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- ADAPT (997)
The Atlanta Constitution, Local News Wednesday, Nov. 6 1996 c5 Disabled block DeKalb demand in-home care by Michael Weiss, Staff Writer Fresh off a pair of protests that led to promises from President Clinton and U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, about 100 members of a disabled advocacy group spent part of Election Day sitting in the street," blocking evening traffic at a busy DeKalb County intersection. Members of Americans with Disabilities for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), in town for a five-day conference on disabilities and human rights, first arrived at the corner of Memorial Drive and Covington Highway about 3:30 p.m., DeKalb police said. They were still in the street when the polls closed at 7 p.m., police said. The sit-in was ADAPT’s third protest in three days. On Monday, police broke up a 500-person sit-in at Clinton's Georgia campaign headquarters downtown, arresting 86 demonstrators and charging them with trespassing. They were released later Monday. Demonstrators were calling for the president to support programs that would provide in-home care for people with disabilities instead of forcing them into nursing homes. After he was notified by telephone of the protest, Clinton promised that, if re-elected, he would meet with representatives of ADAPT next year to discuss the issue, said ADAPT spokesman Mark Johnson. “Maybe he’s finally going to make good on his 4-year-old promise," said Johnson, of Atlanta. “We sure hope this isn't more political rhetoric.” On Sunday, ADAPT members paraded into Centennial Olympic Park to demand better funding for in-home care. Thirty of the protesters met that day with Gingrich (R-Ga.), who pledged to introduce legislation that would guarantee home-and-community-based services. - ADAPT (665)
Photo: A man [Mike Auberger] in a motorized wheelchair in blue ADAPT t-shirt and jeans, sits in the middle of a group of other people in wheelchairs. From left to right, they are unknown man with back to camera, woman in pink jacket and red skirt [Diane Coleman], man [Joe Carle] in dark sunglasses and sleeveless jacket, and man [Jim Parker] in white Bart Simpson t-shirt. Mike is holding a clipboard on his lap and reading something from it. - ADAPT (641)
DISCLOSURE JULY-AUGUST I991 From Coast To Coast ADAPT Battles For Home Attendant Care by C.I. Zander Photo by Tom Olin: Two protesters in wheelchairs curl forward with arms raised to their faces as police or security tip them back on their back wheels. The person in the front (possibly Barb Guthrie) has a bumper sticker on the side of the chair that reads "I support my country." Capiton reads: ADAPT protestors being removed from HHS entrance in April action. “Almost everywhere we go, we meet somebody who has a friend or relative who's disabled — a brother, a cousin, a father or mother. That's why people support us. That's why they believe in what we are doing." Danny Saenz of ADAPT (American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today) was talking about the recent string of direct actions which has taken them from Baltimore to Washington to Dallas to Chicago and back to Washington again. ADAPT's primary issue: put Medicaid money into direct home attendant care of the disabled and get them out of nursing homes. ADAPT 's primary target: HHS Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan, also known as “Lonesome Louie" and “Dr. No" because whatever ADAPT asks for, he refuses. “All we want is a meeting. . ." “All we want is a meeting," says Saenz, who is from the Austin, Texas ADAPT chapter. “But he always finds some excuse.” Tom Olin of Tennessee Adapt adds: "When we were in Washington recently, we thought that we had a meeting with Sullivan. But HHS went back on their word. So we closed down their building." Adapt members blocked the exits of the Health and Human Services building and forced guards to close it down for two hours on June ll. Police were reluctant to make arrests not only because it is bad publicity for them to be seen carrying off the disabled but also because most police stations do not have adequate care facilities. Tuesday, June 11, may go down as the biggest day in ADAPT's history for more reasons than the shutting down of HHS. Members began early at the American Health Care Association Convention where Sullivan was scheduled to speak. AHCA is a particularly galling organization to ADAPT because it is a lobbyist for the nursing home industry which receives billions in federal and state money for healthcare that ADAPT leaders describe as "inadequate," “wasteful” and “sometimes criminal." ADAPT estimates that over 1.5 million disabled could be moved from nursing homes to attendant home care if the Medicaid benefits were the same or comparable. Getting To Sullivan Although many ADAPTers got into the Hyatt Hotel where the AHCA convention was being held, security forces were able to head them off and lock the auditorium where Sullivan was scheduled to speak. All except for one person. She was able to sneak in and got down to the front of the room in her wheelchair. When Sullivan started his lecture, she also began speaking and gesturing to the audience, asking why Sullivan supported the agenda of nursing homes instead of the agenda of the disabled themselves. Several security police carted her off but ADAPT had, once again gotten Sullivan's attention. Eventually, Sullivan snuck out of the hotel, reputedly through the back kitchen entrance. But, even then, several ADAPT members caught up with him at his expensive limo and shouted their demands for a meeting at him as he drove away. Then ADAPT moved over to the HHS building where they blocked entrances and closed doum the building for a few hours. As National People's Action had done on their April visit, a few people got past the guards to some upper floor offices. But, of course, Sullivan was “not there." To cap off the day, ADAPT met with Senator Kennedy's staff to talk about the proposed health care bill. “We called for a meeting when we were here before in April," says Olin. “But they said they didn't know who we were. So we told them to just watch the news on TV and they’d see us.” What Kennedy’s staff and many other Washingtonians saw on TV then were another two direct actions which included blocking the HHS parking lot and the busy Baltimore intersection in front of the Social Security and Health Care Funding Administration building. ADAPT members said they wanted to illustrate what happens when they are locked in nursing homes. “It’s the same kind of feeling —— you can't leave when you want to. You need my permission," said Mike Auberger of Denver's Atlantis Community afterwards. “I’m sympathetic. . ." "I'm sympathetic to all these folks not able to get home, but this is a really minor inconvenience compared to the inconveniences suffered by those in nursing homes," said protester Nate Butler. A Washington Post photo showed ADAPT members lying down in front of police cars in a scene reminiscent of civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s. Some federal workers were irritated but many expressed sympathy for ADAPT’s views. Other ADAPT actions this spring included cornering Sullivan in Chicago on May 14 and, again in Dallas on May 22 at the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities Conference. ln Dallas, according to the June issue of Incitement, ADAPT’s national newsletter: “(Sullivan) began his talk, and, slowly and silently, one by one, ADAPT members dropped to the floor and began crawling toward his podium, waving the proposed meeting dates in the air. Though he tried to ignore us, Sullivan stumbled over his words several times. in the end, a sea of bodies lay on the floor before him. . -" Sullivan's staff repeatedly says they won‘t meet with "radical" `groups`, but ADAPT leaders believe that this is just an excuse to avoid them. They note that Sullivan has plenty of time to meet with big money `groups` and lobbyists but that he ignores community-based `groups` whether they are "radical" or not. One of ADAPT's strongest arguments for reallocating Medicaid nursing home funds to a home attendant care system is financial. Leaders believe that, in the same way that health insurance administration costs eat up money that should go to the people who have the medical problems, nursing homes end up making large profits while the disabled suffer. Auberger says that nursing homes’ care costs are in the range of $30,000 to $60,000 a person a year but home care is in the $15,000-30,000 range. Auberger himself receives home care that averages about $2,000 a month. "Not only is it cost effective," he concludes, “it‘s the right to dignity and freedom of choice." The bottom line for ADAPT is the redirection of 25% of the $23 billion that Medicaid currently spends on nursing homes to community-based attendant services programs. While some states have adequate home care services, most do not. So ADAPT believes the primary change must come through the allotment of federal funds. “The nursing home industry is a billion-dollar industry — they give political contributions to politicians who protect their interests," says Lillibeth Navarro, an ADAPT member from California. “This is going to be a difficult struggle. But because our cause is right, because it touches practically everybody, we will prevail." For more information on ADAPT programs, call 303 733-9324 in Denver, or S12 4420252 in Austin, Texas. - ADAPT (451)
[This article is a a continuation of ADAPT 458, and the entire text is included there for easier reading. ] - ADAPT (345)
Contra Costa Times, Monday, September 28, 1987 Serving Central Contra Costa County (This article is continued in ADAPT 343, but the entire text is included here for easier reading) Photo Title: NO TAXATION WITHOUT TRANSPORTATION Staff Photo by Brad Mangin: A solid mass of mostly wheelchair using protesters fill a park. Above their heads you can see palm trees and a monument, on which a couple of camera people are standing. The protesters are chanting, mouths open, and some are raising their fist in the air. A man in the front is holding a sign that reads "No taxation without transportation." Caption reads: DAN O'HARA of Walnut Creek, left, participates in Sunday's demonstration in San Francisco. Title: Disabled arrested in SF protest By Donna Hemmila Staff writer SAN FRANCISCO — Protesters in wheelchairs, chanting "If you can take us to jail, take us to work," were arrested Sunday at City Hall where they disrupted the opening of a national public transit convention. More than 35 disabled people were hauled into special wheelchair-lift equipped vans on charges of disturbing the peace. Groups of demonstrators blocked the entrance to the City Hall rotunda where delegates from the American Public Transit Association kicked off a five-day convention Sunday. As San Francisco police officers pushed the wheelchairs into the waiting vans, other wheelchair riders parked in front of the vans to keep them from driving away. Captain Michael Pera said the demonstrators would be given citations at the Hall of Justice and released. "The situation was getting out of hand," Pera said. "My understanding was by the demeanor of the crowd, they wanted to be arrested." More than 150 disabled protesters and their families had marched from an afternoon rally at Union Square. The parade of wheelchairs had stopped traffic on downtown streets and demonstrated in front of the Hilton Hotel on Powell Street, where convention delegates are staying. The five-day transit convention is expected to bring nearly 15,000 representatives from transit agencies across the United States to the Bay Area. Disabled organizers have vowed to disrupt the convention, being held at the Moscone Center, to call attention to the transit organization's policy on access for disabled people. Disabled organizers say the APTA is responsible for weakening federal laws that require public transit agencies to equip their buses and subways to carry disabled passengers. A successful lawsuit brought by APTA changed federal law to give local transit agencies the right to decide what type of accessible transit to provide. Many transit districts have chosen to carry wheelchair passengers in dial-a-ride-type vans rather than equip their regular buses with wheelchair lifts. Members of the American Disabled for Public Transit and the September Alliance for Accessibility are demanding to ride the same public transit system that able-bodied passengers use. At the rally in Union Square, the protesters heard pledges of support from Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, feminist Eleanor Smeal, the Rev. Cecil Williams from Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco and labor leader Jack Henning. During the rally the protesters chanted curses against APTA and waved signs with slogans such as "No Taxation without Transportation." The songs and chants were punctuated with the clanging bells of passing cable cars, a San Francisco attraction none of the wheelchair riders can board because the cars lack lifts. McCarthy said he backed the disabled community in its fight for independence. Many disabled rely on public transit to go to work and are being denied opportunities because they don't have transportation, he said. "There is no footnote to the Constitution that says everybody gets these civil rights except the disabled," McCarthy said. Disabled speakers fanned the crowd's anger with accounts of their morning meetings with APTA representatives at the Hilton Hotel. Disabled representatives said the wheelchair-accessible door to the hotel was barricaded and they were told to exit through the garage. "The backdoor entrance went out in the '60s with the civil rights movement," said Judy Heumann, of the September Alliance. "We're not going to go through the back door anymore." Albert Engelken, deputy executive director of APTA, denied his organization had ordered the hotel barricaded. "This is not a happy situation," Engelken said as he watched wheelchair users demonstrating on the streets below from the fourth floor window of the Hilton. "Obviously it's a sore spot. Nobody likes this." APTA's executive board has agreed to set up a task force to study their policy, but Engelken said the organization is not ashamed of its stand on disabled access. Only California and Michigan have laws that mandate full accessibility on public buses and rail systems. "You folks in California chose Artie you want and APIA thinks that's great," Englenken said. "We just wonder if the people in California should be telling the rest of us what to do." APTA has estimated it would cost $13 billion to make every public transit system in the United States accessible to the disabled. Staff Photo by Brad Mangin: A woman, Paulette Patterson, surrounded by protesters and signs, has her mouth wide in a chant. She is holding a sign on a stick that reads "We Will ADAPT". Beside her another woman, Maryann Collinsworth, holds onto her chair. Behind them another sign that reads "Transit Access Now" is visible. Caption reads: Paulette Patterson of Chicago waves a sign during Sunday's demonstration demanding better access for the disabled on public transportation. - ADAPT (1757)
[Headline] Disability Rights Group Forces Lockdown [image] [image caption] About 100 demonstrators gathered at the Republican National Committee headquarters Tuesday to protest Medicaid policies that they say force people with disabilities to move from their homes into nursing homes and institutions. John Shinkle-Politico - ADAPT (1756)
[Headline] ADAPT Closes Down All Access to HHS [subheading] Wins Meeting with Director Over 500 ADAPT activists closed off all access to the DC Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) on April 28. They kept it closed until HHS Sec. Michael Leavitt agreed to meet with them. 75 ADAPT members entered the building entered the building before security locked the doors. They presented their demands to HHS staff: * Meet with ADAPT leaders within 30 days. Recognize that access to the community is a civil right. * Improve the implementation of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration Projects. Increase the flexibility states have. *IMMEDIATELY eliminate rules that cause undue burdens regarding case management. *Eliminate rules that discourage small grassroots providers, like Centers for Independent Living, from meeting the needs of consumers they serve. *Eliminate regulations and interpretation of "spousal impoverishment" and "risk." They must not promote institutionalization of persons with disabilities. *Work with ADAPT to pass the Community Choice Act (S 799 and HR 1621). After a six hour standoff, Leavitt's aide committed to Leavitt to meeting with ADAPT within 30 days. He acknowledged that access to the community is definitively a civil right. Renewed communication began immediately with another meeting between ADAPT and HHS staff on April 30. [image] [image caption] ADAPT blocked all access to HHS and the RNC [image of child with a sign that says "FREE OUR People" and a drawing of the ADAPT logo] [text resumes] Dawn Russell of Texas ADAPT said, "People must be able to choose to live in their own homes, near families and friends. Families shouldn't be torn apart by mean-spirited Medicaid policies and regulations. They force some people into nursing homes. "They even force people to leave their home state to get the community-based services and supports they need." [Subheading] McCain Arrests Disability Advocates On April 29, ADAPT took over the offices of Sen. John McCain in DC. 250 activists demanded support for the Community Choice Act. McCain is the only presidential candidate who has not signed on as a co-sponsor. McCain arresting over 40 of the activists. Another 250 ADAPT activists stormed the offices of the Republican National Committee (RNC) a few blocks away. Five wheelchairs gained entry. The rest blocked all doors and driveways. [boxed text] 250 APAT activists stormed the offices of the RNC. Five wheelchairs gained entry. The rest blocked all doors and driveways. [main text resumes] The main ADAPT demand was that the RNC schedule a meeting with Sen. McCain. ADAPT wants to talk to him about support for the Community Choice Act. The RNC staff repeatedly stated that they did not have the power to ask their candidate's staff for such a meeting. Their denial resulted in a nine-hour standoff. During the standoff the RNC staff refused access to the bathroom for ADAPT members. Congressional co-sponsors and supporters of the Community Choice Act came by to personally meet people arrested by the act. They congratulated ADAPT on their efforts to get it passed. The 500 ADAPT activists from nearly every state in the union represent thousands more ADAPT members. Many did not have the ability to travel to DC. Those thousands are only the tip of the disability voting bloc. They are feeling disrespected and ignored by Sen. McCain and the Republican Party. www.adapt.org - ADAPT (1755)
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[This page continues the article from Image 1756. Full text is available on 1756 for easier reading.] - ADAPT (1753)
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Protesters representing the disability advocacy group ADAPT staged a sit-in in Sen. John McCain's office and scuffled with RNC security guards on Tuesday. Rep. Rob Wittman was among those looking for a back door to the party's headquarters (right). [no image included here] [Headline] Protesters Blockade RNC, McCain's Office By Elizabeth Brotherton and Paul Singer ROLL CALL STAFF At least 21 people were arrested Tuesday during a protest that cut off access to GOP presidential candidate John McCain's Senate office and Republican National Committee headquarters for most of the afternoon. Hundreds of protesters from the disability advocacy group ADAPT gathered at the Arizona lawmaker's suite in the Russell Senate Office Building and at the RNC on First Street Southeast, urging McCain to sign onto legislation that would increase access to community-based health programs for those needing long-term care. A handful of demonstrators pushed their way past security guards and into the RNC lobby, and protesters in wheelchairs blocked the building's entrances. An ambulance arrived on the scene, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. After blocking the RNC doors, some pro-testers wrapped yellow police-like tape around the entrances, while others unveiled a number of signs, including one reading "Stop Funding Institutions" and another reading "Sen. McCain Support Community Choice!" In Russell, dozens of protesters — most of them also in wheelchairs — blocked off much of the second floor and took over the lobby of McCain's office, chanting, "People are dying, shame on you" and "I'd rather go to jail than die in a nursing home!' Russell is where Capitol Police arrested the 21 protesters, some of them in wheelchairs, according to a Capitol Police spokeswoman, Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. Later in the after-noon, access to the area around the office was reopened, with dozens of police officers monitoring the ongoing sit-in from the hallway. Both the Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department responded to the protest at the RNC building, and the demonstrations continued well into the evening. ADAPT national coordinator Mike Oxford, who took part in the protest outside the RNC, said the group came to Capitol Hill to urge McCain to support the Community Choice Act, sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill ). McCain was campaigning in Florida on Tuesday. The Senator has not yet had a chance to review the bill in-depth, a spokesman said. A RNC spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday evening. The protest is one in a series ADAPT has sponsored over the years in support of legislation that would shift federal money to community-based disability assistance and away from nursing homes and other institutions. The group held a similar protest at the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday. Medicaid currently pays for long-term care in nursing homes and other institutions but does not pay for the same services provided at an individual's home. ADAPT and other disability activists argue that this "institution-al bias" essentially forces people with disabilities to move into such facilities. The Community Choice Act would allow Medicaid dollars to flow to community-based care options, but the bill has yet to be considered on the floor in either chamber. Variations of the legislation have been introduced since the late 1990s but have stalled over cost estimates suggesting the bill could cost tens of billions of dollars annually. Disability advocates believe these estimates are wildly overstated, and supporters are working with the Congressional Budget Office to get a new, more realistic cost estimate for the bill before moving it to a vote in either chamber, according to Democratic staffers. Both of the Democratic presidential con-tenders, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama ), have signed on as co-sponsors of the Senate bill, and the goal of Tuesday's protest was to get a meeting with key Republicans through which protesters hoped to win McCain's endorsement as well, Oxford said. "We really had wanted to meet with top people with the RNC, as well as get their help in meeting with the contender of this party, Sen. McCain," Oxford said. The protest also marked the 25th anniversary ofADAPT, and many protesters wore tie-dyed shirts to mark the occasion. Not all of the protesters were focused on blocking access to offices. Judy Ball hand-ed out fliers about the Community Choice Act near the Capitol South Metro stop. Ball traveled from Texas to help with the protest and said she came to support a disabled friend. If something happens to his wife, they could say, 'You'll be put in a nursing home,'" she said. Oxford said the group did not intend for the protest to create strife between ADAPT and Republicans, but rather engage folks on an important issue. "People are inconvenienced for a couple of hours versus their entire life," Oxford said. "We really ask people to look at it like that." Ashley Roque of CongressNow and Bill Clark contributed to this report. - ADAPT (1749)
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[header] Twenty-fifth Anniversary Program [subheading] April 26-May 2, 2008 adapt twenty-five years [image of Wade Blank] [ADAPT logos]