Getting through the application process for disability services is like a game of Monopoly. Everyone starts at Go and rolls the dice. In this case, the first step is to go to the SSI website and fill out the initial form. 

Supplemental Security Income or SSI — a year-long project that starts when your student turns 18 —is the federal government’s support system for nonelderly disabled adults.

As you look around on the SSI website, you’ll see information about SSDI. Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). SSDI is for disabled adults whose parents are over 65 and have filed for their social security payments. It’s more money, but that’s another issue for the future. Right now, SSI is your primary concern.

Currently, there are about 5.2 million beneficiaries of SSI in our country. In 2022, 33 percent had intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, 19 percent had mental disorders, 12 percent had musculoskeletal system diseases, 8 percent had nervous system diseases, and 28 percent had “other/unknown^⁠1” disabilities.

Read more at The Great Leap, the autism newsletter