White woman with shoulder-length curly brown hair walks confidently through a building with large glass windows overlooking trees. Her right leg is prosthetic.
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Returning to work after getting on disability: protecting your health

For many of us who become disabled, the recognition and acceptance process isn’t easy, and all too often, employment and disability are inextricably linked. For many of us, part of becoming disabled is losing our employment. The grief and loss of becoming disabled is often entangled deeply with the loss of income, and often the…

Tatiana(white woman with honey-brown hair) smiling while holding her rose breasted cockatoo. The picture is cropped at chest-height.

How-tos and Questions About Filing for Disability

I am honored that Alison invited me to write a post about filing for disability from an attorney’s perspective. I hope to answer some of the most common questions claimants ask in regards to filing for disability. But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Tatiana Froes. I am a disability attorney practicing disability…

me, sitting and looking at a pond
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Can you get disability if you have FND?

Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) is a relatively common (though rarely properly diagnosed) condition. I was diagnosed in 2003 when it was still being called Conversion Disorder (and labeled as a mental illness rather than a neurological condition). I want to be really clear about this: the condition you have (your diagnosis) is less impactful on…

red sign in front of a set of tree trunks. the sign reads: Eat, drink, and be married, with hearts at the beginning and end of the sign, and arrows pointing to the right.
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Can you get married on disability? The reasons I won’t

While I’ve talked about this a bit previously, I want to dig a bit more into the idea of getting or staying married while on disability coverage. The first and most basic thing that I want to emphasize is that this is a choice and that there’s no automatically right or wrong answer. What there…

woman in black sleeveless dress sitting on a white surface. She has blue hair with a pink streak on the right side, and her left arm is prosthetic.
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What does it mean to “go on disability”?

The honest answer is that there are a lot of possible meanings. The most typical at this point is to receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits(SSDI) or Supplemental Security Insurance(SSI), but there really are a lot of additional types of “disability” benefits, each of which has its own set of rules, regulations, and durations. This…

the word 'health' spelled out using medication in blister packs, with a stethescope between the 't' and 'h'
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How does Medicare work and how do I get it?

We are now approaching the beginning of the open enrollment period for Medicare. The enrollment period runs from October 15 to December 7. This is the time period where we can finalize our plans, adjust our coverage if necessary, and commit to the coverage, and type of coverage, that we will receive for the following year….

How can I work and not lose my Social Security Disability Insurance?
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How can I work and not lose my Social Security Disability Insurance?

SSA does actually have an entire program to help people with disabilities return to work.  It is called Ticket to Work.  Whether you are on SSI or SSDI you can request a Ticket to help yourself learn new skills, find work, or rethink your career goals. It’s a voluntary program that will help you with…

four people participating in the disability pride parade - an invisibly disabled black woman holding a sign reading 'Yes, and...", me, holding a sign that reads 'include disabled people in activism', a white woman in a wheelchair holding a sign reading 'the future is accessible, and another white woman beside her wearing a zebra-striped cap.
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Advocating for disability rights as a member of the community

So often, people with disabilities are pretty much automatically ignored, put down, or ostracized by our communities. There are a lot of contributing factors, but I want to talk about some of those factors here today, as well as discuss what we can do(as individuals) to help the greater disabled community. People with disabilities are…