Ability Network, Inc.

02/20/2026

Please help us welcome Mandi Crooks, SLP, to the team. Mandi will be working in Northwest Missouri.

02/19/2026

Please help us welcome Leslie Boice to the team! Leslie is an OT who will be serving in Cass County.

02/19/2026

Missouri families! Free assistance!

02/16/2026

02/10/2026

February is Black History Month. This is an interesting and important fact about black disability history. Harriet Tubman was one of the most courageous and determined freedom fighters in U.S. history. When people remember her, they think about the Underground Railroad and how she made thirteen recorded trips back into Maryland’s treacherous slave territory to free 60-70 enslaved people and later freed nearly 800 others in South Carolina. However, most people do not know that when Tubman was a child, an overseer hit her in the head with a heavy weight after she refused to restrain a field hand who had left his plantation without permission. She suffered severe trauma from the event. She became visually impaired and experienced seizures for the rest of her life. Unfortunately, Tubman’s experience of violence occurred daily, which made her brain injury worse. By the late 1890s, the pain in her head had affected her ability to sleep. She found a doctor in Boston willing to operate on her brain. She chose not to receive anesthesia while the doctor cut open her skull and performed the surgery — something she had seen soldiers do during the Civil War when they suffered pain on the battlefield. It is unclear whether the surgery improved her condition.

01/30/2026

February is Rare Disease Month. Epilepsy itself is common, but there are rare forms and rare epilepsy syndromes that affect fewer people. The month of February is a reminder to raise awareness for those living with rarer conditions and to celebrate everyone in our epilepsy community.

01/26/2026

For the safety of our staff, our office is closed today Monday, January 26.

01/22/2026

Please help us welcome Susie Carroll to the team! Susie will be working in the Mountain Grove area.

01/15/2026

Please help us welcome Jaclyn Priest, OT, to the team! Jaclyn will be serving in Audrain and surrounding counties.

01/14/2026

Please help us welcome Jayce Mollohan to the team! Jayce is a COTA who will be working in the north-central part of the state.

01/07/2026

Missouri families: First Steps is Missouri's Early Intervention system that provides services to families with children, birth to three years of age, with disabilities or developmental delays. The program is designed to meet the needs of families related to enhancing their child's development, learning, and participation in family and community life. To find out how to make a referral, watch the short video below.

This is "MO First Steps - Referral - OC" by MO DESE on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.