Disability Rights Groups and The State of California Reach Novel Settlement Agreement

February 2, 2017
Blind and visually impaired Californians who are enrolled in the Medi-Cal In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program can now read their IHSS communications and submit timesheets privately and independently. Disability Rights California (DRC) and Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) reached a collaborative and creative agreement with the California Department of Health Care services (DHCS) and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to ensure equal and effective communication for blind and visually impaired IHSS recipients and applicants.

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Action Alert! Preserve Health Care and Medicaid for People with Disabilities and Seniors

January 31, 2017
Call Today to Preserve Health Care and Medicaid for People with Disabilities & Seniors
The President and Congress are moving quickly to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and major cuts to and restructuring of Medicaid and Medicare may not be far behind. We must let policymakers know that these changes will harm seniors and people with disabilities and may force some into institutions.

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Action Alert: Act Today to Protect Health Care!

January 9, 2017
Congressional leaders have declared that one of their first goals in the new Congress is to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) and "replace" it. While Congress has passed many bills to repeal the ACA in the past, it was clear that President Obama would veto them. But this is not the case with President–elect Donald Trump who says he will sign an ACA repeal bill.

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Ninth Circuit Takes California Department Of Education (CDE) To Task

December 15, 2016
The Ninth Circuit affirmed U.S. Northern California District Court Judge Thelton Henderson's orders that the California Department of Education (CDE) must implement a corrective action plan designed to ensure that its special education monitoring system would comply with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Consent Decree in the case, a class action brought to protect the special education rights of students with disabilities. The decision is the culmination of nearly 20 years of attempting to reform failed local and state-level special education policies.

NAD Lawsuit Against Harvard and MIT Moves Forward

November 8, 2016
Judge Mark G. Mastroianni of the District Court of Massachusetts denied Massachusetts Institute for Technology's (MIT) and Harvard University's motions to dismiss the National Association of the Deaf's (NAD) and other named plaintiffs' complaint that the institution discriminates against deaf and hard of hearing people by failing to caption the vast and varied array of online content they make available to the general public, including massive open online courses (MOOCs). Today's decision affirms that plaintiffs' case will be going forward.

DREDF and Allies Submit Comments on Website Accessibility

October 21, 2016
On October 7, 2016, in response to the U.S. Department of Justice's Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rule regarding Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government, DREDF has signed onto comments submitted by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB); National Association of the Deaf (NAD); National Disability Rights Network; and Paralyzed Veterans of America, among others. The comments emphasize that the internet has become a fundamental part of every day life, and state and local government websites must remove the serious barriers facing people with disabilities in accessing critical government information online.