Danny Saenz reports: [yesterday] I rode a lift equipped Greyhound. And wheelchair accessible Uber brought me home.
WE WILL RIDE!

Sunday June 20th at 5:30 pm voting rights supporters from across the state will gather at the state Capitol to protest attempts by the Governor and state Republicans to limit voters access to the polls.  You need to be there! 

Although Democrats were able to kill the voting restriction bill (SB 7) by walking out of the Capitol in unison at the last minute, these efforts are not dead. The Governor is calling a special session to get the voting bills passed.  

Even though Republicans say these bills are to ensure voting integrity, there were less than a dozen cases of voter fraud found in a state with 16 MILLION voters. According to the Houston Chronicle fact checkers there are 43 pending voter fraud cases and “Only one of those pending cases stems from the 2020 election, in which more than 11 million Texans cast ballots.”

Some of the things being attempted to shove down the throats of Texas voters include:

Bills filed in the last legislative session had a pile of ways they attacked voting rights. They limited the days and hours of early voting severely, they almost did away with drop boxes for mail in ballots. They limited polling places in more populous counties by requiring all counties have the same number of polling places;  this of course means longer lines where there more people. The bills said no more 24 hour voting, or drive through voting. 

Poll watchers (partisan, untrained people “making sure” voting is legal) are allowed to come right up to voters, particularly anyone getting assistance voting (can you say disabled) and watch, listen and even film the person voting. Voter intimidation anyone? 

The attacks specifically on disabled voters were part of these bills. They started out saying you had to prove your disability with confirmation from a medical or governmental entity (though people voting by mail for other reasons don’t have to prove themselves.)  Disability advocates worked hard to tone that down so in the end they said disabled voters have to disclose the reason for voting by mail and needed to “not [be] capable of appearing at the polling place on Election Day without needing personal assistance or injuring the person’s health.” Also disabled voters would have to sign an affidavit they have a disability. 

Anyone who drives 3 or more people to the polls must sign a form saying they are not influencing the people’s vote with criminal penalties if it is in any way false. The driver must get out of the vehicle while people vote and election observers can get in the vehicle with the voters. 

Poll watchers who think something is wrong can challenge your vote and people assisting voters who are deemed directing the voter can be charged with a serious crime. 

If illegally cast votes are found a court can overturn the entire election. 

This morning (6/15/21) Texas Attorney General Paxton issued an opinion that Social Workers can’t be punished by their governing board for discrimination against people with disabilities. He said that the Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners (TSBSWE) may not establish a Code of Conduct that prohibits discrimination based on disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. The Board had previously said it was ok for social workers to discriminate, but thanks to a huge outcry from the disability community, Texas Social Workers and others, the Board reversed it’s earlier position and said it was NOT OK to discriminate.  

Paxton today (in a luckily non-binding opinion) issued an opinion that the board had no right to take such a position.  Apparently, however, Paxton was cool with the board taking the original anti-disability position.  Paxton, protecting the rights of Texans — unless you fall in the wrong categories.  Texas, where the state will do all it can to prevent anyone from stopping social workers from discrimination — even in 2021.  There’s Texas Friendly for ya, according to Ken Paxton!

The opinion goes on and on and on about sexual orientation and gender identity and religious freedoms. 

On disability, just so you know how the TX AG thinks of your rights, it goes like this: if the state legislature doesn’t specifically say you can’t discriminate based on disability in a specific practices, service or whatever, other folks can’t prevent that discrimination.  What good are rights without enforcement?  That’s what he seems to be counting on.

To read the full opinion click here. 

Today, the Justice Department filed a Statement of Interest in a lawsuit in the Western District of Pennsylvania to clarify that where an alleged barrier—the height of a hotel bed—is not addressed by the ADA Standards, the ADA’s general nondiscrimination provisions still apply, including making reasonable modifications where necessary to provide goods and services to people with disabilities.  The lawsuit, Migyanko v. Aimbridge Hospitality, LLC, alleges that the world’s largest third-party operator of hotels provides hotel beds that are too high for individuals who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices to transfer into them.  The lawsuit is in progress but the Department of Justice has received so many comments on this issue they decided to file this clarifying statement with the court.  Here is a short excerpt:

Guests cannot fully or equally use a hotel room if they cannot get onto the bed.  Where an individual with a disability is unable to transfer from a wheelchair onto the hotel bed, the hotel may need to make reasonable modifications to accommodate the guest.  42 U.S.C. § 12182(b)(2)(A)(ii); 28 C.F.R. § 36.302(a).⁶  Of course, in the absence of specific requirements for bed height, hotels have some degree of flexibility in making reasonable modifications to provide usable beds for a person with a disability.  This flexible standard is inherently fact-specific.  For example, some hotels might be able to use a combination of lower profile mattresses, box springs, and bed frames to lower the beds permanently in some of their rooms.  Or, some hotels could perhaps provide lower beds upon request in a room by using rollaway beds, removable bed frames, adjustable height bed frames, or bed frames on removable risers.  Such flexibility could allow hotels to continue to use higher beds for guests that prefer them, if they so choose.

To see (download and print) the full statement: click here for DOJ Bed Statement

For more information on the ADA or this Statement of Interest, please visit ADA.gov or call the toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 (TTY 800-514-0383).

Sick of battling your way through “parked” scooters? Tired of being buzzed by hapless scooter drivers?  COME TO THE TUESDAY ACCESS CLUB. Nov. 5th from 12:30 – 2:00 we are talking about scooters and wheelchair (and other) pedestrian safety.  Did you see a 20 year old wheelchair pedestrian was killed in South Austin last week?  We need your stories and ideas so please come join us! 

FYI The Tuesday Access Club meets at ADAPT office every Tuesday at 5:30 topics vary depending on interest of those who come and campaigns we are working on.

MOVIE NIGHT AT ADAPT November 6 5:30 – 8pm

Our Halloween/Thanksgiving fare? Kills on Wheels – a Hungarian 2017 international award winning action-comedy about teenage hit men in wheelchairs. Since not everyone may read subtitles, we may have audience participation for this event. Refreshments provided.

ADAPT BIG MEETING Nov. 13 3:00 – 5pm

Come learn what happened at the national action in DC. Find out what PACT and Tuesday Access Club have been up to. Get up to date on other ADAPT actions and doings.  

ATTENDANTS (and allies) GATHER AGAIN WITH PACT

Nov. 20 at 6pm come hear about EVV, Recruitment and retention of attendants, state and national news.  AND share a potluck dinner while you are at it. 

ADAPT Santa Clones Alert!

Wheelchair Santa is just around the corner, so dust off your antlers, and get ready to Rock On (as Freddy would say) at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar ADAPT table.  Dec. 13 – 24 are the dates.  Sign up early for the best slots!

Recently ADAPT and PACT have been hearing about attendants who are not getting paid, or at least not getting paid on time. This is not cool, especially for attendants who – for the most part – are not paid well to begin with.

Desert ADAPT and PACT, our brothers and sisters in El Paso, have taken this issue on with some of the worst offending agencies.

Attendants already make very low wages and don’t have the leeway to ride out a delay in pay, and this affects not only them but the folks with disabilities and seniors they serve.

Health and Human Services Commission, HHSC, is the state agency that oversees attendant services programs and needs to back up the workers. There are Texas Pay Day laws and state agencies policies that not paying someone violates.

It turns out there is a toll free number to HHSC where people who are having these kinds of problems can call to report them. The number is 800-458-9858. If you know of such a situation call it in. But also call PACT Organizer Cathy Cranston 512-442-0252 so we can support your efforts too.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE​​​​   ​​​Contacts: Nancy Crowther

ATTENTION: MEDIA AND PRESS​​​       ​​​cell 512-808-7486

February 19, 2019​1:00pm​​​​       ​​David Wittie cell 512-577-8982

Community Members with Disabilities Demonstrate:

A Day Without Community Attendant Assistance

ADAPT and PACT are here at the Capitol today in an urgent call to the state appropriations for attention to a calamity that the state has refused to address: Recruitment and Retaining the Community Attendants. 

Individuals who depend on Community Attendants to live independently in the community are finding it difficult to recruit and retain Community Attendants at the wage of $8.00 an hour.

“We are calling for $15 an hour wage—RAI$E IT!” said Cathy Cranston, organizer for ADAPT and PACT. “We are here in the Capitol Rotunda to demonstrate what it looks like to not have any Community Attendants and what it means for people with disabilities.” The current base wage is $8 an hour.

Texans with disabilities of all ages who need long term services and supports are facing a crisis in their services.  A growing shortage of direct care workers, Community Attendants, means people with disabilities are without the vital assistance to maintain theircare. Community Attendants perform basic assistance with tasks the person cannot do for themselves, things like dressing, toileting,transferring, bathing and feeding. Without this assistance many people with disabilities cannot function nor live independently in the community, facing potential and costlier institutional assistance costing the state 10 times more than the cost to live in the community.  Yet with the wage of $8.00 an hour, (and NO benefits)it is getting harder and harder to find people to do this critical work.

The extremely low wages the attendants are paid is one of the primary reasons for this shortage. The economics of labor force competition shows that while someone starting work at a fast food restaurant, at Buc–ees, at Amazon, or any number of other unskilled jobs, will start at $12 to $15 an hour, or more. Texas Community Attendants start at eight dollars an hour.

More and more frequently, people with disabilities are literally having to sleep in their wheelchairs or spend long stretches in bed because no one can come to assist them. This leads to health complications such as pressure sores. After preventable hospitalizations, this can lead to people being forced into nursing homes or sent to rehab hospitals and it can even kill them. These alternatives (aside from death) are exponentially expensive than providing the services they needed in the community in the first place.

ADAPT and PACT believe part of the reason for ignoring this crisis is that people are out of sight of the decision makers.  “We want everyone to see exactly what happens when a person with a disability has no Community Attendant to assist them” said Nancy Crowther.  “We want people to see what being without Community Attendants means in our lives for just one day or over a lifetime.”

“We have done studies, met with bureaucrats, participated in work groups, testified again and again to the Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas Legislature.  We have made videos, interviewed those affected, and done everything we can think of to get this issue addressed” said Cathy Cranston, PACT organizer.

“Community Attendants are human beings.  We have families and real lives.  We care about our clients, but we must live as well and we deserve to be treated fairly” said Kika Grajeda, PACT organizer.

“I think my life is worth more than a hamburger, a tank of gas or some packing peanuts” added Josue Rodriguez. “Not paying Community Attendants what they are worth means people with disabilities suffer the consequences.  I think Texas can do better.”

“The situation is worst for seniors and adults with disabilities, from ventilator-users, to quadriplegics, to people with dementia or stroke.Community Attendants in these programs earn less than those who work for people who work in other programs even though they are doing the same tasks for the person.” Bob Kafka of ADAPT added.  “It is time to raise ALL wage$ to $15. Equal Pay for Equal Work.”

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ADAPT of Texas/Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas (PACT) * 1100 S. IH35*Austin, TX 78704* 512-442-0252*     Fax: 512-906-1166* ADAPTOFTEXAS.org* Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas (PACT) Cathy Cranston* flacacata@aol.com*   Nancy Crowther* ncrowther21@gmail.com * www.adaptoftexas.or