The Real Story
Posted on August 30, 2010
By Chris Hilderbrant, Chief Operating Officer
The real story behind the muck-raking article that appeared in the D&C on Sunday August 29, 2010, began about six months ago. At that time, County Executive Maggie Brooks or someone in her administration decided to use the county’s payrolled investigators to try to dig up dirt on the Center for Disability Rights (CDR). The limited findings of those investigators have since been blown far out of proportion, misconstrued and lied about by county officials in an effort to end the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) of CDR. Read more
Filed Under CDR Programs, Chris Hilderbrant, Community-based services, Consumer Directed Personal Assistance | Leave a Comment
Maggie Brooks’ left and right hands haven’t met and other newsbits…
Posted on August 19, 2010
By Chris Hilderbrant, Chief Operating Officer
While Maggie Brooks has been busy alleging that CDR is the target of Medicaid Fraud investigations by the Attorney General, her own Probations department, which was part of the investigation, has issued a letter to CDR announcing the conviction of two attendants and indicating that CDR was the “victim” of the fraud, not the perpetrator. (See documents at www.cdrnys.org)
When faced with the reality that Maggie Brooks’ left hand has not met the right hand, Maggie’s spin doctors had to start getting creative. According to the Democrat and Chronicle: County spokesman Noah Lebowitz said even if CDR was victimized by the attendants, “it clearly shows they failed to properly screen and manage their employees. We hold them responsible for the action of those employees. They refuse to take responsibility for that.” Read more
Filed Under Advocacy, Americans with Disabilities Act, Attendant Services, CDR Programs, Chris Hilderbrant, Community-based services, Consumer Directed Personal Assistance, Home Care, Independence, Independent Living | 1 Comment
Peace Out!
Posted on August 13, 2010
By Stephanie Woodward, Transportation Advocate
August 13, 2010 will be my last day working as the Transportation Advocate at the Center for Disability Rights. I will be moving to Syracuse on August 15th to attend the Syracuse University College of Law. In particular, I will be studying Disability Law. Although I will miss the Center for Disability Rights very much, it was actually CDR that inspired me to go to law school.
I decided to attend law school after working for the CDR for two years because my experiences at CDR exposed me to the many flaws that still exist in our legal system today and to the absurd amount of violations to the Americans with Disabilities Act that go unpunished. Discrimination based on disability is still very prominent today. I want to work to change that. Read more
Filed Under Advocacy, Americans with Disabilities Act, CDR Programs, Public Transportation, RGRTA, Stephanie Woodward | 1 Comment
Transportation in the Happiest Place on Earth
Posted on August 6, 2010
By Stephanie Woodward, Transportation Advocate
To celebrate my recent college graduation my boyfriend surprised me with a trip to Walt Disney World. Having never been to Disney World before, I was ecstatic! When I arrived at Disney I was presented with a large pin that said “I’m Celebrating My College Graduation!” I wore this pin with pride as I rushed out to catch the next bus to Epcot.
When the bus arrived the driver opened the front doors and shouted “Hang on, I’ve got to get the wheelchair on the bus.” This irked me a little as I am a person, not a wheelchair, but I was so excited to be in Disney that I let it go for the moment. Soon the driver came to the back door and opened the ramp so that I could get on the bus. He strapped down my chair and then asked, “Do you need the seatbelt?” I replied, “No thanks.” The driver then turned to my boyfriend and asked, “Does she need a seatbelt?” There was no way I was going to let this go. I immediately (and sharply) told him, “Excuse me! You talk to me!” He smiled, said, “Okay,” and then went to the front of the bus. Read more
Filed Under Accessibility, Advocacy, Americans with Disabilities Act, Assistive Technology, Attitudes, Public Transportation, Stephanie Woodward | Leave a Comment
Monroe County’s Cancellation of CDR’s Contact is an Assault on a Hard Won Victory of the Disability Rights Movement to Establish the Right to Control Our Services and Our Lives.
Posted on July 29, 2010
By Diane Coleman, Director of Advocacy
I first became involved in advocacy for consumer directed services in 1982 in Los Angeles. Like many people with significant disabilities, I wanted to limit medical control and intrusion into my personal life. Nurses and social workers can really mess up your love life, and other freedoms most people take for granted.
By the 1990s, many policy makers began to see consumer controlled services as a best practice to be emulated. As the executive director of an Independent Living Center in Cook County, Illinois, I ran one of a dozen research and demonstration projects about consumer direction, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in the late 1990s. Support for the concept grew. More and more states adopted the model as an option for people with disabilities and seniors who could manage their own home care. Read more
Filed Under Advocacy, Americans with Disabilities Act, Attendant Services, Attitudes, CDR Programs, Community-based services, Consumer Directed Personal Assistance, Diane Coleman, Independence, Independent Living, Medicaid, Self Help, Take Action!, Voting | 3 Comments
Public Accommodations Built Before the ADA Must Make Readily Achievable Access Improvements
Posted on July 22, 2010
By Kyle Glozier
The twentieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is July 26, 2010. But even 20 years after passage of our landmark civil rights law, some businesses and building owners still say that “we are ‘grandfathered in’ so we don’t have to do anything to make our buildings accessible.” They are mistaken. They may do less than what’s required for a newly constructed or significantly renovated building, but they are still required to do something. Read more
Filed Under Accessibility, Advocacy, Americans with Disabilities Act, Assistive Technology, Attitudes, Independence, Independent Living, Kyle Glozier, Technology, Visitability | Leave a Comment
Testing Accommodations and Pre-Employment Exams
Posted on July 20, 2010
By: Sara Furguson
How has the ADA equalized employment prospects for those with varying levels of disability?
The Americans with Disabilities Act has brought epic change to the rights of people with disabilities in achieving testing accommodations. While it is common to hear of testing accommodations in education and standardized testing, the ability to have accommodations for pre-employment exams is also lawful under the ADA. Accordingly, the language of the ADA states that “appropriate adjustment or modifications of examinations” is a form of accommodation that disabled applicants may request. www.ada.gov Further, there are certain restrictions on pre-employment tests that shield applicants with disabilities. Read more
Filed Under Accessibility, Advocacy, Americans with Disabilities Act, Assistive Technology, Attitudes, Employment, Independence, Sara Furguson | Leave a Comment
Partnering with the LGBT Community
Posted on July 15, 2010
By Anita Cameron, Systems Advocate
Recently, the Center for Disability Rights embarked on a new initiative – reaching out to, and partnering with our local LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered) community.
Rochester has a large and vibrant LGBT community, a significant number of whom are people with disabilities. In the effort to make CDR a more welcoming place to our LGBT staff, consumers, and visitors, it was only natural that we would include the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley (GAGV) and other LGBT organizations in the greater Rochester area. Read more
Filed Under Accessibility, Advocacy, Anita Cameron, Attitudes, Independence, Independent Living | 1 Comment
Understanding the FMAP Problem
Posted on July 9, 2010
by Lara Kassel, Coordinator, Medicaid Matters New York
If you’ve been following discussion or listening to the news on the state of the state budget lately, you’ve probably been hearing the acronym “FMAP” a lot. FMAP stands for Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, which is the rate that determines the amount of federal Medicaid money each state gets. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly referred to as the Federal stimulus bill, enacted an enhanced FMAP for some states, including New York. This meant that New York would get an increase in Federal Medicaid funding during the period of the enhanced FMAP rate. This enhancement in funding is set to expire at the end of this year. Read more
Filed Under Advocacy, Lara Kassel, Voting | Leave a Comment
Introducing CDR’s Newest Advocacy Intern
Posted on July 1, 2010
By Kyle Glozier, Advocacy Intern
Hello my name is Kyle J. Glozier. I’m a senior at California University of Pennsylvania in California, PA. I have been involved with disability rights since I was eight years old when I visited Atlantis Community, a center for independent living in Denver. I knew from that time that my driving force was disability rights.
I was always included in regular education from the time I was a five-year-old all the way through high school. I graduated in 2004 and then enrolled in Cal U where I am a political science major with concentration in pre-law. As I was in school, I saw my peer group with disabilities get behind as I excelled. Read more