Geraldo Rivera, host of the Fox network’s “Geraldo at Large,” says he will present a one-hour news special in January documenting the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Americans with disabilities who languish on waiting lists for government services, unable to receive the help to which they are entitled.

Speaking at the Arc’s national convention, Rivera asked people to come forward immediately with video and stories to demonstrate the challenges they face.

It is currently estimated that between 300,000 and 400,000 Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities are eligible for services such as in-home personal assistance and job training, but are not getting help because their states have failed to fund those programs adequately. Voters in Colorado last week turned down Amendment 51, which would have eliminated the state’s waiting list by increasing the sales tax by a fraction of a percent.

As a young reporter, Rivera won a Peabody award in 1972 for a documentary that documented rampant abuse and neglect at the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York. His reports led to government investigations of the institution, which was eventually shut down. (Footage here.)

Editors of the Denver Post say it’s time for state lawmakers to find a way to care for Colorado children and adults with disabilities who remain “tragically underserved.” State voters last week rejected Amendment 51, a measure that would have raised the state sales tax by 0.2 percent to pay for “services that should be available now to 10,000 children and adults on a years-long waiting list for help.”

An excerpt:

We did not endorse Amendment 51, largely because we think the general budget should serve the disabled and not a special, earmarked tax raised during uncertain and difficult economic times.

So, now is the time to start fighting for that money.

… As we said in advance of Election Day, it is a disgrace that our budget for the developmentally disabled and their families excludes nearly half the disabled population

From the Washington Post:

As people with Down syndrome live longer, healthier lives, their parents are working with greater urgency to try to help them achieve independence. Adult services, like supervisory programs and group homes, are scarce. An excerpt:

“It’s a huge problem, and it’s not just a problem involving Down syndrome but for all people who have an intellectual disability,” said Peter V. Berns, executive director of the Arc of the United States, whose headquarters is in Silver Spring. “There’s a serious crisis brewing. There are actually huge waiting lists for services across the United States.”

In 2006, 61 percent of people with an intellectual disability were living with their families, and more than 700,000 of them were living with parents or family members who were older than 60, Berns said.

“The reality is that the services are not available to take care of these people in the event that their family member either becomes sick or passes away,” Berns said. “In a sense, their very freedom is at stake.”

(Washington Post photo. Jennifer Holden, 20, who has Down syndrome and is a sophomore in George Mason University’s LIFE Program, takes a field trip with her class.)

From AP/CNN:

All but 11 states have laws limiting voting rights on the basis of competence, denying people voting rights for reasons like intellectual disabilities and mental illness. Advocates are working to help people exercise their rights, but say laws are vague and open to interpretation by the courts.

Others worry that unscrupulous outsiders will attempt to coerce or improperly claim the votes of vulnerable people.

Members of both parties often accuse opponents of trolling for votes in hospitals and nursing homes, notorious places for voter fraud. A former Pennsylvania congressman was convicted in 1998 of filling out absentee ballots in the names of nursing home residents, and similar accusations often surface at the local level.

Voter eligibility is crucial for this population, advocates say, because people with disabilities rely on the government for services.  “It’s very frustrating to see situations where they’re barred from voting on issues that have such an impact on their life,” said Jennifer Mathis, deputy legal director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

Related stories here and here and here.

From the Steamboat Pilot [Steamboat Springs, CO]/Rocky Mountain News:

Voters spooked by a sluggish economy soundly rejected a measure aimed at removing thousands of Coloradans with developmental disabilities from the waiting lists for state assistance.

What was touted as this election year’s feel-good measure was defeated by Colorado voters by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio.

… “The economy was the issue,” said Marjio Rymer of ARC of Colorado and chairwoman of the coalition to End the Developmental Disability Wait List. “We couldn’t have predicted the fall of the world economy, but we will be back.”

Amendment 51 would have increased the state sales tax by 2 cents on every $10 to fund services for the developmentally disabled.

County by county results, with 86 percent reporting, from the Denver Post here.

Will challenge son’s vote

From the Durham Herald Sun (registration required):

The mother of a man with intellectual disabilities in North Carolina claims an employee of a Durham group home committed voter fraud by taking her 28-year-old son to an early-voting site and telling him how to mark his ballot.

Eileen Murphy said she is planning to challenge her son’s vote, but will not pursue criminal charges. Her son, Adam Folsom, has velo-cardio-facial syndrome and reads at a third-grade level.

Murphy said she had told the group home that she did not want her son to vote. She said her son told her a group home worker had gone with him into the voting booth and told him where to mark his ballot. “They took advantage of him and had him vote the way they wanted him to vote,” she said.

Don Wright, general counsel for the N.C. Board of Elections, said Folsom and others like him are allowed to vote. “There’s no mental capacity requirement for voters or office holders,” he said.

From the Detroit News:

Micah Fialka-Feldman will present petitions with 1,000 signatures to the board of trustees of Michigan’s Oakland University this week, formally requesting permission to live in the school’s dorm. Oakland has previously said that Fialka-Feldman, who participates in an on-campus program for people with cognitive disabilities, can’t live in the dorm because he is not a student.

“He’s more of a student than a lot of other students here,” said Steve Clark, 22, president of the student body, who will speak on Fialka-Feldman’s behalf Wednesday. “I think the essence of student government is to stick up for students. Legally he may not be a student, but in every other realm he is.”

Earlier post here.