Friday, November 6, 2026
An interactive communication event for people with disabilities was hosted at Lakeview Public Library, giving those with mental or physical disabilities the chance to communicate what they want to see in terms of change in the Town of Hempstead.
The event, called “meet an advocate who cares,” was hosted by Abilities Unleashed. It is a non-profit dedicated to helping those with disabilities and all abilities further their education and careers by building a support system around them and helping them communicate.
On Oct. 28, People got to play games that helped them communicate with others in the room, such as a game of Jenga where players would pull out a block with a question about themselves. Though focused on people with disabilities, the event was open to anyone who wanted to participate.
Vice president of Abilities Unleashed, JoAnna Datz, wanted to make sure each game was interactive. “We’re using really simple communication tools that anyone can access,” Datz said.
They aimed to make the event accessible to people with different disabilities, such as having a building table for nonverbal people or people who had a difficult time speaking. According to Datz, they wanted to flex around people’s needs as much as possible.
The idea came from member Ashley Gazes after she attended a Town of Hempstead meeting to advocate for people with disabilities. She said that she felt dismissed when directed to some of the existing resources in the town.
She came up with this to help disabled people communicate what they want to see changed in the community. This reflects in games like the Day in the Life game. It was a dice game where the player would roll two dice on a mat on the floor. Their number combination corresponded to an open-ended question about their quality of life in the town.
There were questions on the mat such as, “are there enough recreational activities and parks in your area?” or “where you live, do you feel you have good access to pedestrianized areas and public transit?”
Gazes and other members believe that communication can lead to change in the town. She wants to see better accommodations for the physically and mentally disabled.
“I want to make that change. I want to bring accessibility back to the town,” Gazes said.
Their last event was held in Baldwin. President of Abilities Unleashed, Latoya Benjamin, hopes to expand their events to places all over the Town of Hempstead, hoping to go to one library per month.
“We plan to hit as many libraries in the Town of Hempstead as we can,” Benjamin said. “We have reached out to Oceanside Library to be our next location, then after that, we’ll probably head over to Roosevelt and Elmont.”
