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TITLE:The National Disability Policy: A Progress Report, December 2001 - December 2002 - Homeland Security
Author: National Council on Disability, http://www.ncd.gov (KACW 9/4/03)
Kathy’s Note: The National Council on Disability’s progress report is a 125 page document, covering a variety of issues, such as Civil Rights, Education, Health Care, Long-Term Services and Supports, Youth, Employment, Welfare Reform, Housing, Assistive Technology and Telecommunications, Transportation, and International Issues and Homeland Security. After much thought, I have decided to prepare a report on the broad issues and prepare a report on each of the above issues.
Human Rights: The worldwide population of people with disabilities is approximately 600 million people. In both developed and developing countries, persons with disabilities face discrimination and are found disproportionately among the poorest segments of society. The fundamental rights of disabled persons - including the rights to education, parenthood, participation in elections, access to courts of law, and property rights - continue to be violated around the world. Laws such as ADA have served as models for civil rights legislation in other countries, and our grassroots advocacy strategies have been emulated in many lands. Without imposing our will on other societies, our government can do many things in its official relations with other nations to encourage practices that respect the dignity and equality of people with disabilities. Some of these potential measures may be matters of discretion, others matters of law. Our responsibilities and opportunities in these areas include four key elements.

The sensitivity to human rights violations in other nations must include equal condemnation and spotlighting of serious discrimination or oppression of people based on disabilities.
U.S. foreign aid, bilateral and multilateral development programs should back up this commitment with requirements for inclusion of people with disabilities on terms of equality with other identifiable groups.
People with disabilities should be involved in the United States’ prioritization and funding of development projects. For many years the NCD and the State Department have enjoyed a close collaborative relationship, and individuals with disabilities have been involved in planning some of our foreign assistance and international development efforts.
People with disabilities should participate in private, nonprofit organizations and nongovernmental organizations engaged in such endeavors as cultural exchanges and provision of technical assistance to developing nations.

Developments:

The State Department has supported internship programs that allow persons with disabilities to serve with organizations pursuing international cooperation and development goals. Such internships should contribute to making these organizations more sensitive to the issues facing people with disabilities as employees, partners or recipients of services and aid.
Important provisions of such key statutes as the Foreign Assistance Act are subject to Section 504, and as such that a variety of programs operating in the international arena are obliged to comply with important nondiscrimination requirements.

International Agreements and Treaties: Efforts are under way to adopt a UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. The convention would recognize and protect citizens of every nation under binding international conventions, in the same way the rights and needs of ethnic and religious minorities, children and women have been recognized and affirmed. The World Bank has appointed a consultant on disability. As international financing agencies such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund broaden their focus to take environmental and human rights implications of their projects into account, they should develop procedures for ensuring that issues relating to people with disabilities are included in these considerations. The treaty-making process itself can raise general public awareness about the human rights of people with disabilities and highlight the abuses of those rights.
Homeland Security: Homeland security, domestic preparedness, emergency planning and other aspects of our nation’s response to tragedy and terror needs to be carried out with all Americans in mind. Giving several examples of measures that had been or might be designed in ways that would inadvertently leave people with disabilities unprotected, we urged that no program could be fully realized if it did not strive to protect all Americans.

Transportation security measures have taken Americans with disabilities into account, but a number of evacuation, preparedness and other plans have failed to carry these principles into effect. For example, some of the issues involved in evacuation planning of large buildings where substantial numbers of people with disabilities might be located were encountered by the U.S. Access Board (which dealt with them by involving its staff in the evacuation-planning process). The process encompassed matters ranging from technology that can be useful in evacuations, to assembly points, to looking for people, to the necessity of involving the building’s occupants themselves in the planning process; all of these must figure into effective planning on any large scale. Responsibility for incorporating these protections for people with disabilities is as widespread and dispersed as responsibility for the basic protective measures themselves The Federal Government must take the lead in ensuring that whatever is done by law or supported with federal funds meets all existing legal standards for physical, informational and program access.

The Department Of Homeland Security (HSD): The establishment of the HSD during 2003 is the largest restructuring of the Federal Government since creation of our current national security apparatus after World War II. Interpretation and application of each civil rights statute such as ADA varies enormously among federal agencies, sometimes even among units of the same department. Therefore, one of the new department’s key responsibilities will be to establish a coherent and unified approach to civil rights enforcement over a range of statutes, and in connection with a broad variety of employment, procurement, contracting and enforcement practices. Not all the ways in which security and disability civil rights will need to be reconciled can yet be anticipated. Some obvious issues include implications of heightened computer security for users of screen readers or other access software, implications of teletype (TTY) use for secure phone lines and encryption, accessibility requirements applicable to specialized facilities or locations, implications of restricted access for people who utilize personal assistance services, and the recruitment and vetting of qualified personnel to provide AT and facility-access resources in departmental settings or for homeland security contractors.
Recommendations:

U.S. government declare its support for and its intention to become a signatory of the draft convention, and that the U.S. enter actively into such negotiations and discussions as may be required to finalize an acceptable document.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative establish procedures for assessing the disability policy implications of all trade agreements and negotiations.
HSD clarifies the applicability of physical and program access, effective communication and other civil rights principles to all activities carried out or financially supported by it that bear upon the general public.
HSD designate a high-level official to act as liaison with NCD and with other federal agencies in relation to civil rights matters, and that the new department designate contact persons with department-wide authority for each of the major disability civil rights statutes of concern to citizens, employees or contractors with disabilities.

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