FWD: Kerry Response to AAPD Questionnaire

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Subject: Fwd: Kerry Response to AAPD Questionnaire

" Kerry Response to AAPD Questionnaire "

The following response to AAPD's questionnaire is provided

by the Kerry- campaign.

AAPD is non-partisan and shares information about

candidates' disability-related policy positions for

educational purposes.

Young

JFA Moderator, AAPD

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DISABILITY ISSUE QUESTIONS FROM THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

1. What are your top three accomplishments on behalf of

people with disabilities in your career to date as an

elected official?

One of my things that I am most proud of is having

cosponsored the Americans with Disabilities Act, the most

comprehensive nondiscrimination legislation enacted since

the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In 1987, I drafted the Technology to Educate Children with

Handicaps (TECH) Act, which created assistive device

centers across the country to ensure all children with

special needs have access to the assistive devices

necessary to get an education. These centers train

specialists, teachers, and therapists to identify students

who could benefit from such technologies. These centers

also inform parents, educators and therapists on how to

support and incorporate these devices into children's

educational experiences. I fought hard to enact this

legislation so that children with disabilities could gain

independence in the classroom and throughout their lives.

The goals of my legislative proposal were later

incorporated into the Technology Related Assistance for

Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988.

I have had a long-time commitment to protecting the rights

of individuals disabled by mental illness. I was an

original cosponsor of the landmark Mental Health Parity Act

passed by Congress in 1996, which requires parity for

annual and lifetime dollar limit coverage for mental health

treatment. While its enactment marked an important step in

the fight for providing greater mental health treatment

benefits, it is time now to take another step toward the

goal of mental health parity. Consequently, I strongly

support the Senator Wellstone Mental Health Equitable

Treatment Act of 2003. This legislation will provide for

equal coverage of mental health benefits with respect to

health insurance coverage unless comparable limitations are

imposed on medical and surgical benefits.

In my work on the Small Business Committee, I was involved

in achieving the landmark goal of assuring that veterans

with disabilities have an opportunity to receive a three

percent share of Federal Contracts. With federal contracts

today worth $250 billion, small businesses owned by

veterans with disabilities have access to $7.5 billion in

business opportunities.

2. If you are elected/re-elected what will be your top

three priorities during your first 100 days in office to

improve the quality of life for people with disabilities

living in the U.S.?

I will offer Americans with disabilities freedom,

independence, and choices. I will appoint a national

bipartisan Community First Commission made up of

distinguished Americans, including people with disabilities

who will identify short and long term policy reforms that

could and should be pursued to:

* Guarantee that all Americans with disabilities who can

live in their community with affordable supports have equal

opportunity to do so regardless of age, disability, state

of residence, employment status, or necessary form of

assistance.

* Create a greater federal role in equitably financing and

enhancing the quality and appropriateness of long-term

services.

* Eliminate the institutional bias in Medicaid and Medicare

that robs millions of Americans of their most basic

freedoms, dignity, and daily independence.

To make our system work and to offer real choices, we must

ensure equal access to quality home and community services

throughout our nation. I will work with the Community First

Commission to determine how we can move MiCASSA forward.

And I will work with states to fully implement the Olmstead

Decision, as well as push Congress to finally pass the

Family Opportunity Act.

I believe we need full mental health parity once and for

all - not just mental health parity for certain benefits or

certain mental health conditions or with unnecessary

loopholes that allow insurers to skirt their

responsibility. I will fight to pass full mental health

parity legislation

I will utilize the skills and wisdom of the disability

community in shaping policy and programs that will benefit

the entire country, and I will seek out qualified people

with disabilities to serve throughout my administration.

Americans with disabilities deserve independence and the

opportunity to be economically self-sufficient. I will

reinstate the executive order by President Bill Clinton to

hire 100,000 qualified individuals with disabilities as

federal employees over five years. I will crack down on

employment discrimination and nominate an Attorney General

for the U.S. Department of Justice and a Chair to the EEOC

who will make enforcement of the ADA a top priority. And I

will promote creative solutions to address the

transportation, technology, and housing needs for

individuals with disabilities.

To ensure that children with disabilities get the free,

high quality education they deserve, I am committed to

fully funding IDEA and working for strong enforcement and

real compliance with the law. And to expand access to

higher education, I will improve transitional planning,

promote access and awareness in disability services,

provide work-study alternatives, and collect data on

students with disabilities to provide a true scientific

understanding of the realities on the ground.

3. What ideas do you have for bringing our four largest

federal programs (Medicaid, Medicare, Supplemental Security

Income, and Social Security Disability Insurance) in line

with the goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act

(equality of opportunity, full participation, independent

living, and economic self-sufficiency)?

We must strengthen and protect Medicaid, not tear it apart.

I am firmly opposed to the Bush administration's proposal

to turn Medicaid into a block grant program. By investing

in Medicaid, we can improve the health and independence of

more than 10 million children, adults, and older Americans

with disabilities throughout our country. No one should be

forced to be in a nursing home or have their most basic

needs go unmet because they live in a state that chooses

not to offer necessary community living services. That is

why I believe that we need to relieve pressures on state

budgets; I have proposed spending $25 billion to help

states struggling to bridge their deficits.

I support strengthening and improving Medicaid in several

key ways. First, I believe that we must pass the Family

Opportunity Act. Currently, low-income families with

severely disabled children receive federal disability

benefits under Supplemental Security Income. However, if

parents seek a better job or earn higher wages, their

disabled children lose Medicaid coverage, which is

essential to providing comprehensive coverage for children

who require complex and often costly care. No parent should

have to turn down a job or give up custody of a child to

ensure that he or she gets health care.

We need to fully implement the Olmstead decision. People

with disabilities and older Americans must receive the

support they need to live in their own homes and

communities. States must be given increased resources and

tools to carry out the Olmstead decision and must be held

accountable for doing so. Americans with disabilities must

be assured equal access to quality home and community

living services.

I will work with the Community First Commission to

determine how we can best implement MiCASSA and the Money

Follows the Person Act. We need to end the institutional

bias that makes it impossible for millions of Americans to

exercise the most basic of human liberties: freedom,

choice, and independence.

I will work toward eliminating the two-year waiting period

to become eligible for Medicare. The federal government has

a critical role to play to assure that workers with

disabilities have the insurance coverage they need to be as

independent and productive as possible. And I will direct

HHS to fund a series of demonstrations aimed at identifying

cost effective ways that best promote the health,

independence and productivity of people with disabilities

and to promote better health care.

I will also work to provide real prescription drug relief

through the Medicare program. My health care plan will

lower prescription drug costs, and ensure that seniors and

people with disabilities on Medicare can choose their

doctors instead of forcing them to join an HMO.

Another important program to millions of Americans with

disabilities is the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives

Improvement Act (TWWIIA). TWWIIA seeks to guarantee

continued access to vital Medicare and Medicaid coverage to

enable individuals with significant disabilities to become

competitively employed under certain conditions.

As a result of this law, about half of the states today

allow employed individuals with disabilities to buy into

Medicaid if their incomes and assets do not exceed certain

limits and meet other criteria set by each state. These

Medicaid buy-in programs vary widely from one state to

another, however, both in regard to the eligibility

requirements they set and the benefits and services they

make available. Moreover, if the current economic downturn

continues, states that currently have these plans in place

may have to cut back or eliminate them all together. In

addition, few other states will be in a position to create

new buy-in programs.

The federal government must play a far greater role in

ensuring that workers with disabilities have the insurance

coverage they need to be as independent and productive as

possible. Regardless of where these individuals live or how

much they are able to earn, they should be able to buy in

to a uniform, national set of benefits designed to do just

this. To help achieve these ends, the Medicare program

should provide for enhanced coverage for employed

individuals with disabilities.

4. What do you see as the most appropriate role for the

federal government to play in the lives of people with

disabilities and their families and what is your reaction

to recent trends limiting the federal role in disability

policy?

Now more than ever people with disabilities of all ages can

live fuller, more productive lives if afforded the right

opportunities and supports. The federal government has a

strong obligation and role to play in ensuring that these

Americans have the same chance to succeed in life as all

other citizens. The government must meet its commitment to

enforce laws that protect the disability community. The

moral imperative is clear.

The federal government must help provide high quality,

accessible and affordable health care and community living

services to people with disabilities. That's why my

Administration will modernize Medicaid and Medicare and

work with states to implement home and community based

services.

My administration also will play a role in enforcing civil

rights laws for people with disabilities. The Department of

Justice and the EEOC will make enforcement of the Americans

with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act a top

priority. And I will ensure that the Offices of Civil

Rights at the Department of Education and the Department of

Health and Human Services provide people with disabilities

the protections they deserve.

We need to have a more focused effort on recruiting and

employing people with disabilities in America. One place we

can start is with a targeted effort in the federal

government. The federal government has massive spending

powers that can and should be used to promote the

employment of individuals with disabilities. I will promote

increasing the goal for small business contracting and

ensuring that business owners with disabilities have equal

status to other minority business owners.

The federal government must meet its obligation to provide

a high quality education to all children with disabilities.

My administration will put us on a path to fully fund IDEA.

But funding must be accompanied by effective enforcement.

As president, I will fight for strong enforcement that

includes measurement and protecting procedural safeguards.

The federal government can also improve the lives of people

with disabilities in the areas of transportation and

technology. Many of the technological advances made through

the work of the Defense Department and NASA are

transferable to people with disabilities, and could enhance

their capacity to work. This technology should be made

available when appropriate for use by people with

disabilities. And the federal government should use its

considerable economic power to encourage and lead private

enterprise in building a more accessible society through

technology. My administration will also ensure that

transportation options are accessible to people with

disabilities.

5. What concrete steps will you take to ensure your

administration and your appointments to the federal bench

and other entities include a representative group of

qualified people with disabilities?

People with disabilities will always have a seat front and

center in my administration. When I am president,

Americans with disabilities will play active roles not only

in policy-making which impacts the disability community,

but also in other areas of domestic policy. I will seek out

the best and brightest to serve in multiple capacities

throughout the government, including in the White House and

on my Community First Commission.

Also, I will reinstate the Executive Order by President

Clinton to hire 100,000 qualified individuals with

disabilities as federal employees over five years. And in a

Kerry administration, the Office of Federal Contracts and

Compliance Programs at the Department of Labor will be held

accountable in ensuring that federal contractors are not

just reaching out to people with disabilities, but hiring

them as well. Goals will be set for the hiring of people

with disabilities similar to the ones set for women and

veterans. The federal government will leverage its

considerable economic power to ensure that private industry

provides employment opportunities to people with

disabilities.

6. What will you do as President to dramatically increase

the percentage of children with disabilities who graduate

from high school and go on to post-secondary education?

If the goal of the disability-rights movement is to create

opportunities for Americans with disabilities equal to

those of their peers without disabilities, then education

is the key that opens those doors. Empowering Americans

with disabilities to be productive, job-holding, tax-paying

citizens is both a moral obligation and an economic win.

First of all, we need mandatory full funding of IDEA. In

1975, Congress made a deal with our state and local school

boards: give children with special learning needs the

education they deserve, and the federal government would

pay 40 percent of the additional cost, no matter what it

takes. Nearly thirty years later, the federal government

has broken that promise. Because of that broken promise,

schools across the country have had to pit special

education programs against one another. Class sizes

increase, after-school activities are cut, and kids with

special learning needs still aren't getting the services

they need.

Regardless of funding, a law will only be as good as its

enforcement. Across the country - in school districts large

and small - this law is not being followed. In many cases,

the good intentions of teachers and principals are

undermined by a lack of understanding of the law. The same

is true for many parents, who often do not know the rights

to which they are entitled. In some cases, school officials

need to be taught that IDEA isn't just a guideline, it's

the law. Exhausted parents cannot and should not bear that

burden. That is why strengthening IDEA enforcement will be

a priority in my administration.

A college education is now a near-universal requirement for

professional employment. Unfortunately, that level of

independence is still but a dream for many of our youth

with disabilities who continue to face significant barriers

to higher education. I am committed to equipping the next

generation of students with disabilities with the tools to

succeed.

First, I will improve transitional planning. As with other

at-risk youth, early outreach programs can be enormously

successful in affecting positive change. Yet despite the

mandate for such services under IDEA, transitional-planning

programs seem to be an early casualty of non-compliance. I

will further leverage Department of Education resources to

create and advertise a single national resource for

transitional planning assistance.

Making sense of the web of college financial assistance

programs is a difficult task. When disability-assistance

services are added to the mix, the task becomes

overwhelming. We must better coordinate vocational

rehabilitation, SSI, and federal student aid services in a

way that is meaningful for students, not bureaucrats.

We need to provide work-study alternatives. Lacking neither

in work ethic nor financial need, many students with

disabilities are physically incapable of utilizing work-

study programs. Such assistance can mean the difference

between attending college and staying home. It is in all of

our best interests to ensure fair alternatives.

Finally, even today, we rely primarily on anecdotal

information when discussing disability issues in higher

education. We lack a true scientific understanding of the

realities on the ground. That must change if we are to

adequately plan for the future. Policies can only be

effective so long as they are practical. As president, I

will direct the Secretary of Education to solicit

disability status and accommodation-cost data so we can arm

ourselves with the tools to take meaningful action.

7. What will your administration do to improve the

accessibility of mainstream technologies and access to

assistive technologies for people with disabilities?

Technology must be harnessed effectively to empower people,

particularly those who are often the least empowered in our

society. I will work to make electronic information and

technology truly accessible.

Many of the technological advances made through the work of

the Defense Department and NASA are transferable to people

with disabilities, and could enhance their capacity to

work. This technology should and will be made available

when appropriate for use by people with disabilities.

New technology is often costly, as the first people to use

the technology are underwriting a large proportion of the

development costs. The problem is that the persons most in

need of the liberation that technology provides are often

the least able to afford it. I will direct federal agencies

to assess how their resources have been allocated to assist

people with disabilities, and work on promoting a goal to

increase targets across the board. I want our government to

help cultivate new, cutting-edge technology.

People who need assistive technology are often confronted

with a bewildering array of potential funding sources that

are difficult to sort out. I will assemble an

intergovernmental team to review current programs which pay

for assistive technology and direct them to develop a plan

of cooperation. The plan would investigate the potential of

pooling various federal funds to create a single funding

mechanism.

8. How will you work with disability advocates and Congress

to draft and promote legislation to restore civil rights

protections for qualified disabled individuals who have

been left out by U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreting

the ADA, especially in the area of employment?

The Americans with Disabilities Act is the most important

civil rights law for persons with disabilities. It is vital

that we enforce the law and that we fight recent judicial

and legislative actions to weaken it. First of all, I will

nominate judges whom I believe will enforce and uphold our

civil rights laws to ensure the protections promised under

its enactment. I will work with Congress and the disability

community to pass legislation that restores civil rights

protections to individuals with disabilities who have been

harmed by court decisions restricting the scope of the

protected class under ADA. I will also nominate an attorney

general and an EEOC chair who will make enforcement of the

ADA a top priority.

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