Author: dredf

Fighting for Safe Access in a Masks-Optional Healthcare Environment

June 27, 2023
How can we fight for safer access to healthcare in this increasingly masks-optional world? People with disabilities have federally protected civil rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act and state laws to equal access to places of public accommodation and government programs, like public and private healthcare settings.

DREDF Responds to Questions about Preventive Services for People with Disabilities

June 9, 2023
The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) put out several questions on May 5, 2023 for public comment on the coverage and delivery of preventives services for people with disabilities. The AHRQ evidence-based practice center started an investigation in late April on the barriers that people with disabilities face when they seek preventive care, and seek information on the benefits and harms of interventions to reduce those barriers. AHRQ [lays a key role in the federal process that recognizes populations that experience health and healthcare disparities. DREDF has long argued that people with disabilities experience inequitable health and healthcare disparities. and provided responses to the AHRQ questions.

In Memory of Neil Jacobson

May 22, 2023
We are very sad to report that our longtime friend and colleague, Neil Jacobson, died on May 10, 2023, at his home in Oakland, California. Neil was a committed disability rights advocate and a supreme optimist. When someone told him that something was too complex, expensive, or impractical, he unfailingly said, “Why?” He insisted that it was possible to achieve any goal by simply persevering and believing in the righteousness of its purpose. He ended every email and conversation by saying, “Go, go, go!” That drive, tenacity, and, yes, stubbornness enabled Neil to convince his wife and life partner, Denise, to marry him and to persuade the social service bureaucracy that they should adopt their son, David. Neil himself acknowledged that his life was filled with joy and happiness. During Neil’s memorial service, family members recalled him saying, “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”