Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

National Federation of the Blind and Two Blind Taxpayers File Suit Against H&R Block

Excerpt from: National Federation of the Blind (click for full article)

 

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the oldest and largest organization of blind people in the United States, and two blind taxpayers residing in Massachusetts—Mika Pyyhkala and Lindsay Yazzolino—filed suit today in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Case 1:13-cv-10799-GAO) against the digital arm of H&R Block, which prepares approximately one in six tax returns in America and claims to be “the only tax preparation company capable of serving clients anyway, anywhere and anyhow they want to be served.”  The complaint alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Article 114 of the Massachusetts Constitution as enforced through the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act (MERA) because the company’s online tax services and Web sites are not accessible to blind taxpayers.  

Blind people access computers and Web sites through screen access software that converts what is on the screen into spoken words or Braille, but improperly coded Web sites and applications can prevent this software from working properly, denying the blind user equal access.  Both Mr. Pyyhkala and Ms. Yazzolino unsuccessfully attempted to file their 2012 tax returns using HRBlock.com.  The plaintiffs are requesting the court to certify the suit as a class action.

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act and People with Mental Disabilities

Excerpt from: Bazelon Center (click for full article)

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is designed to fully integrate people with disabilities into American life. The Act prohibits discrimination in employment, in the activities of state and local government, and by private businesses. 

The ADA protects people with mental disabilities, including people with mental illnesses. The ADA protects people who have a current mental “impairment “or who are discriminated against because they have a history of such impairment or are regarded as having such an impairment. 

The ADA attacks discrimination in three ways. First, it prohibits governments and business from treating people differently simply because they have a disability. Second, it requires governments and businesses to make changes to how they operate (“reasonable accommodations”) so that people with disabilities get the same access and the same benefits as other people. Third, the ADA requires that state and local governments deliver services, including mental health services, in “the most integrated setting,” that is, a setting that maximizes independence and participation in community life.

Ex-Angel Fire employee files discrimination charge

Excerpt from: Sangre de Cristo Chronicle (click for full article)

 

In a discrimination charge filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Deborah Bredthauer alleged that she was treated differently because of her white race and disability while working for the village of Angel Fire.

“During my employment, I was denied time off to attend physical therapy and I was treated differently than Hispanic employees who were allowed to take time off work for any reason,” Bredthauer stated in the charge. “I attempted to complain internally about the discrimination but nothing happened and I was later retaliated against by not being allowed to attend a training session and by being isolated at work.”

Bredthauer filed the charge under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act on Nov. 1, 2012, and her attorney Katherine Ferlic of Santa Fe said mediation took place on March 27.

Ferlic said the specifics of the mediation are confidential, but “I can say that Ms. Bredthauer does plan on filing suit as soon as her administrative options are exhausted.”

Disability insurance, out of control

Excerpt from: Chicago Tribune (click for full article)

 

For millions of American workers, things are looking up. Employers are starting to hire again, new jobless claims are down by a quarter from a year ago and the unemployment rate has dropped from a peak of 10 percent in 2009 to 7.7 percent. It's all a big change from the worst days of the Great Recession.

But one indicator hasn't turned around. That's the civilian labor force participation rate – basically, the share of adult Americans who are in the U.S. workforce, holding down jobs or looking for them. When the recession began, the rate was 66 percent. When the economy tanked, it started to decline, hitting 64.6 percent by the end of 2010. But since then, it has kept sliding, and it now stands at 63.5 percent — lower than it has been in the past 30 years.

Why, in a time of economic growth and an improving job market, are more people leaving the workforce than joining it? One reason is demographic: With baby boomers reaching their mid-60s, a lot of them are happy to retire. Another is that many people whose jobs disappeared lack the skills they need for the jobs that are emerging.

HUD KICKS OFF FAIR HOUSING MONTH WITH LAUNCH OF NATIONAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

Excerpt from: HUD.gov (click for full article)

 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) today launched a national media campaign to educate the public and housing providers about their rights and responsibilities under the Fair Housing Act. The campaign, titled “Fair Housing Is Your Right. Use It,” includes English, Spanish, and Chinese radio and print public service advertisements (PSAs) that feature examples of actions which violate the Fair Housing Act and let the public know what to do if they experience housing discrimination. In addition to radio and print public service announcements, the campaign will use the latest digital and social media to amplify the outreach effort.

The launch of the campaign coincides with the beginning of Fair Housing Month when the nation marks the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act following the assassination of Dr. Martin Lu-ther King, Jr. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale or rental of housing based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, familial status or disability. This year’s Fair Housing Month theme is “Our Work Today Defines Our Tomorrow,” spotlighting HUD’s current enforcement and education and outreach efforts and the work of its fair housing partners are helping to foster sus-tainable, inclusive communities of opportunity for future generations.

One of the campaign’s print ads features a woman in a wheelchair and her service animal, drawing attention to persons with disabilities who often face housing discrimination. Another print ad featuring a woman wearing traditional Muslim headdress highlights the persistence of discrimination based on religion. Each PSA encourages anyone who experiences discrimination to call HUD’s hous-ing discrimination hotline (1-800-669-9777), contact a local fair housing agency, or visit HUD’s fair housing Web site: www.HUD.gov/fairhousing.

Behind the decision to accept cuts to in-home support services

Excerpt from: San Francisco Bay Guardian (click for full article)

 

For the last four years, advocates for those with disabilities have successfully fought to stave off the 20 percent cut in In-Home Support Services that then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had proposed to help balance California's budget, each year winning legal injunctions preventing the cuts while the case wound it way through the federal court system.

Their main argument is that such deep cuts in these vital services would discriminate against disabled or elderly Californians by forcing them into nursing homes rather than allowing them to receive services at home, which they contended was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (I discuss this and other systemic devaluing of caregiving in last week's Guardian).

While disabilities rights groups and other opponents of the IHHS cuts issued public statements that put a happy face on the settlement, emphasizing that it had avoided much deeper cuts, many advocates privately grumbled about accepting still-deep cuts to this popular and important program. After all, these cuts will hurt the families of those with disabilities (it is often relatives who are paid as caregivers by the program) and likely result in greater long-term costs from nursing home care and more emergency room visits.

U.S. Department of Justice accuses Oregon of segregating disabled in sheltered workshops

Excerpt from: Oregon Live (click for full article)

 

Oregon unlawfully segregates people with disabilities in sheltered workshops instead of providing them more work opportunities in the public midst, federal authorities allege. 

In a news conference Monday, officials with the U.S. Justice Department said they have joined a class-action lawsuit filed by people with disabilities against Gov. John Kitzhaber and the state of Oregon last year, demanding changes to the sheltered workshop system.

Sixty-one percent of those disabled Oregonians now labor in sheltered workshops, often earning less than minimum wage, while just 16 percent are employed at businesses with integrated workforces, said Eve Hill, a senior counselor to the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. The percentage of those employed outside workshops has dropped nearly in half in roughly a decade.

Lane v. Kitzhaber, 12-CV-00138, (D. OR 2012)

Excerpt from: ADA.gov (click for full article)

 

On March 27, 2013, the United States filed a Motion to Intervene in a pending class action lawsuit against the State of Oregon. The United States’ accompanying Complaint in Intervention alleges violations of Title II of the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act for unnecessarily segregating individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in sheltered workshops when they could be served in integrated employment settings.  

Prior to requesting intervention the United States filed on April 20, 2012, a Statement of Interest in Support of Plaintiffs Regarding Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss.  The United States argued that Title II and the integration regulation apply to all services, programs, and activities of a public entity, including segregated, non-residential employment settings such as sheltered workshops. 

On June 18, 2012, the United States filed a second Statement of Interest in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification. In its Statement of Interest, the United States urged the Court to uphold class certification for a plaintiff class of thousands of individuals in, or referred to, Oregon sheltered workshops. 

Diversity, Innovation and Work

Emphasizing that diversity includes people with disabilities, Assistant Secretary of Labor Kathy Martinez delivered a presentation at the annual partners' meeting of Corporate Voices for Working Families on March 22. Martinez, the assistant secretary for disability employment policy, discussed department-supported resources for businesses. The program concluded with a vibrant discussion between Martinez and an audience of about 60 senior executives from Fortune 500 companies. "Diversity is, and always has been, the essential element in American innovation," Martinez said.

Are we making stuff up about disability benefits?

Excerpt from: State of Opportunity (click for full article)

 

Disability is real.

As a nation we have often been dismissive of people with disabilities. Only 40 years ago people with disabilities were routinely locked up and denied their basic human rights.

People with disabilities are still routinely discriminated against in serious ways at work, at school and on the street. This discrimination was only banned by the federal government in 1990. 

Not every disability is one we can easily see, but that doesn't make these disabilities less real. For every back-pain claim we roll our eyes at, there are also stories like this one from Rolland Morse, a Kalamazoo-based lawyer I spoke with who makes his living filing and appealing disability claims. He went through a long list of his recent clients, none of whom seemed sketchy, because if they were he wouldn't take their cases.

One of the people he told me about is 19-year-old woman dying from muscular dystrophy. She can't work, now or ever, because she can't carry on normal activities for any real stretch of time. Her disability claim was denied, like the majority of all disability claims in the state. She was awarded benefits on appeal.