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Most of you received Zoe's moving
e-mail message last week announcing
March 30th as a national day of morning for
George Hodgins, Tracy Latimer and other
disabled people murdered by family members
and caregivers. She asked folks to organize
local candlelit vigils in their own
communities in their memory. We've received
a tremendous response, and there is still
time to make plans to join us at one of the
many vigil sites listed below or consider
organizing your own.
As we prepare for our own activism and
remembrance, it would serve us well to think
about similar work being done among other
marginalized communities. As you most likely
already know from the news, last month
Trayvon Martin – a young, African-American
teenager – was shot and killed while walking
through a Florida gated community. Despite
the clear identification of his killer by
police and the fact that Trayvon carried no
weapon more dangerous than a bag of
skittles, not a single arrest has been made.
For the last several weeks, activists and
community members from across the country
have rallied to call attention to this
injustice and demand action.
I believe there is a common thread between
Trayvon Martin’s and George Hodgins’ deaths.
Representations of race in the media and
entertainment industries tell Americans that
a black teenager walking through an upscale
community should be looked at as a potential
criminal. The same media and entertainment
industries tell family members and
caregivers that life with a disability is
not worth living, that taking our lives
should be viewed as acts of mercy rather
than acts of murder. People learn to fear
young black men from the same place that
teaches them that a disabled child is a
burden on society destined to ruin the lives
of his or her parents.
There is a direct line between the media’s
representations of race and disability and
the murders of George Hodgins and Trayvon
Martin. As we gather this Friday, I ask you
to consider these connections. Sometimes,
when advocates speak out against offensive
and unethical representations of disability
in advertising, television and elsewhere in
the public sphere, critics claim that these
issues don’t matter. They contend that
focusing on how people are talked about is a
distraction from talking about how people
are treated. As these recent atrocities have
shown us, it is impossible to discuss one
without the other. Let us never forget that.
Nothing About Us, Without Us!
Ari Ne’eman |
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City
Sacramento, CA
Washington, DC
Rockledge, FL
Chicago, IL
Ocean, NJ
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New York, NY
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Boston, MA
Virtual |
Location
Capitol Park
Farragut Square
McLarty Park
Access Living
Wayside U.M. Church
Center for Disability Rights
Union Square South
Boston Store Visitor Ctr.
Pioneer Courthouse Square
Burnett Park
Walter Fuller Park
Boston Common
Online |
Date & Time
3/30 at 5:30 PM
3/30 at 5:30 PM
3/30 at 6:30 PM
3/30 at 6:00 PM
3/30 at 10:00 AM
3/30 at 11:00 AM
3/30 at 7:00 PM
3/30 at 7:00 PM
3/30 at 7:00 PM
3/30 at 5:30 PM
3/31 at 6:00 PM
3/31 at 7:00 PM
3/30 at 5:30 PM |
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Patti Chang, Chairperson of the NFB National
Scholarship Committee: 30 Scholarships for
Blind High School Seniors through Grad School
Students in the United States or Puerto Rico.
Scholarships available:
The $12,000 Kenneth Jernigan Scholarship
1 Scholarship for $10,000
2 Scholarships for $7,000 each
4 Scholarships for $5,000 each
22 2 Scholarships for $3,000 each
Plus a trip to the NFB Annual Convention and
other gifts to scholarship winners!
To apply: Read the rules of
eligibility, the timeline, the Submission Checklist,
and the Scholarship FAQ, then fill in the Online
Scholarship Application Form. Supply the
required documents and complete one telephone
interview with our representative.
Contact: NFB Scholarship Program
NFB at Jernigan Place
200 East Wells Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 659-9314), extension 2415 (8 a.m. - 5
p.m.)
E-mail:
Scholarships@nfb.org
Website:
www.nfb.org/scholarships
Deadline: March 31, 2012 - All
documentation and interview request must be received
by the deadline.
2012 Flier |
Word Document |
January 26, 2010, is a day many Virginias will never
forget. It was on this day that the
Commonwealth of Virginia and the U.S. Department of
Justice announced a historic
settlement agreement
that would transform Virginia's system of care for
people with intellectual and developmental
disabilities (ID/DD) from one that is reliant on
large segregated institutions to one that is focused
on integrated, community-based services. The
agreement will help thousands of Virginians with
ID/DD avoid unnecessary institutionalization and
have the opportunity to live a "A Life Like
Yours."
The settlement agreement is now in the United States
District Court, Eastern District of Virginia. Judge
John Gibney will decide whether to approve the
agreement. While the overwhelming majority of
people with ID/DD and family members support this
agreement, Judge Gibney has been hearing a lot from
people who are opposed to the agreement and
Virginia's transition to a community-based system of
support. He has received letters claiming the
prolonged institutionalized of people with ID/DD is
preferable to community-based care.
Fortunately, Judge Gibney recently announced he will
be accepting public comment about the agreement
through April 6. He will then
hold a hearing (no date set yet) about whether
the court should approve the agreement. In order to
demonstrate support for the agreement,
we need YOU to share YOUR story with Judge Gibney
before April 6. By writing a letter, YOU
can be a part of this agreement that will change the
future of Virginia's service system for generations
to come. If you need help writing your letter,
or just want a second set of eyes, please feel free
to contact us at
info@thearcofva.org or call (804) 649-8481.
You can also contact your
local Chapter of The Arc
for help.
Otherwise, please send your letter to:
The Honorable John A. Gibney Jr.
District Court Judge
United States District Court, Eastern District of
Virginia
Spottswood W. Robinson III and Robert R. Merhige,
Jr., Federal Courthouse
701 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Are you a wheelchair user who would like to share
your experiences in trying to visit the inaccessible
homes of family and friends? Dot Nary, a
researcher at the University of Kansas, is
conducting a study on the effects of investable
homes on wheelchair users. To be eligible
to participate, you must:
-
be a wheelchair user who cannot walk at all
-
be age 18-65
-
have used a wheelchair for five or more years
-
have access to a phone
-
be willing to talk about your experiences in
visiting family and friends.
Participation will involve:
-
being interviewed by phone for about one
hour, and
-
providing feedback on a summary of the
interview (apx. 30 minutes).
A small stipend will be provided - $20 for
completing the interview and $10 for giving feedback
on the summary. Women and people living in
rural areas are especially needed. As the
study is being conducted by phone, people living in
any state are eligible.
If you are interested in participating, please
contact Dot Nary by phone at (785-864-0631) and
leave a message for a call back. Or e-mail
dotn@ku.edu
Dot will get back in touch with you to ask some
questions to determine your eligibility to
participate. Thank you!
On December 15, 2011, the Commission released a
Further Notice (FNPRM) seeking comment on a series
of options and proposals to improve the structure
and efficiency of the video relay service (VRS)
program. The goal of these proposals is to
ensure that VRS provides functionally equivalent
communications services to its users - particularly
given advances in commercially-available technology
- and remains immune from the waste, fraud, and
abuse that has threatened its long-term viability.
On February 23, 2012, the Consumer and Governmental
Affairs Bureau (Bureau) issued an Order extending
the deadlines for filing comments and reply comments
concerning the FNPRM on improving the structure and
efficiency of the VRS program. The due dates
were originally set for March 2, 2012, for filing
comments and March 19, 2012, for filing reply
comments. By this Order, the Bureau extended
the due dates as follows:
Comment Date: March 9, 2012
Reply Comment Date:
March 30, 2012
Order | Word | | PDF | | Text |
 January
26, 2012 - Governor Bob McDonnell announced
today that a settlement agreement has been reached
between the Commonwealth and the U.S. Department of
Justice (DOJ) regarding Virginia's compliance with
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and
the 1999 Supreme Court decision in the Olmstead
case. Additional details on the agreement may
be found in the Governor's
Press Release.
Unfortunately, even though the Community First
Choice (CFC) Option became available for states on
October 1, nearly three months later, CMS still
hasn't released the final rules. The final CFC rules
have been delayed, in part, because of comments made
against CMS's proposed rules about the definition of
"community" in 1915(c) waivers. In those
rules, CMS proposed ways to better define
"community" so that certain settings couldn't
be funded using 1915(c) home and community based
waivers. Under the proposed rules, cottages on
the grounds of public and private institutions,
segregated facilities housing only people with a
specific disability, and assisted living (in certain
cases) wouldn't be eligible for HCBS waiver funding.
We need to tell CMS and the Obama administration
they have waited long enough to issue the final
rules implementing CFC Option! They need to
hear we support a STRONG definition of community
that distinguishes between REAL integration and
segregated settings masquerading as community!
Using this link:
http://ly.adapt.org/cms send emails to CMS and
the White House telling them that it's time they
release these rules! You are sending email directly
to the new CMS Administrator, key staff at HHS, and
the White House.
View full release from ADAPT as
Plain Text or
Word Document
Last Friday, the New York Times ran an exposé
documenting the systemic overuse of psychotropic
medication by New York's residential
service-provision system for people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities.
According to the Times, people with developmental
disabilities in group homes in New York are more
likely to be given Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug that
also serves as a tranquilizer than
multivitamins. In many cases, psychotropic
medication is prescribed as a chemical restraint to
control behavior, even when it lacks any therapeutic
purpose.
Although there are appropriate uses for medication,
lack of oversight has led to clear and systemic
abuses. No one should be medicated for the
purpose of controlling behavior. This isn't a
new problem. Data from the National Core
Indicators project, a national database run by the
Human Services Research Institute and the National
Association of State Directors of Developmental
Disability Services, shows that the percentage of
people with developmental disabilities receiving
psychotropic medications is higher than the
percentage who have the co-occurring mental health
conditions which might justify their use. the
long term side effects of such inappropriate usage
include obesity, diabetes, long term brain damage,
injury and even death.
As a result, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network are
asking you to join us in writing to the New York
Office of People with Developmental Disabilities and
the NY Legislature to tell them to take action
against chemical restraint today! Our action
alert can be found at::
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-new-york-to-stop-the-chemical-restraint-of-people-with-disabilities
Your voice will help make a difference. Please
take the time to send a message to the State of New
York that chemical restraint is never appropriate,
then pass along the action alert to your friends and
family and ask them to do the same.
The Arc is excited to announce a valuable new
resource available at
www.thearc.org
to help guide people with intellectual and
developmental disabilities and their families
through the complexities of Medicaid benefits,
services and supports. The
Medicaid Reference Desk offers detailed,
state-by-state information about Medicaid benefits,
a glossary of terms, answers to frequently asked
questions, person-centered planning resources and
a blog from the Arc's training specialist about
issues related to Medicaid, self-advocacy and
person-centered planning.
This project was made possible by a grant from the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Administration on Developmental Disabilities (Grant
No. 90 DN0215). We encourage you to explore
the Medicaid Reference Desk via the Resources
section of
www.thearc.org or
www.thedesk.info
The one hour documentary, "Lives Worth Living"
scheduled to air on PBS' flagship series Independent
Lens on October 27, 2011 at 10 p.m. It's
intended to raise the consciousness of tens of
millions of people about fundamental human rights by
portraying the struggle of a determined group of
disability activists fighting not only for their
civil rights, but their basic right to survive.
The following provides a link where you can watch a
short trailer and find out more information about
the film:
http://storylinemotionpictures.com/SMP/LIVES_WORTH_LIVING.html
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Legislative Affairs
