For Jadian Strachan, the key to working with people with developmental disabilities is to "put yourself in their shoes."
As a Direct Support Professional at YAI's Brooklyn Day Services program, Jadian has done precisely that for for more than five years. Most recently, she has had an opportunity to exercise empathy when she began working with Derrick, an older gentleman who is blind.

"When you're working with the seniors, it's not about teaching new skills, but enhancing and maintaining the skills they do have," she said.
So it seemed perfectly reasonable that Derrick, who plays the piano beautifully, should be able to share his talent independently, utilizing the resources available at the program. Jadian studied the electric keyboard Derrick used and began to think about how different textures applied to the power button and volume control would enable him to play without staff assistance.
"I took everything textured I could find around the program to Derrick to see what he thought," she said. He liked the feel of the small pom-pom ball, so she attached it with a hot glue gun to the power button. In about a week, Derrick was able to turn on the keyboard on by himself. "His face just lit up; it was so rewarding to see his smile," said Jadian, who has worked in the field for 15 years and came to YAI after working at an agency for people with visual impairments. She went on to apply different textures to each key.
Jadian didn’t stop with the keyboard. She noticed that Derrick had difficulty with some of the arts and crafts projects the group enjoyed. Using a hot glue gun, which she describes as "my best friend," Jadian traced the leaf, creating a raised border that Derrick could feel. She gave him a colored pencil and he was able to color within the border.
Next was finger painting. Jadian devised a creative system to enable Derrick to experience different colors without being able to see them. She placed coffee grinds in brown paint, corn starch in green paint, and grains of rice in blue paint. "Instead of me helping him find paints, he can work independently based on the smells and textures," Jadian said.
At the heart of everything she does is the belief that her work is not about changing people who have different levels of ability, but about changing the world around them.
"It's up to us as DSPs to adapt the environment to a person's ability, so he or she can participate fully."