Source: Bazelon

At two congressional briefings celebrating the 23rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on July 29, the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law unveiled a set of consensus principles reflecting the disability community’s shared vision of community integration. The document, entitled Community Integration for People with Disabilities: Key Principles (PDF), lays out a vision in which people with disabilities are afforded opportunities to live in their own homes, work in regular, non-segregated employment, and make their own choices.

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee highlighted the Key Principles in its recent report, Separate and Unequal, detailing how state service systems continue to serve many thousands of people with disabilities in needlessly segregated settings, despite the ADA’s requirement that states administer services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate.

Embracing the key principles are 26 major national organizations, including the National Council on Independent Living,  representing people with disabilities, family members, service providers, and state administrators.

“Our disability service systems must begin to make these principles a reality for all people with disabilities,” stated Ira Burnim, legal director at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, at Monday’s briefings. “While most states have expressed a desire to do the right thing,” Burnim added, “they have failed to implement these principles on a large scale.”  [Read more…]

The Voting Rights Task Force is writing to ask all NCIL members for help.

One of the issues our group has identified is the fact that people with disabilities are not formally included in election polling. Our first effort was to contact the Pew Research Center. Pew conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.

The methodology used in these polls discriminates against people with disabilities and deprives them of the opportunity to participate fully in the political process.

Without this polling data, candidates, campaigns, and the news media do not see us as important. By contrast, the Pew Research Center has determined and assigned value to the views of other groups, such as African Americans, Hispanics, women, people of different ages, and people with differing income and educational levels.

When contacted by the NCIL Voting Rights Task Force, Pew declined to even discuss the issue. That brings us to the present.

National Public Radio (NPR) purchases the right to utilize the polls developed by the Pew Research Group. We have written them a letter requesting to meet with them to discuss this issue. We feel that as an organization that benefits from federal funding, NPR has a responsibility to use polls that reflect the views of people with disabilities.

Moreover, insisting on more comprehensive polling data would truly fulfill NPR’s mission “to create a more informed public – one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas and cultures”.

We have not heard from them yet. We are asking all of you to contact Gary Knell, President and CEO of NPR, at (202) 513-3232 and encourage him to meet with us to discuss the inclusion of people with disabilities.

We are strong because of our shared experiences. So let’s see some of that strength now and let them know we are important and will be included!

While the U.S. Census Bureau reports there are nearly 57 million Americans with disabilities—about one in five Americans—their voting patterns remain largely unexamined. To better understand the political views, advocacy trends and partisan affiliation of people with disabilities and chronic conditions, the Youth Transitions Collaborative conducted the first survey of its kind to study the political impact of this large community of people with disabilities, their families and caregivers.

Called “Power in Numbers: A Profile of American Voters with Disabilities,” the survey also shines a spotlight on young people with disabilities and chronic conditions, finding evidence of an emerging generation who may become more engaged in the political process.

The Youth Transitions Collaborative is a membership group of organizations with a commitment to serving people with disabilities. The “Power in Numbers” survey is the first product of the Collaborative’s advocacy working group, which includes the American Association of People with Disabilities, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, The HSC Foundation, Institute for Educational Leadership, National Council on Independent Living and United Cerebral Palsy. Its findings offer a wealth of information about the potential political impact of this community:

• The community considers a candidate’s record on supporting people with disabilities in their voting decisions, with 84 percent of respondents saying that having a record of supporting services and programs for people with disabilities is somewhat or very important.
• Not only is a candidate’s record important, the community will actually vote against candidates they otherwise support if that candidate supports cuts to existing government services for people with disabilities. For individuals under the age of 30, this enthusiasm is even higher.
• The community is politically diverse, with party affiliation tracking closely to the general population.  [Read more…]

Recognizing that alert and warning information is only effective if received means understanding how people in our communities choose to receive information. And if the goal is to alert everyone, then it is vitally important not to overlook the approximately 25% of our population who rely on assistance or accommodation in their day-to-day lives. Pushing information to TV and radio is simply no longer enough.

FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is moving quickly toward its goal of making sure alerts and warnings are fully accessible by the whole community. Their multi-platform approach to pushing information through a variety of devices attempts to ensure access to critical information by everyone. But there are still some final hurdles to overcome.

Download the Federal Emergency Management’s new document, “Alerting the Whole Community: Removing Barriers to Alerting Accessibility”.

As the NCIL conference approaches, we reflect on the beginning of the Violence and Abuse Task Force. It came from a resolution that was passed by the NCIL membership in 2006.

The Task Force has lead several efforts since that time, including workshops and conferences that NCIL helped coordinate in conjunction with other victim services groups. Our Task Force is proud of our small successes over time, but much remains to be done.

We hope that since the inception of the Task Force we have helped people. The only true measure of our success comes from those people who have experienced violence and sought support. Those who might have found help and healing from informed and compassionate peers and colleagues in our Centers for Independent Living and advocates in other fields can be the only true measure of our success.

We know more now about victimization and people with disabilities than we did in 2006. Data is now included in the National Crime Victimization Survey. The Bureau of Justice Statistics released the first data in 2009, then again in 2011. See more information on the latest figures (PDF).

There have been a lot of changes since then, and many things that have stayed the same. However, there has been movement. In May, the Office of Victims of Crime released a document summarizing three years’ worth of efforts. The final report, “Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services” synthesizes findings and presents a set of recommendations to drive broad, cross-cutting strategic change in the victim assistance field. Read the report (PDF).  [Read more…]

By Meredith Raymond, NCIL Policy Intern

Just as the Cherry Blossoms fade, students from across the country and the world flock to Washington, D.C. to spend their summers building resumes, networks, and most importantly to follow their passions. It is passion and the freedom to create, defend, explore, and empower that draw thousands of eager students to the District each year. And for many civic minded students with disabilities, coming to D.C. is not a dream, but a necessity.

Historically, most civil rights movements follow the same pattern; a previously ostracized minority group is accepted by society and slowly the law begins to reflect that. Although civil rights legislation was achieved for people with disabilities almost 23 years ago, this law is not a reflection of societal acceptance. An unemployment rate of 13.4% and an alarmingly high poverty rate among people with disabilities are unacceptable, and these issues just scratch the surface of the justice and equality that need to be pursued by the disability community.

We the interns associated with the disability community are empowered with knowledge of our past and thankfulness to our predecessors. We are passionate, aware, and determined. We are enduring Ramen Noodle dinners, inaccessible taxis, stares, and stigmas, but always bear in mind the responsibility to continue the movement with fortitude and zeal, to demand not just increased equality under the law, but general societal respect and regard-always remembering, “Nothing about us without us!”

NCIL’s Mental Health Civil Rights Task Force members will be presenting two workshops during the upcoming NCIL conference. Please join us for:

• Mass Violence: How the IL Community Responds to Suggestions that People with Disabilities Pose a Public Threat on Wednesday, July 24 at 1:00 p.m.

Our nation experienced an increase in mass shootings last year. After these shootings, media and advocates for forced treatment and institutionalization have suggested that “mental illness” or autism of the shooter caused the violence and justify discrimination. This session will present some basic facts, discuss what existing laws may provide, and engage the audience in a discussion on how we can protect our civil rights.

• CILs Providing Mental Health Peer Support on Saturday, July 27 at 9:00 a.m.

This workshop will provide an overview of some mental health peer support services being provided through CILs. In some states, CILs are providing services such as running drop-in centers and working with peer-run respite programs. Come join us as we highlight some existing programs and discuss how CILs can begin or improve existing peer support programs.

The Task Force has submitted a resolution for NCIL membership. If adopted, the resolution affirms that NCIL:

• opposes use of statutory language not respectful of disability such as “mental defective”;  [Read more…]

In 2011, NCIL adopted a resolution supporting Mad Pride Day. Mad Pride celebrates the creativity and resiliency of the human spirit and also focuses attention on the human rights and spectacular culture of people considered very different by our society. Mad Pride celebrations have grown directly out of a historic but little-known international social change movement led by psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers that began in about 1970 – around the same time as the IL movement. Mad Pride is open to everyone, whether or not you have personally been labeled by the psychiatric system, since Mad Pride is really about Human Pride.

Inspired by a concept introduced by Dr. Martin Luther King, JR, Mad Pride has expanded into Creative Maladjustment Week which will be observed this year July 7-14. Creative maladjustment is a natural human response to oppression, an organic and highly adaptable way to oppose injustice. Each day of Creative maladjustment Week focuses on a theme: creativity, action and movement; laughter; kindness; self and community care; legacy of lunacy and pride. For more information about Creative Maladjustment Week, please visit www.cmweek.org.

Dear NCIL Members and Friends,

As you may recall, the law firm of Brown Goldstein and Levy has agreed to work with NCIL to pursue legal action against entities egregiously violating the rights of people with disabilities. Brown Goldstein and Levy is a Baltimore-based firm with a history of defending the rights of people with disabilities on a cross-disability basis. It is our hope that this partnership will help NCIL to carry out our mission on the national level, while impacting our members at the local level.

In addition to securing the legal rights of people with disabilities, initiatives like this can provide NCIL with significant exposure and strengthen our leverage with members of Congress and the White House. This also means that we will increase awareness of issues facing people with disabilities, and also educate the public about civil rights, and how seriously they are being violated all over the country.  [Read more…]

By Mark Derry, Chair, NCIL ADA / Civil Rights Subcommittee

We could sure use more input from NCIL Members on this one!

NCIL participates in various committees that work on federal rulemaking on newly proposed guidelines. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act tasked the U.S. Access Board to develop standards for medical diagnostic equipment accessibility in order to improve healthcare for people with disabilities who have in many instances gone without proper exams and preventative treatment simply because of inaccessible equipment such as fixed-height exam tables and mammography machines that cannot be accessed by women who use wheelchairs.

The Medical Diagnostic Equipment Accessibility Standards Advisory Committee (MDE Committee) was established to advise the Access Board and to make recommendations on matters addressed in (and the public comments received on) the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which was published in the Federal Register in February 2012.

The NCIL membership is represented on the MDE Committee, along with several other advocacy organizations and DME manufacturers and their associations. The Committee has been working since September of last year to develop recommendations, which will be provided to the Access Board in Washington this July. We have reached group consensus on almost every issue and Subcommittees have established recommendations regarding Imaging Equipment with Transfer Surfaces, Stretchers, Mammography Equipment, Weight Scales, and Exam Tables and Chairs. The one issue we have not been able to reach agreement on is the lowest accessible height for a transfer to the devices, including Exam Tables and Chairs. Only two small studies of mobility device heights were available to the group, and those studies each had issues that limited their use as data on which to base a recommendation.

The heights we have seen for accessible seats in previous rulemaking have generally had a range of 17-19 inches, but that has been a “fixed” height, like with toilet seats. An early win for advocates on the MDE Committee was having clear understanding that the height for the equipment would be adjustable to address various heights of transfers from mobility devices and by people of many sizes and shapes. The manufacturers shared that the low height would be difficult to reach without major redesign and cost, and insist the low end of the adjustable height be 19 inches above the floor, while the advocates made the case that equipment is accessible to the greatest number of people when the height from the floor is 17 inches.

The Committee remains evenly split between advocates and manufacturers over this issue, which brings us to the big question: what do our members say?

What height is your mobility device above the floor (measured to the top of the seat cushion)? Would you like to see 17 inches be the lowest height for transfer to an exam table – or will 19 inches work for you? We want to hear from you! It’s quick and easy – just shoot a quick email to Mark Derry, Chair of the NCIL ADA / Civil Rights Subcommittee at [email protected] that says “19 works for me” or “I need it to be 17”. But we need to hear from you by close of business this Friday, June 14th to include your numbers next week. This is your opportunity to give your input to the rulemaking process – nothing about us without us! Send that email today!