1970 - The Physically Disabled Students Program (PDSP) is founded by Ed Roberts, John Hessler, Hale Zukas, and others at the University of California at Berkeley. With its provisions for community living, political advocacy, and personal assistance services, it becomes the nucleus for the first Center for Independent Living, founded two years later. In a communication to Gini Laurie in 1970, Ed stated the following,

“I have begun a consultation business for anyone needing help with problems with cripples. I've consulted with Health Education in Washington, DC, about programs for cripples in higher education, help secured $80,000 grant for UC Berkeley program run by cripples for the education of cripples. I brought John Hessler in as director. He is doing a magnificent job. Would you like to hear more? I believe no other consulting firm like this in the country.”

He continued,

 I'm tired of well-meaning cripples with their stereotypes of what I can and cannot do directing my life and my future. I want cripples to direct their own programs and to be able to train other cripples to direct new programs. This is the start of something big -- cripple power.” -Ed

Ed Roberts was starting a self-help movement that would radicalize how people with disabilities perceived themselves. He did it for himself and then began laying the groundwork for the rest of us. Independence and rehabilitation have not been the same since, and will never return to the archaic notions which perceived people with disabilities as passive recipients of charity, unable to self-direct their lives.

Ed Roberts & John Hessler                                              Ed Roberts & Judy Heumann

Disabled in Action is founded in New York City by Judith Heumann, after her successful employment discrimination suit against the city’s public school system. With chapters in several other cities, it organizes demonstrations and files litigation on behalf of disability rights.

1971 - The National Center for Law and the Handicapped is founded at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, becoming the first legal advocacy center for people with disabilities in the United States.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama hands down its first decision in Wyatt v. Stickney, ruling that people in residential state schools and institutions have a constitutional right “to receive such individual treatment as (would) give them a realistic opportunity to be cured or to improve his or her mental condition.” Disabled people can no longer simply be locked away in “custodial institutions” without treatment or education. This decision is a crucial victory in the struggle for deinstitutionalization.

1972 - The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in Mills v. Board of Education, rules that the District of Columbia cannot exclude disabled children from the public schools. Similarly, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in PARC v. Pennsylvania, strikes down various state laws used to exclude disabled children from the public schools. These decisions will be cited by advocates during the public hearings leading to passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. PARC in particular sparks numerous other right-to-education lawsuits and inspires advocates to look to the courts for the expansion of disability rights.

The Center for Independent Living (CIL) is founded in Berkeley, California. Generally recognized as the world’s first independent living center, the CIL sparks the worldwide independent living movement.

Passage of the Social Security Amendments of 1972 creates the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. The law relieves families of the financial responsibility of caring for their adult disabled children. It consolidates existing federal programs for people who are disabled but not eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance.

1973 - The Network Against Psychiatric Assault is organized in San Francisco. The parents of residents at the Willow Brook State School in Staten Island, New York file suit (New York ARC v. Rockefeller) to end the appalling conditions at that institution. A television broadcast from the facility outrages the general public, which sees the inhumane treatment endured by people with developmental disabilities. This press exposure, together with the lawsuit and other advocacy, eventually moves thousands of people from the institution into community-based living arrangements.

Demonstrations are held by disabled activists in Washington, D.C., to protest the veto of what will become the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by President Richard M. Nixon. Among those organizing demonstrations in Washington and elsewhere are Disabled in Action, Paralyzed Veterans of America, the National Paraplegia Foundation, and other groups.

1974 - Halderman v. Pennhurst is filed in Pennsylvania on behalf of the residents of the Pennhurst State School & Hospital. The case, highlighting the horrific conditions at state “schools” for people with mental retardation, becomes an important precedent in the battle for deinstitutionalization, establishing a right to community services for people with developmental disabilities.

The first convention of People First is held in Salem, Oregon. People First become the largest U.S. organization composed of and led by people with cognitive disabilities.

1975 - Congress passes the Developmentally Disabled Assistance and Bill of Rights Act, providing federal funds to programs serving people with developmental disabilities and outlining a series of rights for those who are institutionalized. The lack of an enforcement mechanism within the bill and subsequent court decisions, will, however, render this portion of the act virtually useless to disability rights advocates.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Pub. Law 94-142) is passed, establishing the right of children with disabilities to a public school education in an integrated environment. The act is a cornerstone of federal disability rights legislation. In the next two decades, millions of disabled children will be educated under its provisions, radically changing the lives of people in the disability community.

The Atlantis Community is founded in Denver as a group-housing program for severely disabled adults who, until that time, had been forced to live in nursing homes. Atlantis will later for the American Disabled for Accessible Public Transportation (ADAPT), an organization focused on public demonstrations and civil disobedience to create the political will to change.

Edward Roberts becomes the Director of the California Department of Rehabilitation. He moves to establish nine independent living centers across that state, based on the model of the original Center for Independent Living in Berkeley. The success of these centers demonstrates that independent living can be replicated and eventually results in the founding of hundreds of independent living centers all over the world.

This is a faded color photograph showing a flat suburban neighborhood street. It is quiet and deserted. There is no sidewalk but a slightly worn grassy footpath edges the side of the street. A flat area of close-cut grass extends out from the curb along the street. There is a street light on a high pole. In the background rises a two-story brick building and two white houses with big trees in the front yards. TV aerials are visible on rooftops in the distance. A car is just rounding the corner at the far end of the street and headed this way, perhaps into a parking lot or down another street. There is a white metal sign with black letters placed at the curb that reads: "No Wheel Chairs Beyond this Point."

1977 - Disability rights activists in ten cities stage demonstrations and occupations of the offices of the federal department of Health Education and Welfare (HEW) to force the Carter Administration to issue regulations implementation Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The demonstrations galvanize the disability community nationwide, particularly the San Francisco action, which lasts nearly a month. On 28 April, HEW Secretary Joseph Califano finally signs the regulations.

The U.S. Court of appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Lloyd V. Regional Transportation authority, rules that individuals have a right to sue under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and that public transit authorities must provide accessible service. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in Snowden v. Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority, undermines this decision by ruling that authorities need to provide access only to “handicapped persons other than those confined to wheelchairs.”

1978 - Disability rights activism in Denver stage a sit-in demonstration, blocking several Denver Regional Transit Authority buses, to protest the complete inaccessibility of that city’s mass transit system. The demonstration is organized by the Atlantis Community and is the first action in what will be a yearlong civil disobedience campaign to force the Denver Transit Authority to purchase wheelchair lift-equipped buses.

Title VII of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1978 establishes the first federal funding for independent living and creates the National Council of the Handicapped under the U.S. Department of Education.

1979 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in Southeastern Community College v. Davis, rules that, under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, programs receiving federal funds must make “reasonable modifications” to enable the participation of otherwise qualified disabled individuals. This decision is the Court’s first ruling on Section 504, and it establishes reasonable modification as an important principle in disability rights law.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is founded in Madison, Wisconsin, by parents of persons with mental illness.

1980 - Congress passes the Social Security Amendments, with Section 1619 designed to address work disincentives within the Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs. Other provisions mandate a review of Social Security recipients, leading to the termination of benefits of hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities.

1981 - Congress passes the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, authorizing the U.S. Justice Department to file civil suits on behalf of residents of institutions whose rights are being violated. In an editorial in the New York Timer, Evan Kemp Jr. attacks the Jerry Lewis National Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, writing that “the very human desire for cures can never justify a television show that reinforces a stigma against disabled people.”

1981-1983 - The newly elected Reagan Administration threatens to amend or revoke regulations implementing Section 504 1983 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Disability rights advocates, led by Patrisha Wright at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) and Evan Kemp, Jr. at the Disability Rights Center, respond with an intensive lobbying effort and a grassroots campaign that generates more than 40,000 cards and letters. After three years, the Reagan Administration abandons its attempts to revoke or amend the regulations.

1981-1984 - The Reagan Administration terminates the Social Security benefits of hundreds of thousands of disabled recipients. Advocates charge that these terminations are an effort to reduce the federal budget and often do not reflect any improvement in the condition of those being terminated. A variety of groups, including the Alliance of Social Security Disability Recipients and the Ad Hoc Committee on Social Security Disability, spring up to fight these terminations. Several disabled people, in despair over the loss of their benefits, commit suicide.

The parents of “Baby Doe” in Bloomington, Indiana, are advised by their doctors to deny a surgical procedure to unblock their newborn’s esophagus, because the baby has Down Syndrome. Although disability rights activists try to intervene, Baby Doe starves to death before legal action can be taken. The case prompts the Reagan Administration to issue regulations calling for the creation of “Baby Doe squads” to safeguard the civil rights of disabled newborns.

1983 - American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) is organized at the Atlantis Community Headquarters in Denver, Colorado. For the next seven years ADAPT conducts a civil disobedience campaign against the American Public Transit Association (APTA) and various local public transit authorities to protest the lack of accessible public transportation.

1984 - The Baby Jane Doe case, like the 1982 Bloomington Baby Doe case, involves an infant being denied needed medical care because of her disability. The case results in litigation argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in Bowen v. American Hospital Association, and in the passage of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Amendments of 1984.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules, in Irving Independent School District v. Tatro, that school districts are required under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 to provide intermittent catheterization, performed by the school nurse or a nurse’s aide, as a “related service” to a disabled student. School districts can no longer refuse to educate a disabled child because they might need such a service.

Congress passes the Social Security Disability Reform Act in response to the complaints of hundreds of thousands of people whose Social Security disability benefits have been terminated. The law requires that payment of benefits and health insurance coverage continue for terminated recipients until they have exhausted their appeals and that decisions by the Social Security Administration to terminate benefits are made only on the basis of “the weight of the evidence” in a particular recipient’s case.

The Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act mandates that polling places be accessible or that ways be found to enable elderly and disabled people to exercise their right to vote. Advocates find that the act is difficult, if not impossible, to enforce.

1985 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules, in Burlington School Committee v. Department of Education, that schools must pay the expenses of disabled children enrolled in private programs during litigation under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, if the courts rule such placement is needed to provide the child with an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules, City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, that localities cannot use zoning laws to prohibit group homes for people with developmental disabilities from opening in a residential area sole because its residents are disabled.

1986 - The Air Carrier Access Act is passed, prohibiting airlines from refusing to serve people simply because they are disabled, and from charging them more for airfare than non-disabled travelers.

The National Council on the Handicapped issued Toward Independence, a report outlining the legal status of Americans with disabilities, documenting the existence of discriminating and citing the need for federal civil rights legislation (what will eventually be passed as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).

The Employment Opportunities for Disabled Americans Act is passed, allowing recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance to retain benefits, particularly medical coverage, even after they obtain work. The act is intended to remove the disincentives that keep disabled people unemployed.

The Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act is passed, setting up protection and advocacy agencies for people who are in-patients or residents of mental health facilities. Protection and advocacy for persons with mental illness (PAIMI) was included as a funded program for the organizations that had been assigned the PADD agencies in each state.

1987 - The US. Supreme Court, in School Board of Nassau County, Fla. v. Airline, outlines the rights of people with contagious disease under Title V of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It establishes that people with infectious; diseases cannot be fired from their jobs “because of prejudiced attitude or ignorance of others.” This ruling is a landmark precedent for people with tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and other infectious diseases or disabilities, and for people, such as individuals with cancer or epilepsy, who are discriminated against because others fear they may be contagious.

1988 - Students and alumni of Gallaudet University defied their board of trustees to force the hiring of a deaf person as president. Previously, the liberal arts school for deaf students, founded in 1864, had always selected a hearing president. Many felt the time had come for a deaf person to be appointed to this prominent position. Demonstrating students shut down the campus for a week before winning their demands. The "Deaf President Now" campaign strengthened the position of other activists then negotiating the Americans with Disabilities Act in Congress.

On March 13, 1988, the Gallaudet administration announces that I. King Jordan will be the university’s first deaf president. The Technology-Related Assistance Act for Individuals with Disabilities (the “Tech Act” is passed, authorizing federal funding for state projects designed to facilitate access to assistive technology.

The Fair Housing Amendments Act adds people with disabilities to those groups protected by federal fair housing legislation, and it establishes minimum standards of an adaptability for newly constructed multiple-dwelling housing.

The National Council on the Handicapped issues On the Threshold of Independence and a first draft of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which is introduced into Congress by Rep. Tony Coelho and into the Senate by Sen. Lowell Weicker.

The Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities is created by Rep. Major R. Owens and co-chaired by Justine Dart Jr. and Elizabeth Boggs. The task force begins building grassroots; support for passage of the ADA. Justin Dart would later be sitting next to President George Bush when he signs the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. Justin was often seen on the front line of the disability rights struggle. He was a man of great means. He founded and was chief executive of Japan Tupperware Inc. His father, the late Justin Dart, was a California industrialist and close friend of President Reagan. Congress overturns President Ronald Reagan’s veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987. The act undoes the Supreme Court decision in Grove City College v. Bell and other decisions limiting the scope of federal civil rights law, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Honig v. Doe, affirms the “stay put rule” established under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, under which school authorities cannot expel or suspend or otherwise move disabled children from the setting agreed upon the child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) without a due process hearing.

1989 - The federal appeals court, in ADAPT v. Skinner, rules that federal regulations requiring that transit authorities spend only 3 percent of their budgets on access are arbitrary and discriminatory.

The original version of the American with Disabilities Act, introduced into Congress the previous year, is redrafted and reintroduced. Disability organizations across the country advocate on its behalf with Patrisha Wright as “general” and Marilyn Golden, Liz Savage, Justin Dart Jr., and Elizabeth Boggs as principal coordinators or this effort.

The President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped is renamed the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

1990 - The Wheels of Justice campaign in Washington, D.C., organized by American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT), brings hundreds of disabled people to the nation’s capital in support of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADAPT) activists occupy the Capitol rotunda, and are arrested when they refuse to leave.

The Americans with Disabilities Act is signed into law by President George Bush on 26 July in a ceremony on the White House lawn witnessed by thousands of disability rights activists. The law is the most sweeping disability rights legislation in history, for the first time bringing full legal citizenship to Americans with disabilities. It mandates that local, state, and federal governments and programs be accessible, that businesses with more than 15 employees make “reasonable accommodations” for disabled workers, that public accommodations such as restaurants and stores make “reasonable modifications” to ensure access for disabled members of the public. The act also mandates access to public transportation, communication, and in other areas of public life.

With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) changes its focus to advocating for personal assistance services and changes its name to American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act is amended and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities; Education Act (IDEA).

1991 – The Kansas Mental Health Reform Act is signed into law by Governor Mike Hayden. This law sets up and formalizes a statewide network of community mental health centers, to ensure that those with mental health needs can be served in the community, helping to better avoid stays in state psychiatric hospitals.

Jerry’s Orphans stages its first annual picket of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon.

The final federal appeals court ruling in Holland v. Sacramento City Unified School District affirms the right of disabled children to attend public school classes with non-disabled children. The ruling is a major victory in the ongoing effort to ensure enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

1995 - Justice for All is founded in Washington, D.C.

The U.S Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Helen L. v. Snider, rules that the continued publicly funded institutionalization of a disabled Pennsylvania woman in a nursing home, when not medically necessary, and where the state of Pennsylvania could offer her the option of home care, is a violation of her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Disability rights advocates hail this ruling as a landmark decision regarding the rights of people in nursing homes to personal assistance services, allowing them to live at home.

1996 - Congress passes legislation eliminating more than 150,000 disabled children from the Social Security rolls, as well as individuals who are alcohol or drug dependent. Kansas passes the Developmental Disabilities Reform Act, formalizing the structure to strengthen and better ensure that long-term care is provided in community-based settings instead of institutions.

Sandra Jensen, a member of People First, is denied a heart-lung transplant by the Stanford University School of Medicine because she has Down Syndrome. After pressure from disability rights activists, administrators there reverse their decision, and in January 1996, Jensen becomes the first person with Down Syndrome to receive a heart-lung transplant.

Not Dead Yet is formed by disabled advocates to oppose Jack Kevorkian and the proponents of assisted suicide for people with disabilities. The Supreme Court agrees to hear several right-todie cases, and disability rights advocates redouble their efforts to prevent a resurgence of “euthanasia” and “mercy killing” as practiced by the Nazis against disabled people during World War II. Of particular concern are called for the “rationing” of health care to people with severe disabilities and the imposition of “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) orders for disabled people in hospitals, schools, and nursing homes.

1997 - The IDEA reauthorization that took place in 1997 expanded the responsibilities for schools to involve and solicit the input of parents, it increased the due process rights of parents related to disciplinary actions taken against children with disabilities, and it substantially strengthened the requirements for education in the least restrictive environment (LRE). “Appendix A” was designed to communicate the LRE means that it is presumed the general education classroom is the true least restrictive educational setting, and that auxiliary aids and services are to be provided that empower every student to remain in that “placement.” Today, if a school attempts to remove a student from the general education classroom to a setting that is 25% or more restrictive they must follow certain procedures involving the parent in the decision making, etc.

Topeka State Hospital is officially closed. However, the Hospital’s cemetery is a reminder of the thousands of individuals who resided in the facility during its more than 100-year history. The cemetery hosts the unmarked burial sites for more than 1100 residents who died during their stay. Fewer than ten plots have any kind of marker.

1998 - Bragdon v. Abbott: This case is important because the Court recognized HIV to be a disability under the ADA. The Court found that a person with HIV does have a disability because they are restricted in the major life activity of procreation.

1999 - Olmstead v. L.C. and E.W: This Supreme Court case that determined that forced institutionalization is discrimination. Olmstead requires that Medicaid services, e.g., long-term care, must be provided in the most inclusive/integrated setting. In other words, people who are eligible for long-term care cannot be forced into nursing homes, group homes or other institutions. The state must provide community-based options.

Murphy vs. UPS: This ADA employment case was a setback for people with disabilities protections from discrimination. Murphy was terminated from his position because of hypertension. The court found that that Mr. Murphy was not “disabled” under the definition in the ADA because his condition was controlled by medication. Therefore, his claim of discrimination on the basis of disability was denied. Essentially, the court re-defined disability to not only include the persons impairment, but that the impairment must be evaluated in its mitigated state. In other words, if you have a disability which by itself falls into the ADA’s definition of disability, but you use technology, medication, or some other mitigating treatment that eliminates the effect of the disability on the person’s ability to function, you are no longer considered an individual with a disability under the law.

Activists who oppose euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide created this pin in 1999. T4, short for the address Tiergarten 4, was a Nazi work group of psychiatrists and physicians. During World War II, they were in charge of the killing of more than 100,000 people with disabilities. Life with a disability often has been perceived as not worth living. As recently as 1983, fifteen states still had laws that required the sterilization of people with disabilities.

2001 – UAB vs. Garnett: this Supreme Court case resulted in an expansion of state’s rights of Sovereign Immunity under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The Court said that a state cannot be sued by its employees for any action that it takes. Those case severely restricts state employees due process rights under the ADA and other civil rights laws.

Help America Vote Act: A response the problems encountered in Florida during the 2000 General Election, HAVA again ensures people with disabilities equal access to the election process. Lack of understanding of the laws requiring access is widespread not only in Kansas but also around the country. Here is just one example of how voters with disabilities have been relegated to a separate and unequal system.

Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Post-Gazette, Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Access to polls is problematic for disabled voters. Too many finds 
that exercising their right is all but impossible, despite 1984 law

By Gary Rotstein

Lois O'Donnell got the chance to vote yesterday without getting off her electric scooter and entering her Carnegie polling place, once she explained to precinct workers that she was unable to get up and down the church steps.

To O'Donnell, 65, it was a case of democracy being served but in a discriminatory fashion. She had to fill out a paper ballot in public when able-bodied individuals could vote privately behind curtains.

To Allegheny County Elections Director Mark Wolosik, O'Donnell's vote was a mistake. He said disabled individuals with inaccessible voting sites are supposed to register at least a week in advance for what's known as an "alternative" ballot, which O'Donnell did not do.

2002 – Justin Dart, Jr. passes away. The disability community loses an amazing advocate.

2004 – Kansas passes a law to require that all polling places be fully accessible to people with disabilities. The previous law, passed in the 1970s, only said that polling places had to be accessible in the “foreseeable future.” The Disability Rights Center of Kansas, and other disability advocates, successfully argued that the foreseeable future had passed, and that Kansas had a duty to ensure that its polling places were fully accessible. The HAVA Act was also used as a catalyst to obtain passage of this provision in Kansas.

MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act in Introduced. MiCASSA is A COMMUNITY-BASED ALTERNATIVE TO NURSING HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES.

For decades, people with disabilities, both old and young, have wanted alternatives to nursing homes and other institutions when they need long-term services. Our long-term care system has a heavy institutional bias. Every state that receives Medicaid MUST provide nursing home services, but community-based services are optional. Seventy-five percent of Medicaid long-term care dollars pay for institutional services, while the remaining 25% must cover all the community-based waivers, optional programs, etc.

Families are in crisis. When support services are needed there are no real choices in the community. Whether a child is born with a disability, an adult has a traumatic injury or a person becomes disabled through the aging process, they overwhelmingly wan t their attendant services provided in their own homes, not nursing homes or other large institutions. People with disabilities and their families will no longer tolerate being forced into selecting institutions. It's time for Real Choice.

ADAPT has drafted a bill which will fundamentally change our long-term care system and institutional bias that now exists. Instead, people with disabilities and their families will be able to choose where and how they receive services.

MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act, is that alternative! Instead of making a new entitlement, MiCASSA makes the existing entitlement more flexible.

MiCASSA establishes a national program of community-based attendant services and supports for people with disabilities, regardless of age or disability. This bill would allow the dollars to follow the person, and allow eligible individuals, or their representatives, to choose where they would receive services and supports. Any individual who is entitled to nursing home or other institutional services will now have the choice where and how these services are provided. The two million Americans currently residing in nursing homes and other institutions would finally have a choice.

Though MiCASSA was not enacted, it helped change the debate on community-based services and supports for people with disabilities. ADAPT met with the US Department of Health and Human Services at their Washington D.C. offices in March 2004.

ADAPT met with the US Department of Health and Human Services at their Washington D.C. offices in March 2004. ADAPT continues to be a progressive conscience of the Disability Rights movement.

2006 – Congress adopts the “Money Follows the Person” legislation, which takes the funding sections of MiCASSA and provides incentives for states to provide home and community options to expensive institutions.

2008 – The American’s with Disabilities “Restoration” Act is signed into law, overturning activist conservative judges who systematically watered down or thwarted the original intent of the ADA. The following is a description from NCIL (National Council on Independent Living) about why the ADA Restoration Act was so important:

“Unfortunately, since 1999, the courts have dramatically scaled back the ADA definition to the point where it bears little resemblance to the robust civil rights law that Congress passed in 1990. In a series of Supreme Court cases, the Court decided that the use of medication, prosthetics, hearing aids, auxiliary devices, etc. must be considered when a court is determining if someone is covered under the law. That means that people with all kinds of disabilities who enjoy greater independence (including the ability to work) on account of medication, hearing aids, specific diets, prosthetics, etc., are often no longer covered under the ADA because the courts view their limitations as no longer substantial “enough.” Courts have even denied ADA protection to those whose employers have freely admitted that they terminated the individuals because of their disabilities!

The ADA was meant to be just like other civil rights laws that address employment discrimination – when someone experiences discrimination because of disability, the sole focus of the legal case should be on whether the actions of the employer were unlawful.

However, the Courts have created an extra hoop for people with disabilities to challenge an employer’s actions. First, people with disabilities must “prove” their disability by providing highly personal and often wholly irrelevant information about their lives. Only if they have satisfied this difficult standard are they then permitted to present the facts of discrimination they encountered and increasingly, fewer and fewer people are able to get to that point.

Instead of following Congress’s clear intention that the definition of “disability” in the ADA be interpreted broadly, the Supreme Court decided to ignore Congressional intent and directed that the definition of disability needed to be interpreted narrowly. As a result, there have been hundreds of court cases with bizarre and devastating outcomes with the courts siding with the employer rather than individuals who faced discrimination more than 90% of the time. People with epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, cancer, HIV, intellectual disabilities (formerly known as “mental retardation”), hearing loss, major depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, and many other disabilities are consistently being told they are not “disabled enough” and therefore not covered by the ADA.

By watering down civil rights protections for people with disabilities, the courts have created an unacceptable U-turn in the progress people with disabilities have made to date and have made it legal for an employer to say “You are not welcome here” to people with disabilities who have skills and who want to work.”

2010 – The most substantial health insurance reform in the history of our nation is signed into law by President Barack Obama. Two long-term care provisions are contained in this far larger bill that has a particularly important impact on people with disabilities. The first is the “community first choice option,” which ends the money follows the personal initiative to 2016 and provides additional options to encourage states to stop the institutional bias against home and community-based services.

The second long-term care provision contained in the larger health insurance reform bill is the CLASS Act (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act), which creates a national, voluntary long-term care disability insurance program through payroll deductions which would provide benefits based on the significance of the disability to purchase long-term care services and supports. This is an idea whose time has come. The CLASS Act provision provides long-term care services through this voluntary insurance program. So, how does one currently qualify for long-term care services and supports for a disability? Typically, you must either purchase private long-term care insurance (which is cost prohibitive) or be forced into poverty in order to qualify for Medicaid and Social Security to obtain the long-term care services and supports you need to accommodate your disability needs. Kansas has the 35th lowest, or worst, income eligibility requirements for Medicaid. Many Kansans with disabilities are living on far, far less than $700 a month just to qualify for these critical services through Medicaid.

The current system forces people into poverty and creates dependence. The CLASS Act creates a nationwide optional long-term care insurance benefit to breaking that cycle by creating an opportunity for independence.

The cost of providing long-term care services and supports are projected to more than double by 2040 due to the aging of Americans, including the baby boomers. Medicaid should not have to continue to pay the majority of these costs because:

• People should not be required to become very poor, give up their assets, and have severe functional limitations in order to access services and supports, and
• The growing costs of long-term services and supports will put increasing strain on the Medicaid system

The CLASS Act takes a step in the right direction by putting people more in charge of their long-term care needs.