Araceli Ramirez felt lost when her 5-year-old son Abraham was diagnosed with autism two years ago. The Modesto-area mother of four didn’t know much about the disorder or how to get her son help.
“I felt like, ‘What do I do now? Where are the resources?’” Ramirez said in an interview. “Estaba desesperada,” she said. “I was at my wit’s end.”
It wasn’t until Ramirez discovered a nonprofit called Escuchen Mi Voz, which means listen to my voice, that she got the services her son needed. A community health worker with the nonprofit helped her with the “complicated, difficult and tedious” processes to enroll her son in the therapy and recreational classes he’s entitled to under state law .
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“I was unaware of all that,” she said.
Ramirez’s situation is not uncommon. Rather, it is emblematic of Latinos’ disproportionate access to disability services statewide.