The federal government makes changes to their
housing program for people with disabilities,
millions of people are missing in the United States.
Data on people living with disabilities.
This and more on this episode of the disability news report.
This is the disability news report with host Arthur Aston.
The federal government makes changes to their
housing program for people with disabilities.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development provides housing assistance to people with disabilities.
Ages 18 to 62
the amount of time that the voucher recipients will have to
search for housing will grow from 60 days to 120 days.
Local public housing authorities will be required to approve
all initial extension requests for at least 90 days.
Public housing agencies will be allowed to create
a separate waiting list for the mainstream vouchers.
These are some of the changes that have recently been made to the housing program.
The agencies can also set admission preferences,
prioritizing referrals from health care and
disability agencies supporting community living.
As long as the agencies are not serving only one type of disability.
These changes are in response to a recent federal report which identified the
many challenges people living with disabilities
are facing when searching for housing.
Some of these challenges include
difficulty with the search process
dealing with screening requirements,
trouble lining up services and supports within
the time frame allowed by the vouchers
finding affordable and accessible housing for people living with
disabilities has been a challenge for many years.
For those of us in the disability community,
these changes should help alleviate some of the issues
that those of us who are living with
disabilities and searching for housing have been dealing with
for quite some time.
Now,
we will keep you updated on how well the changes are received
by those who have to use the housing vouchers in the future.
Our next story is parents with disabilities have
faced discrimination for years in the United States,
but new rules will help ensure that child welfare systems treat them more fairly
4.4 million parents who are over the age
of 18 identify as having some type of disability
parents with any kind of disability are much more likely to have
some type of interaction with the child welfare system than other parents.
Parents with disabilities are more likely than
other parents to be reported for child abuse
and neglect and more likely to have abuse
or neglect substantiated by child welfare services.
These parents are more than likely to have their Children placed in
foster care and more likely to permanently lose their parental rights.
Contrary to popular belief studies have shown
that there is little evidence to support that
parents with disabilities abuse or neglect their Children
at higher rates than parents without disabilities.
Studies have shown that young adults who were raised
with disabled parents report having positive childhood experiences.
The Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Civil Rights published a new rule
called non-discrimination on the basis of disability in
programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance.
This rule updates clarifies and strengthens Hh S's implementing regulation
for section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Section 504 imposes non-discrimination obligations on programs
or activities that receive federal financial assistance.
Federal assistance includes grants, loans, co-operative agreements,
certain contracts or sub grants that HHS provides in the form of funds,
services of federal personnel,
real and personal property and other things of value.
According to the new rule,
recipients may not discriminate against qualified individuals
with disabilities when providing medical treatment.
The new rule states that section 504 prohibits discrimination against
qualified individuals with disabilities in the child welfare system.
This includes parents perspective, parents, foster parents,
caregivers and Children.
Recipients are prohibited from making decisions based on speculation,
stereotypes or generalizations that a parent caregiver,
foster parent or prospective parent
because of their disability cannot safely care for a child.
Nor may recipients make decisions on those prohibited
bases about a child with a disability.
For example,
section 504 would prohibit the removal of a two year
old daughter from her parents because both parents are blind
without any non-discriminatory analysis of the disability of the parents
to care for the child and the availability of supportive services for the parents.
This new rule will help so many families who are
often discriminated against simply because the parents have a disability
and people feel as if
because of that disability, the parent is unable to successfully care for a child.
Our next story is millions of people are missing from the US data on disability.
The surveys used by the United Census Bureau and
other federal agencies lack boxes that identify particular disabilities.
The American Community survey six A CS six or
the Washington Group shorts set WGSS are two surveys
most commonly used by the federal government to identify
people who live with disabilities in the United States.
These question sets are used in at least 17 federal government surveys
including the Centers for Disease Control and the United States Census Bureau.
The results from these surveys are often
responsible for determining how federal funds are spent
and monitor health and health care in the United States.
The ACS
six and the WGSS both focus on disabilities that
result in a limitation like seeing or walking.
It is stressed in the article that by identifying disability
based only on limitations or a lack of functioning,
it has the potential to miss many additional types of disabilities
including people with mental health and psychiatric disabilities
and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Another example given in the article is that between 32%
and 53% of people have chronic health conditions such as long
COVID.
The article admits that now is the time for us as a country to
move forward in our way of thinking about how we measure and identify disabilities.
They recommend three ways that we can do this.
First is to admit that identifying disability based only
upon what people are unable to do is inadequate.
Second,
disability should be viewed as a demographic variable and
should be collected along with other demographics like age,
gender, race and ethnicity.
Third,
just like those of us who live with disabilities,
disabilities themselves are diverse.
Society must decide on how to define disability in an effective way.
Bonnie Lynn Swanner J Hall and Scott Landis are the authors of this article
and they are researchers who identify as living with disabilities.
They state that we can no longer consider disability data as a niche issue.
Disability is part of our lives.
People with disabilities are among our family members, friends and coworkers.
Disability can happen to anyone at any time during their life.
The authors note that our national data must
reflect the broad experiences and communities across America
and they must include disability.
This article is a very important reminder
that there are visible and invisible disabilities,
there are disabilities.
You can see as if someone like myself using a wheelchair or crutches.
And then there are disabilities that you can't see,
like someone who is experiencing symptoms of long
COVID or another chronic illness that you may
not be able to see if the person is sitting or standing right next to you.
We all must be aware that invisible disabilities are real
and they exist
and our data must reflect that so that
the individuals who are experiencing these different types
of disabilities are receiving the proper health care treatment
and other things that they need.
Our next story is a car dealership pays
100 and $5000 in disability discrimination suit.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC
announced that a car dealership in Baltimore, Maryland
must pay a former employee 100 and $5000 and other
damages in a settlement for a disability discrimination lawsuit.
The company Len Stoler Incorporated
was sued by the EEOC on behalf of a former employee of
the company who had acquired a traumatic brain injury from an accident
after the accident. The employee was in a coma and lost her ability to speak and walk
when the employee was ready to return to work in her position. As a service advisor,
Len Stoler demoted her to a lower paying cashier position
at a different location because of her disabilities caused by the accident.
The lawsuit was filed under title one of the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990 which prohibits discrimination
against employees based on their disabilities.
In addition to paying 100 and $5000 to the employee
Len Stoler is prohibited from violating the AD A
and has agreed to adopt comprehensive policies,
procedures and trainings designed to assist the company in future ad a compliance.
As part of the resolution of the lawsuit,
the company will adopt revised ad a compliance policies and trainings
that will give managers the tools they need
to make well informed lawful decisions about workers with disabilities.
This shows the company's commitment to its employees and is a
very smart forward way of thinking approach to its business.
The Department of Labor announces access to good jobs for
all as National Disability Employment Awareness Month's 2024 theme.
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, also known as N
DEA M,
the Department of Labor's Office of
Disability Employment Policy has chosen access
to good jobs for all as the theme for this year.
N DEA M originally started in 1945 as a national week to
recognize the contribution of people with
physical disabilities in the workplace.
The national month wasn't designated until 1988 by Congress
and it was meant to increase the number
of people with disabilities in the workforce.
In 2001, the Office of Disability Employment Policy OD
was created and was given responsibility for N DEA M
for selecting and helping promote its annual theme.
Here are ways that your company can
acknowledge National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
You can encourage your company to post about N DEA M in your
newsletter on your website or social media sites to help increase awareness.
Companies can also organize disability awareness events,
implementing accessibility initiatives,
plan inclusive activities,
highlight success stories and role models who have disabilities in the workplace.
They can provide educational resources and partner
with disability organizations in your local area.
It can also celebrate different types of disabilities throughout the company.
We hope that by learning this information through this episode,
you can help your company share information and educate
the company as a whole. On National Disability Employment Awareness Month,
this has been the disability news report. Thanks for watching.