Holding State Protection & Advocacy Agencies to Account
Two states have come to the realization that their state Protection and Advocacy Agencies (P&As) have not been acting in the interests of all people with I/DD and autism. Instead, they have been following their own agenda of closing Intermediate care facilities while promoting Home and Community-Based Services. In short, not protecting, only advocating for their own agenda.
Ohio and now North Carolina have passed laws to hold them to account to their state legislators.
VOR Comments to DOJ Requiring Medical Diagnostic Equipment under the ADA
The Department of Justice has sought comments in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking requiring Medical Diagnostic Equipment be available to persons with disabilities under the ADA.
VOR Time Capsule from 1999
VOR's Jane Anthony recently unearthed a video that VOR members made 25 years ago, promoting the need for intermediate care facilities as an important component of a full continuum of care and service options. The year was 1999, right around the time that the Supreme Court submitted its historic ruling in Olmstead, promoting community integration for those who desire it, while protecting Choice for families of people who require higher levels of care.
VOR Comments on HHS Discrimination in Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973
The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a proposed rule "Discrimination on the Basis of Disability in Health and Human Service Programs or Activities", intended to update, clarify, and strengthen the implementing regulation for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
VOR contends that the policies of HHS, notably the actions taken over the years by the Administration for Community Living and several of the organizations they subsidize (including State P&As and DD Councils, University Centers for Excellence, and the National Disability Rights Network) have regularly committed acts of discrimination against those with the most severe and profound intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.