Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, January 26, 2012

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced that it has entered into a comprehensive settlement agreement that will transform the Commonwealth of Virginia’s system for serving people with developmental disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, and will resolve violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under the ADA and the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Olmstead v. L.C., individuals with disabilities have the right to receive services in the most integrated settings appropriate to their needs. The ADA and Olmstead require states to provide people with disabilities the opportunity to live and receive services in the community instead of in institutions.

“As affirmed by the Supreme Court over a decade ago, people with disabilities should be given the same opportunities to participate in community life as those without disabilities,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “This agreement will enable people in Virginia who have developmental disabilities to live successfully in their homes and communities. I commend Governor McDonnell for his long-standing leadership on this issue, and we will continue to work with states around the country, as we have with Georgia, Delaware and Virginia, to ensure that people with disabilities are given the choice to live in community-based settings.”

The agreement expands community-based services so that Virginia can serve people with developmental disabilities in their own homes, their family’s homes or other integrated community settings. The agreement will provide relief for more than 5,000 Virginians with developmental disabilities and will have an impact on thousands more individuals receiving developmental disability services. Over the next 10 years, Virginia will expand community services by providing home and community-based Medicaid waivers to nearly 4,200 individuals; providing family supports to 1,000 individuals currently living in the community; and expanding and deepening its crisis services, including a hotline, mobile crisis teams and short term crisis stabilization programs. This expansion will provide individuals the opportunity to transition successfully from its five state-operated training centers to community settings that can meet their needs and prevent new people from being unnecessarily institutionalized.

The agreement will also expand opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities to live independently through a fund for housing assistance and enhanced coordination of existing rental assistance programs. Virginia will also offer other supports for community living, including supported employment. Finally, Virginia will implement a comprehensive, robust quality and risk management system to ensure that people are safe, receive the supports and services they need, and have opportunities for real community inclusion. The agreement is court enforceable, and compliance will be monitored by an independent reviewer with extensive experience in developmental disability systems.

The settlement follows a Department of Justice investigation of the commonwealth’s developmental disabilities system, from which the department issued a letter of findings on Feb. 10, 2011, that outlines violations of the ADA. During the investigation and while negotiating the settlement, the Justice Department met with a wide range of stakeholders throughout the commonwealth, including individuals living in the training centers and in the community, their families, nonprofit and for-profit service providers, community service boards, researchers and advocacy groups. The commonwealth worked cooperatively with the Justice Department to negotiate a settlement resolving alleged violations of the ADA.

The Civil Rights Division enforces the ADA, which authorizes the attorney general to investigate whether a state is serving individuals in the most integrated settings appropriate to their needs. Please visit www.ada.gov/olmstead to learn more about the division’s ADA Olmstead enforcement efforts and www.justice.gov/crt to learn more about the other laws enforced by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The agreement in this case is due to the efforts of the following division staff: Alison Barkoff, Special Counsel for Olmstead Enforcement; Jonathan Smith, Chief; Benjamin Tayloe, Deputy Chief; Aaron Zisser and Jacqueline Cuncannan, Trial Attorneys; Joan Yost, Investigator; and Yvonnie Demmerritte, Paralegal Specialist.

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Civil Rights Division

1. HSC Foundation’s Advocates in Disability Award

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR HSCF’s Advocates in Disability Award (ADA)

The HSC Foundation’s  ADA Award has gone national and is seeking the next generation of disability advocates!! If you are a or know young leaders with disabilities, you/they are encouraged to apply for the 2012 Advocates in Disability Award (ADA)!

The purpose of the ADA Program is to award and encourage a young individual with a disability between the ages of 14 and 26, who has dedicated himself/herself to positively affecting the lives of individuals with disabilities and their families in the United States. The program also supports an innovative project developed by a young person with a disability that serves and empowers individuals with disabilities.

The Advocates in Disability Award (ADA) is a program of The HSC Foundation, funded in part by the Sarah Beth Coyote Foundation. The selected recipient is awarded $3,000 in recognition of his/her past disability advocacy and will receive up to an additional $7,000 in funding support for his/her proposed project that focuses on serving and empowering individuals with disabilities.

Applicants must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States at the time of application submission and recipient selection.

The Advocates in Disability Award Program is part of The HSC Foundation’s National Youth Transitions Initiative (NYTI).

To apply, please see the attached guidelines and application. You may also apply online at: www.hscfoundation.org/2012ADA.php

Applications must be received by February 28, 2012 (by 5:00pm EST).

2. Through the Looking Glass 2012 Schloarship

Through the Looking Glass and its National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families are pleased to announce new scholarships specifically for high school seniors or college students who have parents with disabilities. A total of fifteen $1000 scholarships will be given out Fall 2012. Scholarship information and applications are available on Through the Looking Glass’ website www.lookingglass.org

These scholarships are part of Through the Looking Glass’ National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families. There are separate eligibility requirements for high school seniors and for college students:

1. High School Seniors. To be eligible, a student must be a high school graduate (or graduating senior) by Summer 2012, planning to attend a two-year or four-year college in Fall 2012 in pursuit of an AA, BA or BS degree, and have at least oneparent with a disability.

2. College Students. To be eligible, a student must be currently enrolled in a two-year or four-year college in Fall 2012 in pursuit of an AA, BA or BS degree, be 21 years of age or younger as of March 5, 2012, and have at least one parent with a disability.

All application materials must be postmarked by March 5, 2012. Individuals may submit only one application per award period. Also see Scholarships: Frequently Asked Questions

3. Hamilton Relay Scholarship Program

As the captioned telephone service provider for the state of Virginia, Hamilton Relay acknowledges that opportunities for higher education affect the future of Virginia’s high school students, including students who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have difficulty speaking.

We are pleased to extend a scholarship opportunity to a graduating high school student who is deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or have difficulty speaking to assist in their goals to continue their education.

We would appreciate your assistance in sharing the attached scholarship application and information with eligible students. One candidate is selected from each of the states where Hamilton is the contracted service provider. All candidates are required to submit an application, write an essay under the topic of communication technology and provide a letter of recommendation in order to qualify. The application documents can also be found online at www.hamiltonrelay.com.

Note that the scholarship deadline is March 30, 2012, so please be sure that applicants postmark their submission by this deadline. The scholarship is in the amount of $500 and the winner will be determined on or before April 30, 2012.

If you have any questions about Hamilton Relay or the Hamilton Relay Scholarship Program, please contact me directly. My contact information is listed below.

Hamilton Relay looks forward to giving back to the community by assisting an outstanding student who is deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or has difficulty speaking from Virginia during this 2011/12 school year.

Thank you for participating in the excitement!

Sincerely,
Marta Cagle
VA CapTel Outreach Coordinator
marta.cagle@hamiltonrelay.com
804-869-7419
1602 Rolling Hills Drive
Suite 203
Richmond, VA 23229

The workshop will cover the 7 Virginia Medicaid Waivers – the application process and service implementation. Time will be allotted for questions. Our goal is to provide you with information that is understandable for you to use in accessing Medicaid Waiver services.

MEDICAID WAIVERS WORKSHOP
February 2, 2012
10 AM – 12 PM
Eligibility & Services

• Overview of Virginia Medicaid Waivers
• Eligibility – criteria and process
• How to decide which Waiver you need
• Using the appeal process
• Wait list process
• Advocacy to address the wait lists
• Case management/support coordination
• Service planning
• Services in your home
• Employment services

WORKSHOP LOCATION:

The workshop will be held at 2100 Washington Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22204 (Arlington County Human Services Building, Sequoia Auditorium—lower level).

The workshop is free and will be presented by ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia (ECNV, Inc.).

REGISTRATION:

Pre-registration is requested at least 4 working days prior to the workshop. Later registration will be accepted if space is available and should be made by phone.

Email registration:
Email your name and phone number along with a request for disability accommodations to:
hannahm@ecnv.org

Phone registration:
Ask to speak with Hannah Manila.
Voice: (703) 525-3268
TTY: (703) 525-3553

Accommodations:
Disability accommodations will be provided.  Please make your request when you pre-register.

The Waiver workshops are a part of the Medicaid Waiver Training and Information grant which is administered by the Endependence Center in Norfolk in collaboration with the following:

• Access Independence, Winchester
• Autism Society – Central Virginia, Richmond
• Blue Ridge Independent Living Center, Roanoke
• Care Connection for Children, Norfolk
• Disabilities Resource Network, Bedford
• disAbility Resource Center, Fredericksburg
• Eastern Shore Center for Independent Living, Exmore
• Endependence Center of NOVA, Arlington
• Hanover Arc, Ashland
• Independence Empowerment Center, Manassas
• Infant & Toddler Connection of  Rappahannock Rapidan, Culpeper
• Intellectual Disabilities Agency  of the New River Valley, Christiansburg
• Parent Resource Center, Montgomery County Public Schools
• Piedmont Community Services, Martinsville
• Resources for Independent Living, Richmond
• Special Education Advisory Committee, Culpeper
• The Arc of NOVA, Falls Church
• The Arc of Virginia, Richmond
• Valley Associates for Independent Living, Harrisonburg

74% of the funding for this product was provided by the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities (VBPD) under the federal Developmental Disabilities and Bill of Rights Act.  For more information on the Board, please contact VBPD, 1100 Bank Street, 7th Floor, Richmond, VA 23219, (800) 846-4464, Info@VBPD.virginia.gov, or visit www.vaboard.org.

I think it is important for us to educate ourselves about late-deafened adults and be sensitive to their great losses:

For many late deafened adults, they grow up hearing and functioning well. Once, they lose their hearing, they feel that they are cut off from their normal communication as well as their own identities. They go through their grief processing in different levels, and learn how to cope and adapt to this loss on an individual basis.

They also need to learn to be “deaf”. They, normally at the very beginning, are not willing to associate with Culturally Deaf people. They would rather be connected to people who are experiencing what they are going through.

Fortunately, there is an organization called ‘Hearing Loss Association of America’ (HLAA). Their mission is to support the Empowerment of Deafened People. They are able to share experiences of growing up hearing and becoming deaf adults and they also have similar communication issues. At the same time, they learn to confront and accept their deafness. They have various degrees of hearing loss. Some wear hearing aids or cochlear implants.

The forms of communications are visual, oral, aural, speech reading, live captioning (CART), closed captioning, sign language or American Sign Language. There are unique challenges for this population. I once taught a late-deafened lady how to use American Sign Language, but I had to sign everything really slowly. She is not a Culturally Deaf person. I also listened to her experience adjusting and managing her hearing loss.

I am sensitive and patient with those with hearing loss because I have a family member who lost some of her hearing when she was a teen. She went through many phases at the beginning. She had to wear hearing aids but always had her hair cover them; she did not want anyone to know about it. She functions pretty well in the hearing society, but she leans on lip reading or sits close to a person talking. It was a big struggle for her and there was no school counselor providing some support. She felt her whole life collapsed and did not know where to turn. To this day, I still do not know how she coped.

I, personally, did not have to cope with my hearing loss because I was born deaf. My parents were deaf so everything was pretty easy for me. When you see late-deafened adults, please try to be patient with them. They sometimes do not speak clearly because they cannot hear their own speech. You need to ask them to repeat nicely and sit close to this person. They will feel you show a lot of respect and acceptance.

By Doreen Solar, ECNV Deaf Peer Counselor

We’re once again resuming our monthly disability calls.

In order to help keep you more informed, we host these monthly calls to update you on various disability issues as well as to introduce you to persons who work on disability issues in the Federal government.

This call is open to everyone, and we strongly urge and ask that you distribute this email broadly to your networks and listservs so that everyone has the opportunity to learn this valuable information.

If you received this email as a forward but would like to be added to the White House Disability Group email distribution list, please visit our website at http://www.whitehouse.gov/disability-issues-contact and fill out the contact us form in the disabilities section or you can email us at disability@who.eop.gov and provide your full name, city, state, and organization.

We will be addressing a number of issues during this next call since we have not had a call recently.

Also, we will begin answering the questions and issues many of you raised through disability.gov. So, dial in to hear if we answer your question or address your issue.

And, we will have some exciting announcements!

I would encourage you to call in about five minutes early due to the large volume of callers.

The conference call information is below.

• Date of Call: 01/18/2012
• Start Time: 2:00 PM Eastern (dial in 5 minutes early)
• This call will probably last one and a half hour.
• We will provide the dial in information and the link for captioning in another email in the first week of January so look for that email.

This call is off the record and not for press purposes.

Credit to the White House Disability Group

Videos with information about the cards – in both ASL and Spoken English with captions — and the form for customizing and printing cards can be found at: http://www.healthbridges.info/?page_id=36

Credit to the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC)

The governor’s proposal for the FY 2013-2014 two-year state budget includes deep cuts in Virginia’s Medicaid waiver program and other disability services. If adopted, the cap on EDCD waiver personal assistance hours will drop from 56 to 48 per week. The Medicaid waiver financial eligibility criteria will drop from a monthly income of 300% of SSI ($2,094) to 250% of SSI ($1,745). People currently receiving waiver services could become ineligible, placing more pressure on local government in-home services, which are also slated for state budget cuts! Other state disability and aging programs would be cut or eliminated, including the Department for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Your help is needed to stop these cuts!! Please take time to attend local hearings and speak out – ask state legislators to oppose cuts in Medicaid waiver and other programs and reverse cuts made over the past 2 years!

REGIONAL BUDGET HEARING – Senate Finance and House Appropriations
Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 10 a.m. – GMU – Johnson Ctr. (Dewberry Hall), 4400 University Dr., Fairfax. Speaker registration begins at 9 a.m. Arrive early!

LOCAL DELEGATION HEARINGS – Speak directly to your own legislators
Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 7 p.m. – Arlington Delegation, 2100 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington, County Bd. Rm. (3rd Floor) – Arrive by 6:30 p.m. to register to speak.

Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 6 p.m. – Loudoun Delegation, Loudoun County Admin Bldg, 1 Harrison St., S.E., Leesburg in the Board of Supervisors Auditorium (1st Floor) – Register to speak at the door.

Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 9 a.m. – Fairfax Delegation at the Fairfax County Govt. Ctr., 12000 Govt. Ctr. Pkwy., Fairfax, VA 22035 in the Board Auditorium — Call Clerk to the Board at 703.324.3151 for speaker number or sign up at door.

State legislators have the power to reject/reverse these budget cuts. But, for them to do that, they must hear from you!!

For more information or for assistance preparing testimony, contact Doris at ECNV at 703-525-3268 or via email at dorisr@ecnv.org. Your peer counselor or other ECNV staff can also assist.

FA is a progressive disability and in my case the hearing issues get worse at a much quicker rate than the physical issues. That is certainly not to say that my physical issues are not a problem (I do use a wheelchair or scooter for mobility), but my hearing can change on an almost daily basis whereas changes in my physical disability may not be noticeable for several months. Heck, I could take the exact same audiology test for a week and I’d probably get about five different results.

So since that is the case, and I know it well, I took an active and honest role in various audiology tests. I have no doubt that sometimes the results from those tests are confounding to my audiologist, but she does her best to help me (thanks, Courtney!).

The bottom line is that after getting a cochlear implant I am able to hear and understand what is being said to me. I still have better and worse hearing days but they are not as often as they used to be, and the fact is I can hear and understand much of what is said to me; and that is not something that I have done before or at least not for many years!

Dear ECNV Members and Friends,

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like thank everyone who has contributed in any way to ECNV in 2011.

You are invited to join at us our ECNV Annual Meeting. We’d also like you to fill out your ECNV Membership Application/Renewal [ Word ] [ PDF ] and if you are can afford more than just the membership fee, please contribute what you can. With today’s budget cuts, ECNV has also become a recipient of less funding and thus unable to provide our services to more people with disabilities.

On the opposite side of the form is the ballot for our 2012-2014 Board Members. After you read the Candidate Biographies and vote please send the ballot and your membership back to ECNV. You may also mail it to info@ecnv.org (Subject: Annual Meeting).

Again, please join us at our annual meeting where we will have plenty of food, drink and a live band–The Sterling Trio, who will provide holiday music. As always, there will be many door prizes given away to attendees.

For the complete information on our ECNV Annual Meeting/Holiday Party, please visit our website: www.ecnv.org\annualmtg\annualmtg.html or downloard it at

May you all have a Happy Holiday Season.

See you on the 16th.

David Burds
ECNV Executive Director

For many years, Deaf people were under the power line and controlled and defined by hearing people. We were often misled by them and under the impression that we could not do anything because we have the inability to hear.

We, Deaf People, know that we can do anything hearing people do except hear. Unfortunately, many hearing people did not agree with us.

Until DPN, we finally got our request to have a Deaf President. And schools for the Deaf around the country were finally able to have superintendents; senior administers, teachers, etc. who are Deaf.

Also, many bills were passed which promoted the rights of Deaf and other disabled people. In 1993, Senator Tom Harkin, whose brother is Deaf and is a long time advocator for Gallaudet University, admitted that the Congress passed more bills in the five years between DPN and 1993.

The door is now open to many opportunities for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in the country as well as other countries. We have Deaf people holding Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees as well as Doctorates. Also, there are many professionals, business-people, lawyers, doctors, and entertainers who are Deaf.

When I think about the past, my Deaf parents and most of their friends worked in the factories because hearing people always said, “You can’t because you can not hear”.

My hearing Aunt, my father’s sister was furious that the Deaf Students at Gallaudet protested for a Deaf President Now because we embarrassed the entire population. I looked at her and said that Deaf people have been oppressed too long and we feel it is time to show them what we can do; not what we cannot do.  She was stunned because she had never thought of it this way. I also mentioned that her brother, my dad, could have become a doctor or scientist, but his dream was banned. Now, we know all children are able to have their dreams without any struggles or barriers what they want to become when they are young adults.

DPN delivered a powerful message in 1988 to hearing people, and its underlying motivation of self-determination and empowerment. We, Deaf people, also taught them that it is better to look at what Deaf people can do than what they cannot.

Now, many hearing people are taking sign language classes and many hearing babies are encouraged to use sign language to stimulate early language and communication development.

We, Deaf people, have advanced techniques to help us be equal to hearing people now. We are able to see that we all are treated equally and respectfully.

By Doreen Solar, ECNV Deaf Peer Counselor