LYNN — For several years, Louise Dominique has fought tooth and nail to provide accessibility and inclusivity for people with disabilities, reducing the stigma parents and children receive for being themselves.

The founding of the grassroots organization, Lynn Disability Network, in 2021, began with a dream to create a space where her 13-year-old nonverbal son, Nathan, who has non-presenting autism, can learn and play in a judgment-free zone.

“We’re working, and we’re trying to make that change,” Dominique said. “So, we need the help of everyone to make a city where everyone’s really welcome with our disabilities, so everybody can have fun, everybody can participate, and everyone can understand each other.”

Through her efforts, Dominique has called attention to invisible disabilities like her son’s, where people may have a larger affinity to have misconceptions about what a disability is or how it manifests physically.

“Sometimes we think people know things, but they don’t know… it is important for me to let people know about the principles of disabilities to help the family understand others with disabilities,” Dominique said.

The principles Dominique refers to are those used to envision, describe, and respond to disabilities. There are three models of disability, according to an American Psychological Association (APA) report: moral, medical, and social.

The APA report revealed that the moral model refers to disabilities reflecting a family’s character, thoughts, or karma. The medical model refers to disabilities being perceived as an impairment to the body system, and the social model refers to disabilities being part of the individual’s identity.

Mobility disabilities are not the only ones that need more accessibility, awareness, and inclusivity, Dominique said. It’s the disabilities that are unseen, like non-presenting autism and ADHD, which are also categorized as neurodivergence, or others like severe hearing and vision impairments.

In her experience, public judgment has always fallen on the parent looking like they are not doing their job because they’ll see a child exhibiting non-traditional behaviors, Dominique said.

One thing Jenille Kardenetz, mother of Davinia, a 4 1/2-year-old girl with non-verbal autism who uses an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device, shared is that because of the misinformation and miseducation about autism and the different ways it manifests in people, she has felt alienated from regular social settings like Mommy and Me groups and parenting classes.

“It’s just isolating when others don’t understand or know, or are even open to understanding,” Kardenetz said. “We had an incident at the park where a parent did not understand why my daughter was having a tic … she was stimming. I think they thought it was something else, so the parent called their kid away from her, which kind of made us both sad.”

Some have even gone up to Kardenetz asking when her child will be cured of her autism, and another instance where they asked if they were even sure she was autistic, Kardenetz said.

In many unfortunate cases, when a child begins exhibiting symptoms of a disability that exhibits stims and non-traditional reactions to things, social circles become smaller, leaving very little support for families, Dominique said.

“When we have kids, especially some of us, we lose our village,” Dominique said. “We lost our friends. We lost our family members because my kids and your kids are different… your kids are typical kids.”

One of the initiatives she has taken to combat this common occurrence has been to create a community for parents and caregivers to rely on each other, making herself her own village of inclusivity and acceptance.

“We understand each other,” Dominique said. “We understand each other’s lives.”

Being able to find a community of parents and families who also experience the stigma and judgment from others in regular public settings has allowed Jessica Cruz a space to feel accepted, understood, and seen.

Cruz’s son Zev is a 7-year-old boy with autism who responds with script language, which means when he’s asked a question, he will respond back with the question to express interest, Cruz said, which exemplifies that neurodivergence comes in many forms.

“At Lynn Disability Network, I felt less anxious about that because the other kids were just like him,” Cruz said.

Through her and her son’s time in the Disability Network, Cruz has grown admiration for Dominique and her efforts to make an inclusive space for those with disabilities.

“She’s really sweet and really thoughtful with everything she does… very intentional too… She’s a wonder woman in my eyes,” Cruz said.

Events and workshops like Dominique’s cooking classes for youth with disabilities have allowed many families opportunities for their loved ones to not be singled out for their differences, and it has all been funded by her own finances. Juice boxes, snacks, and activities have all been paid for out of Dominique’s pocket, with some donations helping put on events loved by parents and children.

Kardenetz’s daughter is one of the children that has blossomed through the cooking class in ways that go beyond even her mother’s expectations: “I see her actually playing with kids; she’s allowing people to hug her. She sees Miss Louise, and she runs up to her… now she has other safe zones other than me and my immediate family members.”

Isis Solarin, mother of 5-year-old Makinde, who has level three autism, shared that the network has provided a space for parents and guardians to share their own experiences with each other, and even overshare at times, deepening their relationships with one another.

“Whatever you have, whatever the worry is, let’s get it out and let’s see how we can work on it,” Solarin said parents say. “I have learned so many things from other parents; everybody is willing to help you with anything, share, and one parent even let me borrow their wristlet to help me stay close to my child.”

The network has inspired more than just those within the program, however. It has motivated 10-year-old Sophia Peña to focus her annual book drive on the network, where she has done extensive research on all disabilities and children’s books that speak about them.

The book drive started last year, with community-driven efforts, through gaining her black belt in karate at Master O Academy, alongside influence from her mother, Lynn School Committee At-Large member, Brenda Ortiz McGrath. Every year, Peña and Ortiz choose a local organization that has put in significant community efforts.

This year’s book drive has been dedicated to Lynn Disability Network to help broaden inclusion and understanding of all disabilities, helping combat misinformation.

“I tried to find a book for everything that I could,” Peña said. “On the list, there’s books for tube-feeding, there’s books for cerebral palsy, books for ADHD, books for autism… I have a lot of sensory books, braille books.”

Peña and Ortiz McGrath have a goal of receiving 100 books from their carefully curated Amazon wish list from June 16 to July 31, and they are almost halfway there.

“We’re at 42 books right now, and every day we have some wonderful donors in the community that have really stepped up to support,” Ortiz McGrath said. “But I think it’s been really cool because you don’t always see books that are in braille, and you don’t always see sensory-related books.”

To be able to make a difference in individual lives as well as a community has helped Peña grow into a community service member, where she’s even received a city citation for her efforts.

“It feels great helping other people,” Peña said. “When I do this stuff and see the people get happy because of it, it’s amazing, and I love doing it, and I’ll continue doing it for the rest of my life.”

If you’re interested in donating to Sophia’s Annual Book Drive, access the Amazon Wish List, and if you’re interested in joining Lynn Disability Network, you can reach out via Facebook.