From the Tampa Tribune:

A Florida program of community-based care aimed at keeping people with disabilities out of institutions faces severe budget cuts, threatening to increase institutionalization.

Families say the budget cuts could reduce payments to half of the amount from the previous year and force them to put their family members with a disability into a group home. They say that turning to institutionalization could reverse years of progress and that people with disabilities would lose independence, employment income, consistency, security, and motivation. Moreover, the state would be required to pay more for institutions, and those who currently provide services for home-based care could lose their jobs and businesses.

See also: Budget cuts hurt the disabled and their families from the Salt Lake Tribune.

The Utah legislature plans to cut an array of disability programs from the state budget, including workshops intended to provide guidance to families who continue to wait on a list for support services.

… Obama has substantive plans for all people with disabilities

Writing in huffingtonpost.com, Paul K. Longmore says presidential campaign coverage has included a lot of talk about “special needs” children, thanks to Sarah Palin, but little about the issues that concern the 54 million Americans with disabilities of all ages.

Longmore compares the stances of the McCain-Palin ticket and the Obama-Biden ticket on healthcare, health insurance and social services for people with disabilities. An excerpt:

Even though 90 percent of the 54 million Americans with disabilities are adults, Palin, John McCain, and the news media have talked almost exclusively about children. And that talk has been mostly about “compassion” not “issues.” The McCain-Palin campaign website has a single page on “Americans with Disabilities for McCain,” but it says nothing about policy positions. Other pages mention autism and disabled veterans but no other issues.

In contrast, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have said little on the campaign trail about disability issues but their campaign website provides detailed policy proposals in a comprehensive “Plan to Empower Americans with Disabilities.”

Paul K. Longmore is a professor of history and director, Institute on Disability, at San Francisco State University. His “Open letter to the disability rights constituency” appeared exclusively on this site last month.

From the Des Moines Register:

Cy Arnett and three other men with intellectual disabilities rock out at a karaoke bar in Des Moines each week. Between performances, they live in a group home.

Bar owner Billy Bryant said at first some of the regulars at Billy Joe’s Pitcher Show didn’t understand the “Greased Lightning boys,” as they’re called. “To be honest, it was a little disturbing for them,” he said.

He moved the crew to Sundays, where there were fewer customers, and thought he’d only  let them stay until the big audiences came back for football season. But then … an excerpt:

… Bryant watched as the boys and their followers grew. He soon realized what the day means to them. They dress up, celebrate birthdays, and look forward to Sunday all week.

… He decided the boys could stay.

“I didn’t have the heart to turn them down,” he said. “There’s no place else for these kids to go.”

(Travis Leach, left, Cyron Arnett and Steven Jenkins rock out during karaoke at Billy Joe’s Pitcher Show in West Des Moines; Des Moines Register photo)

From the [Portland] Oregonian:

Oregon legislator Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, says families of people with disabilities struggle every day to keep their heads above water and hold their families together. “They deserve more than Sarah Palin’s empty words, and should not be exploited as pawns in the presidential election,” she says. An excerpt:

Being the parent of a child with Down syndrome does not ensure that Palin will be an effective advocate for people with disabilities, any more than Dick Cheney being the parent of a lesbian daughter has made him an effective advocate for equality. In fact, a McCain/Palin administration will likely set back the cause of people with disabilities to achieve dignity, independence, health and full employment.

… To families of kids with special needs, I have a message: Please look carefully at what candidates up and down the ticket will actually do for your children. Demand more than words and promises. Ask for plans, and see if they match your vision for your child’s future.

Grelser is the mother of a teenager with developmental disabilities.

Editors at the Baltimore Sun say families of children with disabilities have reason to be doubtful about Gov. Sarah Palin’s pledge to be their “friend and advocate.”

What they need, first and foremost, is for politicians to put money where their mouth is — starting with support services and related community-based programs. Advocates estimate there are about 600,000 people nationwide on waiting lists for such benefits as job coaching, vocational rehabilitation, personnel assistants and respite care for exhausted caregivers.

… The candidates’ views on these matters are reflected on their Web sites. Mr. Obama’s includes a nine-page treatise on his plans to help the disabled, including full funding for special education. Mr. McCain’s 14 core campaign issues include the Second Amendment and the space program but not the disabled.

Mr. McCain still has time to come around on these issues and offer specific remedies in the weeks ahead. Having a poster mom for families caring for a disabled child on the ticket is not enough — particularly for aging seniors who can no longer care for middle-aged children. Friendship is nice, but families need a government willing to invest more in the future of children who require a little help if they are to live full and productive lives.

Woman with Down syndrome inspires families in Washington state – KNDO/KNDU-TV, Yakima, Washington — Karen Gaffney (left) speaks out about her experiences earning a regular high school diploma and a degree from Portland Community College, swimming across Lake Tahoe, and participating in a relay team that swam the English Channel. Says Gaffney:

“I’ve changed all that data.  I’ve changed their doubts. I have improved and inspired so many lives, spread my messages of being fully included in a regular classroom setting.”

Link to video here; earlier video of Karen Gaffney on the NBC Today show here.

People with Down syndrome live fully — letter to the Sacramento Bee from Elaine Linn. An excerpt:

People with Down syndrome go to school, work, have meaningful relationships, make decisions about their lives and live independently. They become dedicated employees and loyal friends.

… There’s something terribly wrong with a society that purportedly values diversity yet places a distinct lack of value on people who aren’t “perfect.” I don’t know one perfect person and it’s hard to understand this willing acceptance of terminating pregnancies based on inaccurate information about potential “imperfections.” Yet it exists 90 percent of the time with Down syndrome.

Avoid Tropic Thunder, a cruel comedy — by Eric Johnson in the Grand Forks, ND, Herald

The fact is that even among the various species of hate speech, ridicule of those with retardation is unique in its brutishness. Unlike racial minorities, religious adherents or the physically disabled, those with developmental disabilities cannot well defend themselves with wit and well-crafted retorts. That’s why the arguments of Downey and Black — that everyone has the right to say whatever they want — are especially hollow.

New system for developmentally disabled is needed — Sheila Romano in the Springfield, IL, Journal Register (institutionalization, housing)

Taking the fear out of difference — Baltimore Sun (education, attitudes)

(more…)

AP/Washington Post:

Medicaid recipients in Florida say the state is illegally forcing them to live in nursing homes rather than allowing them to live in the community where they choose.

Advocates charge that politicians have bowed to pressure by nursing home interests, and have written regulations that make it difficult for people to qualify for community care. They are pressing litigation on behalf of nearly 8,500 state residents who live in institutions.

The litigation has

… illuminated the frustration experienced by older people or those with disabilities who say they’re shuttled into nursing homes when they are healthy enough to live at home, with relatives, or in other less institutional settings.

“There are very, very, very few people who cannot be cared for outside in the community,” said Stephen Gold, a Philadelphia disability lawyer who, along with AARP attorneys and others, is representing the group. “Why should the state give a damn whether you put the money in the left pocket of the nursing home or the right pocket of the community?”