Archive for July, 2011

Today is the 21st Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act!

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

By Diana Sullivan, Disability Rights/Access Specialist



The historic signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was on July 26, 1990. This law gave Americans with disabilities:


• The right to employment without discrimination

• Access to programming

• Entry into buildings that house our city, county and state governments

• Access to goods and services (including physical access) offered to the public

• Access to communication in formats accessible to people who are blind/low vision, Deaf/hard of hearing

• Access to public transportation

• Freedom from retaliation if one chooses to file a complaint.



It is a good time to reflect on how our lives have been enriched or enhanced by the ADA.


• If you use a mobility device like a wheelchair, can you get around your community more easily?

• Are you able to watch the news or your favorite program with closed captioning?

• Has your doctor hired a sign language interpreter per your request for your appointment?

• Were you able to bring your service dog to a concert or on the bus without being challenged?

• Are you able to get large print books?

• Are your requests for alternative formats honored?



If so, you can thank the thousands of people who relentlessly pushed for the legislation and who continue to fight as advocates for all of us. While some of those who were instrumental in the movement have died, new advocates are joining the work to remove barriers of all kinds.


If you, like me, appreciate the progress made but think we still have a ways to go, think about joining one of IndependenceFirst‘s advocacy teams. It is because of that fire-in-the-belly passion that we have made so much progress. Think about how your life has been changed by the ADA, and think about how you can help continue the vision.


For more information or to join an advocacy team, contact me at (414) 226-8383 V/Relay, e-mail me at dsullivan@independencefirst.org, or visit the advocacy page on our website.


Posted in Accessibility, Advocacy, Disability News, Inclusion, Independent Living, Integration | No Comments »

July 22 EHLP for homeowners deadline fast approaching

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

By Brian Peters, Housing Policy Coordinator


The Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program (EHLP) was launched to help homeowners at risk for foreclosure. $51.5 million was given to Wisconsin by HUD through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a bill that was passed last year in Congress.


The EHLP program helps homeowners who have lost their jobs or seen their income drop (due to the economy or a medical condition) and are at risk of foreclosure. The household income has to have dropped 15% or more.


The EHLP program is a loan program that will help with mortgage payments, fees, attorney costs, etc. THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS FRIDAY, JULY 22.


You can find local and national agencies who are approved to use the EHLP Program through www.FindEHLP.org. In IndependenceFirst’s service area, they include:


Consumer Credit Counseling Services of West Bend, 262-306-9241


GreenPath Debt Solutions, 888-893-2711


Housing Resources, Inc., 414-461-6330


Light Streams Community Development Corporation, 414-464-0202


Select Milwaukee, Inc. 414-562-5070


Note that both Housing Resources, Inc. and Select Milwaukee, Inc. have reached out to IndependenceFirst to publicize their services.


Posted in housing | No Comments »

ADAPT invites you to Rally for REAL Medicaid Reform in Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

By Phil Corona, IndependenceFirst Independent Living Skills Coordinator and member of ADAPT


Whether the policy is block granting Medicaid, giving flexibility to the states or consolidating a state’s Medicaid “match,” proposals that create savings at the federal level will likely result in shifting costs to the states (who are already struggling) and cutting Medicaid services, including home and community based services. Instead of “reforming Medicaid” by cutting services and shifting the costs to the states, we need REAL Medicaid reform that not only contains costs but also protects the civil rights of seniors and people with disabilities!


ADAPT is working with disability, aging and civil rights groups to hold a rally in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011. ADAPT and the other campaign organizers are urging organizations in every state to immediately begin working to bring people with disabilities, older Americans and direct care workers to our nation’s capital in September.


In order to have significant numbers of folks come to Washington, D.C., for the rally in September, ADAPT needs organizers at the state level to mobilize folks! If you are interested in helping organize your state, please call ADAPT toll free at 877-237-2228 or e-mail them at rally@cdrnys.org.


Again, it’s important that we make our voices heard in D.C. Please join ADAPT on Sept. 21 in Washington, D.C., when we Rally for Real Medicaid Reform! For more information go to the ADAPT website (www.adapt.org), call 877-237-2228 or e-mail rally@cdrnys.org


The ADAPT Community


For more information on Medicaid proposals that contain Medicaid spending while promoting independent living, check out the ADAPT website! http://www.adapt.org


Posted in Advocacy, Medicaid | No Comments »

Safety vs. Privacy: When does monitoring become invasive?

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

By Cindi Pichler, Assistive Technology Coordinator


It can accurately be said that technology progresses faster than ethics. All we have to do is look at what is happening with social media to know that the rules for using technology are made AFTER we start using it. While privacy issues with social media have gotten a lot of attention, there is another area of technology that is getting very little. In-home monitoring of people with disabilities has advanced dramatically in recent years.


We can now not only monitor vital signs, we can monitor activity level and use of household items like phones, refrigerators and toilets. We can listen in via remotely activated phones and monitors, and “Nanny cams” and “Granny cams” can let us peek in to make sure all is well in the house. These tools are especially popular when the caregiver lives far away from the one they love. But how much is too much, and where do you draw the line between monitoring for safety and invading someone’s privacy? The line is not as clear-cut as we would like to believe.


Consider this scenario. A monitoring system is set up in the home of a person with a disability who is living alone. The system includes a component that monitors toilet usage. This is deemed necessary because changes in frequency can be an early indicator of problems. There are no cameras in the bathroom, so there are no privacy issues, right? What happens when the caregiver notices an increase in bathroom visits during several consecutive nights? Is their loved one having a flare up of his or her medical condition, or does he or she have an overnight guest? What happens if it is a guest, and the caregiver does not approve? What if the loved one is romantically involved with the guest? Is it fair to assume that a person who lives alone always has to be alone? Where is the line between privacy and safety?


These same issues occur in many monitoring scenarios. GPS monitoring, computer usage monitoring, phone monitoring, etc. all have justifiable uses, and can quickly and easily become invasions of privacy. Just because we have the technology to monitor something doesn’t mean that we should. There are no easy or simple answers.


For more information on this subject, check out these websites and this video:


Ethical guidelines for in-home monitoring of people with dementia
Lifeline Medical Alert Services
Mobilehelp tracking device


Posted in Independent Living, Privacy, Technology | No Comments »

Rejection of affordable housing proposal disappointing

Monday, July 11th, 2011

By Brian Peters, Housing Policy Coordinator


The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an article recently regarding the ongoing Department of Justice investigation into New Berlin’s rejection of the affordable housing development proposed by MSP Real Estate.


The Department of Justice believes that New Berlin reversed its approval of MSP’s proposed development because of the community’s racial fears.


While I am not going to argue the merits of the case, I will say that from a disability perspective, New Berlin’s decision to reject the housing development was disappointing. New multi-family housing constructions are automatically required to have minimum accessibility under the Fair Housing Act, and the competitive tax credit application process encourages increased accessibility. There is an urgent need for accessible housing in Waukesha County, including New Berlin.


New Berlin has some subsidized and tax credit housing already. Unfortunately, it is all senior housing not available to people under the age limits. The New Berlin Housing Authority, to its credit, issued bonds years ago to fund a couple of apartment buildings at a somewhat reduced rent that is still not very affordable for many people with very low income. People with disabilities, in general, have low income, and people living on fixed income such as benefits are what is called “Extremely Low Income” and are very difficult to house.


This Low-Income Housing Tax Credit development would not have been very affordable to people with disabilities who are extremely low income, but it would’ve at least added more accessible housing units to New Berlin’s housing stock.


Posted in Accessibility, Advocacy, Affordable Housing, Inclusion, Integration | No Comments »

Supporting housing proposals that promote inclusion

Friday, July 8th, 2011

By Brian Peters, Housing Policy Coordinator


When developers build or rehabilitate housing, funders often ask them to show support in the community for that proposal. This takes the form of support letters from community leaders and organizations.


IndependenceFirst has been asked in the past to write support letters for various proposals. I thought I’d share with you the informal process by which we decide whether to support a project or not.


We look at factors such as:


1. Will it be affordable? Because people with disabilities in general have very low income, we look at whether units will be available for people with low income. We like units for those under 30% of the Area Median Income. In the metropolitan Milwaukee area for 2011, that would be $15,200 for a single person, all the way up to $28,650 for a household of 8. This can be challenging for Section 42-Low Income Housing Tax Credit units because the deeper your income targeting is, the more difficult it is to make the overall project work. But even without deep income targeting, we can support worthy projects that target those at 50% or 60% of Area Median Income. Very often other subsidies such as Section 8, Section 811, HOME funding, Housing Trust Fund, etc. are involved, and we look at how those funds will be used to make the units affordable.


2. Will it be accessible? This is the most important category. In our view, units must have at least minimum accessibility. This can be “Visitability” for single-family units, which means a person in a wheelchair would be able to enter the home and travel the main floor, as well as use the bathroom. For multi-family housing, we like to see people go beyond the minimum required by the Fair Housing Act, and often this means using Universal Design or Aging in Place concepts to make the units more inclusive and adaptable for future accessibility needs.


3. Will it be integrated? We believe that people with disabilities should be part of the community, and this means not living in a building full of people with disabilities or a similar income level. We don’t want to see a building filled with people with disabilities or people with low income. We like to see some mixing of units and income. This means, for example, if Section 811 (Supportive Housing for People with Disabilities) is used, we want to make sure it’s only a few units, and that the rest of the units will be funded differently and filled by other types of tenants. We also like to see that the building will not be concentrated in a “ghetto” with other similar buildings. They should be spread out.


Recently we wrote a support letter for a developer for new construction in northern Milwaukee County after ensuring that all units would be Visitable and that they would have some fully accessible units. The building would also have mixed income levels, which we were pleased to see. The same developer then asked us for a support letter for a rehabilitation of an existing building using a HUD housing subsidy. We declined because the building was not integrated; every single person living in that building had a disability.


Posted in Accessibility, Affordable Housing, Inclusion, Integration | No Comments »

Obama’s Accessibility FAIL

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

By Brian Peters, Housing Policy Coordinator


A challenge in this rapidly changing world is keeping technological changes accessible. Online content can be a problem, especially with online videos and broadcasts. This is one area that the government has been a leader in, thanks to Section 508 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act requiring electronic and information accessibility for federal agencies. Because of this law, federal agencies are required to make online content accessible.


President Obama today held his first Twitter Town Hall meeting today, which had a live online broadcast of President Obama answering questions submitted via Twitter. Unfortunately, it was not captioned for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.


Accessibility FAIL.


If you think the next Twitter Town Hall meeting should include captioning, contact the White House.
Website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Comments: 202-456-1111
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 (Another Accessibility FAIL; there was no response to a TTY call on this line!)


Posted in Accessibility, Advocacy, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Technology | No Comments »


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