Texas and the ADA under attack

[Guest guest]

I have notified everyone I know in Texas to start calling the texas

legislators and tell them handicapped people count to. If we all get together

with

texas friends maybe texas will realize they are wrong.

[Guest guest]

This is quite disturbing!

~

Disabled Texans deserve better from their state officials

SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Friday, January 9, 2004

Just when we thought Texas could do no worse in its treatment of our

most vulnerable citizens, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott proves

us wrong. In an attempt to preclude the state from having to provide

services to people with disabilities -- services they are entitled to

under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) -- Abbott is claiming

the ADA is unconstitutional and that states cannot be required to

comply with it.

Signed into law in 1990 by the first President Bush, the ADA

prohibits discrimination based on a person's disability. Considered

the most comprehensive legislation for people with disabilities ever

passed in this country, the ADA lays a foundation of equality for

disabled people and extends to them civil rights similar to those

made available on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin and

religion through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Accordingly, the ADA

prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in private sector

employment, state and local government activities, and public

accommodations and services.

Title II of the ADA stipulates that " no qualified individual with a

disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from

participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs

or activities of a public entity. " This is the section of the act

that our attorney general seeks to overturn.

Texans should be appalled at the lengths our state's top legal

defender will go to keep the state from having to provide to people

with disabilities access to services in compliance with this federal

law.

Abbott took this stance in response to a class-action lawsuit filed

in 2002 on behalf of more than 25,000 individuals with disabilities

who have been languishing, many for years, on waiting lists to

receive home or community-based services. The class action alleges

that the state violates the ADA by not adequately funding services to

people with disabilities, resulting in many of these individuals

being forced to live in institutional settings, often against their

will and best interests. If Abbott has his way, the state will no

longer be required to comprehensively address the needs of the

disability community.

This year, facing a $10 billion shortfall and in the name of " no new

taxes, " the Texas Legislature passed a budget with deep cuts to

programs serving children, the elderly and people with disabilities.

Budget cuts and policy decisions that were made guarantee that fewer

people in need will receive crucial health and human services, and

waiting lists will continue to grow. Now Abbott wants to go one step

further and take away civil rights protections that were signed into

law at the largest bill signing ceremony ever held on the White House

lawn. Abbott's approach of shirking the state's responsibility to

provide access to services for all citizens is not only wrong, it

sends a strong message to individuals with disabilities: You do not

deserve the same rights as everyone else. I do not believe this is

the message most Texans like to hear.

What is perplexing is that Abbott is not challenging the part of the

ADA that bars discrimination by private interests. In other words,

Abbott agrees that private entities should continue to be required by

law to provide access to individuals with disabilities, but public

entities, including state and local governments, should not. Since

when are civil rights protections important in relation to the

private sector, but not the public sector? Abbott's response: The

office of the attorney general is trying to protect the state's

interests, namely, its limited financial resources. Once again, the

issue is state money, or the lack thereof.

If Abbott prevails in his attempt to exclude state governments from

having to comply with Title II of the ADA, areas other than waiting

lists for people with disabilities in need of home and community-

based services could be impacted. For example, Title II could no

longer be used to force modifications of governmental buildings and

facilities so that they are accessible to people with disabilities.

But for the ADA, how many public schools, university classrooms and

laboratories, public restrooms, libraries, museums, city halls,

buses, trains, courthouses and capitols would still be inaccessible

to disabled people?

Rather than facing up to the state's responsibility to provide access

to people with disabilities per federal law, rather than striving to

generate new revenues to help cover the costs, our leadership seeks

to dismantle the very legislation that mandates the above. The

attorney general's action is a blatant attempt to reinstate

discrimination as yet another way to avoid the state's obligation to

provide services to its most vulnerable members. Texans should be

embarrassed that one of our statewide elected leaders would do this.