1) What’s Happening in the Nation’s Capital?
Tell the President We Need a Disability Rights Leader Like Justice Stevens!
2) National News
Action Alert: Petition to Fund the National Housing Trust Fund
Opinion: Praise for Addition to Federal Autism Panel
NCIL’s Own Lacy Pittman to be Honored with ADA Award
3) State News
Race and Disability Discrimination Complaints in Wisconsin TANF Program to be Resolved by Statewide Agreement
New York City Pushes Shift for Special Education
4) Announcements and Additional Resources
NOFA Webinar Archive Now Available
FCC Issues Working Paper Addressing Accessibility and Technology Issues
Tell the President We Need a Disability Rights Leader Like Justice Stevens!
Very soon, President Obama will name a replacement for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court. For the past 35 years, Justice Stevens has been a strong voice on the Court for the disability community, consistently voting to protect the rights of people with disabilities in cases involving the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The President now has his second opportunity to shape the Supreme Court for years to come. As he considers potential nominees, the stakes are high for people with disabilities.
Despite Congress’s bipartisan passage in 2008 of the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) to restore the law’s broad reach after years of hostile court rulings, judges are still getting the ADA wrong – still shutting the courthouse door on people with disabilities. We need a leader every bit as strong as Justice Stevens to ensure full enforcement of the ADA and other important disability rights laws. Justice Stevens’ replacement must be committed to the protection of disability rights.
The White House needs to hear now from advocates for people with disabilities!
What You Can Do: Please tell the President why he should name someone who will uphold the rights of people with disabilities. Ask President Obama to:
- Choose a justice who will interpret disability rights laws broadly, as Congress intended.
- Choose a justice who understands the effect of Supreme Court decisions on people with disabilities.
- Choose a justice who respects the role of Congress in protecting disability rights.
Contact the White House at (202) 456-1111 (phone), (202) 456-6213 (TTY) or online at www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT.
As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ADA, it is especially crucial that President Obama name, as Justice Stevens’ replacement, a disability rights champion for the 21st Century Supreme Court. We are confident he will, and look forward to supporting his nominee. In the meantime, please let the President know that you want a Supreme Court nominee who will strongly support disability rights!
Action Alert: Petition to Fund the National Housing Trust Fund
Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition
In the last two weeks, more than 1,350 organizations from every state, DC, and Puerto Rico have signed on to the letter urging Congress to support our communities by providing $1 billion for the National Housing Trust Fund.
The National Housing Trust Fund campaign has two goals for this letter: (1) to get as many signatories as possible; and (2) to list organizational signatures from each Congressional district in the country, in order to urge every Member of Congress to support funding for the National Housing Trust Fund. To date, organizations have signed the letter in 361 of 435 Congressional districts - a big jump in the past week!
If your organization has not signed onto the letter, click here to join.
Need to learn more about the National Housing Trust Fund before signing on? See background information.
Opinion: Praise for Addition to Federal Autism Panel
Source: AOL Health, by Paula Durbin Westby
Kudos to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for her appointment of Ari Ne'eman to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. Sebelius has given the progressive autism community a voice in the halls of power by making this appointment. Ne'eman, the founding president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, brings a much-needed corrective focus to the IACC; I am pleased that Sebelius has had the foresight to make the appointment at a time when it is more urgent than ever that the IACC refocus its priorities toward services and supports for individuals on the autism spectrum and away from "causes and cures."
Ne'eman brings a wealth of autism advocacy and policy expertise to the IACC; in addition he has extensive experience working on other disability policy issues outside the autism arena, an attribute that I believe is unique among the public IACC members. Most importantly, however, as an adult on the autism spectrum and the head of an organization run by and for autistic people ourselves, Ne'eman will represent a constituency that has not been represented on the IACC in the past -- the organized self-advocacy movement. Read More.
NCIL’s Own Lacy Pittman to be Honored with ADA Award
On Thursday, June 3rd, the HSC Foundation will hold its annual Youth Transitions Initiative briefing, as well as the presentation of the 2010 Advocates in Disability Award.
The Advocates in Disability Award (ADA) seeks to award and encourage a young individual with a disability between the ages of 14 and 26, who has dedicated him/herself to positively affecting the lives of individuals with disabilities and their families.
This year the award will be presented to NCIL Policy Analyst Lacy Pittman, an outstanding advocate for people with disabilities who plans to use the award to hold a nationwide competition to mark the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In this competition, young people from all across the country will be invited to express their thoughts about the Americans with Disabilities Act through a creative medium. Congratulations, Lacy!
Race and Disability Discrimination Complaints in Wisconsin TANF Program to be Resolved by Statewide Agreement
Under a new agreement between the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), DCF will ensure that when Wisconsin families seek income assistance and help finding employment, they will have an equal opportunity to participate in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, regardless of race, color, national origin or disability.
DCF entered into the agreement following an OCR investigation of complaints filed by Legal Action of Wisconsin, Inc., the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Foundation, and the Milwaukee Branch of the NAACP. The complaints alleged that DCF and its predecessor agency, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD), discriminated on the basis of race and disability in the administration of the W-2 program. The disability-related complaints stemmed from the experiences of individual families. Read More.
New York City Pushes Shift for Special Education
Source: New York Times, by Jennifer Medina
The Bloomberg administration, struggling to address the needs of a growing number of students with learning disabilities, is overhauling special education by asking every principal to take in more of the students and giving them greater flexibility in deciding how to teach them.
This fall, more than 250 schools will be asked to accept more students with disabilities rather than send them to schools that have specific programs for special education, as has been the case for decades. By September 2011, principals at each of the system’s 1,500 schools will be expected to enroll all but the most severely disabled students; those students will continue to be served by schools tailored exclusively to them. Read More.
NOFA Webinar Archive Now Available
Last week, the Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc hosted a webinar to explain HUD’s new Notice of Funding Availability for Vouchers for Non-Elderly People with Disabilities. A recording of the webinar, along with the slide presentation (in a PDF format that is printable), are now available online at: http://www.tacinc.org/register/reg_HUD_NOFAwebinar.html.
For more information about this funding opportunity and available technical assistance, please visit http://www.tacinc.org/Program_Policy/NonElderlyPWDNOFA.html.
FCC Issues Working Paper Addressing Accessibility and Technology Issues
Source: CILSFL Advocacy Blog, by Posted by Marc Dubin, Esq
The FCC has issued the agency's first-ever working paper addressing accessibility and technology issues. The paper builds on recommendations in the National Broadband Plan, and looks at the many barriers to broadband usage faced by people with disabilities, including inaccessible hardware, software, services, and web content and expensive specialized assistive technologies.
This information has recently been updated, and can be read by visiting this link: http://www.disability.gov/technology/accessible_technology.
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May 3, 2010