT.

Hotel reservations are available now with the room block cutoff date of February 6, 2026, less than one month away. Visit the conference webpage for details about how to reserve your hotel room: https://www.acb.org/2026-acb-dc-leadership-conference.

A schedule of events and information on the legislative imperatives are also available on the conference webpage.

We hope you can join us for this year’s event!