ADAPT protest ‘proud, angry & strong’

Downtown Atlanta was the backdrop to a demonstration of hundreds of disabled people demanding equality and the freedom to choose to live in their communities instead of nursing homes.

Photos: ADAPT.org

Rallying on Oct. 11 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site, through music, banner slogans, chants and speeches, the activist members of ADAPT, a national grassroots disability rights organization, asserted their determination to win full civil and human rights.

ADAPT is holding its national convention in Atlanta with a packed three-day schedule of workshops, strategy sessions and direct actions geared to challenge and change stereotyping and patronizing policies that rob disabled people of self-determination.

Of special focus is mobilizing for congressional passage of the Community Choice Act, which would redirect Medicaid funds from forced institutional care to community-based housing and home care services.

Ken Collins, who suffered brain damage in a snow mobile accident more than three decades ago and works at the San Juan Center for Independence in Gallup, N.M., explained that the benefits of community-based housing extend beyond the improvement in the quality of life for disabled individuals. The benefits would include helping the individuals’ families, provide more jobs for an expanded home care workforce and lead to a more open society.

Twenty years ago, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act resulted in curb cuts, ramps, Braille markings in elevators, kneeling buses, and many other changes that improved mobility, communication, and access to housing, educational and job opportunities.

The act provided strong evidence that people with a variety of physical and mental disabilities are able to function and contribute to their community when provided with the proper resources and treatment. Nevertheless, the vastly larger proportion of Medicaid funds goes to segregate and confine people to nursing homes, often operated by large for-profit chains. Cost-cutting to increase the corporation’s bottom line has lead to patient abuse and worker exploitation across the country.

Collins said that his program is able to provide services for three people who stay in their homes for the same cost as institutionalizing one person in a nursing home.

For more information about ADAPT, go to www.adapt.org.