Dungarvin Nursing Assistant Rhoda Menba with residents Gale and Janis.
If you are involved in the disability services field or have a loved-one who is disabled, you likely heard about a recent memo issued by the Department of Justice questioning legal protections for people with disabilities.
The memo essentially reinterprets Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which for decades have been understood to require that states provide in-home or community-based services rather than segregating people in institutions.
These protections were challenged in 1999 by a case — Olmstead v. Lois Curtis — that made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the end, the court agreed that states do have the obligation to support individuals with disabilities “in the most integrated setting appropriate for their needs,” and lower courts throughout the country followed this interpretation.
Lori Kress, Dungarvin CEO
Dungarvin CEO Lori Kress, also the President of the American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), said she strongly backs the disability service provider association in rejecting the DOJ’s interpretation.
“I stand with colleagues across the nation in opposition to the DOJ’s harmful and irresponsible interpretation of the Olmstead decision, which guarantees individual support in the most integrated setting appropriate for their needs,” she said.
“For more than 40 years I have worked for and with people with disabilities and it has been a privilege to empower them to live lives of choice that would have not been possible without the ADA, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability,” Lori added.
Many people are worried about the ramifications of the DOJ memo. “We are incredibly concerned that the message coming from the federal government in this memo is, ‘It’s fine to go back to the days that people were placed in institutions,’ even though they can be served in the community, even though they want to be and even though it’s more cost-effective,” said Alison Barkoff, a health law and policy professor at George Washington University, in a recent National Public Radio story.
“Those of us doing the work know that supporting individuals to be members of their communities, rather than segregated from it, is the right answer for all of us,” Lori said.