1) What’s Happening in the Nation’s Capital?
Registration is now open for NCIL’s 2010 Annual Conference on Independent Living!
2) National News
Take Action! Urge CCN to tell the truth about CCA!
NPR Launches Investigative Unit: Joe Shapiro to Target Olmstead!
Federal Managers Need Refresher Course on Hiring People with Disabilities
White House Remains Steadfast In Support Of Disability Council Nominee
3) State News
Chicago Public Schools Vow Overhaul of Special Education Program
New Yorkers with Mental Illness on Hold after Ruling
4) Announcements and Additional Resources
Disability Rights in Mexico: The Real Gaby Brimmer and the People She Moved to Action
- Columbia Seminar on Disability Studies
HHS Community Living Initiative Upcoming Stakeholder Dialogues
Registration is now open for NCIL’s 2010 Annual Conference on Independent Living!
Visit our 2010 Annual Conference website to register and find everything you need to know about the 2010 Annual Conference, "20 Years of the ADA: The Fight Goes On!".
All registrations received and paid before April 30, 2010 are “Early Bird” registrations.
Our online store gives you the ability to register multiple attendees with one transaction, and accepts Discover, American Express, Visa and MasterCard. A printable registration form is available in the registration booklet at the link above.
You must register and pay for the Conference before reserving rooms at the Grand Hyatt. Additional accessible hotel rooms are also available at the Marriott Metro Center, just 1 block from the Grand Hyatt. Additional details are available on our Conference webpage. See you in July!
Take Action! Urge CCN to tell the truth about CCA!
Last August, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN stated that the Community Choice Act (CCA) would make hospitals wheelchair accessible. In October, ADAPT met with CNN's David Vigilante, who agreed to ask Dr. Gupta to make an on-air correction of this misinformation. To date, there has been no correction of Dr. Gupta's mistake.
See ADAPT video about CNN and Dr. Gupta. Then, contact CNN and tell them to stop fooling around! They know the Community Choice Act is about our freedom to live in our own homes NOT about hospital accessibility. It's time for them to tell it to the world just like they promised us they would!
Take Action. The link will take you to a sample letter that you can send to David Vigilante, of CNN. Please feel free to personalize it, if you wish. Then, enter your contact information and click once on the Send button. It's that easy! Please tell your friends about this alert so that they may participate, as well.
NPR Launches Investigative Unit: Joe Shapiro to Target Olmstead!
Source: Center for Self-Determination
National Public Radio (NPR) is capitalizing on its competitors who are cutting back on in-depth investigative reporting by actually starting their own Investigative Unit. NPR hopes that this will ‘add another dimension of depth to its stories.’ NPR’s Senior Vice-President for news, Ellen Weiss, says “Our listeners appreciate investigative reporting and the audience response is huge when these types of stories are on the air”.
The news organization is hoping to ‘enhance its role as a destination spot for watchdog news.’ NPR will move around some of its personnel including veteran reporter Joseph Shapiro, who has more than 20 years experience covering important issues with disability stories prominent. He will be part of a six-person unit and one of two initial reporters assigned to this investigative unit. Shapiro is the author of “No Pity” a history of the disability rights movement and the first national reporter to cover self-determination with a 2001 spread in US News and World Report and a long interview on NPR with the Center’s Executive Director, Tom Nerney.
“I am happy about this commitment to investigative reporting,” said Shapiro. “I have covered disability issues for many years and now I will have more time to devote to issues that take longer to investigate. It won’t be the only thing I cover, but it shows NPR’s interest in doing investigative stories about disability issues.”
This is good news for many including Executive Director of The Center for Self-Determination Tom Nerney. “This is an opportunity for Joe to dig deeper into many issues facing the disability community that deserve coverage. With Joe in this position, we are confident many stories will be covered in depth” said Nerney. “What could be more important than Joe’s first report on Olmstead?”
Federal Managers Need Refresher Course on Hiring People with Disabilities
Source: NextGov, by Alyssa Rosenberg
Federal managers need better training on hiring and overseeing employees [with disabilities], a new survey from a professional association and public-private partnership concluded.
Of 513 employees that the Federal Managers Association and Telework Exchange canvassed in January and February, 71 percent said their agencies had made a commitment to bringing on employees with disabilities. But only half said officials had the knowledge and tools to fulfill those commitments and to retain and promote employees [with disabilities] once they accepted federal jobs.
Specifically, 36 percent of respondents said they were not familiar with Schedule A, the hiring authority that allows agencies to appoint applicants [with disabilities] to federal positions noncompetitively. Fifty-eight percent were not aware of President Bill Clinton's 2000 Executive Order 13163, which committed the federal government to outreach efforts with the goal of hiring 100,000 federal employees [with disabilities] within five years.
"On the surface, I think people thought, 'Our agency really is committed to hiring people with disabilities,' " said Cindy Auten, general manager of the Telework Exchange. "But looking at what they're actually implementing, there is a gap in terms of providing reasonable accommodations [for] things like telework."
Even when employees with disabilities] make their way into government, many agencies do not track their progress. Forty-six percent of respondents said to their knowledge, their agency didn't monitor hiring, retention and promotions of employees [with disabilities]. Forty percent of the survey respondents said managers in their agency had not received training that would allow them to effectively manage the particular needs of staff members [with disabilities]. Read More.
White House Remains Steadfast In Support Of Disability Council Nominee
Source: DisabilityScoop, by Michelle Diament
An anonymous Senate hold hampering the first-ever nomination of a person with autism to the National Council on Disability is highlighting rifts within the autism community. But despite the political hitch, President Barack Obama remains solidly behind his nominee. Obama nominated Ari Ne’eman, the 22-year-old founder of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, and seven others to the council in December 2009.
Now, The New York Times reports that under a highly secretive parliamentary move in the Senate, a hold was placed on Ne’eman’s nomination anonymously by one or more members of the body. Meanwhile, the other seven nominees were confirmed.
It is unclear why Ne’eman’s nomination was delayed, but the effort to derail his appointment is leading some to suspect that Ne’eman’s sometimes divisive views on autism could be the reason. A proponent of neurodiversity, Ne’eman has said he does not believe the disorder should be cured, but rather that it should be accepted and accommodated as part of a person’s identity.
Despite the holdup, however, Obama remains confident Ne’eman’s nomination will be confirmed. “We are still behind Mr. Ne’eman and hope for a quick confirmation,” a senior White House official told Disability Scoop on Monday.
Though Ne’eman has largely stayed out of the spotlight since being nominated to the council — and declined interviews for this story — he made his name with strong opinions and has at times publicly butted heads with Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest autism advocacy organization. Most recently, Ne’eman’s organization waged protests against Autism Speaks after it rolled out a fund-raising video that presented a negative view of life with autism. Read More.
Chicago Public Schools Vow Overhaul of Special Education Program
Source: Chicago Tribune, by Rex W. Huppke and Azam Ahmed
Critics describe the Chicago Public Schools special education system as so complex and litigious that parents of children with disabilities must hire a cadre of medical and legal experts to have any hope of getting their child proper educational services. Disputes with the district can drain parents' resources and patience, and leave the physicians who care for their kids exasperated.
"They are systemically preventing kids from getting services," said Peter J. Smith, assistant professor of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Chicago. "I could give you story after story after story. It's so ridiculously off the reservation that there's just no question that they're not doing what they should do. It's not even close."
Following a series of Tribune stories, Chicago Public Schools officials said Monday they will launch a "major reorganization" of the district's special education program, promising to eradicate systemic problems that many say make it difficult for the city's most vulnerable children to get the educational services they need.
...The Tribune's reporting — which included interviews with dozens of parents of children with disabilities and with special education teachers and case managers, as well as a review of hundreds of pages of court and school documents — repeatedly revealed cases in which the federally mandated educational rights of children with disabilities were being denied or delayed. Parents of young children just entering CPS routinely struggle to get their children evaluated for special education, those who have plans in place must often fight for the services they've been promised, and even the few who sue the district and prevail don't always get the services they've been awarded. Read More.
New Yorkers with Mental Illness on Hold after Ruling
Source: citylimits.org, by Joscelyn Jurich
Coney Island - > Mentally ill adults could have more independent-living opportunities thanks to a federal judge ordering New York State to create housing options besides large, impersonal, institution-like homes. But adult homes serving the city's mentally ill may continue unchanged for a while longer because the state is raising strenuous objections to the court ruling.
Early last month U.S. District Judge Nicolas G. Garaufis’ ordered the state to develop at least 1,500 supported housing units each year. Over the next three years, supported housing would be provided for all mentally ill individuals currently in adult homes in New York City.
Adult homes, the privately owned residential facilities licensed by the State of New York to serve the mentally ill, have a mandate to provide residents' room, board, housekeeping, personal care and supervision. Their bills are largely paid for by Medicaid, SSI and other government programs.
Adult homes emerged after the shut-down in the 1970s of state-run institutions for the mentally ill. Community-based treatment in adult homes was initially seen widely as an acceptable alternative for maintaining medicated mentally ill patients after the state closed large institutions.
But adult homes began to display some of the same problems the larger facilities had exhibited. New York Times investigative journalist Clifford J. Levy published a Pulitzer Prize-winning series in 2002, exposing inhumane, illegal and dangerous conditions for mentally ill adult home residents. A more recent Mother Jones photo essay also criticized conditions in other adult homes. Read More.
Disability Rights in Mexico: The Real Gaby Brimmer and the People She Moved to Action
- Columbia Seminar on Disability Studies
Discussant: (NCIL’s Own) Jorge Pineda! Selected Readings from Gaby Brimmer: An Autobiography in Three Voices by Trudy Balch, Elizabeth C. Gorski, and Lauri Umansky
Wednesday, April 7, 2010; 4:00-5:30 pm
Satow Room, Lerner Hall, 5th floor, Columbia University;
114th Street and Broadway
Gabriela Brimmer as depicted in the award-winning feature film Gaby: A True Story is an iconic artist and writer known to many. The real Gaby not only led this impactful, outgoing life portrayed in the film, but also became a renowned disability rights activist in Mexico and around the world. Mexico City native Jorge Pineda, who worked collaboratively with Gaby in the 1980s to execute several of her projects, will discuss Gaby’s activism, the disability rights movement in Mexico, and his own experiences both in Mexico and the United States as a person with disabilities. The seminar will also feature a reading from Gaby’s best-selling 1979 autobiography, recently published in English, and clips from the film. Trudy Balch, the translator, will comment on the book and its unique structure of three voices, as well as on Gaby’s legacy.
The venue is wheelchair accessible. The film clips are closed-captioned. Sign language interpreting will be available. If you require other disability accommodations, please contact Columbia’s Office of Disability Services at 212 854 2388 by April 5. For more info, contact 212 854 2388
HHS Community Living Initiative Upcoming Stakeholder Dialogues
Source: Henry Claypool, Director; Rosaly Correa-de-Araujo, Deputy Director, Office on Disability, Office of the Secretary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
On June 22, 2009, the 10th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in the case of Olmstead v. L.C., President Barack Obama launched “The Year of Community Living.” In response, the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) established The Community Living Initiative to identify and promote ways to improve access to housing, community supports, and independent living arrangements for individuals with disabilities and older adults.
As part of The Community Living Initiative, HHS is holding dialogues with State and local officials as well as other critical stakeholders with diverse opinions on issues related to community living. These dialogues will help your public officials develop and/or refine their policies and practices to better meet the needs of people with disabilities and older adults, and provide information useful to achieving the goals of the Initiative to improve community living options.
On February 18, the first stakeholder dialogue was held in San Diego, CA.
Upcoming dialogues are scheduled for:
- April 6 in Raleigh, NC
- April 19 in Fairfax County, VA
- May 27 in Boston, MA
These stakeholder dialogues are focused discussions on critical issues related to community living. Federal HHS representatives will hear directly from local stakeholders, and get their ideas for ways to improve community living options for individuals with disabilities and seniors. This open communication is critical to the success of the Community Living Initiative. More details on the remaining initiative will follow.
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April 5, 2010