New film highlights living choices for disabled

Erwin Schmidtkunz is a long way from Willowbrook.

Taken to the notorious state school on Staten Island for children with developmental disabilities when he was 5, Schmidtkunz, now 45, remembers his six years there as almost like a jail sentence.

"No activities, no programs, any of that kind of stuff," he said Monday. "I just stayed in my bedroom and didn't do anything."

Schmidtkunz now lives in his own apartment in Huntington, has a job at a nearby Kmart, and receives support services from Old Bethpage-based nonprofit Family Residences and Essential Enterprises.

He is one of the subjects of "We Have Choices," a new film that the organization helped to produce about how the living choices for individuals with developmental disabilities have expanded in recent decades. The film was released to the public Monday, and FREE hosted two showings of it.

"It's an effort to re-educate the public, to show that these guys do have choices," said Lawrence Taylor, a supervisor at FREE who oversees Schmidtkunz' care. "You don't just bundle them all together and decide that these guys are disabled and that's it."

Steve Holmes, administrative director of the Self-Advocacy Association of New York State, in Schenectady, which spearheaded the film project, said services for people with disabilities have progressed from the days when they were warehoused in Willowbrook and other institutions.

Now, people with disabilities and their families have the option of deciding how they want to live, Holmes said.

"We're trying to give people an opportunity to live life like anyone else in the community," he said.

Steve Fleisher, 31, made a face when he thought of his years in a succession of group homes.

"I hated it," he said, adding that he wasn't able to set his own schedule or get a full-time job and had to keep his personal food supply under lock and key.

His family ended up taking over his care. Now, Fleisher lives in an apartment in Commack, attended to by aides, and works as a messenger in a law firm in Manhattan. Fleisher's story was featured in the film.

Rich Fleisher said his son is much happier now.

"He feels he has control over his life," he said.