JFActivist

More Media Coverage of ADAPT Direct Actions

From Fox News / Associated Press (April 29):

Disabled Activists Arrested at McCain's Office

WASHINGTON — At least 20 disabled activists, most of them in wheelchairs, were arrested outside Sen. John McCain’s offices Tuesday after being refused a meeting with the GOP presidential nominee-to-be over a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to more people who want in-home care.

... Read more.

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From The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN):

Disabled group protests McCain's stance on Medicaid bill, members arrested

By LAURIE KELLMAN , Associated Press (April 29)

WASHINGTON - At least 20 disabled activists, most of them in wheelchairs, were arrested outside Sen. John McCain's offices Tuesday after being refused a meeting with the GOP presidential nominee-to-be over a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to more people who want in-home care...

...Read more.

Options Limited for Aging Caregivers and Their Adult Children with Disabilities

From The Wall Street Journal (April 29):

When Crisis Hits the Disabled
Limited Options for Support and Housing
Exist for Aging Caregivers and Their Children

By CLARE ANSBERRY

Seventy-nine year old Anna Dromgoole arrived at the Plano Specialty Hospital a month ago with severe wounds on her legs. Her 41-year-old son, Kent, who has Downs Syndrome, was at her side.

Ms. Dromgoole refused to be admitted unless Mr. Dromgoole could stay with her. She, like thousands of other aging caregivers across the country, had no place for her developmentally disabled child to go. When crisis hits, they find themselves at the mercy of strangers...

...Read more.

Credit Agencies Must Make Web Sites Accessible!

On April 23, the three main credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- agreed to provide credit information in accessible formats on their web sites, according to Melanie Brunson, Executive Director, American Council of the Blind in Washington, D.C. The initiative helps people fight identity theft by allowing consumers with vision disabilities to independently monitor and review their credit reports.

Beginning October 31, 2008, for the first time, online credit reports and related information will be accessible at the companies' website, the official site for consumers to obtain free credit reports. By the end of the year, the companies will also make credit reports available in Braille and other formats at no charge to qualified individuals who cannot access print information.

The website will be designed using Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium. The guidelines, which do not affect the content or look and feel of a Web site, ensure that Web sites are usable by blind computer users who use screen readers or magnification technology on their computers and who rely on a keyboard instead of a mouse.

Read a full press release.

Read the full agreement.

ADAPT Takes over RNC Offices, Blocks Sen. McCain's Office

April 29

3:00 PM - One ADAPT group has taken over the Republican National Convention offices and another ADAPT group has blocked the office of presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain on Capitol Hill. Both groups are urging Senator McCain to publicly support the Community Choice Act (S.799), which would provide individuals with disabilities and older Americans with equal access to community-based attendant services and supports. Presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are already co-sponsors of the legislation.

Arrests are threatened.

3:45 PM - Arrests are beginning at Sen. McCain's office and arrests seem imminent at the RNC.


LOCAL NEWS snippets:

From Roll Call (paid subscription required):

Wheelchair Protest Forces RNC Building Lockdown
Tuesday, April 29, 2008; 3:02 pm

About 100 protesters have gathered at Republican National Committee headquarters on First Street Southeast, forcing police to put the building on lockdown...

... Details as they become available...

Combat Vets Face Hurdles as Students

From The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina, April 27):

Combat vets face hurdles as students
Colleges learning to deal with PTSD, lost limbs, brain injuries

By Martha Quillin

RALEIGH - Spc. Natasha McKinnon survived losing part of her left leg to an improvised bomb in Iraq. Now that she's back, she's trying to find her balance in college life. Sometimes she can't recall a professor's name. She loses track of test dates. Occasionally, she forgets she has pulled off her prosthetic leg to rest her stump during a long lecture, only to tilt off balance when she tries to stand.

As tens of thousands of veterans of the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq try to collect on their promised college benefits, McKinnon and others are finding that their combat experience complicates the transition from soldier to student...

...Read more.

ADAPT to National Governors Association: STOP FUNDING INSTITUTIONS!

April 29th

10:45 AM - Carrying flags representing all fifty states, ADAPTers began to file into the courtyard area in front of the Hall of States building, home of the National Governors Association, near Union Station in Washington, D.C. Security desk employees on the other side of the window walls of the front of the building shot quizzical stares as the crowd built and the sound system was quickly assembled just in front of the front entrance doors. Moments later, a banner was unfurled at the front of the gathering crowd that read "STOP FUNDING INSTITUTIONS."

11:15 AM - Packed in, rallying chants began: "Up with attendant care, down with nursing homes!" and "What do we want? FREEDOM! When do we want it? NOW!" Through the sound system, ADAPT leadership told the crowd that they have once again found themselves at the offices of the National Governors Association because the governors are not listening to the voices of their citizens who want out of institutions and into their communities. In loud voices, the crowd made sure that those in the NGA office definitely heard them outside.

11:30 AM - ADAPT released its  Ten Best - Ten Worst Home and Community Services and Supports list, complete with five honorable mentions and five dishonorable mentions. Cheers and boos from the crowd came in appropriate response to the announcement of each list. Following some wrap-up ADAPT chants, the group broke for lunch around the noon hour.


... Stay tuned for more.

Designing for Heightened Accessibility

From The Wall Street Journal (April 25):

Designing for the Senior Surge
Makers of Appliances, Bath Fixtures Target
Aging Boomers; Cooking for the Forgetful

By SARA LIN

Baby boomers brought ugly grab-bars to bathrooms and wheelchair ramps to hallways to prepare for growing old at home. Now they can take credit for products that people without infirmities could appreciate.

Makers of appliances and bath fixtures are finding new ways to ensure their wares age gracefully along with their users. Among the innovations: stoves that monitor pots to prevent them from boiling over and appliance control panels with adjustable typefaces. The race to invent senior-friendly designs has prompted researchers at General Electric Co. to plug their ears with cotton to simulate hearing loss and don goggles that blur their vision during product testing...

...Read more.

Young Special Ed Teachers Post Unprofessional, Offensive Content on Personal Web Pages

In today's Washington Post, in a story entitled "When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web," author Ian Shapira cites examples of young teachers' personal web pages and asks whether  the content of such personal websites really matters so long as the teacher's performance is not hindered and parents, students, and school officials don't see them.

According to the article, due to a recent Supreme Court decision, teachers claiming free speech protection may not have much luck holding onto their jobs. The Court ruled that state governments can terminate employees if their speech harms the mission and function of the workplace.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

From the article:

Erin Jane Webster, 22, a long-term substitute teacher in Prince William, keeps a page similar to other teachers'. Portions are professional, but some parts suggest the author is in the throes of sorority rush.

Under a "Work Info" heading, the page reads, "Employer: Prince William County Schools. Location: Parkside Middle School Language Arts Teacher." The section lists where she attended college (Radford '07) and high school (Osbourn Park High '03).

But the page features multiple "bumper stickers," including one that uses a crude acronym for attractive mothers and another that says: "you're a retard, but i love you."

Teensy problem: Webster teaches students with emotional and learning disabilities. In an interview, she acknowledged her use of "retard" could be misconstrued. The word, generally considered offensive, circulates among some young people as acceptable derogatory slang.

"My best friend, she always calls me that because I say ditzy things," Webster said. "My best friend and I would never go around calling people that. All of my [students] have emotional disorders or learning disabilities. . . . I love them."

...Read the entire article.

HHS Federal Advisory Group Eliminates Disability Accessibility in Health IT Recommendations

AAPD sent a letter of alarm recently to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, about recent action taken by the American Health Information Community (AHIC), a taxpayer-funded and supported governmental advisory panel to HHS.  AHIC struck out two accessibility recommendations affecting persons with disabilities that had been made by an AHIC work group on consumer empowerment, which spends most of its time dealing with issues related to personal health records.

The recommendations eliminated by AHIC said that HHS should:

• "coordinate to ensure that Personal Health Records (PHRs) sponsored by the federal government are consistent with accessibility standards found in the Rehabilitation Act;" and
• "HHS should develop and accommodate to technological applications that can be used by persons with disabilities...."

AAPD recommended that the Secretary reinstate these two recommendations as we believe there may be excessive costs to retrofit in the future to ensure persons with disabilities have accessibility to and usability of electronic health records if these concerns are not addressed now.

Read a related news story.

Read the letter that AAPD sent to HHS.

TAKE ACTION: Send your own letter to Secretary Leavitt, if you are concerned about accessibility of health records for persons with disabilities. For further information or to comment, please contact Jenifer Simpson.

ADAPT Takes over HHS Building in DC with List of Demands

ADAPT is in town and JFActivist will strive to post all the latest on where they are, what they're demanding, and the successes they are celebrating....

Monday, April 28:

10:00 AM: Early this rainy morning in DC, national ADAPT showed up in force at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building,  headquarters of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, located at the foot of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Over 500 ADAPTers are participating in this direct action, Over 500 ADAPTers are participating in this direct action, 50 of whom, for the first time in ADAPT history, made it into the HHS building with their statement of demands (see below). All points of access are effectively blocked by those participating in the direct action.

ADAPT's direct action is to call sharp attention to the need for radical change in business as usual at HHS, particularly as it pertains to the institutional bias in the administration of Medicaid benefits and the result of thousands of people with disabilities being forced into and kept in nursing homes and other institutions against their expressed wishes to live in their homes and communities.

1:00 PM
In exchange for creating access to the building via one door in the parking garage, ADAPT has secured a signed letter from Philo Hall, Counselor to Secretary Michael Leavitt, promising a meeting between the Secretary and leadership from ADAPT within 30 days. This was one of the items in the statement of demands.

3:00 PM
ADAPTers are wrapping up and heading back to their hotel rooms for dry clothes after a successful direct action this morning at HHS. Before wrapping up, Philo Hall came out and addressed the ADAPTers in person, agreeing to an additional meeting between ADAPT leadership and HHS staff this coming Wednesday morning as a follow-up piece.

Stay tuned for more this week....
 

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ADAPT DEMANDS

To: HHS SECRETARY MIKE LEAVITT
From: ADAPT Community
Date: April 28, 2008

Thousands of people with disabilities and older Americans CONTINUE to be unnecessarily forced into and kept in nursing homes and other institutions because of the inaction and development of barrier-ridden regulations by HHS and this Administration.

ADAPT demands that Secretary Mike Leavitt:

• Improve the implementation of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration Projects by increasing flexibility states have;
• IMMEDIATELY eliminate any rules which cause undue burdens regarding case management;
• Eliminate any rules that discourage small grassroots providers from meeting the needs of the consumers they serve;
• Eliminate any regulations and interpretations of “spousal impoverishment” and “risk” which promote institutionalization of persons with disabilities;
• Work with ADAPT on ways to pass the Community Choice Act; and
• Meet with leaders of ADAPT within thirty (30) days of this date to clarify any of the above and identify other barriers to home and community based services in all fifty states.

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READ MORE:

Read ADAPT's press release on today's activities.

Read one ADAPTer's experience and history with ADAPT (trackback).

Read how ADAPT is celebrating 25 years of direct action.