An article inDisability Scoopby Michelle Diament about how the Senate voted to pass the ABLE Act. The bill now goes to the President to sign. The ABLE Act would allow people with disabilities todeposit up to $14,000 annually under current gift-tax limitations and accrue as much as $100,000 without risking eligibility for Social Security and other government programs.

Tax-Free Disability Savings Bill Headed To Obama

By Michelle Diament

The U.S. Senate has voted overwhelmingly to send legislation to the president establishing a new way for people with disabilities to save money without risking their government benefits.

Lawmakers voted 76 to 16 to approve the bill as part of a package of tax measures Tuesday evening. The legislation will now go to President Barack Obama to sign.

Originally known as the Achieving a Better Life Experience, or ABLE, Act, the legislation which has been under consideration since 2006 was recently renamed the Stephen Beck, Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act of 2014. A longtime proponent of the bill, Beck died unexpectedly earlier this month.

The ABLE Act would allow people with disabilities to establish special accounts where they could save money to pay for education, health care, transportation, housing and other expenses. Individuals could deposit up to $14,000 annually under current gift-tax limitations and accrue as much as $100,000 without risking eligibility for Social Security and other government programs.

Meanwhile, the bill ensures that people with disabilities can retain Medicaid coverage no matter how much money is saved in their ABLE account.

This landmark legislation puts a stake in the ground that people with disabilities, for the first time ever, can work and save money for the future, said Sara Weir, interim president of the National Down Syndrome Society.

The accounts are modeled after 529 college savings plans and interest earned on savings would be tax-free.

The bill does include some limitations, however. Each person may only have one ABLE account and to qualify a person must have a condition that occurred before the age of 26.

Its utterly unacceptable that our current laws doom a child born with a disability to a lifetime of poverty and dependence, said Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., one of the measures chief sponsors. The ABLE Act will take the first critical step in ending this injustice.

Source: http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/12/17/tax-disability-savings-obama/19926/

An article inDisability Scoop by Michelle Diament about how the senator who shaped the American with Disabilities Act is stepping down after 40 years. It's interesting to read what he all has done.

Disability Champion Leaving Congress

By Michelle Diament

After 40 years on Capitol Hill, a U.S. senator who shaped the Americans with Disabilities Act is leaving his post.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is retiring at the conclusion of the year, after choosing not to seek re-election.

The departure will leave disability advocates without their strongest ally in Congress.

Often inspired by the experiences of his late brother Frank, who was deaf, Harkin has long prioritized the needs of people with disabilities, authoring the landmark ADA and pushing for legislation expanding opportunities for education, independent living, employment and physical accessibility.

Harkins passion to create a world where people with disabilities live independently and are assured of basic equal opportunity has created a lasting and positive impact on the lives of millions of Americans with disabilities, said Mark Perriello, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, who called Harkin the disability communitys number one champion in Congress.

I do not think anyone will replace Harkin, either in spirit or in actuality. I anticipate that many senators will take up various pieces of the disability agenda, but no one will take up the entire cause, Perriello said.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who worked side-by-side with Harkin on the Senates Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee echoed that sentiment.

Sen. Harkins legacy is secure, Alexander said. He is the Senates champion of Americans with disabilities. Itll be a long time before theres a greater champion of Americans with disabilities in this body and I salute him for that.

Speaking on the Senate floor last week, Harkin urged his colleagues to continue his work.

We have made significant strides forward in changing America to fulfill two of the four goals of the Americans with Disabilities Act. These two are full participation and equal opportunity, Harkin said. The other two goals independent living and economic self-sufficiency need more development.

Specifically, he called on lawmakers to support expanded opportunities for competitive, integrated employment for people with disabilities, acknowledging that he hadnt done enough in that realm. And, he said more work is needed to further deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities by providing opportunities for true independent living with supports.

Harkin also lamented the Senates failure to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

I dont think anything has saddened me more in my 30 years here than the failure of the Senate to ratify the CRPD, Harkin said. I hope the next Senate will take this up and join with the rest of the world in helping make changes globally for people with disabilities.

Noting that he once delivered an entire speech on the Senate floor in sign language, Harkin turned to just one sign to close his time in Congress, pausing to teach those in the chamber the sign for America.

All of us, interconnected, bound together in a single circle of inclusion with no one left out. This is the ideal America toward which we must always aspire, he said.

Source: http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/12/16/disability-champion-leaving/19924/

This is an inspiring story done by Dave Delozier of Channel 3000/WISCTV about a man who wants to his education to help others with disabilities. He has designed several pieces of equiptment already that help people with disabilities partake in recreational activities and plans to continue to do so.

Disabled student uses education to enable others

By Dave Delozier

Twelve years ago, an accident left John Martinson paralyzed from the chest down. That day changed his life. What no one knew at the time was how many other lives would be changed as well.

Martinson, who has always enjoyed working with his hands, enrolled in the mechanical design program at Madison College. His goal was to learn the skills necessary to design equipment that could help other people with disabilities.

That means a lot to me. Ive always been a caring person and to see somebody get back to what they love to do and overcome their challenges, it is really inspiring, Martinson said.

To date he has designed a trike motorcycle that allows an individual in a wheelchair to transfer to the motorcycle. His design also has a lift system that allows the wheelchair to be put onto the back of the motorcycle.

The 54-year-old has also designed equipment that allows individuals with disabilities to ice fish. For one of his projects he designed equipment that allows an individual with special needs to hunt or trap shoot.

His instructors at Madison College said Martinsons focus on making a difference for others is evident in the classroom.

When John came into the program he was like others, coming in to learn a skill and who knows where that would take him, said Ron Olson, an instructor in the mechanical design program. Over the course of time, getting to know John it became real apparent he was here to learn that skill to help others.

Martinson said his dream job would be to work for Harley Davidson designing motorcycles for individuals with special needs. He will graduate from Madison College on Thursday.

Source: http://www.channel3000.com/news/Disabled-student-uses-education-to-enable-others/30247364

This is an interesting article inDisabled Worldabout a cool project a team at the University of Hawaii is doing. They're exploring using digital communication to provide unique experiences to people with visual impairments at national parks. This sounds like a great project!

Making National Parks Accessible for People with Vision Disabilities

By The University of Hawaii

A team of University of Hawaii at Mnoa researchers has received a $278,300 National Park Service grant for the development of new technologies to provide dynamic experiences for visitors with vision disabilities of national parks.

Led by Assistant Professor Brett Oppegaard from the School of Communications, the group will explore the use of digital communication to convert traditional "unigrid" brochures used at all national parks into an audio description-format that better serves visually impaired audiences.

"We want to make national parks more accessible to all audiences, including those who prefer audio alternatives to the traditional printed brochure," said Oppegaard. "Visually-impaired people deserve the same access to our parks as every other citizen, and audio formats enrich the media ecosystem of the parks, to include more people, in different ways."

Fostering an enriching media experience

By exploring various aspects of digital communication including media forms and storytelling styles, the research team hopes to provide a dynamic set of audio-described brochures in flexible delivery formats for pilot testing at selected park sites.

These audio files could be particularly effective for the visually impaired, especially for those who do not read braille, and for those who have other print-related disabilities, such as dyslexia.

Targeted for completion within three years, the project will involve the creation of various prototypes based at five parks throughout the nation, including one in Hawaii, complementary research studies at those parks and the development of a web tool expected to enable more audio description files to be built at even more park sites throughout the country.

Along with Oppegaard, other members of the UH Mnoa interdisciplinary research team include Assistant Professor Megan Conway and Media Coordinator Thomas Conway, both in the Center on Disabilities Studies within the College of Education. Rounding out the group is Sean Zdenek, an associate professor in the Department of English at Texas Tech University.

"The impact of this project has broader implications beyond just the National Park Service," said School of Communications Chair and Professor Ann Auman. "A successful model can be replicated at other public venues, such as museums, zoos and other state and local recreational sites, allowing individuals with disabilities to have a more engaging experience."

Source:http://www.disabled-world.com/news/america/hawaii/national-parks.php

This is a short but great article on wsau.com written by Raymond Neupert about how the elderly and people with disabilities in Wood County will have better transportation accessibility thanks to grants from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Wood County elderly resources agencies get grants for new vehicles

By Raymond Neupert

WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WI (WSAU) Several Wood County agencies have been awarded grants from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to help upgrade and maintain transportation services for disabled residents, and for those 55 and older.

Brandon Vruwink with the countys Human Services Department says Wood County will get $117,600 to be used for two buses, including one that incorporate a new low floor design that eliminates the need for stairs or wheelchair lifts. According to Vruwink, Its an update of our current fleet. One of the buses were going to be getting is a low floor design bus thats going to make it much more accessible for folks to get in and off the bus. Opportunity Development Centers in central Wisconsin will also benefit with $25,600 for a wheelchair accessible minivan; and a $43,200 wheelchair accessible mid-sized bus is planned for The Bethel Center in Arpin to help transport area residents to health care appointments.

Residents can contact the Wood County Aging and Disability Resource Center to learn more about qualifying for transportation assistance. In Marshfield call 715-384-8479, and in Wisconsin Rapids you can call 715-421-0014.

Source: http://wsau.com/news/articles/2014/dec/11/wood-county-elderly-resources-agencies-get-grants-for-new-vehicles/

Be A Driving Force on the ADA Legacy Bus Tour

Would you like to do your part for the ADA Legacy Tour? The ADA Legacy Project is seeking a number of co-pilots to help Tom Olin reach all the stops on the ADA Legacy Tour.http://www.adalegacy.com/ada25/ada-legacy-tour

The ADA Legacy Tour bus pays tribute to the cross-disability efforts that led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. The ADA Legacy Tour bus is currently traveling across the U.S. to unite communities in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the ADA this comingJuly 26. To date, the bus has traveled to 18 states and more than 11,500 miles.

This bus was originally procured for the 2006-2007 Road to Freedom Tour, which sought to engage the nation on the story of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the need for amendments to further the law's impact. Both the Road to Freedom and the ADA Legacy Tours are inspired by the historic 50-state journey taken by the husband-and-wife team of Justin and Yoshiko Dart in 1988 to garner grassroots support for the yet-to-be-passed Americans with Disabilities Act.

The ADA Legacy Project & Tour (http://www.adalegacy.com/) is a collaborative effort to preserve disability rights history, generate buzz and excitement around the ADA, to educate the public, especially younger generations, on the movements leading up to the ADA and to pose the question of What will you do now to further disability rights in a post-ADA generation?

Co-pilots get great benefits. They will be traveling, sleeping, and eating on the bus with the famous social documentarian Tom Olin who, since 1985, has used photography to document disability rights history. While learning about the history of disability in the United States, co-pilots will be part of a living tour that also makes history. Co-pilots for the 35 RV and trailer must have a current drivers license, auto insurance, and a sense of humor. Experience with RV hook-ups and ability to lift boxes and attach and detach the trailer are a plus. In addition to driving the RV, duties include route navigation and set up and take down of displays at various stops. Anyone interested in marketing, media, photography, and grassroots organizing could learn amazing things from traveling with Tom Olin.

Can you be a part of that driving force to help on the ADA Bus Tour? You can sign up for sections of the tour route. Contact David Fulton, who is coordinating co-pilots atdavefulton@me.comor503-333-4288.

For more information on the ADA Legacy Project seewww.adalegacytour.com.

New Webinars on the HCBS Settings Rule Available Now

Webinar Descriptions:

A short summary by Lisa Mills, Disability Policy and Services Consulting, on the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Home and Community Settings rule. This presentation focuses on what the rule means for IRIS, Family Care, and Legacy Waivers in Wisconsin. The rule establishes specific qualities that a setting must exhibit in order for a state to qualify for federal HCBS funding including being integrated in the community, supporting independence, and involving individual choice.Link to the short presentation:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkvEmfpQCZM

An in-depth overview by Lisa Mills, Disability Policy and Services Consulting, on the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Home and Community Settings rule. All states are required to implement a 5-year transition plan to meet the requirements of the new HCBS rule.Link to the longer version:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMaWdeH_sh4

Link to Survival Coalition Frequently Asked Questions on the HCBS rule changes:http://www.survivalcoalitionwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Survival_FAQ_HCBS_100914.pdf

Here are the Survival Coalition's budget and policy recommendations for people with disabilities for 2015. It's interesting to read about all of the recommendations in the different areas.

http://www.survivalcoalitionwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Survival-Advocacy-Recommendations-complete.pdf

This is an interesting article inDisability Scoopwritten by Shaun Heasley about how a study finds that over half of Medicaid providers were unavailable to people on Medicaid. The reasons and statistics given in this article are interesting to ponder.

Half Of Medicaid Providers Unavailable, Report Finds

By Shaun Heasley

A significant number of doctors purportedly accepting Medicaid are not actually offering treatment to the programs beneficiaries, a new investigation finds.

More than half of primary care providers and specialists polled were not able to offer appointments to patients on Medicaid, according to areportreleased Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

The reasons that physicians were unavailable to Medicaid beneficiaries which include many people with disabilities varied, but in 35 percent of cases investigators found that doctors werenot at the locations listed by the programs provider directory.

Callers were sometimes told that the practice had never heard of the provider or that the provider had practiced at the location in the past but had retired or left the practice. Some providers had left months or even years before the time of the call, Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson wrote in his report.

Meanwhile, 8 percent of providers indicated that they were not participating in the plan and a similar number of physicians said they were not accepting new patients.

For the report, federal investigators called a random sampling of 1,800 primary care providers and specialists that were listed as participating in Medicaid managed care plans in 32 states.

In cases where patients could schedule an appointment, investigators found that the median wait time was two weeks, though a substantial number of doctors were not available for at least one or two months.

Primary care providers were less likely to be available than specialists, though wait times tended to be longer for specialty providers, the report found.

When providers listed as participating in a plan cannot offer appointments, it creates a significant obstacle for an enrollee seeking care. Moreover, it suggests that the actual size of provider networks may be considerably smaller than what is presented by Medicaid managed care plans, Levinson said in his findings.

In a response to the report, Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said her agency will work with states to assess network adequacy and improve the accuracy of managed care organizations information.

Source:http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2014/12/09/half-medicaid-unavailable/19904/

Self-Determination Network News December 2014

Connect|Share|Learn|http://sdnetworkwi.org/

Share your Story!

Share your story about self-determination with us. Have you advocated for yourself or others to gain independence? Have you defied odds or proven naysayers wrong? Our stories provide opportunities to inspire and learn from each other. Check out ourStory sectionand share your story today!

It Only Takes "Five"

Take five minutes to check out what's happening on the Self-Determination Network:

• White House Fellow: Check out this awesome chance to be a fellow at the White House. Application deadline is January 15^th.

• Be Inspired: Find out what motivated one man to pursue building an athletic and rec center for people with physical disabilities.

• Stay Informed: Learn about how Family Care is expanding in 2015.

• Celebrity Controversy: Read about how Jerry Seinfeld is causing controversy by retracting his statement he made about having autism.

• Service Animal Issue: This is an interesting blog about an issue with pet owners trying to pass off their personal pets as service animals.

• All-terrain Wheelchair: Find out which county in Wisconsin now has an all-terrain wheelchair available for people with limited mobility. This allows people with physical disabilities to partake in several outdoor activities.

• Great Resource: Check out this great resource for transportation for people with disabilities.

• Learn: This is an interesting article about the United Nations Disability Treaty.

• More Transportation Options: This is a great article about how agencies in Central Wisconsin received grants that will increase transportation options for people with disabilities.

• Get Involved: Heres a chance to present at the Multiple Perspective Conference. Proposals are due January 5^th.

• Let your Voice Be Heard: Think College is looking for input on post secondary programs for students with intellectual disabilities. The survey is available until December 20^th.

• Advances in Technology: Read about what a cable company is doing to accommodate people with disabilities.

• Call for Artists: This is a great chance for artists with disabilities to show their talent. Submissions due February 9^th.
  

• Stay Tuned: An article about how the House passed the ABLE Act. Congress is expected to vote on it soon.

• Watch: Watch this story about an incredible student athlete who is determined to compete despite having a debilitating disease.

• Post news or start a discussion: It's easy to do and a great way to share information and network with others!

New Members

Stop by to welcomeournewest members

• Shes on the board for InControl Wisconsin and adirector of a service provider agency.

• Hebegan the Disabled Division for the Wisconsin Water Ski Federationand has a passion to help people enjoy sports and recreation.

• Shes anIRIS Consultantwho wants to learn about self-determination issues.

• Shes a small business owner and alsoworks for IRIS.

• This person is a support broker whowants to join the advocacy effort.

• Sheworks with people to create meaningful lives in the community.

• Shesa parent who advocatesfor better supports for adults with disabilities.

Do you know someone who should join the Self-Determination Network? Spread the word andinvitefriends, families and other interested folks!

Upcoming Events

Here's a sample ofupcoming eventslisted on the Self-Determination Network:

• Teleconference: Section 504 & the ADA: Similarities & Differences: December 16^th, 12:00 to 1:00pm

• ADA Audio Conference Series Session: Accommodating Persons with Environmental Sensitivities: December 16^th, 1:00pm to 2:30pm, Online

• Facilitation and Person Centered Planning with PATH and MAPS: February 2^ndto 4^th, Friends Meeting House, Toronto, ON

• The Survival Coalition Disability Advocacy Day: March 17^th, Monona Terrace and Convention Center, Madison WI

Post your eventon the Self-Determination Network and it can be included in future Network News emails to members! Questions? Suggestions? ContactStacy Ellingen.

We are in the process of reevaluating and possibly revamping how Coffee Breaks are done. Were hoping to start them up again soon. If you have thoughts or ideas regarding Coffee Breaks, please contactStacy Ellingen. We certainly welcome any input.

The Self-Determination Network is powered by In Control Wisconsin and supported financially by ourmembersandSponsors. We couldn't keep this Network going with you! Find out how you can help support the Network.