Excerpt from: The Oakland Press (click for full article)
Millions of Americans with disabilities have gained innumerable rights
and opportunities since Congress passed landmark legislation on their
behalf in 1990. And yet advocates say barriers and bias still abound
when it comes to one basic human right: To be a parent.
A Kansas
City, Mo., couple had their daughter taken into custody by the state
two days after her birth because both parents were blind. A Chicago
mother, because she is quadriplegic, endured an 18-month legal battle
to keep custody of her young son. A California woman paid an advance
fee to an adoption agency, then was told she might be unfit to adopt
because she has cerebral palsy.
Such cases are found nationwide,
according to a new report by the National Council on Disability, an
independent federal agency. The 445-page document is viewed by the
disability-rights community as by far the most comprehensive ever on
the topic — simultaneously an encyclopedic accounting of the status quo
and an emotional plea for change.
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