From AAPD (12.3.10):
U.S. Celebrates International Day of Disabled Persons: White House Disability Briefing
On December 3, 2010 – when countries across the globe are celebrating the International Day of Disabled Persons -- AAPD participated in the first of what is to be a series of monthly informal, non-press, briefings from the White House on disability issues and topics. According to Kareem Dale, Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy at the White House, and the host of the calls, their purpose is “to introduce to listeners the people who work on disability issues in the federal government as they push forward the President’s agenda for people with disabilities.” Note that live on-line transcription of the calls is provided.
On the teleconference, Kareem Dale first clarified his role at the White House is to help the President coordinate disability policy across the government through his position both in the Office of Public Engagement and through the office he works in, the Domestic Policy Council, headed by Melanie Barnes. Kareem said that he expects to hold this teleconference each month, during the first week of every month.
Kareem invited everyone to sign up to get notices for these calls with an email sent to sfeuerstein@who.eop.gov and in the email provide your name, the name of your organization, your title, your email address and phone number and then you will be added to distribution list. The format of the calls will be one or more speakers from the federal agencies and a question-and-answer section.
The December 3 teleconference included two summary presentations by Alexa Posny, the Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, referred to as OSERS, and Judy Heumann, at the U.S. Department of State. Both spoke extensively of their roles and about their agencies, shedding some light on how disability policy is integrated within the overall federal executive branch.
Secretary Alexa Posny summarized what OSERS does as “focusing on people with disabilities to be held to the same high standards as everyone else in regard to the educational policy and school management issues.” She stated that “OSERS purpose is to help state and local education agencies, from birth to age 21, and to support employment and rehabilitation efforts.” She went over the history of special education noting that before 1975 access to public school was denied for most children with disabilities. She stated that only 20% of children with disabilities received a public school education then and that the IDEA law has changed all this and ensured due process protections. Alexa Posny also noted that she herself has been in special education for 35 years, both as a teacher and administrator.
She summarized the success since 1975 as follows: that the U.S. now services 6.6 million children and young adults, and 150,000 infants a year. She added that now 60% of special education children are now in general education classrooms. School graduation rates – where students with disabilities receive regular diplomas -- has increased 45% since 1995, with an associated decrease in dropout rates for students with disabilities. She also noted that enrollment into college has doubled for students with disabilities and more students have jobs than ever before. She said the recent IDEA event on November 29 celebrated these achievements. See more on this celebration on OSERS website at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/idea35/index.html
Judy Heumann then spoke of her role as the Special Advisor on International
Disability Rights at the U.S. Department of State, a new position created by the President in 2009, when he signed the U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (“UNCRPD”, at http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=150 ). She stated that “the UNCRPD is a very important treaty that has now been ratified by more than 93 countries around the world and signed by 146 countries,” and that “the U.S. is a signatory to this Convention.” She stated that her purpose at the State Department “is to drive home the message that disabled people’s issues need to be part of every aspect of the agency’s work, such as within the international development area.” She mentioned three areas, such as in the U.S. AID program which has a policy on disability, and “to elevate the inclusion of disability into Foreign Service agenda.” Also, part of her job is to work on the ratification package for the UNCRPD, which is the next procedural step after signature. This involves the agencies across the federal government comparing U.S. law to what’s in the UNCRPD. This will result in a major review document or “package” that will then be widely circulated to various entities and then back to the White House for further action.
Advisor Heumann noted that the UNCRPD is very important as it raises up the U.S. community at the international level. While the ADA is seen by many around the world and copied by other countries, many of whom have adopted similar types of legislation, the UNCRPD can facilitate more meaningful adoption of the issues of people with disabilities in many countries. She said she was just back from a trip to Tunisia, Jordan, Algeria and Qatar where she had met with officials there to work collaboratively on UNCRPD topics. She said that the U.S. signing and ratification of the Convention had raised the topic of the education of children with disabilities to a higher level for such countries.
She noted that many if not most children with disabilities in developing countries are not attending school, or where attending, are in substandard or separate schools. Heumann also noted the importance of employment of people with disabilities as a critical issue raised by the UNCRPD and how discussions focus often on how to keep or return adults who become disabled in jobs. She also mentioned the connection between education and moving young people with disabilities into employment.
Heuman mentioned a December 3 conference being held at the State Department, “Keeping the Promise—Making Disability Rights Real,” on the anniversary of the International Day of Disability, which was started in 1991. The conference focuses on three issues with panels looking at the UNCRPD, at Violence against Disabled Girls and Women, and HIV-AIDS and disability. Heumann noted that “even though in the U.S. we have great laws, we are still working on implementation.” She stated, for instance, that “there is no meaningful discussion about problems of sexual abuse of people with disabilities [in the U.S.].”
Heumann also talked about the President’s commitment to bring more people with disabilities into the workforce, noting that the State department has a prominent program bringing interns into the organization, all year round, and that the agency is recruiting and hiring more people with disabilities. See State department website at http://careers.state.gov/students/programs.html
The Teleconference Question and Answer period covered topics such as state independent living center advocacy, availability of attendants at gasoline pumps for drivers with disabilities, housing vouchers and further discussion on the UNCRPD.
AAPD encourages disability advocates to sign up for the notifications of these monthly phone calls as a way to know better who the federal appointees are, their roles and what their agencies do. It’s also a way to directly ask questions and see what is the federal government focus. To sign up, send email to sfeuerstein@who.eop.gov and in the email provide your name, the name of your organization, your title, your email address and phone number and then you will be added to distribution list.
Story by Jenifer Simpson, Senior Director of Government Affairs, AAPD.
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