Now in its third year, the Talk About Sexual Violence project will build on its success by not only preparing health care professionals to have much-needed conversations about sexual violence with people with IDD, but to know how to use a supported decision-making lens that supports victim-centered approaches. This flyer gives an overview of the Phase 3 project focus and related information.
State: Maryland
Filed: 2021
Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
Plaintiff: The Arc Maryland
Defendants: Baltimore City, Queen Anne’s County, Carroll County, Garrett County, Somerset County, Talbot County
Counsel: The Arc, Disability Rights Maryland, Brown & Barron LLC
Overview: The Arc Maryland filed a federal lawsuit alleging that six jurisdictions in Maryland, including Baltimore City, discriminate against people with IDD by denying them opportunities to access COVID-19 vaccinations inconsistent with the State’s Executive order and Vaccination Plan. This discrimination puts lives at stake and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
While vaccination sites must offer vaccines to the public in accordance with Maryland’s state vaccination plan, the five counties and Baltimore City exclude individuals with IDD in their list of who is eligible, preventing those with IDD from accessing vaccinations.
It is well established that COVID-19-related fatality rates among people with IDD who test positive for COVID-19 are nearly three times greater than the mortality rates among the general population who are positive for the virus. People with IDD also face heightened risk because many rely on caregivers or direct support professionals who provide assistance with activities of daily living, for which social distancing is often not possible. Frequently, such caregivers serve multiple people raising risks of transmission. Despite advocacy from The Arc Maryland, people with IDD are not getting equal access to vaccines, compelling the need for the lawsuit.
Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order
Baltimore Sun: Maryland organization that supports people with disabilities sues five counties and Baltimore City, alleging vaccine discrimination
The Maryland Daily Record: 6 Md. jurisdictions sued over vaccine eligibility for people with disabilities
The Garrett County Republican: Garrett County sued over vaccine info for people with disabilities
The Cumberland Times-News: Organization alleges vaccine discrimination
National Journal: Disability communities face barriers to COVID-19 vaccines
Baltimore Sun: Maryland disability rights group dismisses lawsuit against Baltimore City and three of five counties for alleged vaccine discrimination
The ability to save is crucial in securing a life plan for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who often rely on public benefits like Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, and housing and food assistance to pay for things that they need to live in the community. However, many public benefits have very strict limits on how much money you can have to qualify and keep the benefits. How do people know what public benefits they are eligible for? How can people save to buy the things they want and need when they have so little money to start with? What are special needs trusts and ABLE accounts, and when should people have one? Our panel of experts provides an overview of these important issues, plus helpful resources.
Financial Planning for Families With a Member With Special Needs: by Theresa Varnet
Speaker Bios
Theresa Varnet
Theresa Varnet, M.S.W. J.D., has been an advocate for people with disabilities and their families for over 50 years. She is a former teacher and social worker and is now an attorney with Spain, Spain & Varnet, P.C. in Chicago, Illinois and Fletcher Tilton, P.C. in Worcester, Massachusetts. Theresa joined the Arc in 1968 and has been an active volunteer with chapters of The Arc in Illinois, Massachusetts, and Kentucky. She is also the parent of an adult daughter with IDD.
Miranda Kennedy
Miranda Kennedy is the Director of the ABLE National Resource Center (ABLE NRC), the leading source of information on Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts. ABLE NRC’s mission is to educate, promote and support the positive impact ABLE can make on the lives of millions of Americans with disabilities and their families. Miranda served as Director of Training for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration’s national Disability Employment Initiative (DEI) and Disability Program Navigator Initiative (DPN) from 2006-2018. She holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Denver Institute for Public Policy Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from University of Colorado at Boulder.
Delores Sallis
Delores Sallis is the founder of Parent University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Parent University serves as a resource for black families of people with disabilities and helps them navigate the systems of support for people with disabilities, including school systems, in the Milwaukee area. Delores has a great passion for the families she serves, because she knows there is a great divide of resources. Delores is the mother of five children, the youngest of which has multiple disabilities. She also has a granddaughter with cerebral palsy.
Learn more about the resources you might have and want to include when creating your financial plan.
This document is also available in Spanish.
Guide for parents and legal guardians raising children with disabilities that provides financial considerations they need to factor, with expert-driven solutions.
We are in the midst of a global health pandemic that is wreaking havoc on all of our lives and has been particularly devastating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families. While we battle COVID-19, we must also plan for the future and the challenges ahead. In the wake of this health emergency and economic crisis, we need to organize and advocate more than ever before. The human rights of people with IDD and the supports and services they need to both live in and be valued members of their communities are at stake.
This Town Hall delves into The Arc’s response to the pandemic, the progress we’ve made, and the threats that remain. We also unveiled the new Strategic Framework for the Future of The Arc¸ a dynamic plan to build a more powerful, nationwide disability community movement.
State: Georgia
Filed: October 5, 2020
Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
Overview: This amicus brief challenges Georgia’s “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard in determining intellectual disability in death penalty cases as creating a constitutionally unacceptable risk that defendants who have legitimate claims of intellectual disability will nonetheless be sentenced to death.
Excerpt: “Georgia was the first state in the Nation to establish a prohibition against executing individuals with ID thirteen years before the U.S. Supreme Court established a constitutional exemption in Atkins, and its leadership on the issue is to be commended…Despite Georgia’s early leadership on the issue, since Atkins not a single defendant in Georgia has been held to be exempt from execution due to ID pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 17-7-131.6 As set forth below, this onerous burden of “beyond a reasonable doubt” is inconsistent with the clinical diagnostic process and encourages jurors to default to stereotypes about people with ID.”
Georgia Supreme Court Decision
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: High court to be asked to overturn intellectual disability threshold
TIES Center is the national technical assistance center on inclusive practices and policies. It works with states, districts, and schools to support the movement of students with disabilities from less inclusive to more inclusive environments. They provide specialized resources on supporting students with disabilities who are participating in virtual learning.
Being able to make your own decisions about your own life is one of the most important rights that people have. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have the same right to make decisions about their lives as people without disabilities. However, their ability to make their own decisions is often questioned by teachers, doctors, family members, and others. Research has shown that individuals with reduced self-determination have diminished quality of life outcomes and are less likely to live and be integrated into their community. Guardianship can be an obstacle to the development of self-determination skills. However, people with IDD are at an increased risk of being placed under guardianship, and guardianship is frequently still the only option presented and utilized by families and supporters of people with IDD. This webinar will describe guardianship and less restrictive decision-making alternatives, as well as help debunk some of the myths about guardianship and supported decision-making that persist.
View the webinar’s slide deck here.
See a Q&A with links and resources here.
Speaker Bios:
Morgan Whitlatch
Morgan Whitlatch is the Legal Director of Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities, a non-profit advocacy organization that has advanced the interests of people with developmental disabilities since 2002. She is also the Lead Project Director of the National Resource Center for Supported Decision-Making. Morgan has devoted her legal career to working with and on behalf of people with disabilities in matters involving capacity, guardianship and alternatives, and the right to self-determination; community integration; living free from abuse and neglect; and accessing public benefits and services. Prior to joining Quality Trust in 2009, Morgan was an attorney at Disability Rights Rhode Island, the state’s protection and advocacy program for people with disabilities. Morgan graduated with honors from Georgetown University Law Center, and with honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from Wesleyan University.
Shawn Ullman
As Senior Director of National Initiatives, Shawn Ullman leads The Arc’s individual and family support initiatives, which seek to provide reliable information and assistance to people with I/DD, their family members, and the professionals who support them on topics such as navigating special education and disability services, healthy aging, housing, decision-making, financial planning, and healthy relationships. Prior to joining The Arc, Shawn was a staff attorney with Disability Rights DC, the protection and advocacy agency for the District of Columbia, for 11 years where she advocated for children and adults with developmental disabilities to obtain the services and supports they need to live, learn, and work in the community. Shawn received her bachelor’s degree in political science from DePauw University in 1997 and her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 2001.
State: Pennsylvania
Filed: August 20, 2020
Court: U.S. Supreme Court
Overview: Amicus brief in support of City of Philadelphia’s argument that government contractors are prohibited from discrimination. The brief argues that allowing government contractors to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation by asserting a religious justification for doing so would cause significant harm to people with disabilities and older adults, including those who are LGBTQ.
Excerpt: “Older adults and people with disabilities—including those who identify as LGBTQ—need non-discriminatory access to social services in order to live in the community with dignity and respect. These individuals are particularly reliant on services and supports from government contractors, which provide community-based programming, healthcare, meals, transportation, housing, and other resources…Should the Court rule otherwise, organizations providing important services to older adults and people with disabilities would be given free rein to refuse care, to disrupt services and supports, and to otherwise discriminate based on their religious views, causing severe physical, emotional, and psychological harm to disabled people and older adults.”
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