The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released its 2022 Report to Congress on Supportive Services for Individuals with Autism. Along with employment and education issues, the report covers supportive services, such as occupational, behavioral, and speech therapies, that are covered by Medicaid, private insurance, or self-pay. The report also addresses disparities in services that exist among various communities. [continue reading…]
Monthly Employment Update for People with DisabilitiesAccording to the latest National Trends In Disability Employment (nTIDE) report:
According to the US Department of Labor (DOL) disability employment statistics, the unemployment rate of people without a disability dropped to 3.3% from 3.5% in the previous month, within the range of 3-5% deemed healthy by most economists. However, the unemployment rate amongst those with a disability is more than two times higher at 7.8%.
Voting is an essential right of American citizenship that people with disabilities are too often prevented from exercising. Current voting barriers include transportation to polling sites, inaccessible buildings, cumbersome registration processes, lack of election worker training on the accessibility features of voting machines, and lack of voter privacy.
RespectAbility Senior Policy Advisor Matan Koch, who is a wheelchair user, uses mail-in voting since his transportation options are limited and polling places are often inaccessible. Senior Director of Policy Stacy Cervenka, who is blind, uses in-person voting with an accessible voting machine due to privacy concerns with needing someone to read and fill out print mail-in ballots. RespectAbility Faith and Inclusion Fellow Hannah Roussell, who is immune-compromised and has ADHD, votes via absentee ballot and wishes the registration process was streamlined. [continue reading…]
According to the US Census Bureau, there are approximately 56.7 million Americans with disabilities. Despite this large number of consumers and users of technology, many modern digital technologies remain inaccessible.
According to the Coalition of Organizations on Accessible Technology (COAT), under current federal law, only a small percentage of video programming must include audio descriptions for users who are blind or low-vision. Many people with disabilities face barriers in the workplace due to video conferencing services that lack necessary accessibility features such as closed captioning and compatibility with screen reading software. Audio descriptions and closed captioning on television sets are not easy to access and activate. Deaf people who communicate in American Sign Language (ASL) face accessibility barriers to emergency services. [continue reading…]
RespectAbility policy staff have been working diligently throughout the past month to research the current concerns of people with disabilities. We have had many in-depth conversations with policymakers from federal and state agencies, other disability rights organizations, state agency advisory committees, grassroots activists, and people with disabilities and their families. We have been attending coalition meetings and state agency advisory committee meetings, and we solicited the opinions of our own Policy Advisory Committee. We have been noting the most pressing concerns to develop our new long-range policy agenda and our specific legislative objectives for 2024. We look forward to releasing them within the next few weeks! [continue reading…]
As State Policy Manager for RespectAbility, state legislators often share with me that they or their spouse, child, parent, sibling, or close friend has a disability and they would like to be more active and involved with disability issues, but don’t know where to start.
Currently, there are not very many state legislatures that have disability caucuses. Legislative caucuses are groups of legislators that come together across party lines to pursue shared goals in areas such as homelessness, veterans issues, the environment, and issues impacting senior citizens. Caucuses give members from all political parties the opportunity to work together to sponsor educational briefings for other members on their topic and encourage legislation. Some states that have these caucuses are Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Ohio.
RespectAbility’s state policy team has launched an initiative to encourage the creation of a Legislative Disability Caucus in the state legislatures that currently don’t have them. Beyond giving legislators the opportunity to work together collaboratively to promote disability legislation and educate their fellow legislators, having a disability caucus in every state would give our community a more efficient way of targeting legislators who have expressed an interest in our issues and tapping into their network. [continue reading…]
Monthly Employment Update for People with DisabilitiesAccording to the latest National Trends In Disability Employment (nTIDE) report:
According to the US Department of Labor (DOL) disability employment statistics, the unemployment rate of people without a disability held steady at 3.5%, which is within the range of 3-5% deemed healthy by most economists. However, the unemployment rate amongst those with a disability is more than two times higher at 7.8%.
On September 7, 2023, the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights published a proposed update to the HHS regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits agencies receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of disability. Since the passage of the Rehabilitation Act in 1973, the more far-reaching Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990. The proposed rule aligns HHS’ Section 504 regulations with newer ADA regulations in accordance with Congress’ directives to interpret the two consistently. [continue reading…]
It has long been a source of consternation to members of the disability community that political candidates and elected officials rarely speak publicly about issues specific to disabled voters. In fact, few politicians even address how broader issues that they do speak about impact people with disabilities. After most presidential debates, there is a predictable barrage of social media posts from disabled voters who are disappointed that the candidates never mentioned the word “disability,” let alone addressed some of the issues that impact our daily lives the most.
It turns out that the disappointment shared by disabled social media users is more widespread than many might have imagined. According to a recent poll by the think tank Data For Progress, “a majority of disabled voters don’t believe politicians care about the disabled community.”
61% of likely voters with disabilities who were polled disagreed with the statement, “Public officials and politicians care about what people with disabilities think.” Interestingly, 50% of the non-disabled voters who were polled agreed with them. This held true across party lines; 58% of all Democrats polled and 52% of all Republicans disagreed with the statement that politicians care about disabled voters. [continue reading…]
With California wrapping up its legislative session on September 14 and North Carolina adjourning on October 13, state legislatures are going into recess just in time for autumn. Even the full-time representatives are largely done with their major efforts for 2023.
So, what now? Is everyone on vacation leaf-peeping and sipping their pumpkin spice lattes?
Not exactly. This is the key time when California state legislators and their staff members will be reviewing bills that the governor has signed or vetoed and planning their strategy for next year. Legislators with vetoed bills may want to reintroduce them next year, choose another technique for accomplishing their goal, or abandon the bills altogether. Others will be sorting through ideas, constituent suggestions, input from lobbyists, and building out their “bill package” for next session. [continue reading…]
