TASP recommended articles you will want to read
- Thoughts and recommendations regarding Parents with ID. To provide direction and guidance to building a national agenda for supporting families with a member with intellectual and developmental disabilities, a group of diverse national and state disability leaders met and developed recommendations on the types of supports families need.
- Exceptional Parent, Lindsay Brillhart, Susan Yuan and Liz Lightfoot
- The Arc – National Council of Self Advocates (NCSA) is inviting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) across the country to join. The first national council of its kind, the NCSA will allow individuals with I/DD to join a network of leaders representing the full spectrum of ages and abilities, giving them a chance to support each other and provide learning opportunities as they grow as advocates in their communities.
- New Ways of Thinking About Parents with Intellectual Disabilities. Parenting as a right for individuals with intellectual disabilities is a relatively new concept. In the last 40 years, there has been a paradigm shift in attitudes and practices toward individuals with intellectual disabilities who desire to be parents.
- RISE Magazine Stories by and for parents affected by the child welfare system.
- Webinar presented on April 12, 2012
- Caregiver Cognitive Impairment A Secondary Analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2003)
- Can an Intellectually Disabled Mom Raise a Gifted Daughter?
- An Ark within the ARC
- National Council on Disability Applauds Supreme Court Ruling on the Affordable Care Act
National Council on Disability Applauds Supreme Court Ruling to Affirm the Individual Mandate in the Affordable Care Act (ADA) as a victory for Americans with disabilities. On Thursday June 28, the court voted 5-4 to uphold the constitutionality of the individual mandate provisions of the ACA.”For millions of Americans with disabilities who rely on home and community based services to live, learn and earn in America, the ruling today by the Supreme Court on the Affordable Care Act is arguably the most significant decision since passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act twenty-two years ago,” said Jonathan Young, NCD Chairman. “By affirming provisions that ensure private insurers will have access to a much larger pool of enrollees, insurance costs will be diminished and health care coverage can no longer be denied to over 30 million uninsured Americans who, to date, have been excluded from the current system.””Under the ADA, Americans with disabilities have gained increased access to long-term home and community-based services which supports liberty, expands choice and gives Americans with disabilities more opportunities to live independently,” added Aaron Bishop, NCD’s Executive Director. “Choosing between much needed medicine or treatments and paying rent or eating is no choice at all. Thankfully, with the affirmation of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans with disabilities will no longer be forced to make those kinds of unfair decisions.”As detailed in NCD’s 2009 report “The Current State of Health Care for People with Disabilities,” Americans with disabilities face significant barriers to health care and frequently lack health insurance or coverage for necessary services. The Affordable Care Act expands options for people with disabilities to access health insurance and corrects much of the imbalance.Under the Affordable Care Act, 105 million Americans – including Americans with disabilities – will no longer have lifetime dollar limits placed on their health coverage. In addition, more than 17.6 million children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied care. Lastly, the Affordable Care Act makes Medicare stronger for nearly 50 million older Americans and Americans with disabilities who rely on Medicare by adding benefits, reducing fraud, improving rehabilitation options, increasing mental health and substance abuse services, implementing previously denied preventive care and chronic disease management, and allowing young adults – including those with disabilities and chronic conditions – to stay on their parents’ insurance plans up to age 26 even if they do not live with their parents or graduate from school.
NCD remains concerned how the Supreme Court decision will alter Medicaid coverage. It is feared some states may decide not to cover low-income, single adults with disabilities who are not parents. States may also elect to expand Medicaid in exchange for additional federal funding, which would conceivably benefit millions more low-income adults with disabilities. It is not yet clear how this will play out from state to state.
About the National Council on Disability: NCD is an independent federal agency comprised of 15 Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed Council Members and a small staff, who advise the President, Congress and other federal agencies on disability policy, programs, practices, and procedures.
Response from National Council on Disability Chairman Jonathan Young to August 22 Washington Times Editorial on Federal Hiring of Americans with Disabilities
The Aug 22, 2013 Washington Times editorial, (Holder’s “severe mental deficiency”) categorizing the Department of Justice (DOJ) initiative to hire more Americans with disabilities as “crazy” illustrates a profound mischaracterization both of disability and the Executive Order the Times finds objectionable.
In the editorial, the Times takes issue with a July 31 policy memo issued by the DOJ which seeks to improve agency “hiring of persons with targeted disabilities.” According to the Times, the memo in question lists a number of “targeted disabilities” that “trigger special hiring privileges” in compliance with President Obama’s Executive Order 13548.
While incendiary phrases like “teetering on the edge of sanity” might play well with pundits they do little to make the case the Times attempts to argue against hiring disabled workers. Use of words like “trigger,” “special” and “privilege” reinforces an unsubtle, archaic bias: “Disabled people are dangerous. They are not like us. Employers beware!”
Contrary to the apparent attempt by the Washington Times to frighten, separate and inflame, Americans with disabilities are us. People with disabilities are America’s returning veterans and our aging seniors, our sons with autism and daughters with Down syndrome. They are our Olympic athletes. Moreover, you don’t have to be born with a disability to have disability, someday, personally affect you. Most people, 80% in fact, aren’t born into disability, they acquire their conditions later.
Why hire more people with disabilities? According to 2010 Census data, 56.7 million Americans have disabilities. The unemployment rate of persons with a disability was 15% in 2011, almost double the rate for those without a disability, at 8.7%. Numbers alone would seem to indicate a need to improve these figures as the DOJ, other federal agencies, and forward thinking employers in the private sector are attempting to do.
While the Times editorial suggests applicants with disabilities would be fast-tracked into jobs at the DOJ without due screening and assessment, the DOJ memo clearly states otherwise, “A qualified individual with a targeted disability is a candidate who, based on his or her background, skills, and experience would have otherwise been selected for interview, with or without a disability (emphasis added).” Or to translate for the editorial staff at the Times: Applicants must be qualified
To mischaracterize the DOJ initiative with fear-mongering and hyperbole misses the point. Efforts such as those outlined in the DOJ memo to increase employment of Americans with disabilities should be supported and replicated, rather than maligned.
The National Council on Disability urges employers in both the public and private sector to follow suit.
The statement above is available on NCD’s website at:
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/08242012The original editorial by the Washington Times this is in response to is at:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/22/holders-severe-mental-deficiencyNational Council on Disability
1331 F Street, NW, Suite 850
Washington, DC 20004
202-272-2004 Voice
Website: http://www.ncd.govMaltreatment of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: Introduction to Part I, Special Issue , Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, January – March 2012, Volume 5, Number 1, , pages 3 – 5, John R. Lutzker, Center for Healthy Development, Georgia State University.
Maltreatment of Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: Introduction to Part II, Special Issue, Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, April – May 2012, Volume 5, Number 2, pages 91 – 93, John R. Lutzker, Center for Healthy Development, Georgia State University.