SPECIAL BULLETIN - NOVEMBER 16, 1998 PRESS FOR ADA AMENDMENT IN 1999 AGENDA ------------------------------------ Greetings, With the elections freshly over and the 106th congress and senate being assembled now, it is time for the disability community and our supporters like us to start communicating with our legislators for the 1999 agenda. Make sure you place an emphasis for a amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act so that many of the loopholes inside it can be plugged. The goal in 1999 is an amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Remember these reports we received in the last 12 months: 1) National Organization on Disability in their Landmark Harris Survey released on July 23, 1998, shows that Americans with disabilities still face gaps in securing jobs, education, accessible public transportation and in many areas of daily life. 2) National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, in their 1998 Chartbook on Work and Disability in the United States, finds that people with a disability are less likely to have a job or business than people with no disability. 3) American Bar Association has announced on June 16, 1998, that their Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law has found that people with a mental or physical disability who claim discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act have a difficult time in court. 4) The Civil Rights Commission, in a report released on October 2, 1998, finds that public enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act has been problematic. Funding, staffing, and logistical problems have made it difficult for both Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Justice to actively become enforcers of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 5) The journal of the American Medical Association concluded that workers with disabilities are more likely to have occupational injuries. This report alone has further compromised our employability. PLAN OF ACTION -------------- STEP 1 - WRITE TO THE CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION --------------------------------------------- Let's begin our journey toward a stronger Americans with Disability Act today with communications to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in support of the Americans with Disability Act and to press for an amendment to the law that strengthens it. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights 624 Ninth Street, N.W. Room 540 Washington, D.C. 20425 The Commissioners to contact are: Mary Frances Berry (Chairperson) Cruz Reynoso (Vice Chairperson) Carl A. Anderson STEP 2 - WRITE TO OUR LEGISLATORS --------------------------------- The first part is to tell our representatives and senators about these reports: A) National Organization on Disability in their Landmark Harris Survey released on July 23, 1998, shows that Americans with disabilities still face gaps in securing jobs, education, accessible public transportation and in many areas of daily life. B) National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, in their 1998 Chartbook on Work and Disability in the United States, finds that people with a disability are less likely to have a job or business than people with no disability. C) American Bar Association has announced on June 16, 1998, that their Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law has found that people with a mental or physical disability who claim discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act have a difficult time in court. D) The Civil Rights Commission, in a report released on October 2, 1998, finds that public enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act has been problematic. Funding, staffing, and logistical problems have made it difficult for both Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Justice to actively become enforcers of the Americans with Disabilities Act. E) The journal of the American Medical Association concluded that workers with disabilities are more likely to have occupational injuries. This report alone has further compromised our employability. The next part is to ask our representatives and senators for their support in these areas: 1) Vigilant enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We all need to be more vigilant enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. For the past 20 months, the entire disability community has seen their employers find ways to get around ADA. We're also seeing federal judges become increasingly restrictive in dealing with ADA lawsuits. We're even seeing one of our supposedly trusty guardians, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), behave amnesic when we try to explain our cases to them. The problems goes on for employers who hire vicious lawyers to defend themselves against ADA lawsuits by twisting the facts around, manipulating the law itself beyond recognizance, and finding loopholes in the law. 2) Support the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Continued support of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The main intent of IDEA is to encourage full inclusion: children with disabilities have historically been segregated, and inappropriately excluded from the regular education setting. There have been many attempts to compromise this law that ensures children with disabilities have access to education. We must show Congress that, contrary to the message from a very vocal small group of opponents, IDEA has strong support across the country and should not be changed. 3) Better health care for people with disabilities. Many people with disabilities oftentimes suffer from other ailments and they dont have any access to the treatment they need. It is important that people with disabilities access decent health care. The patient's bill of rights should include special provisions for patients with hearing disabilities that includes effective communications through a medium of the patient's preference. Privatizing Social Security and Medicare will be disastrous as we already know that many private insurance companies are in the business of looking for exclusions/exemptions to coverage and benefits. 4) Better tax incentives to hire and accommodate people with disabilities. The tax system we already have does very little to help us. A) Disabled Access Credit (Form 8826) B) Credit For The Elderly Or Disabled (Schedule R) Many employers/businesses are still unwilling to fork out the costs for accommodating employees with disabilities. Effective communication costs is still burdensome and many companies and businesses are refusing interpreters. The disability community constantly has to file lawsuits to force companies to make the necessary accommodations. The tax system we have does very little to encourage people to hire and accommodate the disability community. We need something better that will help us become productive citizens. In summary, your letter should highlight information from National Organization on Disability, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, the American Bar Association, Civil Rights Commission, and the American Medical Association. We should tell them in order for people with disabilities to be able to become self sufficient we need to properly enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act, Support the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) fully without any changes, Offer better health care to people with disabilities, and finally to offer employers and businesses better tax incentives to hire and fully accommodate people with disabilities that will help them become productive contributors to society. Finally, let's tell them that we need the Americans with Disabilities Act strengthened with amendments because this is a good law written very poorly that after 8 years this law itself has done very little to improve the quality of living among people with disabilities in all areas. Let's fix this law so that it will be used to help us instead of it being used against us. The "Direct Threat Clause" inside the Americans with Disabilities Act has been used against us in many ways and must be removed. The term 'threat' has been interpreted so broadly that simply arguing is often seen and misinterpreted as actual threats. We also change this law so that dont need to prove that people intended to discriminate against us. Discrimination is discrimination whether it's intended or not. SOME TOOLS ---------- The disability reports can be found on Http://www.deafclubs.com/OCDAC/facts.htm Representative contact information can be found on Http://www.hrc.org/congress/house/house.html Http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html Senate contact information can be found on Http://www.hrc.org/congress/senate/senate.html Http://www.senate.gov/senator/index.html Another reliable source for contact information Http://www.hrc.org/actncntr/ Let's all do this before year's end so our congresspeople and senators will start the next year with ideas in their minds that lead to an amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act that makes it stronger. Feel free to repost, redistribute, and republish this bulletin in its entirety elsewhere. Richard Roehm Deaf@activist.com ||================================================================= || DEAF WATCH Orange County, California | || Richard Roehm | || Chief Editor Internet : Deaf@activist.com | || Nesmuth@worldnet.att.net | || Deaf_Workers_OC@usa.net | || DEAF WATCH ICQ : SilentKnight | || Http://www.deafwatch.com AIM : Nesmuth827 | || DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY | || Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/dwoc.htm | ||================================================================= || || Deaf Watch will continue to aggressively pursue justice, fairness, || and equality for the Deaf Community as it has been doing since November || 1996. We have chosen that EDUCATION is the best way accomplish this || objective.