Tennessee website for finding disability services gets major upgrade
NASHVILLE
– An overhaul of
Tennessee Disability Pathfinder’s website makes it easier for people with
disabilities to find needed services. The statewide portal can now be found
more easily at TNPathfinder.org. Updated interactive features match
users anywhere in Tennessee with disability resources, service providers and community
events.
Tennessee Disability Pathfinder is a project of the Vanderbilt Kennedy
University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, part
of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It has been primarily funded by
the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, which also led funding for
the upgrade.
Pathfinder helps people
with disabilities, family members, caregivers, educators, and other
professionals find and access community resources, support, and services to
meet their needs. Users can get help through a toll-free helpline, online directory,
and regularly scheduled community workshops across Tennessee. Pathfinder’s
diverse staff can help people of all ages, types of disabilities, and languages
spoken.
Council on Developmental
Disabilities Executive Director Wanda Willis said, “This upgrade is a huge jump
forward. It just got easier to find the support people with disabilities in
Tennessee need to live great lives. I am especially proud of how many public
and private partners came together to make this happen.”
New
features of the Pathfinder website
More than 3,500
disability resources across Tennessee are accessible on the new website.
Searching for information has been made more customized. Users can search based
on:
- Stage of Life: Choose from Prenatal/Infancy, Early
Childhood, School Age, Transition/Young Adult, Adulthood, or Aging
- Topic of Interest: Twenty service categories to select,
with a text box to type keywords
- Diagnosis: Type of disability or health condition
- Benefit/Payment Options: Forms of payment accepted by the agency
provider, such as health insurance, government program, private pay, or no cost
- Service Area: Select counties where services are provided
Pathfinder’s website will still
be open for anyone to use without creating an account, but there will be new
features for users who choose to create a profile, like:
- the
ability to bookmark resources,
- save
past searches,
- submit
new agency resources and website links to be added to the site,
- and post events on the Pathfinder Events Calendar.
The new Pathfinder website
also includes new accessibility features. An accessibility menu provides tools
to adjust color contrast, magnification, and font styles. Users are also able
to translate the website into one of eight different languages.
A cross-state
partnership
The new Pathfinder website
is a collaboration with the AWS Foundation. The AWS
Foundation saw the need for a central website of disability-related information
in its home state of Indiana. After a nationwide search, Pathfinder’s online
directory was the model they chose to use. They created the Indiana
Disability Resource Finder (FINDER).
The AWS Foundation now
provides the new platform for Tennessee Disability Pathfinder. The platform was
designed by Aptera. A project team worked together to develop the Tennessee
Disability Pathfinder website and its new system.
“It has been a great
experience working with Vicki Johnson, AWS Director of System Navigation &
Marketing, the AWS Foundation, and Aptera,” said Pathfinder program director
Megan Hart. “This upgrade has allowed us to keep the important parts of
Pathfinder’s website while adding new features that allow users to better access
and save information.”
“Individuals with
disabilities, their families, community providers and others need quick and
easy access to information about supports and services across Tennessee. We’re
proud of the entire Pathfinder team and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s
partnership with so many state agencies and the AWS Foundation and Aptera to
make this new website a reality,” said Elise McMillan, JD, Co-Director of the
Vanderbilt Kennedy University Center for Excellence in Disabilities and the Faculty
Director of Pathfinder.
Pathfinder
will celebrate the new website with an online launch celebration starting at
9:00 a.m. CT on Sept. 1 across its social media pages, complete with special guests, entertainment, and
giveaways. Follow them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/tnpathfinder),
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/tnpathfinder/),
and Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/tnpathfinder)
to join in on the celebration.
New
Pathfinder funding partnerships
The new Tennessee
Disability Pathfinder website was also made possible through expanded funding
partners through the State of Tennessee. New partners include:
- Tennessee
Commission on Aging & Disability
- Tennessee
Department of Education
- Tennessee
Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services
- Tennessee Department of Human Services, Division of Rehabilitation Services
These join existing
funding partners:
- Tennessee
Council on Developmental Disabilities
- Tennessee
Department of Health
- Tennessee
Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
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