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New Section 811 Supportive Housing Program legislation introduced in US Congress

Representatives Christopher Murphy (D-CT) and Judy Biggert (R-IL) have introduced groundbreaking permanent supportive housing legislation – the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2008 (HR 5772) – in the U.S. House of Representatives. This important legislation will help address the housing crisis faced by millions of low-income people with disabilities and will spur creation of thousands more new 811 units every year. Read more about the new Section 811 housing legislation and how it may help people with disabilities ..

Los Angeles airport to begin treating disabled passengers better

The Los Angeles Airport Board of Commissioners, which oversees airport operations, unanimously passed a Service Standards Policy to improve passenger services at the Los Angeles international airport (LAX). One of the policy goals is to increase safety and quality of service through better training for employees, which will include serving disabled and elderly passengers. The Service Employees International Union, PAI, other disability rights organizations, and individual letter writers helped to bring about the changes. Read more about the Airport Board ruling here ... and link here to a prior article about improving airline services for people with disabilities.

Proposed settlement may lead to alternative testing for students with disabilities

Under the settlement, an independent study will determine whether students who have mastered the English and math skills required for graduation, but cannot pass standard exams because of disabilities, will be provided with alternative testing methods. Read more here about the lawsuit and how special education students may benefit from the settlement ...

Adapt nursing home protest brings 500 to Washington, D.C.

The direct action campaign launched by ADAPT on April 28, targeted the Health and Human Services headquarters, shutting down both pedestrian and vehicle access. HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt's representative agreed to the ADAPT demand to meet within 30 days to discuss how to reduce the agency's bias toward institutionalization, demonstrated through Medicaid and other rules favoring nursing homes. More here about the demonstration and ADAPT demands ...

Judge rules Social Security Administration must accommodate blind beneficiaries

Judge William Alsup, of the U.S. District Court, ruled that the Social Security Administration (SSA) must accommodate the real and legitimate needs of people with visual impairments who receive benefits from SSA. The agency must provide communications in formats that are accessible to these beneficiaries. Read more about the ruling here ...

Budget cut protest halts San Diego traffic

Hundreds of people took to the streets of downtown San Diego Tuesday afternoon to speak out against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts to education and social services. Read more about the protest here, with photos ...

House approves bill on mental health parity

After more than a decade of struggle, the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill requiring most group health plans to provide more generous coverage for treatment of mental illnesses, comparable to what they provide for physical illnesses. The vote was 268 to 148, with 47 Republicans joining 221 Democrats in support of the measure. Click here to learn more about legislation for mental health parity ...

Disability rights groups propose law requiring more health insurance coverage of durable medical equipment

California Senator Sheila Kuehl is the author of a new bill requiring group health care policies to offer coverage of durable medical equipment (DME), to the same degree that those plans offer other basic medical services. Medi-Cal already covers DME, including ventilators, hospital beds, wheelchairs and oxygen tanks. Currently, private plans impose caps as low as $2000 a year on DME and exclude specific medically necessary equipment. The bill was drafted by the Disability Rights Defense & Education Fund (DREDF) and is co-sponsored by PAI and the California Occupational Therapy Association. Read fact sheet on the proposed DME bill …

Disability community celebrates SuperBowl ad's window on deaf culture

Traditionally, the year's cutting-edge commercials are broadcast on SuperBowl Sunday and this year was no different. Pepsi offered "Bob's house," featuring two buddies who are deaf driving around a neighborhood late at night in search of their third friend, also deaf. Neither remembers the address, so they use their own process of elimination. Leaning on the horn, they soon arrive at the right destination - the house where the windows didn't light up in response. Check out the ad here ...

Family Sues Immigration, Sheriff's Department Over Improper Deportation

California man with intellectual disabilities, who was wrongly deported to Mexico last May, has sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Read more about Pedro Guzman's deportation ...

California researchers find rise of autism despite removal of mercury from vaccines

The research, which is being published in this month's Archives of General Psychiatry, looked at autism rates of children ages 3 to 12 from 1995 through March 2007 who had active cases with the department, or those who were receiving services from the state for an autism disorder. Read more in The Wall Street Journal about possible reasons for the increase in autism rates ...

Exit exam disability guidelines are up in the air

The exit exam is the only thing keeping Ayala from getting a high school diploma, which she needs to be admitted to a Florida college for students with learning disabilities. Other special education students say they need diplomas to get into vocational training programs or to land any job that pays more than minimum wage. Read the Sacramento Bee article about how California is trying to figure out how the requirement should apply to students in special education ..

Deaf foster children find a home closer to home

Lights flicker when the doorbell or phone rings. Clocks flash and beds vibrate as wake-up alarms. Carpets were removed to reveal hardwood floors, so the deaf children can feel vibrations. A video telephone was installed. Read more about local housing for young people who have spent years far from friends and relatives because there was no place for them nearby ...

Schizophrenia takes a daughter away

Tiffany sits in an isolation room at Metropolitan State Hospital,after complaining of feeling ill. "The reason why I have been self-medicating is because I have nothing," she said. Read more about Tiffany and the state of mental health care in California ...

A disabled San Jose mother fights again for right to raise child

he first time Sabreena Westphal went to court to try to keep her children, she became a celebrity. Due to cerebral palsy, she is unable to walk but still determined to care for her two young sons. Read more about Westphal's struggle to keep and raise her children ...

Post traumatic stress disorder awards vary widely from state to state

Veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with debilitating mental ailments are discovering that their disability payments from the government vary widely depending on where they live ... Read McClatchy Newspapers' analysis of the wide disparity in benefits from state to state ...

End the backlog on disability claims

We must stop the inexcusable delay in getting Social Security benefits to people with disabilities. Read more about how people wait, on average, an astonishing 520 days for a hearing on their disability claims ...

Schools for deaf confront other disabilities

The California School for the Deaf’s Fremont campus will soon start offering a day program for adolescents with a daunting set of educational challenges: autism or severe developmental disabilities, in addition to deafness. Read more here about the school's new day program ...

Senior villages that help elderly stay at home come to West Coast

... This village is not a place but a membership program that helps people stay in their own homes by providing support - everything from the medical to the mundane. Read more here about senior villages ...

Disabled adults finding a new place

Family teaching homes aim to foster maximum independence, but some say the model is flawed. Read more about a national trend in independent living ...

Actor and Screen Actors Guild member Danny Woodburn takes up a picket sign as members of the SAG/AFTRA/EQUITY Performers with Disabilities Committee join striking Hollywood writers on the picket line outside Warner Brothers Studios. (Getty Images) Los Angeles Times, 11/19/2007

Integrated high school sports

Spittler, 47, who recently stepped down after 11 years as executive director of a Berkeley disability sports organization called BORP - Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program - is meeting with legislators, disability rights activists, athletes and coaches to get the basketball rolling. Read the San Francisco Chronicle article about pushing for disabled kids to have an equal shot at school sports ...

Disabled student services

Some students say the program does not focus enough on individual conditions, instead providing a general set of services to respond to certain disabilities. Read The Daily Californian article on the disabled students program at UC Berkeley ...

The FCC requires all states to provide Speech-to-Speech.

If you have a speech disability, you can dial 711 (toll free) and ask for STS. Read more about 711 services here ...

Victory for institutionalized Californians: Disability civil rights lawsuit to proceed as class action

San Francisco, September 25 - The Court of Appeal for the First Appellate District handed a significant victory to people with developmental disabilities who are institutionalized throughout California. Continue reading press release about the victory for Californians in institutions here ... Advocates demand that the Governor restore funding for homeless, mentally ill or face lawsuit Several state and national advocacy groups today demanded that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger restore a highly effective program for homeless, mentally ill adults. The Governor eliminated the funds through a line-item veto ... read the press release about funding for homeless, mentally ill here and read the advocates demand letter to the Governor here.

International Developments

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has a new website: www.un.org/disabilities in English, with translation into the other 5 UN languages to follow in 2008.

The European Disability Forum has gathered over 1 million signatures across the European Union to demand comprehensive disability legislation. On October 4 in Brussels, more than 1000 disability advocates demonstrated and presented their demands for “ADA level” legislation to representatives of the European Parliament. Read their press release here ...

On October 8, the Mental Disability Advocacy Center in Budapest helped to organize a civil society protest in Sofia, Bulgaria to draw attention to the plight of thousands of institutionalized Bulgarian children. Most of the children have disabilities. A documentary highlighting their horrific living conditions, “Bulgaria’s Abandoned Children,” can be viewed from this link.

UNICEF has just released a new report, “Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities,” produced by its Innocenti Research Center, based in Florence, Italy. Read the report here ...

Suit may spur greater Web access: