skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, July 26, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Arson attacks paralyze French high-speed rail network hours before start of Olympics, the Obamas endorse Harris for President; A NY county creates facial recognition, privacy protections; Art breathes new life into pollution-ravaged MI community; 34 Years of the ADA.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Harris meets with Israeli PM Netanyahu and calls for a ceasefire. MI Rep. Rashida Tlaib faces backlash for a protest during Netanyahu's speech. And VA Sen. Mark Warner advocates for student debt relief.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

There's a gap between how rural and urban folks feel about the economy, Colorado's 'Rural is Rad' aims to connect outdoor businesses, more than a dozen of Maine's infrastructure sites face repeated flooding, and chocolate chip cookies rock August.

ADA, Court Ruling Protect Disabled Missourians' Right to Integrated Living

play audio
Play

Monday, August 14, 2023   

Many Missourians with developmental and intellectual disabilities live successfully in the community, and disability advocates stress this is their right under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

They want to spread the word that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is "revitalizing" its disability-rights enforcement on the 24th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Olmsted decision.

Erin Prangley - policy director for the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities - said the 1999 Olmstead decision upheld the "integration mandate" in the ADA, and concluded that the two plaintiffs were being discriminated against by being forced to live in an institution.

"Most people, I think, are still kind of mystified about the fact that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are, in fact, subject to these institutions," said Prangley, "with very little choice, often put there by their own relatives."

Prangley pointed out that eligible people with disabilities living in the community are served by Medicaid's Home and Community Based Services.

Approximately 12,000 Missourians with intellectual and developmental disabilities receive those services, among the lowest number per hundred thousand people of the 50 states.

Services under HCBS include "habilitative" services, which teach skills needed to live successfully in the community.

She maintained that not only are most people happier living in the community, they are often much safer.

"Where you have interactions with your friends, your neighbors, your religious community - where they can check on you, keep an eye on you," said Prangley, "as opposed to living in isolation where there can be terrible things that happen to you - physically, psychologically."

Missourian Allen Nelson spent nine years in state institutions. For the past six years he has lived with a roommate in an apartment with the help of support staff through the Easy Living agency.

Nelson said in the institution he was often bullied and would get very angry, sometimes leading to him being restrained. He said people tell him he's like a different person now.

"And I said, that's what I want to do," said Nelson, "try to be better and try to not get angry and try to work the problems I need to do for myself. So, I'm in a better place here."

Nelson has a part-time job at Popeye's, and their living room wall is covered with his artwork. He said it's a lot easier to do artwork now that he's not angry as he so often was in the institutions.

Missouri Protection and Advocacy Services provides legal assistance and advocacy for Missourians with disabilities.




get more stories like this via email
more stories
According to the Tax Policy Center, for higher-income earners, sales taxes consume a lower share of their income than for other households. (Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

As Nebraska state lawmakers convene for a special session on property tax reform called by Gov. Jim Pillen, groups are weighing in on the details …


play sound

Traveling around rural Minnesota can be difficult but in more than half the state, nonprofit transit systems are helping people get where they need …

Social Issues

play sound

Student loan forgiveness took center stage on Thursday at the American Federation of Teachers conference. The Biden administration has canceled more …


Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has introduced legislation to codify the Chevron Deference into law. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Recent Supreme Court rulings on air pollution are affecting Virginia and the nation. Climate advocates said the court overstepped its bounds in …

Health and Wellness

play sound

World Hepatitis Day is this Sunday, and for the Oregon Health Authority, it's an opportunity to promote its plan to eliminate hepatitis across the …

The Gender Shades project revealed facial recognition performed poorest for darker-skinned women, and performed best for lighter-skinned men. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Columbia County, New York, is implementing new facial recognition and privacy policies, following new upgrades to the county's surveillance cameras…

Social Issues

play sound

As summer winds down and North Carolina students prepare to return to school, the focus shifts to the urgent need for better public education funding…

Social Issues

play sound

A new design competition is looking to find better housing for Fargo's aging population. Like many other states, North Dakota has a growing number …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021