Housing as a Pillar of the Disability Community

Housing has been and remains one of the most difficult aspects of building truly inclusive and free communities that support people with disabilities. Affordability and Accessibility remain unattained goals in the vast majority of the United States.

The National Housing Trust Fund is a critical vehicle for expanding affordability and accessibility of housing for our communities, and right now the National Low Income Housing Coalition is working to build real support for this resource. They have produced a video on the Trust Fund and the fight to make it real at http://goo.gl/1rsThb.

You can also find out much more about houwing, poverty, and disability at their web site at http://nlihc.org/

We would like to bring to your attention this important effort

http://goo.gl/nsqWlV

Are you frustrated by not having a curb cut to get across the street safely?

Has your city recently repaved or altered streets without putting in place new curb cuts?

Now is your chance to do something about it.

We urge you to join a nationwide effort to ensure that streets and sidewalks are accessible and safe.

A number of municipalities across the country have not complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that requires roads that are repaved or significantly altered to have curb cuts. The Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center (CREEC), a nationwide non-profit civil rights organization based in Denver, CO is investigating violations by state and local governments.

What The Shutdown Means For Disability Services

From DisabilityScoop

http://goo.gl/3KxDAw

SOCIAL SECURITY Benefit payments will continue to be distributed on schedule to individuals receiving Social Security and Supplemental Security Income. Local offices will be open, but only to perform select services.

MEDICAID Services provided by Medicaid will largely proceed as usual since an advance appropriation ensured that states receive funding for the program on Oct. 1. However, disability advocates say they are worried that the shutdown could exacerbate payment delays that providers of long-term services and supports are already facing. “The long delays have put many of our affiliates in almost untenable cash flow positions and further delays may cause some to cease Medicaid services,” said Katy Neas, senior vice president of government relations at Easter Seals.

What Was the 1964 Freedom Summer Project?

Important lessons for all devalued communities

http://goo.gl/Kkybb4

Freedom Summer was a nonviolent effort by civil rights activists to integrate Mississippi's segregated political system during 1964.

Planning began late in 1963 when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) decided to recruit several hundred northern college students, mostly white, to work in Mississippi during the summer. They helped African-American residents try to register to vote, establish a new political party, and learn about history and politics in newly-formed Freedom Schools.

HHS: Many Obamacare Premiums to Cost Less Than $100

http://goo.gl/5SRA32

More than half of uninsured Americans will have health care options under Obamacare that cost less than $100 a month, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Department of Health and Human Services. 

The analysis, which relies on census data, suggests that 23 million of the nation’s 41 million “eligible uninsured” will have access to these low-cost coverage options in their state exchanges or Medicaid.

If you want to use technology to make life better for people with autism and their families, the trick is to make the technology secondary.

http://goo.gl/Rm2lNo

With her people-first perspective on technology, the University of Washington professor is at the forefront of an emerging idea: using relatively simple and common computing tools to improve human health. Kientz has created novel ways of helping people with sleep disorders and families with autistic children, such as a program that uses Twitter to help track key developmental milestones. “I think a lot of people in our area are like, ‘I have a hammer, let’s find a nail,’” says A. J. Brush, a senior researcher at Microsoft. “She’s really thinking hard about what’s the challenge, how to address it, how do I understand it.”

Federal Statutes: A Beginner’s Guide

Not easy, but worth keeping around in case you have to check out a federal law.

http://goo.gl/RNI02g

One of the most frequent requests we receive from patrons at the reference desk at the Law Library Reading Room is for help in tracking down statutes passed by the United States Congress.  While at first glance, finding a statute may seem straightforward, there are several features–such as the statute’s citation (or lack thereof), and its age, among many others–that might give rise to confusion and difficulty.  In this Beginner’s Guide, we will try to de-mystify federal statutory research by explaining the statutory publication process and describing where each type of statutory publication can be found.

Homelessness is a Disability Issue

http://goo.gl/li8C2I

The number of disabled people living on the street in Santa Cruz is staggering. Most of the people I talk to are disabled. Either I see their disabilities at first glance or I hear about them when people talk about their lives.  The most obvious are the people with visible disabilities: people who use wheelchairs but can only move them by shuffling their feet, people who need wheelchairs but can’t afford them, people who use walkers and push chairs on which all of their belongings are piled, people who are blind but have no cane and no guide dog.  Then there are the people who are  mentally ill: the ones who talk to the voices they hear, the vets with PTSD, the men and women laboring under severe depression. And then there are the ones with invisible disabilities: the middle-aged man who stims and rocks and self-talks at the bus stop, the older fellow with leg and back injuries, the young man who understands everything but has trouble speaking in words. And of course, there are the alcoholics and the drug addicts, including the ones who line up at the methadone clinic.