Rally for Disability Rights, Services

U.S. Senator Tina Smith, state lawmakers, and disability rights advocates recently rallied support for the Institute on Community Integration and other organizations that were formed decades ago under federal legislation to protect the freedom and access to community living of people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD).

The May 3 Rally to Protect Disability Funding, covered by local media , was sponsored by The Arc Minnesota as a statewide call to action in response to drastic proposed budget cuts to critical programs and services. In addition to the Institute and other University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, the measures could eliminate or diminish many other organizations supporting people with developmental disabilities.

Advocates also worry that proposed deep cuts in federal Medicaid spending will threaten home and community-based (HCBS) services that millions of people with disabilities directly rely on for basic living expenses.

“We will not stand by while support for you is dismantled,” Senator Tina Smith told the crowd of people with disabilities and advocates. “People with disabilities deserve a safe place to live independently. The opportunity to work and to contribute to your community, to be politically and civically engaged, that is your right. Those are all of our rights in this country. This isn’t a left or right issue; this is about what is right. There is a lot of power gathered here today, and I have seen that when we join together, we can get the change that we need.”

Smith, a DFL party member, thanked the Republican legislators who attended the rally for their bipartisan support of issues important to people with disabilities.

Minnesota State Senator Jim Abeler, a Republican from Anoka, reiterated his support for measures to protect both state and federal disability funding, leading the crowd in loud chants.

ICI Director Amy Hewitt, an invited speaker, said the proposed federal dismantling of disability services would wipe out critical supports for people with disabilities and the infrastructure that allows them to live independently. This includes University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, including ICI; the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities; The Minnesota Disability Law Center, and federally designated projects of national significance that drive innovation and vital research on community living.

“Combined with anticipated Medicaid cuts, this threatens decades of progress ensuring people with disabilities can have full lives in their communities, as promised by state and federal law,” Hewitt said.

Sumukha Terakanambi, a self-advocate and vice chair of the public policy committee for the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities, urged attendees to speak out about the importance of disability services, rights, and research.

“Silence is not an option,” Terakanambi said. “Especially in difficult times, we must come together to make our voices heard. Right now, the disability community is under attack. We’ve decided to take a stand and send a message that people with disabilities deserve to live a fulfilling life with dignity.”

Jenn Purrington, deputy director of the Minnesota Disability Law Center, shared some of the center’s work to represent Minnesotans with disabilities in employment discrimination, abuse, and other legal actions; to monitor and investigate how they are treated in schools, prisons, and group homes; and to advocate for expanding their rights.

“Our mission to ensure people with disabilities can live in communities of their choice is being threatened. The independence of Minnesotans with disabilities is being threatened,” she said. “In the 1970s, Congress recognized the tragedies that were occurring in institutions and funded protection and advocacy agencies to protect people with disabilities from abuse and get them into communities of their choice. Today these agencies are often among the only legal checks on counties and states, and we must remain independent from them.”

People with disabilities, their family members, and leaders of several other disability advocacy organizations also shared remarks at the event. Many attendees carried signs and chanted support for keeping Medicaid funding strong.

One of them, a parent of school-aged children, carried a sign that read, “Autism Didn’t Ruin My Family.” In her own family, she said, there are several relatives who would be affected by the wide-ranging proposed federal cuts.

“There’s so much going on in the world that we need to fight for,” she said. “I’ve got a child with a disability, two kids with IEPs (individualized education plans) at school, my mom is on Social Security, and my aunt is on Medicaid, but it goes so much further than that. We need to fight for everybody.”