ACLD

Adults and Children with Learning & Developmental Disabilities (ACLD), founded in 1957, is a leading not-for-profit agency on Long Island that proudly supports the needs of people with autism, learning and developmental disabilities, and their families. ACLD’s mission is to provide opportunities for children and adults with autism, learning and developmental disabilities to pursue enviable lives, promote their independence and foster supportive relationships within the community.

ACLD provides these opportunities through a wide variety of supports and services, beginning at 3 years old with Special Education Preschools and continuing throughout one’s lifespan with programs such as Day Habilitation, Vocational and Residential Services.

What does an enviable life mean? It is ultimately defined differently by each person, because each person is different. ACLD uses this person-centered approach to listen and find out what matters most to each person.

The ACLD of today started on two separate paths which were destined to join together. In Nassau County, George Lehr and Abraham Greenberg, both fathers of children with disabilities, discovered the New York Association for Brain Injured Children (NYABIC) and began the Nassau Chapter of the organization in 1957. In Suffolk County, Jack and Beverly Darcy, also parents of children with disabilities, followed the same path and in 1962 formed the Suffolk Chapter of NYABIC. Both began with a similar purpose of advocating for education of children with disabilities and to ensure that the children had every possible opportunity to make friends and enjoy life as a child.

In the mid-1970s, both chapters changed their names to Association for Children with Learning Disabilities (ACLD), and in 1984 the chapters merged together. In 1991 the agency changed it’s name to the ACLD of today, Adults and Children with Learning and Developmental Disabilities.

While our agency has undergone many transformations in its 65 year history, one fact remains – our commitment to providing opportunities for children and adults with Autism, learning and developmental disabilities, so they may pursue enviable lives, promote their independence and foster supportive relationships within the community.