A Future without Segregation
Can we realize a future where people with disabilities get the help they need without being segregated in a classroom, work facility, or group living?
Can we realize a future where people with disabilities get the help they need without being segregated in a classroom, work facility, or group living?
1. Fear of Change There is a big, obsolete, but functioning service structure out there, with people in jobs, agencies owning buildings, policies about how to get in and out of them, and billions of dollars to make it work. It's a giant game of mousetrap, easily able to fail when one part breaks, [...]
Controversy continues regarding efforts around the country to close large state-run institutions for people with developmental disabilities. Many of these recent closure announcements have more to do with excessive costs (which are absurdly high) in tough budget times, combined with an ongoing inability to end serious abuse and neglect, as reported in the media [...]
Numerous recent comments sent to the US Administration on Developmental Disabilities from the "Voice of the Retarded" have centered on maintaining a range of choice as the main argument against the desegregation of institutions into the community. See (http://www.envision2010.net/others.php) Institutional and sheltered work advocates have long relied on the "choice" argument to support their views. [...]
Five individuals with physical disabilities living in nursing homes have sued Illinois state officials for unnecessary institutionalization as discrimination under the ADA. The lawsuit seeks an order permitting people with disabilities in Cook County, IL, to access services in their own homes or in community-based settings rather than nursing homes. The class-action lawsuit charges that [...]
My apologies to my readers for the gap in posting. Since the release of my book, Raymond's Room, and with the end of the fiscal year, I have been very busy. Right now I am in Kansas, having just arrived from Iowa, where I presented at a statewide Case Management Conference.I spoke to numerous Iowa [...]