Received from another list serve, thought you might be interested.
JFS
Julie F. Silver
Project Director
Human Services Research Institute
2336 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
V 1: 617.844.2318
V2: 617.876.0426 x2318
F: 617.492.7401
E:
JSilver@...
www.hsri.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Supporting community inclusion of people with disabilities
[mailto:
COMMINC@...] On Behalf Of Debra Simms
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 8:22 AM
To:
COMMINC@...
Subject: Fwd: Kerry Response to AAPD Questionnaire
"Kerry Response to AAPD Questionnaire"
The following response to AAPD's questionnaire is provided
by the Kerry-Edwards campaign.
AAPD is non-partisan and shares information about
candidates' disability-related policy positions for
educational purposes.
Jonathan Young
JFA Moderator, AAPD
====================================
DISABILITY ISSUE QUESTIONS FROM THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF
PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
1. What are your top three accomplishments on behalf of
people with disabilities in your career to date as an
elected official?
One of my things that I am most proud of is having
cosponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act, the most
comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation enacted since
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 1987, I drafted the Technology to Educate Children with
Handicaps (TECH) Act, which created assistive device
centers across the country to ensure all children with
special needs have access to the assistive devices
necessary to get an education. These centers train
specialists, teachers, and therapists to identify students
who could benefit from such technologies. These centers
also inform parents, educators and therapists on how to
support and incorporate these devices into children's
educational experiences. I fought hard to enact this
legislation so that children with disabilities could gain
independence in the classroom and throughout their lives.
The goals of my legislative proposal were later
incorporated into the Technology Related Assistance for
Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988.
I have had a long-time commitment to protecting the rights
of individuals disabled by mental illness. I was an
original cosponsor of the landmark Mental Health Parity Act
passed by Congress in 1996, which requires parity for
annual and lifetime dollar limit coverage for mental health
treatment. While its enactment marked an important step in
the fight for providing greater mental health treatment
benefits, it is time now to take another step toward the
goal of mental health parity. Consequently, I strongly
support the Senator Paul Wellstone Mental Health Equitable
Treatment Act of 2003. This legislation will provide for
equal coverage of mental health benefits with respect to
health insurance coverage unless comparable limitations are
imposed on medical and surgical benefits.
In my work on the Small Business Committee, I was involved
in achieving the landmark goal of assuring that veterans
with disabilities have an opportunity to receive a three
percent share of Federal Contracts. With federal contracts
today worth $250 billion, small businesses owned by
veterans with disabilities have access to $7.5 billion in
business opportunities.
2. If you are elected/re-elected what will be your top
three priorities during your first 100 days in office to
improve the quality of life for people with disabilities
living in the U.S.?
I will offer Americans with disabilities freedom,
independence, and choices. I will appoint a national
bipartisan Community First Commission made up of
distinguished Americans, including people with disabilities
who will identify short and long term policy reforms that
could and should be pursued to:
* Guarantee that all Americans with disabilities who can
live in their community with affordable supports have equal
opportunity to do so regardless of age, disability, state
of residence, employment status, or necessary form of
assistance.
* Create a greater federal role in equitably financing and
enhancing the quality and appropriateness of long-term
services.
* Eliminate the institutional bias in Medicaid and Medicare
that robs millions of Americans of their most basic
freedoms, dignity, and daily independence.
To make our system work and to offer real choices, we must
ensure equal access to quality home and community services
throughout our nation. I will work with the Community First
Commission to determine how we can move MiCASSA forward.
And I will work with states to fully implement the Olmstead
Decision, as well as push Congress to finally pass the
Family Opportunity Act.
I believe we need full mental health parity once and for
all - not just mental health parity for certain benefits or
certain mental health conditions or with unnecessary
loopholes that allow insurers to skirt their
responsibility. I will fight to pass full mental health
parity legislation
I will utilize the skills and wisdom of the disability
community in shaping policy and programs that will benefit
the entire country, and I will seek out qualified people
with disabilities to serve throughout my administration.
Americans with disabilities deserve independence and the
opportunity to be economically self-sufficient. I will
reinstate the executive order by President Bill Clinton to
hire 100,000 qualified individuals with disabilities as
federal employees over five years. I will crack down on
employment discrimination and nominate an Attorney General
for the U.S. Department of Justice and a Chair to the EEOC
who will make enforcement of the ADA a top priority. And I
will promote creative solutions to address the
transportation, technology, and housing needs for
individuals with disabilities.
To ensure that children with disabilities get the free,
high quality education they deserve, I am committed to
fully funding IDEA and working for strong enforcement and
real compliance with the law. And to expand access to
higher education, I will improve transitional planning,
promote access and awareness in disability services,
provide work-study alternatives, and collect data on
students with disabilities to provide a true scientific
understanding of the realities on the ground.
3. What ideas do you have for bringing our four largest
federal programs (Medicaid, Medicare, Supplemental Security
Income, and Social Security Disability Insurance) in line
with the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(equality of opportunity, full participation, independent
living, and economic self-sufficiency)?
We must strengthen and protect Medicaid, not tear it apart.
I am firmly opposed to the Bush administration's proposal
to turn Medicaid into a block grant program. By investing
in Medicaid, we can improve the health and independence of
more than 10 million children, adults, and older Americans
with disabilities throughout our country. No one should be
forced to be in a nursing home or have their most basic
needs go unmet because they live in a state that chooses
not to offer necessary community living services. That is
why I believe that we need to relieve pressures on state
budgets; I have proposed spending $25 billion to help
states struggling to bridge their deficits.
I support strengthening and improving Medicaid in several
key ways. First, I believe that we must pass the Family
Opportunity Act. Currently, low-income families with
severely disabled children receive federal disability
benefits under Supplemental Security Income. However, if
parents seek a better job or earn higher wages, their
disabled children lose Medicaid coverage, which is
essential to providing comprehensive coverage for children
who require complex and often costly care. No parent should
have to turn down a job or give up custody of a child to
ensure that he or she gets health care.
We need to fully implement the Olmstead decision. People
with disabilities and older Americans must receive the
support they need to live in their own homes and
communities. States must be given increased resources and
tools to carry out the Olmstead decision and must be held
accountable for doing so. Americans with disabilities must
be assured equal access to quality home and community
living services.
I will work with the Community First Commission to
determine how we can best implement MiCASSA and the Money
Follows the Person Act. We need to end the institutional
bias that makes it impossible for millions of Americans to
exercise the most basic of human liberties: freedom,
choice, and independence.
I will work toward eliminating the two-year waiting period
to become eligible for Medicare. The federal government has
a critical role to play to assure that workers with
disabilities have the insurance coverage they need to be as
independent and productive as possible. And I will direct
HHS to fund a series of demonstrations aimed at identifying
cost effective ways that best promote the health,
independence and productivity of people with disabilities
and to promote better health care.
I will also work to provide real prescription drug relief
through the Medicare program. My health care plan will
lower prescription drug costs, and ensure that seniors and
people with disabilities on Medicare can choose their
doctors instead of forcing them to join an HMO.
Another important program to millions of Americans with
disabilities is the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives
Improvement Act (TWWIIA). TWWIIA seeks to guarantee
continued access to vital Medicare and Medicaid coverage to
enable individuals with significant disabilities to become
competitively employed under certain conditions.
As a result of this law, about half of the states today
allow employed individuals with disabilities to buy into
Medicaid if their incomes and assets do not exceed certain
limits and meet other criteria set by each state. These
Medicaid buy-in programs vary widely from one state to
another, however, both in regard to the eligibility
requirements they set and the benefits and services they
make available. Moreover, if the current economic downturn
continues, states that currently have these plans in place
may have to cut back or eliminate them all together. In
addition, few other states will be in a position to create
new buy-in programs.
The federal government must play a far greater role in
ensuring that workers with disabilities have the insurance
coverage they need to be as independent and productive as
possible. Regardless of where these individuals live or how
much they are able to earn, they should be able to buy in
to a uniform, national set of benefits designed to do just
this. To help achieve these ends, the Medicare program
should provide for enhanced coverage for employed
individuals with disabilities.
4. What do you see as the most appropriate role for the
federal government to play in the lives of people with
disabilities and their families and what is your reaction
to recent trends limiting the federal role in disability
policy?
Now more than ever people with disabilities of all ages can
live fuller, more productive lives if afforded the right
opportunities and supports. The federal government has a
strong obligation and role to play in ensuring that these
Americans have the same chance to succeed in life as all
other citizens. The government must meet its commitment to
enforce laws that protect the disability community. The
moral imperative is clear.
The federal government must help provide high quality,
accessible and affordable health care and community living
services to people with disabilities. That's why my
Administration will modernize Medicaid and Medicare and
work with states to implement home and community based
services.
My administration also will play a role in enforcing civil
rights laws for people with disabilities. The Department of
Justice and the EEOC will make enforcement of the Americans
with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act a top
priority. And I will ensure that the Offices of Civil
Rights at the Department of Education and the Department of
Health and Human Services provide people with disabilities
the protections they deserve.
We need to have a more focused effort on recruiting and
employing people with disabilities in America. One place we
can start is with a targeted effort in the federal
government. The federal government has massive spending
powers that can and should be used to promote the
employment of individuals with disabilities. I will promote
increasing the goal for small business contracting and
ensuring that business owners with disabilities have equal
status to other minority business owners.
The federal government must meet its obligation to provide
a high quality education to all children with disabilities.
My administration will put us on a path to fully fund IDEA.
But funding must be accompanied by effective enforcement.
As president, I will fight for strong enforcement that
includes measurement and protecting procedural safeguards.
The federal government can also improve the lives of people
with disabilities in the areas of transportation and
technology. Many of the technological advances made through
the work of the Defense Department and NASA are
transferable to people with disabilities, and could enhance
their capacity to work. This technology should be made
available when appropriate for use by people with
disabilities. And the federal government should use its
considerable economic power to encourage and lead private
enterprise in building a more accessible society through
technology. My administration will also ensure that
transportation options are accessible to people with
disabilities.
5. What concrete steps will you take to ensure your
administration and your appointments to the federal bench
and other entities include a representative group of
qualified people with disabilities?
People with disabilities will always have a seat front and
center in my administration. When I am president,
Americans with disabilities will play active roles not only
in policy-making which impacts the disability community,
but also in other areas of domestic policy. I will seek out
the best and brightest to serve in multiple capacities
throughout the government, including in the White House and
on my Community First Commission.
Also, I will reinstate the Executive Order by President
Clinton to hire 100,000 qualified individuals with
disabilities as federal employees over five years. And in a
Kerry administration, the Office of Federal Contracts and
Compliance Programs at the Department of Labor will be held
accountable in ensuring that federal contractors are not
just reaching out to people with disabilities, but hiring
them as well. Goals will be set for the hiring of people
with disabilities similar to the ones set for women and
veterans. The federal government will leverage its
considerable economic power to ensure that private industry
provides employment opportunities to people with
disabilities.
6. What will you do as President to dramatically increase
the percentage of children with disabilities who graduate
from high school and go on to post-secondary education?
If the goal of the disability-rights movement is to create
opportunities for Americans with disabilities equal to
those of their peers without disabilities, then education
is the key that opens those doors. Empowering Americans
with disabilities to be productive, job-holding, tax-paying
citizens is both a moral obligation and an economic win.
First of all, we need mandatory full funding of IDEA. In
1975, Congress made a deal with our state and local school
boards: give children with special learning needs the
education they deserve, and the federal government would
pay 40 percent of the additional cost, no matter what it
takes. Nearly thirty years later, the federal government
has broken that promise. Because of that broken promise,
schools across the country have had to pit special
education programs against one another. Class sizes
increase, after-school activities are cut, and kids with
special learning needs still aren't getting the services
they need.
Regardless of funding, a law will only be as good as its
enforcement. Across the country - in school districts large
and small - this law is not being followed. In many cases,
the good intentions of teachers and principals are
undermined by a lack of understanding of the law. The same
is true for many parents, who often do not know the rights
to which they are entitled. In some cases, school officials
need to be taught that IDEA isn't just a guideline, it's
the law. Exhausted parents cannot and should not bear that
burden. That is why strengthening IDEA enforcement will be
a priority in my administration.
A college education is now a near-universal requirement for
professional employment. Unfortunately, that level of
independence is still but a dream for many of our youth
with disabilities who continue to face significant barriers
to higher education. I am committed to equipping the next
generation of students with disabilities with the tools to
succeed.
First, I will improve transitional planning. As with other
at-risk youth, early outreach programs can be enormously
successful in affecting positive change. Yet despite the
mandate for such services under IDEA, transitional-planning
programs seem to be an early casualty of non-compliance. I
will further leverage Department of Education resources to
create and advertise a single national resource for
transitional planning assistance.
Making sense of the web of college financial assistance
programs is a difficult task. When disability-assistance
services are added to the mix, the task becomes
overwhelming. We must better coordinate vocational
rehabilitation, SSI, and federal student aid services in a
way that is meaningful for students, not bureaucrats.
We need to provide work-study alternatives. Lacking neither
in work ethic nor financial need, many students with
disabilities are physically incapable of utilizing work-
study programs. Such assistance can mean the difference
between attending college and staying home. It is in all of
our best interests to ensure fair alternatives.
Finally, even today, we rely primarily on anecdotal
information when discussing disability issues in higher
education. We lack a true scientific understanding of the
realities on the ground. That must change if we are to
adequately plan for the future. Policies can only be
effective so long as they are practical. As president, I
will direct the Secretary of Education to solicit
disability status and accommodation-cost data so we can arm
ourselves with the tools to take meaningful action.
7. What will your administration do to improve the
accessibility of mainstream technologies and access to
assistive technologies for people with disabilities?
Technology must be harnessed effectively to empower people,
particularly those who are often the least empowered in our
society. I will work to make electronic information and
technology truly accessible.
Many of the technological advances made through the work of
the Defense Department and NASA are transferable to people
with disabilities, and could enhance their capacity to
work. This technology should and will be made available
when appropriate for use by people with disabilities.
New technology is often costly, as the first people to use
the technology are underwriting a large proportion of the
development costs. The problem is that the persons most in
need of the liberation that technology provides are often
the least able to afford it. I will direct federal agencies
to assess how their resources have been allocated to assist
people with disabilities, and work on promoting a goal to
increase targets across the board. I want our government to
help cultivate new, cutting-edge technology.
People who need assistive technology are often confronted
with a bewildering array of potential funding sources that
are difficult to sort out. I will assemble an
intergovernmental team to review current programs which pay
for assistive technology and direct them to develop a plan
of cooperation. The plan would investigate the potential of
pooling various federal funds to create a single funding
mechanism.
8. How will you work with disability advocates and Congress
to draft and promote legislation to restore civil rights
protections for qualified disabled individuals who have
been left out by U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreting
the ADA, especially in the area of employment?
The Americans with Disabilities Act is the most important
civil rights law for persons with disabilities. It is vital
that we enforce the law and that we fight recent judicial
and legislative actions to weaken it. First of all, I will
nominate judges whom I believe will enforce and uphold our
civil rights laws to ensure the protections promised under
its enactment. I will work with Congress and the disability
community to pass legislation that restores civil rights
protections to individuals with disabilities who have been
harmed by court decisions restricting the scope of the
protected class under ADA. I will also nominate an attorney
general and an EEOC chair who will make enforcement of the
ADA a top priority.
# # #
=====================
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