In the United States alone, it’s been estimated that 54 million people have some sort of special need or disability. If you then imagine their families, their friends, their caregivers, their therapists, their doctors, their teachers, it’s clear that special needs touches so many people in the world.
That alone is reason enough to have a website that hosts a community for people touched in some way by special needs. In fact, that’s what drove Julie Steckel, a Wilton mom and entrepreneur, to create the website SharedAbilities.com.
“There didn’t seem to be a resource that did what I hope Shared Abilities will do, and that’s connect people, get them sharing information, joining the conversation, and hopefully educating people,” Steckel said.
The website provides the latest news and information, has 100 discussion groups where members can ask questions of each other or look for information and support. It also features a searchable provider directory, listing doctors, therapists, and more. There’s also a new feature just-launched: a calendar of events for every state where any member can post a link to an upcoming event, once their submission is approved.
“Community is so important because it’s an intimidating path that many of us have not been down before. It involves somebody we care very, very much about. So we’re worried and want to get more information, want to talk to others who have been down that path and get their advice, and connect with everyone from professionals to parents of special needs children to people with special needs, just to learn as much as we can,” Steckel said.
One of the most successful elements of Shared Abilities is the discussion boards. Steckel said what drives the groups is how people are able to take an active part in helping one another and finding commonality–in other words, the ‘sharing’ part of the title.
“We share all types of information, whether it’s stories, support, finding a good therapist in your area, or a babysitter with special needs experience. We have discussion groups organized into several different categories: by diagnosis, for those who want to ask questions or post information to share with others touched by the same diagnosis; by topic, such as nutrition & special diets, assistive technology, early intervention, and more; and finally, we have a separate discussion group for each State for those with questions that are local in nature. Members can also create their own discussion groups and choose whether they want them to be open to the public or private, invite-only groups,” she explained.
For Steckel, launching Shared Abilities was a personal labor of love as well.
“I am the mom of three wonderful children, one of whom has special needs. While navigating this new and sometimes intimidating path, I have found it very helpful to share information with other parents, professionals, and people with disabilities. When my son was younger I would sit poolside at aquatherapy with other parents and caregivers. We shared so much information, even though our children were different ages and had very different diagnoses, and the therapists would often chime in with their advice or stories too. I wanted to find the same experience in the larger special needs community online.”
She searched to find that online experience, but was frustrated when there wasn’t much out there to meet her needs.
“Many websites provide support for a single, specific diagnosis. I’d be unlikely to follow a website for a diagnosis my son does not have and I recognized there would be the chance I would miss vital information posted on these [other] sites–information that might help him. I did find some websites that provide information for the broader special needs community, but their primary focus seemed to be on specific areas, such as news or listing resources. I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, so I built Shared Abilities.”
Envisioning the website, it was important to Steckel to make sure it had a positive aspect–the title word ‘abilities’ reflects what everyone, is able to do, no matter what difference. “There are a lot of things that everyone in the world can do and I wanted to highlight those in the context of special needs, and not focus on the ‘dis’ in ‘disabilities,’” she said.
She’s created a community and visitors to the site have responded gratefully; the discussion groups are growing, events are populating the state schedules, and connections between users are being made. Shared Abilities members and Facebook followers come from around the world.
“It’s been very moving for me, in building this website in order to help other people. One example was a mom with a child who had a very rare genetic condition resulting in the child having special needs. The child also has a mutation of that condition, so there aren’t a lot of other people out there walking her same exact path. She asked if I could help. Shared Abilities reached out to the global community and found her several people very enthusiastic about having her join their support groups, that she didn’t know existed. It’s so heartwarming to know that Shared Abilities has been able to connect people together and hopefully help make their lives a little easier.”
Whether it’s the community as a whole or even just helping one person, Steckel knows that her website is destined to be an incredibly helpful resource.
“My goal is for Shared Abilities to become the place to go to for those touched by special needs, whether it’s to ask a question, find information, read stories or find a therapist or another provider. And for someone to feel like, ‘I’m not alone–I can find information, I can participate.’ If this helps one person find that one piece of information that makes a difference, made their life easier, made them feel supported, that’s what Shared Abilities is really all about.”