WHEELING — Easterseals Rehabilitation Center CEO Eric Filberto loves the Ohio Valley and his work at the Wheeling-based organization that provides therapeutic and medical services for children with disabilities.

“I always did want to feel good about what I did, and that’s easy to do here,” Filberto said.

Filberto was instilled with a charitable spirit early on when he dressed up as an ‘Easterseals bunny’ as a young child, helping his relatives raise money for the organization when he was growing up in Wellsburg, where he lives today.

Though associated with the national Easterseals organization, the Wheeling Easterseals is the only affiliate in West Virginia and is funded solely through insurance, grants and donations from the community.

It is because of the reliable generosity in the area that the rehabilitation center is able to maintain its vow not to turn away any patients who may not be able to pay, Filberto said.

One thing Filberto said he has seen change a lot in his time working with Easterseals is an “exponential” increase in the number of families specifically seeking autism testing for their children. He said this consistent upward trend may be due to a combined increase in awareness about autism and more advanced diagnostic techniques now being available to medical professionals.

When Filberto started with the organization, Easterseals was offering autism testing once a week, which has now been expanded to thrice weekly.

“We’re constantly evaluating our services and what services are in higher demand,” he said.

One broader change that Filberto has been seeing in recent years has been a shift to all-inclusive events and spaces for those with disabilities rather than ‘exclusively inclusive.’

For example, the recent ‘Inclusion on Ice’ event hosted by the Wheeling Nailers, which invited people of all abilities to skate with the hockey players and have fun on the ice rather than singling out those with disabilities by making it an exclusive event.

“It’s not just ‘hey this is for children with special needs,’ This is for your entire family, any in the community who wants to come, and it’s accessible for everyone,” he said.

This can also be seen in recent projects the city of Wheeling has taken on, such as the all-inclusive playground at Wheeling Park. The playground features components like swings that wheelchair users can ride, but it isn’t exclusively for children with disabilities. This makes it a welcoming space for all.

The highly talked about Wheeling Streetscape Project also centered around accessibility, with one of its major goals being Americans with Disabilities Act compliance along Wheeling’s downtown streets.

One big change that is on the horizon at Easterseals is the move to an online record keeping system in partnership with WVU Medicine for patients’ medical records, an “undervalued” asset in medicine, Filberto said. This will make medical information far more accessible for patients and their doctors and improve the care doctors are able to provide, Filberto said.

In the medical industry, things are constantly advancing and changing. This often poses financial hurdles to new equipment and the need for ongoing education for staff, but Easterseals finds a way to secure funding and provide the best services for its patients, Filberto said.

“There have been several very expensive pieces of equipment that we have been able to have here because of the community’s generosity,” he said. “If it will help us improve the health care that we deliver, then we go for it.”

This applies to continuing education as well, which Filberto said has become even easier for staff to keep up with due to remote learning capabilities.

“Our therapists are all very, very invested in learning about what’s new and learning about how they can implement it here,” he said.