Friday, April 1, 2016

Carry Letter revisited: The Wallet Card™ from The Disability Independence Group, Inc.

Recently I became aware of a group in Coral Gables Florida called the Disability Independence Group, Inc. The mission of DIG is to expand opportunities for participation, education, employment and acceptance of Persons with Disabilities through advocacy, litigation, education, and training. - See more at:


One of the programs they have available, to pretty much anyone, is The Wallet Card Program, after looking at their website, I decided I'd submit a request for a walled card myself. Today, that came in the mail, so I thought I'd share what an actual Wallet Card looks like.

This is the front of The Wallet Cardand it contains my name, the fact that I am autistic and disabled, and explains some of the common obvious traits when under stress. It is by no means comprehensive, nor is it really meant to be.  It also contains a biodot that can show ones relative state via body temperature. At that moment it says I'm calm and I would agree with that assessment. My scanner is apparently tense.


This is the rear of the card, which I should also point out is a solid, printed plastic card, just slightly thicker than that of a credit card. It contains how a person of authority can help me to cooperate, and how to keep me from being more panicked or distressed and some of the more common signs that I'm not doing well. It also contains an emergency contact and phone number for that contact.  It is pretty straight forward, simple to use, and the DIG website contains a video showing how and why to safely use it, and will allow you to request your own Wallet Card like I did here.  It is not perfect, nor do I think is it meant to be, but can help smooth things some upon first contact with a public official when we are in trouble.

In my case, for those times I don't have, or want to be carrying my doctors letter, this is a simple, easy to use means of broaching a difficult topic at a time when we are already tense and possibly distressed.

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