Max Wagenberg had enough of coronavirus. According to his mother, Helene Richter, the 21-year-old minimally verbal Manhattan resident with autism, searched for and found an “escape strategy” from the pandemic. “Last night, he came to me with this drawing of two birds and asked me to help him turn it into an airplane, he went out to the side of the terrace and launched it—watching it soar through the buildings—as he smiled,” reports Helene. “So many people with special needs can’t put into words what is happening around them.”
With routines disrupted, programs suspended and caretakers unable to report for work, people with disabilities, their families and professionals who work with them are experiencing new realities and experimenting with creative solutions.
