Thoughts on the Leaked DRAFT of the Supreme Court Opinion Overturning Roe v. Wade

May 4, 2022
People with disabilities know what it means to be denied control over our own bodies. We have been told what is good for us and what we can and cannot do, including in the area of reproductive decision-making. Abortion bans continue this legacy. Abortion bans rob all people who can become pregnant of control over their bodies and the loss is even greater for disabled BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and low income people. We stand in solidarity with reproductive rights and justice advocates who fight against the overturning of Roe v. Wade. [...]

DREDF Opposes Elimination of Fundamental Protections in California’s End of Life Options Act

April 14, 2022
Assisted suicide doesn't exist in a vacuum. It must be considered against the backdrop of the United States' tragic history of state-sanctioned discrimination against people with disabilities and chronic illnesses in health care settings. This sordid history includes nonconsensual experimentation, forced sterilization, the denial of essential medical care based on biased and/or inaccurate quality of their life assessments, issuing of "Do Not Resuscitate" orders without patient consent, and most recently, employing COVID crisis standards of care and health care rationing systems that explicitly, openly devalue disabled lives. [...]

DREDF Opposes HIV Criminalization

March 29, 2022
DREDF opposes the criminalization of people based on their HIV-positive status. In addition to being harmful to public health, laws and prosecution targeting HIV-positive people constitute discrimination on the basis of disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits disability discrimination by state and local governments. [...]

USDOT March 24th Public Meeting on Air Travel by Wheelchair Users

March 22, 2022
The Department of Transportation (DOT) says it wants to improve air travel for wheelchair users and is hosting a virtual public meeting on Thurs, Mar. 24 from 10:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. EDT to talk about the problem. During this meeting, there will be an opportunity to hear directly from DOT representatives, as well as disability rights organizations and their members about the difficulties encountered during air travel. It will also be a chance for airlines to discuss the challenges they face in providing accessible air transportation and the actions they are taking (or plan to take) to improve air travel. [...]

Contra Costa Superior Court Affirms Right for California’s Black, English Learners, and Disabled Students to an Equal Education

March 16, 2022
Martinez, California — On March 9, 2022, the Contra Costa County Superior Court issued a ruling confirming, as Plaintiffs argued, that the State of California has a duty to protect the right to a basic education for students of color, with or without disabilities, and fix racial segregation. The ruling also affirms, for the first time ever, that disabled students have a constitutional right to a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) on the state level. Previously this was expressed in statute only. [...]

DREDF and the Community Living Policy Center submit comments on CMS Proposed Rules on Integration for People Dually Enrolled in Medicare & Medicaid

March 7, 2022
DREDF, in collaboration with the Community Living Policy Center at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on proposed changes to regulation of Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs) as part of a larger rulemaking on Medicare Part C & D. We support the direction of CMS’s proposals and appreciate the efforts to tighten and clarify requirements and the focus on enrollee experience and needs. Our comments primarily explore areas where we believe that CMS could include further specificity in the regulations such as advisory committees, network adequacy, durable medical equipment, and home health care. These regulations are important given the rapid growth of D-SNPs across the country. [...]

EE v. State of California

March 4, 2022
On February 28, 2022, the federal court for the Northern District of California ruled that disabled students in California must have access to a virtual education program equivalent to what non-disabled students receive. If a parent decides that their disabled child’s health would be put at risk by in-person instruction, school districts must permit enrollment to the district’s independent study program with access to the student’s IEP service or provide a reasonable modification in the form of virtual access to student’s typical instruction and special education services. [...]

DREDF Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Itself and Eighteen Other Organizations Opposing Efforts to Establish a Constitutional Right to Assisted Suicide in Massachusetts

February 27, 2022
The question of whether a constitutional right to assisted suicide exists must be addressed and understood from the perspective of the class of people who will be most adversely impacted if such a right is found – people with disabilities, whether terminally ill or not. On February 14, 2022, DREDF filed an amicus brief on behalf of itself and eighteen other organizations in Kligler v. Healy to provide such a perspective. Kligler is an appeal before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts that seeks to establish a constitutional right to assisted suicide. The nineteen amici are recognized authorities in the field of disability rights who oppose the legalization of assisted suicide. The brief of amici discusses how assisted suicide discriminates against people with disabilities, degrades their perceived value and worth, and puts them at higher risk of discrimination and abuse. [...]

Thousands Join Growing Effort to Protect Disability Rights Laws

February 15, 2022
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — Nearly 10,000 people from more than 800 different organizations and agencies have signed an online petition spearheaded by two California-based disability civil rights organizations – Disability Rights and Education Defense Fund (DREDF) and Disability Rights California (DRC) – demanding that the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) suspend efforts to eliminate protections afforded under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Supporters signing the petition include the Honorable Tony Coelho and Steve Bartlett, two of the original authors of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as well as disability activist and Obama administration leader The Honorable Dr. Judith Heumann. [...]