DREDF Program Highlights in 2019

Our common goals and collective action make us a force to be reckoned with. We know you’re with us as a force that will keep turning the tide toward justice. This year, and every year, we’re grateful for your steadfast support and solidarity.

Our message to the year 2020 is simple: Bring it on! We’re not going away when it comes to safeguarding the ADA, ACA, Medicaid, IDEA and the civil rights we all share. 

By helping keep our advocacy independent, community support gave us the freedom to invest the significant time and resources that community education, impact litigation, and policy advocacy require:

• DREDF’s Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) served more than 500 families in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin counties; held over 40 free special education Know Your Rights bi-monthly workshops in English and Spanish, including specialized trainings for medical providers, CASA, and child welfare professionals; and collaborated with allied organizations across the nation.
• Partnering with Disability Rights California, we conducted 2020 Census focus groups, presented at public forums and initiated outreach to ensure disabled people are represented in public funding for Medicare/Medicaid, education, and a myriad of programs for years to come. We published a 2020 Census Toolkit to encourage and assist census-takers and community groups in efforts to count more disabled Americans. In partnership with California Foundation of Independent Living Centers (CFILC) and Rooted in Rights, we’ll also be producing videos and launching a website to expand this vital work.
• On behalf of CFILC and Disability Rights Advocates, we successfully pressed Marin County to modernize its outdated Emergency Operations Plan from 2014 which was lacking in the integration of emergency planning for people with disabilities and others with access needs.
• In related news, PG&E’s emergency operations and shut off plans will be updated, in part, because of our advocacy. Inclusive emergency planning includes the communication, evacuation, and sheltering needs of people with disabilities and is of utmost importance in this era of climate crisis.
• On behalf of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), DREDF and co-counsel  Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, the Disability Law Center, and CREEC announced a landmark communication access settlement with Harvard University that will make the university’s website and online resources accessible for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, or have auditory processing issues. The settlement represents the most comprehensive set of online accessibility requirements in higher education and expands upon Harvard’s new digital accessibility policy, which was announced last May.
• DREDF, along with co-counsel Metz & Harrison, settled a case with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) that corrects failures to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled patients including those with HIV/AIDS in the Medi-Cal program.
• We opened an investigation into largely unmet durable medical equipment (“DME”) needs of people with disabilities. Many insurance plans completely exclude coverage of necessary DME items like wheelchairs or CPAP machines. Other plans place $2,000 annual limits on DME coverage, even when a prescribed item is far more expensive. Others say they cover DME but require insured individuals to pay 100% of its cost as a “coinsurance” rate. 
• DREDF vigorously opposed work requirements as a condition of eligibility for Medicaid by filing 4 amicus briefs nationwide and numerous federal regulatory comments. As a result of DREDF’s advocacy, and that of our partner organizations, work requirements have been declared illegal in three states to date: Kentucky, Arkansas, and New Hampshire.
• How much do we know about accessibility inside medical offices including exam equipment? Not as much as we should. DREDF researched and co-authored an article on Access in Doctor’s Offices for Health Equity Journal. 
• With support from WITH Foundation, DREDF went deeper on the lack of accessible medical equipment that leads to preventable health problems disproportionately affecting disabled communities of color through geo-mapping in LA County – an innovative method of collecting, sharing and categorizing raw data. Early findings indicate that even in the rare instances where there is accessible equipment, the ratio between provider and population is large, e.g., one practice per 2000 people. Of the zip codes surveyed thus far, up to 80% of low-income populations are comprised of those with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Individuals with functional mobility limitations are estimated to be at 7%. The lack of accessible medical equipment is a contributor to often preventable health disparities. 
• We submitted detailed comments to appropriate government agencies and distributed frequent, topical, substantive Action Alerts on proposed Public Charge changes sought by the current Administration; shared policy analyses; and educated the national media on a range of topical issues from access to health care to media representation.
• Along with 17 other disability and advocacy groups DREDF championed reinstating Medical Deferred Action for Critically Ill Children an effort that eventually led to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to reverse its decision to stop considering special visa applications for people who have a serious health condition. We also pressured Congress to make the long-standing program permanent.
• Our DC-based Government Affairs Liaison represented DREDF in the nation’s capital and in coalition with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR), the Transportation Equity Caucus, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), in addition to serving as Co-Chair of its Transportation Task Force; and provided an in-person DREDF presence on the Housing, Education, Long Term Services and Supports, and Rights Taskforces.
• Published by the National Council on Disability – an independent federal agency — in the fall of 2019, DREDF served as the lead on NCD’s Bioethics and Disability Report Series, with collaborative partners Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, and Not Dead Yet.
• We leveraged our work to improve representation of disabled people in advertising, the news media and in entertainment through work with industry innovators at SF Film, Sundance Institute, Storyline Partners, Yahoo Media and The Disability Collection. 
• Linda Kilb, director of DREDF’s Legal Services Trust Fund Program, was honored as the 2019 recipient of the Loren Miller Legal Services Award by the California Lawyers Association in October for her career achievement in extending legal services to the poor.
• DREDF welcomed interns,  Rachel Akusake, Seth Santini, and Vivian Cho in the Summer of 2019 to assist in our legal, legislative and educational efforts.
• We also welcomed new staff: Diana Vega, Education Advocate; Malhar Shah, Staff Attorney; and Kenya Martinez, Education Advocate. 

We had so many amazing activists, families, advocates, co-counsel, collaborative partners, and donors who we got to join forces with this year to fight for cross-disability equality and inclusion.

DREDF, as always, will preserve and advance the work of the cross-disability communities of advocates and activists through impact litigation, policy development, regulatory vigilance, media advocacy, and community education.

Your solidarity and support helped DREDF spread the message that representation matters – in the courts, in the legislature, in schools, and in media. You kept us informed, sustained, and accountable. 

Thank you!