All Posts

Most people never get formal training in how to recognize a mental health crisis. That gap shows up everywhere: in schools, workplaces, and living rooms. But it shows up with particular weight in the intellectual and developmental disability community, where mental health needs are common and often overlooked. Here is the logic behind that. When a person has a diagnosed disability, it becomes easy to attribute almost anything, like anxiety, withdrawal, or a behavior change, t

Lindsey Spoon started a YouTube channel to talk about makeup. She's done her own since sixth grade, and Makeup and Mobility began as a place to review products and share tips. It didn't stay just a beauty channel for long. Scroll through her uploads now, and you'll find a Rare Beauty haul next to a video called "Let's talk about disability and depression." A review of a self-priming foundation sits a few videos away from her explaining how she handles a bad mental health day.

When you become the primary support for a grandchild with an intellectual or developmental disability, nobody hands you a manual. You inherit the role and the paperwork all at once. In recognition of Grandparents Day, we want to walk through what that looks like for grandparents raising grandchildren with IDD, and where to start. The shift nobody prepares you for You already raised your kids. You weren't expecting to sit through an IEP meeting, learn another set of acronyms,

A direct support professional's morning might start before 6 a.m. Getting someone dressed. Managing medication schedules exactly on time. Getting them fed, out the door, and to a day program or a job on schedule, not because it's easy, but because it's the job, and because someone's whole day depends on it going right. September 13–19, is DSP Recognition Week. Here in Oklahoma, we want to talk about what that job involves, because most people who've never needed one have no i

When people hear that The Arc of Oklahoma is a Tulsa Area United Way sustainability partner, most assume that means a pool of money we can draw from whenever we need it. Something like a standing grant, there when we need it, drawn down as expenses come up. That is not what this is. A sustainability partnership is not a grant. It is a relationship, and it works differently than most funding does, in ways that actually matter for how we're able to serve families. What a sustai

Ask most people what a person with an intellectual or developmental disability contributes to their community, and the answer tends to focus in one direction: what the community gives to them. Support, accommodation, patience, care. All of that matters. But it tells only half the story, and it is the half that keeps people with IDD positioned as recipients rather than as neighbors who show up, lead, and give back just like anyone else. This year's MLK Season of Service told t

Every July, Disability Pride Month asks a simple question: What does it mean to take pride in a life that includes disability, rather than despite it? For The Arc of Oklahoma, this is not a rhetorical exercise. It shapes how we advocate, how we talk about the people we serve, and how we ask our communities to show up. What does Disability Pride Month mean? Disability Pride Month traces back to 1990, the same year the Americans with Disabilities Act became federal law. The fir

For families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, a new school year rarely feels like a clean slate. It feels like the first item on a list that includes an IEP meeting, a new teacher who may not yet know your child, and the quiet worry that something important gets missed before October. We can't promise every meeting will go smoothly. What we can offer is a clearer picture of what to expect and what you're entitled to ask for, because that changes h

Access is not an afterthought to equality. It is what equality is made of. A right that a person cannot actually exercise, because the tools, the training, or the entry point were never built with them in mind, is not fully a right at all. That is the argument at the center of digital literacy work, even though it rarely gets framed that way. For Oklahomans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the ability to safely navigate a phone, a video call, or a news feed i

Last year, 66,259 individuals were impacted through The Arc's advocacy and public policy work.

Five seats on our Board of Directors are opening this year, and I want to tell you honestly what that means, because "join our board" gets said a lot in the nonprofit world without much explanation of what it involves. We serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families in all 77 Oklahoma counties, from birth through the end of life. That is a big footprint for a board of 24 people, and it works best when the people making decisions come from a

The path forward is rarely clear for a child born with an intellectual or developmental disability, or for their family.

This summer, America turned 250. Parades, fireworks, flags. A celebration of the ideals this country was founded on. Liberty. Justice. The belief that every person has the right to live a full life on their own terms. It is a good moment to ask whether we are living up to those ideals. For Oklahomans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the answer is: we are getting there. But we are not there yet. Civil rights did not stop at disability The Americans with Disabi

No parent should have to navigate special education alone. Arc@School helps families advocate with confidence.