December 2003 Highlights tx

Directing Attorney Arlene Mayerson and Attorney Silvia Yee wrote several Supreme Court briefs representing members of Congress on the key issue confronting the civil rights community - the authority of Congress to require states to comply with non-discrimination, civil rights, and environmental law mandates. We are preparing a brief in State of Tennessee v. George Lane and Beverly Jones, a case concerning whether Congress has the constitutional authority to require states to pay money damages for violations of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which bans discrimination in all state and local government programs.

Director of Government Affairs Patrisha A. Wright has held meetings with members of Congress on legislative strategies to restore the ADA civil rights protections that have been reversed by negative Supreme Court decisions. Arlene Mayerson and Silvia Yee are working with national disability coalitions to draft new legislative language for defining disability in the ADA.

Attorney Linda D. Kilb argued Colmenares v. Braemar Country Club, Inc. before the California Supreme Court - the first case involving the definition of physical disability that the state high court has heard in a decade. The Court ruled that whereas federal law covers those whose impairments "substantially limit" major life activities, California law requires that the impairment merely "limit" activities. Thus California law more broadly protects people with disabilities than the federal ADA. DREDF joined with the Law Offices of Joseph M. Lovretovich in this case.

During reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the DREDF Rapid Response Network (RRN) provided more than 3,000 parents and advocates in all 50 states with 38 in-depth issue analyses, Congressional hearing summaries, talking points for Hill visits, and sample letters. In May, Arlene Mayerson testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Mayerson and Patrisha A. Wright worked with social justice groups to educate members of Congress on the damage legislative change could do to civil rights protections for children with disabilities. During the summer, Director of Communications Julia Epstein helped to organize several rallies to protest proposed changes, and Parent Advocate Wendy Byrnes spoke at a June rally in Washington, DC.

Funding from the True North Foundation

supports DREDF's policy advocacy on IDEA and the ADA.

DREDF represents schoolchildren with disabilities in Emma C. v. Delaine Eastin, a lawsuit concerning failures to serve children with disabilities by the East Palo Alto Ravenswood City Unified School District and the California Department of Education (CDE). Following years of litigation, Arlene Mayerson and Attorney Larisa Cummings, with co-counsel William Koski of Stanford University's Youth and Education Law Project, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Rony Sagy, have negotiated a court-approved comprehensive remedial plan. Voters in East Palo Alto elected a new pro-child school board dedicated to implementing the decree.

A settlement awaits judicial approval in a lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco and the State of California for failing to prevent unnecessary institutionalization of people with disabilities in San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital (Davis, et al. v. CHHS, et al.). The city has pledged to revamp case management systems, start a Community Advisory Committee, establish a Community Resource Center, and provide Laguna Honda residents with Peer Mentors who live in the community. Litigation will then resume on the availability of community-based living options in San Francisco.

With grants from Washington Mutual, Kaiser Permanente, and the Foundation of the State Bar of California, Parent Advocates Wendy Byrnes, Eileen Crumm, and Sherry Hearne have trained over 200 parents of children with disabilities in the Bay Area. The goal has been to reach underserved populations: parents who do not speak English, families in the foster care system, grandparents and other relatives, and families in low-income communities and communities of color. The training project has brought information and advocacy skills to people who have been left behind in many school districts.

In partnership with the Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) and with a grant from the SBC Foundation, DREDF has undertaken a technology-focused training project to support at-risk children with disabilities and their families by helping their guardians participate in their child's education.

When US aid funded rebuilding in Bosnia, many new structures were erected without considering accessibility standards. With the US leading efforts to rebuild Iraq, DREDF has worked on legislative proposals to guarantee that foreign aid appropriations require physical and programmatic access for people with disabilities.

With seed funding from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, DREDF is expanding its international advocacy with an Internet-Based Clearinghouse for International Disability Rights Law and Policy directed by Senior Policy Advisor Mary Lou Breslin and Silvia Yee. The Clearinghouse will enable disability rights leaders around the world to collaborate on meaningful human rights protections for people with disabilities.

Staff international activities: Policy Analyst Marilyn Golden spoke twice in Germany on disability equal rights and discrimination and in Italy at the European Disability Forum. Last fall, Board Member Jenny Kern, consultant Anne Finger, and Golden led advocacy workshops for women with disabilities in Costa Rica. Parent Advocacy Program Assistant Rachel Krokus attended a Mobility International USA (MIUSA) US/Japan Disability Professional Exchange Program on cross-cultural disability rights perspectives. Silvia Yee attended a conference on "Disability Rights in Europe: From Theory to Practice" at the University of Leeds, England. Patrisha A. Wright participated in the Women's Institute on Leadership and Disability hosted by MIUSA. Mary Lou Breslin, Wright, and Yee provided legal technical assistance to MIUSA's National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange.

With a grant from the David Bohnett Foundation, Mary Lou Breslin is working with Lutheran Volunteers Service Intern Gretchen Godfrey and technology consultant Scott Luebking to ensure that voters with disabilities in California are included as counties move from old-style paper punch cards to alternative technology-based ballots. DREDF's "Guide to Voting Equipment Usability and Accessibility" provides information and tools to support increased access to voting systems and the electoral process. (The guide is available on the DREDF website at http://www.dredf.org/Voting_intro.html.)

Marilyn Golden is leading a nationwide effort to derail a research proposal to the Transit Cooperative Research Program from the American Public Transit Association on assessing demand for paratransit service. While DREDF supports better information collection about paratransit demand, this proposal could undermine ADA mandates giving people with disabilities the equal right to public transportation.

In July 2003, Linda D. Kilb and the Denver, Colorado law firm of Fox & Robertson settled a lawsuit brought against the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District for failing to announce routes and call out stops, a critical function for riders with vision impairments. Santa Cruz Metro has agreed to install "talking technology" equipment - which automatically announces bus stops and bus routes - on its buses.

2004 DREDF MILESTONE:

Next year, we celebrate our 25^th anniversary

and launch our second quarter century -

leading the struggle for disability civil rights.

Arlene Mayerson spoke on the ADA at the inaugural conference of the American Constitution Society (ACS) in Washington, DC. Managing Director Susan Henderson and Julia Epstein are helping to build a California coalition of disability rights and labor movement activists. Henderson and Epstein also sit on the Board of the Ed Roberts Campus (ERC), a project of nine Bay Area disability agencies collaborating by bringing their organizations under one universally designed roof at a public transit hub in Berkeley.

The conscientious efforts of all our staff members make DREDF's work possible. Thanks to: Aram Antaramian, Nicolie Bolster, Heather Cassidy, Sara Hadsell, Susan Hauser, Cheri Lorenz, Dave Madan, Kristan Mayer, Krista Miller, Hongyu Min, Dave Nold, Don Nicodemus, Matt Shultz, Daniel Tinker, Newsha Firoozye Smith, Silma Smith, Kaaren Vlug, and Jessica Young.

THANK YOU and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of the donors and volunteers who help us continue to advance and protect disability civil rights!

December 2003 Highlights

ADDITIONAL DREDF STAFF ACTIVITIES

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Beverly Bertaina
President and Chair

Kim Connor

Kitty Cone

Margaret Jakobson, Esq.

Jenny Kern, Esq.

Pamela Steneberg

Patrisha Wright

December 2003 Highlights

ADDITIONAL DREDF STAFF ACTIVITIES

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Beverly Bertaina President and Chair Kim Connor Kitty Cone Margaret Jakobson, Esq. Jenny Kern, Esq. Pamela Steneberg Patrisha Wright

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Beverly Bertaina
President and Chair

Kim Connor

Kitty Cone

Margaret Jakobson, Esq.

Jenny Kern, Esq.

Pamela Steneberg

Patrisha Wright