the advocacy monitor

Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

Organizers Forum: Disability Integration Act

  • Tuesday, February 19, 2019
  • 1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern; 12:00-1:00 Central; 11:00-12:00 Mountain; 10:00-11:00 Pacific
  • RSVP
  • Call-in: 1-515-739-1285, passcode 521847#
  • Join the meeting online

The Disability Integration Act (DIA) is a civil rights, bipartisan and bicameral legislation, introduced by Senators Charles Schumer, Minority Leader (D-NY) and Cory Gardner (R-CO) in the Senate and Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) in the House, to address the fundamental issue that people who need Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) are forced into institutions and losing their basic civil rights. The legislation (S. 117 and H.R. 555) builds on the 25 years of work that ADAPT has done to end the institutional bias and provide seniors and people with disabilities home and community-based services (HCBS) as an alternative to institutionalization. It is the next step in our national advocacy after securing the Community First Choice (CFC) option.

For this call, we will focus on the history of the Disability Integration Act, the current position of the bill, our goals for the bill, the strategy to get the DIA passed in the House this July, and how advocates across the nation can get involved in helping us pass DIA!

Speakers:

  • Anita Cameron, Co-chair of ADAPT’s Intersectionality Workgroup
  • Bruce Darling, ADAPT Organizer
  • Dara Baldwin, Director of National Policy for the Center for Disability Rights
  • Stephanie Woodward, Co-chair of ADAPT’s Disability Integration Act Workgroup

Accommodations & CART:

  • The call will have real-time captioning (CART) at: https://2020archive.1capapp.com/event/forum/.
  • No username and password needed, when you log on at the time of the call.
  • To ask questions via CART: Sign-in to the chat function on the right side of the transcript and type your question. One of the call facilitators will read questions posted there.
  • Because we want to maximize the generously donated CART services, we will begin the call promptly at 1:00 p.m. and end the call promptly at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
  • Thank you to the National Disability Leadership Alliance for sponsoring the captioning of this call.
  • If you need additional accommodations to participate in the call, please let us know as soon as possible.

Mark your calendars! The Organizer’s Forum has a call on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, 1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern.

Background:

The Organizing Workgroup of the National Disability Leadership Alliance hosts these calls the third Tuesday of every month as a resource for disability organizers, in an effort toward building the organizing capacity of the disability community across the country. They generally follow the format of a Welcome followed by 2-3 experts in a given area speaking for a few minutes on their experiences, advice and challenges. The calls include a 20-30 minute question and answer period.

Please share widely!