The state estimates that close to 269,000 Nevadans over the age of five have a form of disability.
While many Nevadan’s are still trying to figure out what normal looks like, people living with special needs, specifically intellectual and developmental disability are being hit the hardest by the pandemic.
UNLV’s Project Focus is a post-secondary education program for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The program allows students who would not be able to attend college because of their disabilities to go to classes and earn a certificate. The idea is to give them life skills to become more independent and enter the competitive job market.
Since March, the number of students enrolled in this program has dropped, and Ryan Wennerlind the director of Project Focus credits the pandemic.
"It might not be the only factor, but it's a big factor," Wennerlind said, "We had students last year that were in our program that looked at the upcoming year after we finished the spring and said, 'I don't think we can do this next year.'"
During the spring, when UNLV shutdown all in-person classes, Project Focus also ended in-person classes. Wennerlind said in-person classes are the best for the students his program serves, but they had to pivot to virtual schooling.
Now, since some in-person classes have been allowed at UNLV for the fall semester some students in the program have been able to go to class.
"Based on the student and their wants and their needs, we have some students that are completely remote where we continued that track and the work we did in the spring," he said, "And then we have others that are on campus that we are able to work with in-person."
Those in-person classes are done following all the CDC guidelines to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
While they're doing the best they can to serve their students, Wennerlind admits there is a missing component.
"One of the biggest difference is the social aspect," he said, "Students are coming to UNLV partly for that social aspect, just like anybody else that would attend college."
While the Project Focus team tries to give the students social interactions over Google Meets and Zoom meetings, Wennerlind said there is really only so much interaction that can be done online.
"I think there is a lack, specifically there," he said, "I think we are pretty successful when we look at goals and academic work that students are doing and helping and supporting them. It is better in person but I do think we have been effective virtually."
Another program that aims to help people with special needs develop friendships and job skills is Best Buddies of Nevada. Charlene Blackstone is the state director of the program.
She said since the pandemic all of the in-person activities and interactions have had to stop, but the group has tried its best to use online tools to meet the needs of its participants.
"It definitely has been a huge pivot and a shift with our participants," she said, "We really promote that face to face, that in-person interaction. For an organization that really prides itself on integration, it is definitely different being forced to continue the distancing."
But she did say the participants have embraced the virtual model as much as they can, but it does offer another layer of difficulty.
"We are so used to talking and connecting with one another and how we may act with each other on a video camera or on a telephone line is so different than how we act in person because we read voices. We read your tone. We read body language and these are things that we are constantly working with with all of our participants," she said.
While online learning might be more difficult, Blackstone said it does provide an opportunity to teach certain interpersonal skills in a new way.
It is not just education for people with special needs that has moved online, but so has health and fitness. Special Olympics moved its programs online when the pandemic picked up speed in the U.S., said senior director for Special Olympics Nevada Harry Mong III.
"We pivoted to the virtual world," he said, "We moved sports training virtually and not all of our athletes have equipment at home. So, we made the adjustment of what you have at home to use."
Mong said his group made online training videos that athletes could use to stay fit and healthy during the pandemic.
"One of the cool things about going virtual was we were able to recruit certified fitness instructors to hold fitness classes virtually for our athletes and can connect with everybody across the state," he said.
In addition to fitness instructors, the organization has recruited health professionals to provide guidance on healthy living from proper stretching techniques to good dental hygiene.
Mong does admit that, like everyone who has had to change how they socialize, the athletes with Special Olympics would rather be competing in-person with their friends.
"Sometimes they have that in their head that all they want to do is just be with their friends. They don't want to get with the virtual platform and that's okay," he said, "My main focus is to always have that resource available to them when they are ready to participate."
Mong said it is important for family and friends of people with special needs to reach out to tell them about the programs that are available to them even during the pandemic.
Blackstone agreed that engagement is vital right now.
"We're all so stressed out and upset that we're having to separate ourselves and socially distance, but this is typically the lifestyle that most people with disabilities already experience pre-pandemic," she said, "The biggest thing, now more than ever, is making sure that we are engaging them, making sure that we are reaching out to them, having those conversations."
Charlene Blackstone, State Director, Best Buddies Nevada; Harry Mong III, Senior Director, Programs and Partnerships at Special Olympics Nevada; Ryan Wennerlind, Director, Project Focus