ACT NOW TO SUPPORT DISABILITY RIGHTS

The regulations governing accessibility standards required by the ADA are being revised, and there are many items about which we need to be concerned.

The proposal includes many items that affect private businesses as well as the accessibility of state and municipal government activities.

We have until August 18 to submit comments to the U.S. Department of Justice.

To review the proposed regulations, go to the Department of Justice website:
www.ada.gov/NPRM2008/ADAnprm08.htm.

The Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund (DREDF), perhaps the most respected disability rights organization in the country, has prepared draft comments for your review.

To review DREDF's draft visit www.dredf.org/DOJ_NPRM.

Act now to support disability rights!

Disability rights protestors force meeting with Bush Administration

PRESS RELEASE
For more information:
Kelly Buckland (208) 869-4135
Shannon Jones (913) 486-4565
Brad Williams (518) 424-8121

Disability rights protestors force meeting with Bush Administration

WASHINGTON, DC (July 23, 2008)

Over 200 disability rights advocates from across the country protested outside the U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) located at Potomac Center Plaza.

The boisterous group chanted until the Assistant Secretary of OSERS, Tracy Justesen, came down and agreed to meet with a delegation from the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL). The NCIL delegation presented the memberships demands to the Assistant Secretary.

Specifically at issue is RSA's recent interpretation of the Rehabilitation Act and the negative impact it will have on the operation of Statewide Independent Living Councils (SILC's). Despite years of accepted operation, RSA has limited the scope of councils so that they function according to minimum statutory duties.

"In Kansas, by advocating for public policy issues, we have increased the employment rate for people with disabilities by 20%," stated Shannon Jones of Topeka, Kansas. "These types of advocacy efforts are being thwarted by RSA's narrow interpretation of SILC duties. Once again, people with disabilities will be marginalized because of bureaucratic nonsense."

After meeting for more than an hour, RSA agreed to respond in writing to NCIL's demands. While NCIL looks forward to their response, they are concerned about how these restrictions will continue to impede policy related to people with disabilities.

State legislation recently enacted that affects people with disabilities

The Connecticut General Assembly has enacted several disability-related pieces of legislation, according to The Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities: “the Autism Pilot Program within DDS was expanded, public school teacher education requirements were modified to include preparation for teaching students with autism spectrum disorders, and mandates were enacted requiring insurance coverage for autism-related services. The legislature also authorized a significant expansion in the Money Follows the Person program, including a component that applies to people who have not previously lived in a long-term care facility. It is clear that many legislators are “getting it”, and that the persistence of advocacy groups is paying off. Which is good, because disability advocates will need both legislative allies and an abundance of persistence to secure funding and translate these directions into solid program gains.”

For more info on any of the above programs or services you can click on the following link Legislation Update to get to that part of the Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities' website.

Or you can click on the following link for the General Assembly’s website, http://www.cga.ct.gov/. The CGA website also offers an excellent vehicle for tracking proposals when the Legislature is in session. If you want additional information about legislative processes feel free to contact the Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities at (860)297-4369

KEEP THE PROMISE

Keep the Promise Coalition
Golden Pen Opportunities!
KTP Advocates…GET YOUR PENS OUT!!

Okay Coalition members, here is a perfect opportunity to educate and inform the community about critical mental health issues … and you can qualify for a Golden Pen Award at the Annual Keep the Promise Awards ceremony in the Fall!

We encourage members to write letters to the editor in response to a powerful editorial from the Hartford Courant.

Please see Monday's Editorial from the Hartford Courant copied below.

PLEASE ACT NOW! Newspapers are normally willing to print responses or other letters within a few days. Be sure to reference the article you are writing in support of. You can go to the KTP web site for a state list of newspapers and to find tips for writing your letter at http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9FCRwJ9s3C0uuCaWLfVUWFZzygS3IR8n or contact Cheri or Maura directly at: (800) 215-3021. Be sure to send KTP a copy if your letter is published in order to get credit for a Golden Pen Award. Get your ideas into the media TODAY!

Cheri BraggKTP Coordinator(860) 882-0236; (800) 215-3021
keepthepromise@namict.org

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=rauUld91602WMRSF2kfEJlZzygS3IR8n

Back To The Future
June 2, 2008

Connecticut officials had years ago promised to provide mentally ill patients with housing and community-based services to replace costly state psychiatric hospitals that were closing because they were draining the state's coffers.

Lawmakers largely broke their promise, forcing huge numbers of people with mental illness to languish in nursing homes and state prisons, sometimes under bad conditions. The state is now paying for its neglect.

Federal officials last year denied Connecticut $1 million in Medicaid reimbursements because mental health patients exceeded 50 percent of the population at several of the state's nursing homes. By law, nursing homes in which more than half the patients are mentally ill automatically lose their federal Medicaid funding and are reclassified as de facto psychiatric hospitals.

Connecticut expects to lose another $6.5 million in Medicaid reimbursements this year for the same reason. State officials also face a federal class-action lawsuit that accuses them of warehousing the mentally ill in nursing homes.

Had the state done what it promised long ago, it wouldn't be in this mess.

Advocates estimate that there are 3,700 mentally ill patients, most of them under 65, living in nursing homes. Many of them are capable of living in the community with some help. The best that Gov. M. Jodi Rell could do this year to alleviate the problem was offer $9.5 million in proposed budget adjustments over two years for additional community beds and improved screening for the mentally ill. She has dropped the proposal now that rapidly dwindling tax revenues have compelled her and the General Assembly to live with a "do-nothing" budget this year.

The irony is that it costs the state more to keep mental patients in nursing homes than it would to provide housing and community-based mental health programs.Without community housing, the state is resorting to the same expensive warehousing system it did away with over the last four decades.

Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant

STATEWIDE DISABILITY PUBLIC FORUM

The State of Connecticut
Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities
Invites you to a

STATEWIDE DISABILITY PUBLIC FORUM

You Speak ... We Listen

To be held in Groton

Groton Public Library
52 Newtown Road
Groton, CT 06340

Tuesday, June 17, 2008
4:00pm to 6:30pm

The Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities (P&A) is an independent state agency that promotes, protects and defends the civil and human rights of people with disabilities. Every year, P&A develops priorities in response to the needs of people with disabilities. These priorities determine the issues that receive special attention during the year. We determine these priorities partly in response to what people tell us at our annual forum.

If you are an individual with a disability or someone who cares about disability issues, we want to hear from you! Interested members of the public are invited to make brief statements about disability -related experiences and issues that are important to them.

A sign language interpreter will be present at this forum. Contact P&A at least 3 business days before the event at (860) 297-4310, if other accommodations (materials in large print, assistive listening systems, etc.) are needed.

Please refrain from wearing scented products to the forum.