Hochul, remember disability community
As a blind person and lifelong disability rights advocate, I am struck by the recent irony in the federal district court decision that overruled Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (a wheelchair user) ban on mask wearing in Texas public schools. The court ruled it to be an illegal ban based on the Americans with Disabilities Act. The ban severely restricted school participation for children with a range of health concerns that would be disproportionately impacted if they did not wear a mask to prevent COVID -19.
I hope Gov. Kathy Hochul and her new Cabinet pay greater attention to the ADA here in New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo ignored the disability community entirely throughout his tenure. No progress was made on implementing strategies to boost employment opportunities for people with disabilities; programs and services across the life span still do not offer choices to live, work or recreate in the most integrated settings possible; the personal and home care workforce is paid poverty wages; even the revised GED test, now called the Test Assessing Secondary Completion, remains inaccessible to the blind; and, believe it or not, not all teachers of the blind and visually impaired are required to teach braille, which is a critical skill for successful competitive employment.
The time is now to embrace integration, inclusion and independence for all people with disabilities in order to lift the largest minority group in New York out of poverty.
Bob Gumson
Albany Retired manager, Independent Living Services,
New York state Department of Education; author, memoir
"In Blind Sight: From Canarsie, Brooklyn with Love, Music and Mischief ”