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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.

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