Grandparents smiling and holding their two grandchildren in front of their house.

TLG Services for Parents and Grandparents with Disabilities and their Families

TLG provides direct services, information, and referral to a diverse group of parents with disabilities—and to their families—including parents with physical and visual disabilities, deaf parents, parents with intellectual or other cognitive disabilities, and parents with diverse medical conditions. Direct services are available primarily to local parents residing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Adaptive Equipment

TLG is nationally recognized for designing and fabricating baby care equipment for parents and other caregivers with disabilities; as well as for documenting the impact of this equipment on parenting. Within the Bay Area, TLG provides adaptive baby care equipment as well as an equipment lending library for parents, expectant parents, or parenting grandparents with physical disabilities.

A mother in a wheelchair uses a customized harness to hold her young child in her lap.

Bay Area Parents with Intellectual Disabilities or Learning Difficulties

Parents with disabilities who are clients of the Regional Center of the East Bay residing in Alameda or Contra Costa counties can receive individualized home-based services from TLG during pregnancy and parenting.

Child Custody Issues: A National Resource

We at TLG believe that the unnecessary removal of a child from a safe and loving home, on the basis of a parent’s disability, is an inexcusable traumatization of children, and a violation of the civil rights of parents with disabilities. We believe that all parties should be motivated by compassion for children to avoid this outcome whenever possible. Unfortunately, we have found that for some disability populations, removal rates of children are as high as 60%; and in general, whatever the disability population, unnecessary removal occurs too often. Our services can help.

We have published guides and articles to assist parents with disabilities who are involved in child custody situations.

We also offer trainings specifically tailored for various systems, such as Child Protective Services, Early Intervention programs, Early Head Start, and Independent Living Centers, to help these professionals cope with the unique issues that arise when they are serving a parent with a disability who has custody issues.

Our staff specialists can review parenting evaluations and other court records to determine whether or not appropriate accommodations were made for parents who have disabilities. Our staff have served as expert witnesses in many custody cases of parents with disabilities in the U.S.