Are you unable to leave your home to visit a COVID-19 test site? In-home testing is available for those considered high-risk of developing severe illness with COVID-19 without transportation, or who have a mobility impairment or other disabilities.
To schedule free In Home test, call Austin Public Health at 512-972-5560 to schedule an appointment today.
Schedule a test if you can’t leave your home due to:
AustinTexas.gov/COVID19
ADAPT of Texas joined ADAPT folk from 30 other groups/city around the nation Friday, October 2nd this afternoon to protest the Congress’ failure to include Home and Community Based Services in any of the CORONO Virus Relief packages. Specifically we were protesting Senator Cornyn’s failure to support so far, so we went to his office (221 West 6th Street Austin) to demand Senator Cornyn support Health Care and Home and Community Based Services for Texans with Disabilities.
You can watch the hearing on ADAPT National’s website.
In addition, the night before ADAPT folks were outside the US Capitol in the pouring rain doing a vigil and Congress woman Cortez (AOC) stopped by to visit and posted this video of the group!
ADAPT of Texas DEMANDS:
SUPPORT THE COVID 19 SUPPORT PACKAGE (HERO’s Act) THAT INCLUDES: funding for HCBS, PPE’s, Community Attendants and housing supports;
Make the MONEY FOLLOWS THE PERSON a Permanent Program;
Support the Affordable Care Act and delay the Supreme Court appointment so the winner of the election can make the selection;
Meet with ADAPT of Texas members to discuss the above demands.
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As part of our protest, we were joined in with other ADAPT folks from around the nation, including a delegation who traveled to Washington DC to carry our message in person. We joined up via the internet, Zoom and Facebook for a People’s Hearing on
30 years after the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Disabled Americans who need long term services and supports continue to be forced into unwanted institutionalization where they are stripped of their personal liberties. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, institutionalized people have been on the front line of casualties with massive loss of life happening behind the walls of institutions.
Far from inevitable, these peoples’ deaths were completely avoidable. People living in their own homes and controlling the services and supports that come into their homes including who comes in and out of their homes, how the people coming into their homes conduct themselves, and what types of precautions they use, are living while people with the same level of disability in institutions die.
Congress has the power to keep people safe and move people out of harm’s way by supporting home and community based services. ADAPT Calls on the United States Senate to take up the House HEROES Act a deliver REAL RELIEF to our states and people who are all suffering under the weight of pandemic.
Supporting home and community based services as part of COVID-19 relief includes:
▪ Funding for personal protective equipment for people receiving services in their homes and communities and the people helping them remain in their own homes
▪ Help with funds to retain or obtain housing, including eviction and foreclosure protections and funds to stabilize markets and help people address payment concerns.
▪ Financial support for states so they can maintain and enhance community-based services, holding them harmless from the economic consequences associated with the pandemic.
Support for the Affordable Care Act, including Medicaid and Medicaid Expansion are critical to maintaining the health, well-being and community choice for hundreds of thousands of aging and disabled people. Any effort to erode support for the availability of health insurance coverage, including the Appointment of anti-ACA Justices to the Supreme Court, should be rebuffed.
Due to a recent court ruling there is a little more time to fill out the census. Now you have until the end of October. Take advantage! Fill it out.
This is a really big deal, nerdy as it might sound. Filling out the census takes 5 minutes or less. The census is what the feds use to count population to figure out how much money states, cities, etc. get for things like public transportation, public health care, community development (like sidewalk $ and more), education, roads, job training, school lunches and much more. Over $400 Billion is spent on local communities by the numbers from the census. It also helps design districts for US Congress reps and state legislative representatives and senators.
Go to my2020census.gov to respond online,
By phone:
Or mail. Go here for more details https://2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond/responding-by-mail.html
Some people don’t really want you to be counted, which should make you want to be counted even MORE! Because you do count, but not if you let them stop you.
Here’s a little soap opera, Counting All My Children, that Rev Up made to encourage you to fill the Census out (Notice any actors you know?):
BUT WHATEVER YOU DO, YOU HAVE ONE WEEK TO DO THIS IMPORTANT JOB!
September 22 was national voter registration day and Rev Up held a live online event to share information on registering and voting. Below is a link to the edited version of the REV UP Texas Natl Voter Registration Day event. (The link is also on the REV UP Texas website.) Click this link to see the event which is about 30 mins.
REVUP Texas: What You Need to Know to Vote
Remember October 5th is the last day to Register you want to vote on Nov 3rd.
People went to jail and even died for your right to vote, so use it. If you aren’t already registered, step one is to register, and you can do that easily via Register2Vote.org Go to the site, fill out the form, they send you a registration card that is properly addressed and filled in. All you have to do is sign it and drop the postage paid form in the mail. Do it soon because time is running out.
Rev Up Texas website has information for voters with disabilities, including an accessible video interview with US Senate candidate MJ Hegar. Incumbent candidate Cornyn has been asked numerous times for an interview and if he ever responds they will post his interview as well (if you are a Cornyn supporter you can help by giving him a nudge, cause he has ignored all requests so far.) They have lots of great videos on the site and tons of good information. Check it out!!! Questions? You can contact them at: revuptx@gmail.com 512-431-4085
Monday October 5, 2020 is the deadline to register in Texas.
Early in person voting starts 10/13/20 and goes until 10/30/20. To find a location near you the Secretary of State has a site VoteTexas.gov that will tell you where to vote closer to the election day.
Or go to your county clerk’s or election website. If you’re not from one of the places listed below just googling your county’s name elections should take you to the right place:
Fort Worth & Arlington San Antonio
Hildalgo County Corpus Christi
Many of these sites will let you check if you are still registered, see a sample ballot and much more. The Texas League of Women Voters also has tons of good information on races, voting, and much more including info for voters with disabilities!
This year, 2020, is the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote.
Did you know the person who wrote the preamble to the Constitution had a disability? Yup, that’s a fact and here’s a one minute video to tell you a LITTLE bit more about it, courtesy of REV UP. Click here to see and get a chuckle.
photo by Cathy Cranston
ADAPT/PACT joined Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, Texans for Bernie 2020, Del Valle Community Coalition on the morning of July 30th to celebrate Medicare’s 55th birthday and to promote Medicaid expansion in Texas.
Thirty individuals and twenty-five vehicles attended the caravan. We all enjoyed decorating our vehicles to prepare for the caravan as we social distanced with our donned mask.
We drove from Huston-Tillotson University to the Governor’s Mansion then to the Capitol to send a message to Governor Abbott that Texans want Medicaid expansion.
Texas has the highest rate of uninsured adults and children in the country and this was our chance to advocate for all-inclusive HealthCare that covers everyone. We all had a great time honking loud and proud as we drove past the Governor’s Mansion and the Capitol several times. Upon finishing we returned to Huston-Tillotson and called it a day.
Healthcare For All!
Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas (PACT), ADAPT of Texas (Austin), Desert ADAPT (El Paso) and Gulf Coast ADAPT (Houston) want to thank the following individuals and organizations for their continued support in assisting us in obtaining PPE for our community:
Centene Corporation/Superior – Wade Rakes
Tabitha Taylor with the City of Austin
Austin Council Member Ann Kitchen – Ken Craig
Austin Council Member Kathie Tovo – Nici Huff
Austin Emergency Supply Foundation – Nashid Braswell
Amerigroup Healthplan – Stacy Barnett
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar – Susie Byrd
Committee of 100 – Justin Ho and Nyx He
We have sent the masks to community attendants that serve people with disabilities across all populations. We have (so far) mailed out approximately 5200 masks since April until now. 207 individuals have received the masks.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was very difficult to find PPE for the essential workforce of Community Attendants. The home care agencies had difficulties in obtaining the masks and gloves as we all were competing with the hospitals and institutions for the PPE.
While some focus and concern moved to congregate living facilities like nursing homes and group homes, over time, there seemed almost no attention to the people in the community who face similar dangers, just in less public settings.
We started this project because we found many community attendants were having to reuse their masks multiple times. Some home care agencies have been able to obtain the PPE, while many are still finding it difficult to obtain sufficient amounts of PPE.
Thanks to the generous donations from our partners PACT and ADAPT of Texas are continuing to assist in minimizing the spread of COVID-19 and keep people with disabilities, seniors and their community attendants safer.
ATTENTION: Action Alert!
YOUR ACTION IS NEEDED:
THERE IS NO FUNDING FOR HCBS IN THE HEALS ACT!
OUR SERVICES AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND SENIORS THAT WANT TO LEAVE THE INSTITUTIONS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LEAVE WITHOUT
FUNDING FOR HCBS!
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Call and/or email Senator Cornyn and Senator Cruz and staff and tell them:
Senator Cruz: Central Texas 512-916-5834; D.C. 202-224-5922
Click the link to email Cruz: https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=form&id=16
Joel_Heimbach@cruz.senate.gov
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Senator Cornyn: Austin 512-469-6034; D.C. 202-224-2934
Click the link to email Cornyn: https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/contact
Jeffrey_Last@cornyn.senate.gov
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We need FUNDING in the New Relief bill for:
1. *Home and community-based services (HCBS)
*Tell them your personal story of the importance of HCBS also for our brothers and sisters that are relying on these services in order to get out of the death camps, nursing home and other institutions!
2. Hazard pay for Attendants. Protect Attendants from COVID-19
3. PPE absolutely necessary (mask and gloves) for essential workers, which includes personal attendants in the community
*SUPPORT – – HEROES ACT HR.6800: which supports a greater Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)
*SUPPORT- – Section 202 of S.3544 that supports additional funding for Home and Community-Based Services and hazard pay for Attendants.
4. *SUPPORT- – S3740 and HR9651 COVID-19 Recovery for Seniors and People with Disabilities Act. Delay the implementation of the Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) requirement for 6 months (after the end of the national public health emergency) in order to eliminate barriers to care in the home and keep people out of congregate settings. We all know that people with disabilities and Seniors are dying in the institutions due to the corona virus. Personal care services workers are already in a crisis shortage. By adding on EVV requirements, personal care service workers refuse to do this work. The law requires location information. WE refuse tracking them by GPS or biometrics.
*Tell them to help our people.
At the top is an attachment of a template of a letter you can email to the Senators as well as the Representatives asking for their support for the delay of EVV.
ADAPT is working with NCIL(National Council on Independent Living). Below is the link to the NCIL Alert from EVV section of website https://ncil.org/about-the-ncil-electronic-visit-verification-task-force/electronic-visit-verification-evv-call-to-action/
Thank you for taking action TODAY! Our lives depend on it!
Free Our People! Community Attendants Equal Independence!
Nancy Crowther Cathy Cranston
ADAPT/PACT ORGANIZERS
ADAPT of Texas gathered (masked and socially distanced) on the City Hall plaza at 10:30am on Sunday, July 26th, to commemorate the passage of the important civil Rights Bill, the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA.
On July 26th 1990 President George Bush signed the Act into law on the White House lawn. The bill had been written with bipartisan support from Congress.
Since that day ADAPT of Texas has worked hard through letters, conversations, meetings, educational forums, trainings, lawsuits, protests and even civil disobedience to ensure the promise of that legislation has been fulfilled in our community, state and nation. Similarly we have worked to ensure that people with disabilities are aware of their rights and protections under the law.
There is still work to be done, but ADAPT of Texas took this moment to acknowledge the work and sacrifice of our members, both living and passed, to achieve these goals.
Both the City of Austin and Capital Metro have become leaders in compliance with the ADA because they (sometimes reluctantly, but always in the end positively) worked with ADAPT of Texas and the rest of the disability community toward the goals of the ADA.
The ADA has led to lifts on 100% of our public transit and a vastly improved paratransit system for those who can’t ride mainline buses. It lead to accessible bus stops, to sidewalks and curb cuts so we are less often forced out into traffic to get around. ADA has allowed us to enter most places like stores, restaurants, churches and veterinary clinics, places the public goes. It has required interpreters for people who are deaf in colleges, hospitals and jails. It has paved the way for more assistive technology and removal of barriers in sidewalks for people with visual disabilities. It has prevented people with cognitive or speech disabilities from being turned away from polling places simply because it was assumed, incorrectly, they didn’t know what they were doing.
And it has done so much more. As one of our members Bill Scarborough, put it so well, it has allowed those of us with disabilities: “To Boldly Go Where Everyone Else Has Gone Before.”
In addition, through the Supreme Court‘s Olmstead decision, ADA has affirmed the right of people with disabilities to live in the community instead of being warehoused in nursing homes and other institutions. ADA has helped free thousands of people from nursing homes and other institutions. ADAPT of Texas and others have gotten people out of nursing facilities and will continue fighting the unnecessary warehousing of people in nursing facilities and other institutions.
Is everything solved? Of course not. People are still striving to be free in their own homes, businesses and the like still ignore the law and don’t create access for us. People with disabilities run into problems every day. A disabled man at a local hospital was just recently denied care and died because his disabled life was deemed unworthy.
But 30 years ago access was the exception. Community services were a sliver of long term care compared to institutionalization. The needs of people with disabilities were, at best a begrudging after thought. No one would have blinked (except perhaps the family) at lack of treatment to save a disabled life. Many in ADAPT and the disability community at large remember well those days, and shared their memories today.
So ADA and the changes it HAS made must be acknowledged. And that is what we will be doing.
Although we know the dangers of COVID 19, and many of our people are not able to join us because of this, ADAPT felt this was too important an anniversary to ignore. We hope you will think it is important enough to celebrate as well.
WE WILL RIDE! ACCESS IS A CIVIL RIGHT! FREE OUR PEOPLE! OUR HOMES NOT NURSING HOMES OR OTHER INSTITUTIONS!
To see the Capitol Crawl, the Overtaking of the Capitol Rotunda and much more in the battle for ADA visit the ADAPT online MUSEUM
<< 30th Anniversary of the ADA Americans with Disabilities Act
Signed into law July 26, 1990
Landmark civil rights legislation gives over 40 million Americans access to:
BUSES Freedom from nursing homes and other institutions
day care, sidewalks, restaurants, movie theaters, hotels/motels, colleges/universities, schools, gyms, subways, auditoriums, sports venues, drug stores, banks, interpreters, signage, assistive technology, telephone service, parks, courts, tests, employment, television, trains, stores, school buses, theaters, curb cut, grocery stores, doctors offices, libraries
AND SO MUCH MORE
It’s full promise has yet to be realized, but with all of our help it will.
Celebrate ADA and keep on working.
