Looking Back Looking Forward: Celebrating Federal Disability Policy - - PDF document

8/13/2015 1

Looking Back Looking Forward:

Celebrating Federal Disability Policy

Michael Gamel-McCormick, Ph.D. Mid-Atlantic ADA Conference BWI Marriott, Linthicum, MD September 17, 2015

A Year of Anniversaries and Celebrations

• 75th anniversary of

Social Security

• 50th Anniversary of

Medicaid and Medicare

• 40th Anniversary of

IDEA

• 25th Anniversary of

the ADA

Page 2

Great Accomplishments Over the Past 50 Years

• Vocational Rehabilitation

Act Amendments of 1973

• Education for All

Handicapped Children Act

• f 1975
• Americans with Disabilities

Act of 1990

• Developmental Disabilities

Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000

• Americans with Disabilities

Act Amendments Act of 2008

• Workforce Innovation and

Opportunity Act of 2014

Page 3

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Continued Challenges

One Example

• Airline access
• Air Carrier Access Act of 1986

Page 4

Continued Challenges

• Continued lack of

accessibility

• Transportation

challenges

• Financial support for

services

• Pay rates for PCAs and

DSPs

• Re-segregation efforts
• Continued Medicaid

Bias

Page 5

Continued Challenges

• Lack of presence of

people with disabilities in policy making at all levels of government

• Nihil novi nisi

commune consensu

Page 6

8/13/2015 3

Emilea Hillman

• 26 year-old, owner of

“Em’s Coffee Co.” in Independence, Iowa

• Employees six workers,

including two with disabilities

• Supports two additional

businesses by sharing space

• Her shop is a

community gathering spot

Page 7

Emilea Hillman

• Prior to opening the

coffee shop

– Completed high school at age 19 – Worked in a subminimum wage program sorting clothes – After two years, Em began showing signs

• f “challenging”

behaviors

Page 8

Emilea Hillman

• In 2012 Em testified before

the Senate HELP Committee

• In her testimony Em said: “I

am a well known member of the Independence Chamber

• f Commerce and a

respected business

• wner…I assure you,

everyone can work.”

• On July 22, 2014, Em joined

Senator Harkin in DC to watch President Obama sign the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

Page 9

8/13/2015 4

Ricardo and Donna Thornton

• Both have intellectual

disabilities

• Both lived in

institutions for all of their childhoods and their early adult years

• Both work to expand

community options for people with all disabilities

Page 10

Ricardo and Donna Thornton

• Both have worked for over

three decades

• They are parents and

grandparents

• They live in their own home

with drop-in support

• “Let’s not look back at the

institution as an answer. Let’s look forward to the future.”

– Ricardo Thornton, June 24, 2014 at a Senate hearing on the Supreme Court Olmstead Decision

Page 11

Foundations of Federal Disability Policy

• Declaration of Independence

– “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”

• Constitution

– “…form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility , provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity .”

• Gettysburg Address

– “…a new nation, conceived in Liberty , and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Page 12

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Foundations of Federal Disability Policy

Four Modern Day Influences

• The WPA
• The Economic Bill of

Rights

• The Civil Rights Act of

1964

• The Voting Rights Act
• f 1965

Page 13

Foundations of Federal Disability Policy

President Roosevelt’s Economic Bill

• f Rights
• The right to a useful job
• The right to earn enough to provide

adequate food, clothing, and recreation

• The right to a good education
• The right of every family to a decent

home

• The right to adequate medical care
• The right to adequate protection from

the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment

Page 14

The Federal Disability Policy World

Recent Legislative Accomplishments

• ABLE Act
• Workforce Innovation

and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014

• Disability

Appropriations for 2015

Page 15

8/13/2015 6 The Federal Disability Policy World

Issues for the 114th Congress

• Long-term services and

supports

• Home and community-

based services settings

• ESEA
• HEA
• Medicaid and Social

Security Appropriations

Page 16

Fiscal Challenge

Page 17

$988 $615 $577 $423 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $603 $0 $200 $400 $600 $800 $1,000 $1,200 DE ND MT SD RI ME NH VT HI DC US

Average Daily Cost of Care in 16+ State-operated Institutions (FY 2011)

DE ND MT SD RI ME NH VT HI DC US

U.N. Treaty on Disability

Page 18

8/13/2015 7 Directions from a Former Boss

• Listen to those you serve.
• Work to give a voice to those without

power.

• Never patronize; never ignore; never

preach.

• Work to create help that enables.
• If you have benefitted from help, make

sure the ladder remains there for others to climb.

Page 19

Harkin Farewell to the Senate

• “It has been said that the Senate is broken.

No, it’s not broken. Oh, a few dents here and

• there. Some scrapes. Banged up a little. But,

there is still no other place in America where

• ne person can do big things – for good or for

ill – for our people and our nation.”

• Nine of 25 bills passed and signed into law

from the Senate HELP Committee during the 113th Congress directly addressed disability issues.

Page 20

Harkin Farewell to the Senate

• A charge to us all:
• 1. Raise the minimum wage and protect

workers’ rights

• 2. Quickly shift from fossil fuels to

renewable energy

• 3. Greatly enhance the employment of

people with disabilities

• 4. Pass the U.N. treaty on disabilities

Page 21

8/13/2015 8

Harkin’s Guiding Principle

• “Government must

not be just an

• bservant

bystander, it must be a force for good, for lifting people up, for giving hope to the hopeless.”

Page 22

Nihil novi Thoughts

• “Being in an institution felt

like I was doing time for a crime I didn’t commit. We hoped one day we’d get out

• f the system and be like

everybody…Where do we go from here?…We’d like to see more people living more independent lives in the

• community. Transitioning

from school to work is getting better, but we still need a little more work.”

– Ricardo Thornton

• “…I always swung on my

swing and asked God to help me…so I asked him…‘God, I want to say something to you…how can we get out of the institution?’”

– Donna Thornton

• We need to end the

detrimental and costly “institutional bias” and mandate the freedom of Seniors and people with disabilities to choose to receive community based services.

– Norma Robertson-Dabrowski

Page 23

Goals Still to Achieve

• Full participation
• Independent

living

• Equal
• pportunity
• Economic self-

sufficiency

Page 24

8/13/2015 9

Justin Dart’s Final Message to the Disability Community

• “I call for solidarity

among all who love justice, all who love life, to create a revolution that will empower every single human being to govern his or her life, to govern the society and to be fully productive of life quality for self and for all.”

Page 25

• “It is not possible to

be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Page 26