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Degemer / Rummadoù / Chicago, Fall 2007 25
ADAPT (1683)
[Headline] Disability rights activists storm Chicago [Subheading] ADAPT takes direct action to get its point across BY BETH MASSEY AND BILL MASSEY From Sept. 8 to 13, Americans Disabled for Accessible Public Transit the nation's largest direct-action disability rights organization took action in Chicago. More than 500 ADAPT activists came from around the country for a series of actions that shed light on Illinois' poor disability rights record. They demanded that the state government and the American Medical Association back several key pieces of legislation that would increase access rights for people with disabilities. Currently, Illinois ranks 41st in the nation for providing the community-based services that allow the elderly and people with disabilities to stay in their own homes. Illinois' long record of being in the bottom 10 states puts it among the worst when it comes to human rights in general and disability rights in particular. This is a national problem, however. It is not confined only to the state of Illinois. ADAPT is a national grassroots dis-ability rights group that works for equality and positive change in policy and programs to include people with disabilities in the United States. The main goal of ADAPT is to end the bias in Medicaid that forces people with disabilities from their home and families into expensive institutions and nursing homes. To further this goal, ADAPT pro-poses legislation, advises decision-makers and suggests constructive solutions on the local, state and national levels. In addition ADAPT uses actions inspired by the civil rights struggles of the past to fight for their demands. ADAPT has been successful in helping thousands of people with disabilities live in their own homes with their own families instead being locked away in institutions. In the city of Chicago, ADAPT protested for the passage of the Community Choice Act and to raise awareness about the institutions to which people with disabilities are unfairly confined. On Sept. 10, ADAPT shut down the massive complex of the American Medical Association for over three hours until the police arrested 55 activists. ADAPT demanded that the AMA endorse the Community Choice Act, divest from financial interests in nursing facilities, develop an ethics policy requiring doctors to disclose if they [image] [image caption] Disability rights activists in the organization ADAPT protest in the streets of Chicago. They targeted Illinois because of its poor record in providing for the elderly and disabled. [text resumes] are financially invested in long-term care institutions and work with ADAPT to get real options for people facing institutionalization. While the police and the mayor's office worked to negotiate with the AMA, the ADAPT activists chanted and sang to keep up their energy. Many ADAPT members wrote colorful messages to the AMA in chalk on the sidewalk and in temporary paint on glass windows. The group unfurled two large banners. One 50 foot banner read "Stop funding institutions." On Sept. 11, ADAPT took its protest to the James R. Thompson Center (State of Illinois Building) and Gov. Blagojevich's office. A long line of ADAPT activists snaked through downtown Chicago. ADAPT reached the state office complex and hundreds of activists rushed across the plaza and flooded the Thompson Center's atrium. After a long difficult struggle to shut down business at the Center, ADAPT activists were successful in meeting with officials and winning concessions. Gov. Blagojevich's office agreed to close down the Lincoln Developmental Center, which was initially closed in 2002 amid allegations of abuse and neglect of its disabled residents. The governor's office also agreed to have ADAPT at the table for the Illinois Money Follows the Person Project and to meet with ADAPT before Oct. 17. On Sept. 12, ADAPT took their struggle to the offices of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. AFSCME has sided with nursing home owners who have a vested interest in keeping people with disabilities con-fined to institutional living. ADAPT targeted AFSCME because it feels the union has a shortsighted perspective. AFSCME members work in these institutions and the union leadership has therefore refused to support any legislation providing community and home-based services. The AFSCME leadership also supported the reopening of the Lincoln Development Center. The union clearly has a policy of sup-porting the institutions where their members work. This is prioritized over the principle of unity with the oppressed, and defending the human dignity of people with disabilities. ADAPT hoped to convince the union to take a better position. One hundred twenty-one ADAPT activists were arrested on Sept. 12 at the offices of AFSCME. Even though they did not succeed in having the union endorse the Community Choice Act, many in the building expressed support for the struggle of ADAPT. ADAPT's bold street actions show with absolute clarity that an oppressed community—regardless of the depths of their oppression and the obstacles in their way—will always find a way to fight back. For more information: ADAPT.org.
ADAPT (1684)
[Headline] Disabled protesters strike again By Jim Ritter Health Reporter jritter@suntimes.com For the third day in a row, disabled activists blockaded a downtown office building. On Wednesday, protesters in wheelchairs blocked elevators and doors at 29 N. Wacker, where Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is located. Chicago Police issued 110 citations for failure to disperse, based on complaints from building managers, said Police Department spokeswoman Monique Bond. ADAPT, which organized the protest, wants AFSCME to support a federal bill that would enable more disabled people to live in their own homes rather than in institutions. ADAPT had organized similar protests at the Thompson Center on Tuesday and American Medical Association building on Monday.
ADAPT (1707)
[Headline] "HUD fails to deliver the number" [Subheading] Lost vouchers could help get people put of costly nursing homes By Tim Wheat [Subheading] ADAPT Action Report: Sunday, September 9, 2007. Alphonso Jackson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, promised he would meet ADAPT in Chicago with a number of vouchers HUD has recovered. Instead, Mr. Jackson sent two representatives, who brought no recovered housing subsidies that would have eased the "outrageous" level of discrimination in housing against persons with disabilities. "How could HUS come and not tell us how many vouchers they recovered?" asked Cassie James, who introduced Secretary Jackson to ADAPT in May. "I think they agree that we are being discriminated against but they don't think HUD needs to do anything about it." HUD had set aside housing subsidy vouchers to help people move out of nursing homes into the community. But HUD does not know if those vouchers were used as intended. Secretary Jackson admitted that vouchers were lost and promised to recover some and report that number to ADAPT today. [image] [image caption] Photo by Tom Olin
ADAPT (1706)
[image] [image caption] Photo by Tom Olin Fall 2018 [image] [image caption] Photo by Tom Olin ADAPT spent the day discussing housing issues. By noon, ADAPT heard from around the nation about filing complaints and accessible homes. In the afternoon, many people testified about lack of accessible housing and how it perpetuated institutionalization. Eleanor Smith of Atlanta testified that 60% of nursing home residents were discharged from a hospital and many of those discharged go to an institution because they have no access at home. ADAPT is in Chicago all week to send a clear message to HUD, the Governor, the nation's medical community, and Congress that denying affordable, accessible housing to people with disabilities will not be tolerated. Darrell Price of Chicago ADAPT said, "They don't hear our words, so they force us to speak with action."
ADAPT (1686)
ADAPT (1688)
[Headline] ADAPT Locks Horns With Union [Subheading] 120 Arrested in Chicago When ADAPT Refused to Sign Statement Supporting Institutions By ADAPT Staff [image] [image caption] Roxan Perez, an ADAPT organizer from Wisconsin, being arrested last month in Chicago while protesting AFSCME's stand in support of institutions. Photo by Tim Wheat of ADAPT Chicago-Last month, ADAPT confronted Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) on their support of reopening the state's Lincoln Developmental Center institution, and AFSCME's refusal to endorse any legislation supporting home and community-based services for people with disabilities. AFSCME responded by asking ADAPT to sign a statement supporting institutions authored by AFSCME director Henry Bayer, and when that didn't happen, Bayer had over 120 people arrested for blocking the doors, elevators and parking lot of the AFSCME building. "They typed up a statement supporting institutions and asking for money, and then couldn't understand why we didn't want to sign it," said Mike Oxford, Kansas ADAPT organizer. "It's impossible to negotiate human and civil rights issues with people whose only concern is their own pockets...no matter how many people are warehoused and deprived of their liberty as a result." ADAPT has met repeatedly with AFSCME leadership, receiving a commitment from Gerald McEntee, the union's president, to sign on to legislation that supports home and community-based services and supports for people with disabilities and the elderly. That promise was never kept, and was one of the reasons ADAPT visited the Council 31 offices. "For an organization that has its roots in the civil rights movement, their treatment of people with disabilities is even more despicable, said Randy Alexander, Memphis ADAPT Organizer. "The union and its members make a lot of money by advocating to keep people with disabilities and older folks stuck in nursing homes and other institutions instead of being able to live in their own homes like other people. It's unconscionable that the union fights for workers' rights at the expense of our rights. In ADAPT, we know that you can't have one without the other." The arrests at AFSCME concluded a week of ADAPT action in Chicago. The week began with a national forum on affordable, accessible, integrated housing, attended by federal officials who heard testimony from people with disabilities about the lack of adequate housing and the discrimination they have experienced when trying to secure a place to live. The forum was followed by three days of action on the streets that included gaining a commitment from Governor Blagojevich for permanent closure of the Lincoln Developmental Center, and assuring ADAPT a seat at the table as Illinois enacts its Money Follows the Person demonstration. The next ADAPT action will be in Washington, D.C. April 26-May 2, 2008, when ADAPT celebrates its 25th anniversary. This article is a press release issued by ADAPT, and is repainted here with permission.
ADAPT (1694)
[Headline] Harass them until they agree Protests are good fun, often compelling theater, and give participants the illusion of accomplishing something. Occasionally they actually do accomplish something. But I have to wonder whether the disabled activists who shut down the American Medical Association building Monday actually served their cause or undermined it. The group behind the protest--ADAPT--has been doing this for years. They appear at various locations and jam up the works with their wheelchair-bound bodies, though how denying access encourages somebody to care about your own access issues is a mystery. In my understanding of the world, annoying others generates hostility, not support. Had the AMA already rejected the chance to endorse the issue at hand--a federal bill that would make it easier for disabled people to live independently instead of in nursing homes--I could see how a little vindictive guerrilla action might be in order. [image] [image caption] The protesters who were at the AMA building Monday took over the Thompson Center (above) on Tuesday. Joseph Amari-For the Sun-Times [text resumes] But given that the AMA--not my favorite organization--met with ADAPT to hear its arguments, and is considering the issue with apparent sincerity, it strikes me that this sort of protest is counterproductive. Those within the AMA who share ADAPT's view will have a tougher time selling it now than they would have last week. Anger can disable you as handily as any physical malady. Yet who protests against that?
ADAPT (1685)
[Headline] WANTED ALPHONSO JACKSON SECRETARY OF HUD FOR CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES [ADAPT LOGO]
ADAPT (1687)
ADAPT (1705)
[Headline] Fifty Five Arrested [Subheading] ADAPT Stands Firm at the AMA [Subheading] ADAPT Action Report: Monday, September 10, 2007. Fifteen years ago, AADAPT came to Chicago to confront the American Medical Association about physicians's practice of steering people with disabilities into institutions. Mike Oxford of Kansas ADAPT remembers the 1992 action. "The AMA has gotten better with their language, but they still have doctors with financial interests in the facilities they are referring people, and that has to stop." Today, ADAPT was back with the same message and classic direct action. The whole of ADAPT wrapped around the AMA compound blocking the doors. 35 activists split off and blocked the underground parking structure. For over three hours, the massive complex was shut down. ADAPT activists chanted and sang to keep up their energy. ADAPT members wrote colorful messages in chalk and temporary paint. The group unfurled a 50-feet long banner that said "STOP FUNDING INSTITUTIONS." ADAPT demanded that the AMA endorse the Community Choice Act and work with ADAPT to get real options for people facing institutionalization. [image] [image caption] Photo by Tim Wheat