Opinon: Disability No Excuse to Deprive Person of Civil Rights

Post from Susan Mizner, Director of Disability Rights Project of the ACLU.

The guardianship system in this country raises serious concerns. That's why the guardianship trial of Jenny Hatch, a vibrant and active 29-year-old in a battle over who controls her life, struck such a chord. Jenny spoke for many other

Jenny Hatch

people with disabilities when she said clearly in her trial: "I don't need guardianship. I don't want it."

For One Parent, Fear is Part of Daily Routine

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The topic is fear, and Nila Benito is a reluctant expert.
Fear of today. Fear of tomorrow. Of meals not eaten, and dangers not seen. Of lives not lived to their fullest, and of all of the complications in between.
Mostly, fear of the anguish seen this week in another mother's eyes.

Campaigns to Address Disability Issues

From Huffington Post, an item by Liane Kupferberg Carter, a columnist for Autism After 16.

Remember that saying from the 1970s, that the personal is political?
As the parent of an autistic 20-year-old son, I know what my own family is struggling with. The need for employment. Housing. Health care. Insurance. Long-term community-based services and supports. Education. Transportation. Research. Improving the quality of life for autistic children and adults is my top priority.

'Not Throwaway People'

BURLINGTON, Iowa -- Ginnie Hager might fall through the cracks.
For the past four years, Hager, 33, has lived at the Walton Group Home, a residential care facility in Burlington overseen by the nonprofit group Hope Haven. She lives there with 11 other clients, all of whom have a variety of disabilities.
Since Hager was a baby, she has suffered from epileptic seizures. Last week, she had one that lasted 10 minutes. There have been times when she has woken up on the floor with black eyes and no memory of the convulsions that came before.
Functional, but unable to drive or perform other tasks due to her disorder, Hager requires near 24-hour care because a violent seizure can take hold of her body at any moment.
She gets that care at the Walton Group Home, along with a job at Goodwill and a healthy social life that might not otherwise be available to her.
By the end of September, that might be taken away.

Special Education Change Is Pushed in N.Y.

The type of clothing worn in a family's home, the language spoken and other cultural markers could influence whether special-education students receive taxpayer-funded private-school tuition, under a bill passed last month by the New York state Legislature.
Education officials would have to consider a student's "home environment and family background" when deciding the best setting for special-education children under the bill. Currently, decisions about private-school placement have generally been based on academics and the child's disability.