Attorney General Martha Coakley to Keynote ADDP Annual Meeting
ADDP Annual Meeting
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Framington Sheraton
9:30 a.m.
1657 Worcester Rd, Framingham, MA
 9:00 a.m. Registration Opens
9:30 a.m. Exhibitor's Continental Breakfast
10:00 am. Annual Meeting
10:30 am Attorney General
Martha Coakley
11:30 am Annual Meeting continues
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ADDP Legislative Box Luncheon
State House
Hall of Flags
11:30 a.m.
Wednesday
January 29, 2014
Special Guests:
All House & Senate Members
to be announced
ADDP Legislators of the Year
   
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Patrick Should Lead on Disabilities Employment
by Gary Blumenthal, Published Worcester Telegram & Gazette, December 3, 2013
 It is that time of year again. Leaves piling up, temperatures dropping, days getting shorter and just like the cycle of life, the legislative political season will be soon upon us. The quiet humming in the halls of the Statehouse will soon be replaced by noisy banter between the governor and the Legislature, as the House and Senate begin to endorse, pick apart or improve upon the final recommendations of the state's chief executive. True, in 13 months, Gov. Deval Patrick must pack up his personal effects from the corner office, but first he has one last constitutional duty he must execute. By the end of January of 2014, the governor will be expected to file his last budget recommendation for the coming year. At this point in an administration, most governors are tired out and exhausted from the demands of the job and the accompanying nitpicking from a myriad of observers and prognosticators. Most last-year governors are happy to take the easy way out and just manage their final year without creating too much dust, bad press or excessive criticism. They'll usually focus just on the basics: offering a maintenance budget that holds the fort down, shaking off most policy changes and cutting program investments because it is always easier to manage a budget by just saying no to solving vexing problems.
But, exceptional governors - and clearly Mr. Patrick is in this category - want to do more. Rather than just maintaining the status quo, exceptional governors still have courage, bravery and vision to actually lead until their successor has taken their oath of office.
For Mr. Patrick, one key area where he can still show he is a leader will be in how he addresses critical disability policy considerations.
Massachusetts, along with several other states, is currently under examination by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Labor, in regard to how the state runs disability employment programs.
Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities, their families and advocates have been asking for employment reform that will end the predominant use of sheltered workshops that pay pennies on the dollar to employ people with disabilities in segregated and isolated settings.
Over the last several months, a coalition of advocates have been working together to redesign Massachusetts disability employment programs to encourage inclusive and higher-paying jobs for people with disabilities. State and national experts have come together and presented the Patrick administration with a "Blueprint for Employing Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities in Massachusetts."
The blueprint represents an optimistic vision for helping people with disabilities to become job seekers and job holders, while outdated employment programs, like sheltered workshops, are shuttered.
Success of the blueprint will be dependent on the governor's willingness, while preparing his budget, to stand steady as a visionary leader and make the fiscal investments needed to begin the implementation of a new and inclusive employment model.
Should the governor or his bureaucratic team opt to not endorse the blueprint, there is a high likelihood that the U.S. Department of Justice may sue the state for violating the A.D.A. The precedent set by the Supreme Court case, Olmstead v. L.C., in 1999 requires that people with mental disabilities be integrated into the community or it is considered discrimination.
An Oregon case filed in 2012, Lane v. Kitzhaber, has recently found that this Olmstead case now not only applies to integration where a person resides, but also as to their employment. Therefore, by not endorsing this blueprint, and continuing to allow the segregation of individuals with mental health and developmental disabilities within an employment setting, and not offering adequate alternatives, is discrimination, and ripe for a lawsuit.
Just next door, the State of Rhode Island has been ordered by the federal courts to come up with millions of dollars to fix the state's disability employment programs.
By Jan. 29, when Mr. Patrick releases his next year's budget, we will learn if he continues to embrace leadership we have come to expect from him or opt for maintenance management, and a quiet exit as he rides out his final year in office.
Gary Blumenthal is president and CEO of the Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers. He is a former member of the Kansas House of Representatives and was appointed by President Barack Obama, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2009, to the National Council on Disability.
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