More People With Disabilities Unemployed

Even as the economy added 162,000 jobs last month, the U.S. Department of Labor said Friday that Americans with disabilities continued to struggle in the job market.

The unemployment rate for those with disabilities edged upward in July to 14.7 percent, rising from 14.2 percent the month prior.

This comes as the jobless rate for the general population ticked down to 7.4 percent, the Labor Department said.

Federal officials began tracking employment among people with disabilities in October 2008. There is not yet enough data compiled to establish seasonal trends among this population, so statistics for this group are not seasonally adjusted.

Data on people with disabilities covers those over the age of 16 who do not live in institutions. The first employment report specific to this population was made available in February 2009. Now, reports are released monthly.

Portland, Ore. a hate group threatening People with Disabilities

In what officials are calling the work of a hate group, fliers have appeared in several Portland, Ore. neighborhoods threatening to out people with disabilities who receive government aid.

Portland officials are asking for help from the public after learning of the leaflets found in at least five neighborhoods.

“There are sixteen people in this neighborhood who vote and receive cash disability payments,” reads one of the typed notes signed by “Artemis of the wildland.”

“The names of these people are being posted where they can be seen by taxpayers and the neighborhood can decide who is truly disabled,” the note continues. “Some of us in the neighborhood wish to save this democracy and to stand in the way of those who would destroy it.”

City officials said the fliers were the work of a “hate group” and contained an “underlying tone of violence.”

A spokesman for the Portland Office of Equity and Human Rights told The Oregonian that they have not received any reports of names actually being posted, but are asking anyone who receives or sees the flier to report it.

(see story here)

Family Told To ‘Euthanize’ Boy With Autism

Police are investigating after an anonymous letter suggesting that a teen with autism should be euthanized stunned his family and led to widespread outrage and media attention.

The typed, one-page letter was reportedly sent to Brenda Millson last week in reference to her grandson Maxwell Begley, 13, who has autism and often spends time at her house in Newcastle, Ontario. It has since spread like wildfire through social media.

“He is a hinderance to everyone,” reads the message signed by “One pissed off mother!!!!!”

“Take whatever non retarded body parts he possesses and donate it to science,” says the letter, which claims to be from a neighbor. “Do the right thing and move or euthanize him.”

The note left Begley’s family shaking.

“It made me sick to my stomach to think that somebody hated my son that much and they didn’t even know him,” Maxwell’s mom, Karla Begley, told the Toronto Star. “But they just hated him because he was different. That’s the only reason they had to hate him.”

Since the story went viral, however, the family has been touched by the outpouring of support they’ve received from their local community and around the world, telling Clarington This Weekthat their phone has been ringing off the hook with interview requests.

Local community members have come together to organize events supporting the family and a Facebook group started Tuesday already has more than 2,300 members.

“It restores my faith in humanity that this has really rallied people,” Karla Begley told Clarington This Week.

Local police are conducting a criminal investigation into the matter but have already ruled out the possibility of pursuing hate crimes charges in the case.

“Despite the hateful language used, the Crown Attorney’s office has advised that the content of the letter falls below the threshold for a hate crime. However, there are other Criminal Code issues that are being considered,” the Durham Regional Police said in a statement.

(full story here)

Children with disabilities are being unnecessarily segregated in nursing homes

Federal officials are suing alleging that hundreds of children with disabilities are being unnecessarily segregated in nursing homes in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit Monday accusing the state of Florida of relegating nearly 200 children with significant disabilities to nursing homes who could be served at home or in other community-based settings.

Last September, the Justice Department warned Florida officials of ADA violations after an investigation found that state policies and practices limited access to in-home care for kids with significant medical needs leaving many families with little choice but to send their children to nursing homes. What’s more, the probe identified children who spent years at the facilities before receiving federally-mandated screening to assess whether or not the environment was the most appropriate for them.

Though the state made some changes since being notified of the investigation’s findings, federal officials said that after several months of negotiating, violations remain making legal action necessary.

“Children have a right to grow up with their families, among their friends and in their own communities,” said Eve Hill, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The violations the department has identified are serious, systemic and ongoing and require comprehensive relief for these children and their families.”

Kids living in nursing homes have limited interaction with individuals without disabilities and are often located hundreds of miles away from their families, according to the federal complaint.

In addition, the suit alleges that the state’s policies and practices put other children with significant medical needs who are currently living in the community at risk of similar institutionalization.

For their part, Florida officials said they have taken steps in the last year to improve an “already strong program” providing services for children with complex medical needs, indicating that more than 1,000 children are now receiving enhanced care services to help them return to or remain in the community.

“Today’s Obama administration action shows that Washington is not interested in helping families improve but instead is determined to file disruptive lawsuits with the goal of taking over control and operation of Florida’s Medicaid and disability programs,” said Elizabeth Dudek, secretary of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, in a statement.

(see story here)

ADA Changes over 23 years

Twenty three years ago on July 26^th The American’s With Disabilities Act was signed into law.  The ADA recognized civil rights for the disabled; reflecting changing societal attitudes  partially brought about by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act passed Seventeen years earlier.   On this important anniversary I encourage you to take stock of both how far we have come and how far we still have to go. 

To set the stage, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the first published use of the word handicap in association  with  impairment was in Lillian D. Wald’s “The House on Henry Street” (1915); Chapter 6 is titled "The Handicapped Child."   The term is not used in the body of the chapter which refers to children with disabilities as “poor things”, “defectives”,  “the abnormal” or simply “them”.  The chapter discusses the need for segregation and hints at sterilization.

“The Board of Education permitted her to form the first class for ungraded pupils, in School Number 1, in 1900, and the settlement gladly helped develop her theory of separate classes and special instruction for the defectives, not alone for their sakes, but to relieve the normal classes which their presence retarded.”  (page 117)

“The time comes when the child's own interests and those of the community demand the wisest, least selfish, and most statesman like action. Society must state in definite terms its right to be protected from the hopelessly defective and the moral pervert, wherever found. This constitutes the real problem of the abnormal.  At the adolescent period those unfit for parenthood should be guarded—girls and boys—and society should be vested with authority and power to accomplish segregation, the conditions of which should attract and not repel.” (page 123)

Sixty five years later the term Handicapped was used in the precursor to the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act’s Section 504.  While still rooted in the medical and charitable conception of disability the term handicapped was anchored to a broader definition of disability “A physical or mental condition that substantially limits one or more major life activity” and the focus is now on preventing discrimination within federally funded programs, including state and local government, solely on the basis of handicap.  After a four year struggle to implement enforceable regulations the law would emphasize accommodations that would allow participation in the most integrated setting possible rather than segregation.

Thirteen years later in 1990 the American’s With Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed extending rights beyond federal fund recipients by including private employers and business in the same fashion as the Civil Rights Act.  The opening of the of the ADA summarizes the findings of Congressional hearings stating:

“individuals with disabilities are a discrete and insular minority who have been faced with restrictions and limitations, subjected to a history of purposeful unequal treatment, and relegated to a position of political powerlessness in our society, based on characteristics that are beyond the control of such individuals and resulting from stereotypic assumptions not truly indicative of the individual ability of such individuals to participate in, and contribute to, society”

In 2008 Congress passed the ADA Amendments Act providing feedback on the Courts’ interpretation of the ADA stating in part that:

“In enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), Congress intended that the Act “provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities” and provide broad coverage;”.

The bulk of the amendments clarified the broad coverage of the ADA; making the definition of disability more inclusive.  Congress also revised the prohibition on discrimination from against “otherwise qualified individuals with disabilities” to “on the basis of disability”.  This brought the ADA’s prohibition against discrimination in sync with the protections based on race, national origin, sex and veteran’s status. 

That brings us to this week’s 23^rd anniversary of the ADA.  The changes in public policy, attitudes and daily realities that are reflected in this small slice of civil rights’ history are remarkable. The ADA sets the stage for disability becoming an implicit part of efforts to support and value diversity alongside ethnicity, sexuality, national origin, religion and race becoming an implicit part of efforts to value diversity.  Whether you develop curriculum, policy, the built environment or the virtual tools the ADA encourages the integration of Universal Design principals by professionals rather than simple reliance of minimum compliance checklists.  What remains on the civil rights horizon?

The world is increasingly interdependent.  Business, education, communications and entertainment are increasingly global and disability policy must recognize this.  How access and civil rights for the disabled are defined around the word is uneven.  To ensure the rights of American’s working, studying, or traveling abroad the US and its role as a world leader the US needs to shape and support international treaties as it has done with the  World Intellectual Property Organization’s  Marrakesh Treaty To Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled and the United Nations Convention On the Rights of People with Disabilities.  The next critical steps if, as Congress put it when they passed the ADA “The Nation’s proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency” is Senate ratification of these treaties. 

What changes can you imagine for the next 23 years?

L. Scott Lissner, Ohio State University ADA Coordinator, Office Of Diversity And Inclusion
Associate, John Glenn School of Public Affairs

Lecturer, Knowlton School of Architecture, Moritz College of Law & Disability Studies

President, Association on Higher Education And Disability

Chair, ADA-OHIO
Appointed,  Ohio Governor's Council For People With Disabilities, State HAVA Committee & Columbus Advisory Council on Disability Issues

Meet the National Council on Disability

NCD is an independent federal agency charged with advising the President, Congress, and other federal agencies regarding policies, programs, practices, and procedures that affect people with disabilities. NCD is comprised of a team of fifteen Presidential appointees , an Executive Director appointed by the Chairman, and eleven, full-time professional staff. 

NCD's Mission

NCD's mission is to be a trusted advisor, in collaboration with people with disabilities to:

• The President
• The Congress
• Federal entities
• State, tribal communities, and local governments; and
• Other entities and organizations

NCD fulfills its advisory roles regarding disability policies, programs, procedures, and practices that enhance equal opportunity by:

• Convening stakeholders  to acquire timely and relevant input for recommendations and action steps
• Gathering and analyzing data and other information
• Engaging and influencing current debates and agendas
• Identifying and formulating solutions to emerging and long-standing challenges; and
• Providing tools to facilitate effective implementation

DAC's ADA Celebration! Join Us!

Join us on July 26th for Disability Action Center's 2013 Celebration of The American's with Disabilities Act! Enjoy FREE food and Entertainment! ‪#‎ADA‬ ‪#‎disabilityrights‬ ‪#‎advocacy‬‪#‎adacelebration‬ ‪#‎disabilityactioncenterNW‬