Testimonials
When LD Resource Foundation was founded over a decade ago, we identified our mission as being committed to overcoming barriers and providing access to knowledge, for adults with learning disabilities. With the help of our supportive, wonderful board members, advisory board members, volunteers, and funders, we have continued to achieve our mission.
Below is the result of our hard work. We continually receive praise and appreciation for our efforts and look forward to serving individuals with learning disabilities for a long time to come.
I cannot express my gratitude to LD Resources Foundation and your board for the generous donations to Dysart Community Center. We currently have 22 children who have been identified as having special needs/abilities. Your generosity means these children will benefit from assisted technology, programs, and skills to help them learn effectively.
Your support and guidance have helped me to see the tremendous value of technology when used wisely to assist children and adults with learning disabilities. You have given us so many practical and useful ideas to help our students.
Children using these workstations, can learn in their own special ways, exhibiting confidence they did not previously demonstrate. This has such an impact on all their behaviors and educational skills.
On a personal note, I have been using my own computer which I donated to Dysart Community Center to write all the grants and all our reporting and accounting. After setting up the new computers from LD Resources, I wished I could have a powerful computer to use every day. You made that wish come true and I am eternally grateful for the time saved, the grants written and the ease with which I can do my work.
You even included an extra monitor which makes my report writing so much easier. I believe our partnership with you and your wonderful organization will save the lives of our children who struggle in regular educational settings, and are oftentimes not even diagnosed due to stigma, culture, or economics.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this tremendous gift. I shall keep you updated with the progress we make and will share your work with everyone we meet."
Thank your generosity towards the special needs children of Dysart Community Center. LD Resources Foundation provided ten iPads and an Amazon Fire Kids Tablet to our programs serving children with learning difficulties in Maricopa County.
I am so grateful to you and your organization for your wisdom, your kindness and your friendship, the wealth of knowledge you have in the field of special needs and barriers to education is phenomenal. I feel so fortunate to have met you and learned more about work of your organization providing essential resources and learning disability tools.
These practical and useful donations are already making a clear impact on children whose families have little to no resources to afford technology to assist with their children’s learning disabilities. In addition, classroom time is much more productive with the special emphasis on bespoke learning to ensure all children are empowered with access to such valuable learning tools.
We truly appreciate LD Resources Foundation for their experience, compassion and understanding of the challenges faced by disabled learners in the classroom setting. The use of technology is always carefully considered at our center, and this invaluable resource helps our special super-heroes enjoy the learning process with specially thought-out applications to ensure we are making a difference in their lives and give them the greatest chance of success. Thank you so much for everything."
“Dear Ms Paz, As a learning specialist in the Program for Academic Access, I am most appreciative to LD Resources Foundation for their generous support and enhancement of our students’ potential. This assistive technology will provide the means for our students to become more independent and efficient in their learning process. It will be exciting to see what impact this wonderful opportunity will have on our students’ academic success!”
“During the 2007-08 academic year, the LD Resources Foundation generously awarded Key to Access scholarships to five LD students at Marymount Manhattan College (MMC). The Key to Access device is not much larger than a pack of gum and contains a collection of tools designed to make any PC computer accessible. Zahavit Paz’s Foundation also provided training for the students at the college. As I was very impressed with the training and the assistive technology awarded to the students, I immediately brought to Ms. Paz’s attention our Bedford Hills College Program, which serves approximately 150 students at the maximum security prison for women. Since then Ms. Paz has supported students and staff of MMC’s ODS, Access Program, and library with assistive technology and training and is planning to open a program at BHCP in 2009.
The college is indebted to the LD Resources Foundation and to Ms. Paz for her commitment to assisting students with L.D.”
“Dear Zahavit, Many thanks for allowing me to participate in last night’s LDRF awards ceremony. It was clear to me that the guests really connected with your message of access to higher education and professional opportunity for people with learning disabilities. The students being honored were clearly very grateful for the opportunities these awards would open up for them. It was also very clear that the awards and the feelings of support were very meaningful for them.
You should be very proud of the work you have done in creating this organization and getting your message Out and building awareness of these issues. A great accomplishment! I am delighted to be a part of it.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, so much for a job well done”
“I have referred dozens of students to the LDRF website so they are aware of the resources that are available to students with learning disabilities and ADD &ADHD”
“I was very impressed with the training and the assistive technology awarded to the student, I immediately brought to Ms. Paz’s attention our Bedford Hills College Program, which serves approximately 150 students at the maximum security prison for women. Since then Ms. Paz has supported students and staff of MMC’x ODS, Access Program and library with assistive technology and training”
“Dear Zahavit and members of the Board of LDRFA: On behalf of the students of the Fashion Institute of Technology who received awards of Keys to Access on January 17, 2008, warm thank you.
You have empowered these students with the forces of learning through your generous and compassionate gifts of knowledge. It is so important in life to be understood by others; not concerned about what others may think, but seeking that level playing field where acceptance of commonalities and differences exists. You have laid the groundwork for our students to be successful in their studies and to achieve their vocational goals.”
“Ms. Paz has been enormously helpful in identifying software and hardware that we might try. Ms. Paz expressed her desire to help the Churchill School focus on this group to develop a program to provide these students with specific knowledge of Assistive Technology programs, features and equipment, as well as substantial hands-on practice with that technology in a classroom setting at Churchill, so that they can effectively advocate for appropriate support when they are in a college setting”
No words can describe how thankful and appreciative I am to Ms. Paz and LD Resources Foundation for helping Alexander by giving him an iPad and a chance to better his life through communication. Ms. Paz referred us to her colleague and made the arrangements for Alex to be evaluated by an Assistive Technology specialist M. Surabian without a charge.
This is a short story about my son Alexander(Alex) who was diagnosed with autism and multiple impairments. At the age of three Alex wasn’t speaking or playing with toys; he wasn’t interested in socializing with other kids in the park. I knew something was wrong but at that time I didn’t realize, nor did I want to believe that he would not be able to speak for the rest of his life. Devastated by the sudden news of Alex’s diagnosis, I began the journey to search for a cure. I visited different doctors, neurologists, nutritionists, and homeopaths. I put him on a gluten free diet, I did chelation, B12 injection therapy, ABA , OT and PT, speech, picture exchange communication system (PECS), but nothing was helping him Despite all the speech therapy he got, at the age of eight he was still non-verbal, and the only word he was able to say was “mom”.
At this point I realized that my beautiful boy who I love so much may never be able to speak, so I started looking for different alternative methods of communication and I found out about assistive technology(AT). Excited about the new opportunity I asked the team, who decided Alexander’s IEP, if the AT can be implemented into his daily school schedule. Unfortunately they denied my request with the excuse: “He needs to learn PECS first, before they can approve assistive technology.” At that moment I felt that my son was treated unfairly by the people who were supposed to help him progress, but I told myself that maybe they were right, and that we need to work on PECS more at home, so we did. But Alex wasn’t interested at all in the picture exchange method, he was getting bored with it and never used it.
In the meantime, Alex was growing into puberty. He turned from being a charming and loving kid into a very irritable, and aggressive teenager, who bangs his head into the walls on a daily basis. His inability to communicate his wants and his needs, his pain and his fear led to even more behavioral problems and complete social isolation.
My heart was broken, seeing Alex struggling everyday like a soul trapped in a body that is unable to speak. I decided to try again with the committee of special education and requested for a second time assistive technology for Alex. I was faced with a second denial with the same excuse about the PECS. Feeling helpless and hopeless about Alexander’s inabilities to communicate, I didn’t know what to do and how to help him until I met Ms. Zahavit Paz, the founder of LD Resources Foundation Inc., a nonprofit foundation that helps people with learning disabilities. Ms. Paz is an angel that God sent to me. After hearing my story Ms.Paz connected me with an assistive technology specialist Mark Surabian. We wanted Mr. Surabian to evaluate Alex and find out if Alex is capable of learning how to use an iPad as a form of communication. After a one hour assessment Mr. Surabian delivered the best news in my life;Alex was capable of learning AT without knowing the PECS and that was the happiest moment of my life.
In conclusion, if you are a parent of a child with a developmental disability and find yourself in a similar situation like mine, don’t give up on your child, and don’t believe in someone else’s opinion. Always fight for his/her rights to have an appropriate free education, and always know that you are not alone. There are amazing people like Ms. Paz and Mr. Surabian, who dedicate their time to help people with learning and developmental disabilities.
Student Testimonials
“Thank you so much! It is going to be a great help. I received the computer and appreciate it a lot. I really appreciated you expediting it and sending it straight to my school. I was scared I was going to fall behind without it.”
Dear Ms.Paz & LD Resources Foundation Inc. Award Committee,
“College for any student is challenging, but for a student with a disability like me it can not only be a challenge but can be very frustrating. As a student who has been diagnosed as dyslexic, the reading materials can become overwhelming. During my four years in high school was able to maintain a cumulativeGPA of 3. 0 and as a college student, I have only been able to maintain a GPA of 2.0 during my first semester. I know that this is not from lack of hard work and hours of studying but from my inability to process all of the reading materials assigned. I know that if I were able to understand the reading materials I would be able to raise my GPA average. I feel that this award will help me achieve my academic goals. I do want to excel in college so that I may further my education in a graduate school which will allow me to continue in a doctoral program in clinical psychology.”
“Most people on the campus of the Fashion Institute of Technology know me as Bridget, the girl from somewhere in Michigan. That’s true. I grew up in a small town in the mid-west. People at FIT may not know another important fact about me. I have a learning disability. When I was in second grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia, which has impaired my ability to read. Almost all of the graduates from my high school went on to college in Michigan, but I knew that was not for me. Although I was actually discouraged from applying to FIT by my college counselor and high school teachers, I knew that it was the place for me and that I would be able to tremendously expand my educational opportunities by studying there.
As a result of my dyslexia, I have learned to make arrangements to get as many of my textbooks on tape as I can. I also attribute a great deal of my success in college to the computer program called Kurzweil Reader. I scan in almost all my homework assignments into the Kurzweil and have it help me read my assignments. I meet with a tutor a few times a week through the FIT-ABLE department. Tutors help me read my homework assignments and tests. I have learned to ask for help when I need it. These processes take much more time than it would if I could just read on my own but I am committed to learning as much as I can. In addition to dyslexia, I also have ADD, which makes my three-hour classes as well as the extra time required to study especially challenging.
Most people are surprised when they hear about this part of my life. I am proud that when people look at me they see my abilities not my disabilities. Part of the reason for this is because I have been able to properly utilize the technology that has been made available to me. I am a senior in the International Trade and Marketing (ITM) program and currently have a 3.58 GPA. After taking my International Trade and Marketing classes, I have learned that there are important legal aspects involved in the international fashion industry. Because the industry has grown into a $1 trillion business, with laws that constantly are changing, there is a need for people who know about law and the business of fashion. That is why I have decided that the next step for me is to go to law school. I believe that the Keys to Access that LD Resources Foundation has awarded to me will be a great tool that will help me to continue to reach my career goals.”
“I am an African American disabled student at Hunter College and a mother of a college student who has ADD.
It was from carrying my son from doctor to doctor when he was young and having been diagnosed with ADHD that I first suspected that I may suffer from ADD. Learning more about the disability, I have wanted to be tested but could not afford the test. So I would greatly benefit if I was to be awarded the Key Testing Award. I am also interested in the Key to Access and Communication Awards. I have great difficulty with keeping attention and concentrating in class and at home with reading assignments and writing assignments. I have made great improvements in my grades and comprehension when I have taped my professors’ lectures along with my note taking.
And lastly, on a one to one conversation, one would declare that I do not have a communication problem. However, within a group (even a small one) I find it difficult to formulate basic speech and words. I have to watch the faces of people having difficulty trying to figure out what I am saying. This makes me nervous and sometimes my mind goes blank or I stutter.
I hope you will consider my application for these awards. If I am awarded any of these, they will truly be appreciated.”
“Listening has always been my primary method of absorbing information. In high school, my class notes weren’t anywhere near comprehensive. I could never write down what to remember and anyone who ever borrowed my notes would most definitely agree. The classes I always did the best in were those in which the teacher spoke regularly to the class, describing what we should know in detail. Unfortunately, not all of my classes were like that. I had classes where the majority of the material was given to the class in written form; novels, short stories, poems. I’d go home or sit in a study hall and read the assignments, usually multiple times. The next class, if I were asked to recount a detail in the story, I seldom could. I was often accused of not reading the assignment and my grade would suffer. The unfortunate thing was that I had read the assignment; my mind just hadn’t acknowledged the information. Generally, my grades in high school were fairly good. I transferred high schools multiple times, so mediocre grades were usually attributed to that. I didn’t realize that I was earning my grades differently than my peers. I assumed my hectic home life was the only difference between myself and my fellow students. In college, I began to think otherwise. I no longer had the hectic home life and was able to spend the necessary amount of time on my homework. Surprisingly, the gaps between my grades widened. I would get “A’s” and “F’s” in the same semester. Going to the student writing center wouldn’t help. No one seemed to understand the problem I was having. Finally, psychiatric testing was suggested, and I decided to go through with it. I am very glad that the tests were performed. Since being diagnosed with a learning disability, I can now be aware of the way my mind works, and try my best to adapt the material in a way that will best suit my own unique learning style. The technology and support offered by the LD Resources Foundation would greatly help me live up to my full potential and allow me to achieve the best grades possible. I am currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Eugene Lang College, in Manhattan, and once completed, I plan to further my academics with a master’s degree in a similar field.”
“I had begun my first two years of my undergraduate degree with the need of seven tutors. At the end of my sophomore year I was offered a chance to be more independent and use adaptive technology which allowed me the ability to read, write more often and eliminate the need of those tutors. 11 years later, I’m beginning my graduate degree in design plus technology at Parsons – The New School. I am again at a crossroads where the technology I had been using has become outdated and was not suited for reading PDF files or has text-to-audio technology. The Key to Access truly would unlock the world of the written word for me. The accessibility to read from several computers and to use the text-to-audio not only would be pleasurable but would allow me to study everywhere I’m able to listen. This is an advantage I have never been offered.
“First and foremost, I want to thank the foundation and my family for all the support I
have received over the years. I am an 18 year old from Brooklyn, New York. As I start my new journey into the college life, I am lucky enough to receive this wonderful tool.
I went to Xavier High School, and even though there were guidance and teacher help, it did not truly accommodate to my exact needs. When I was accepted to Marymount, I received full support and guidance from the counselors and administration, weeks before freshmen orientation. This was very reassuring, and I knew then and there that Marymount Manhattan was the right choice for me. Not only to further develop my education but to develop my growth into adulthood.
The Key to Access tool will prove itself useful for research papers, and storing information, and in turn greatly improve upon my note taking skills and studying in general. I have not been very technology savvy either, so with the help from all the programs featured on the Access tool, I know that will all change for the better. Once again, thank you for the Key to Access tool and I will use it to my fullest potential through my academic career.”
“Thank you for your continued work in helping people with learning disabilities in New York.
“Ms. Paz has been enormously helpful in identifying software and hardware that we might try. Ms. Paz expressed her desire to help the Churchill School focus on this group to develop a program to provide these students with specific knowledge of Assistive Technology programs, features and equipment, as well as substantial hands-on practice with that technology in a classroom setting at Churchill, so that they can effectively advocate for appropriate support when they are in a college setting”