Center for Disability Services

Center for Disability Services offers a wide array of programs and services that enhance and support the lives of infants, children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. Our professional staff are devoted to our clients, treating them with respect and giving them encouragement. The Center purchased Windows XP and Microsoft Office. Two of our programs have greatly benefitted from the upgraded software, the Day Habilitation Program and the Payeeship Program. This software has also helped us streamline administrative functions. Day Habilitation is a skill development service that provides hands on education and training, and promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities in the community. Services are based on the individual needs of each participant and are conducted at the training facility and in the community. Skill development services help people with disabilities improve employability, live as independently as possible in the community, participate in community-based social and recreational activities, maintain positive mental health and stay more physically fit. The goal of Day Habilitation is to help individuals with developmental disabilities learn the skills that will help them reach their full potential. With our new ability to install Windows XP on donated computers, we have opened the world of computers to our clients. Clients at the Day Habilitation center are using computer to help them learn basic reading, math, keyboarding and cognitive skills. The computer has become so popular that we have to keep a record of client usage to ensure access for each client. Eventually, when we are able to provide internet access, clients will also use the computers to find recipes for cooking class, research their nutritional value or access even more educational information. The Payeeship Program provides financial oversight to individuals with disabilities or mental health issues who are not able to maintain their budget sufficiently to ensure their own health and safety. Most of these individuals live on extremely low incomes, usually only Supplemental Security Income (SSI) which is a maximum of $637 per month. By using Microsoft Excel, each client's budget and checking account register is now computerized. Budgets can now be easily adjusted when needed and account balancing at the end of each month is much easier and faster. By using these products to upgrade administrative computers, all staff and supervisors now have computer access and compatible software. As a result, we have created electronic time sheets that calculate hours worked, overtime, and leave time earned or used. This saves a significant amount of time for supervisors and the accountant who were previously making these calculations manually. Other forms, such as leave requests and safety incident reports have also been computerized, streamlining their processing. Additional forms and staff logs are slated to be computerized also. Improving the speed and efficiency of administrative functions has freed our program supervisors to concentrate on ensuring quality service provision to our clients. Upgrading and standardizing our office computers has also made it possible for all staff to access the networking capabilities of the office printer. Now, each computer is connected to the printer network with updated printer drivers.