WEBVTT

00:00:00.909 --> 00:00:02.529
So hi, I'm Catherine Blakemoore

00:00:02.927 --> 00:00:07.199
I'm the former Executive Director 
of Disability Rights California

00:00:08.407 --> 00:00:12.119
which is the
agency established under federal law

00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:14.904
as California's protection
and advocacy system.

00:00:15.024 --> 00:00:18.894
Our mandate is to assist people
with disabilities

00:00:19.038 --> 00:00:24.492
and protect their civil rights through a
variety of advocacy efforts.

00:00:25.102 --> 00:00:30.110
Um, and I had the really good fortune
of working at Disability Rights California

00:00:30.196 --> 00:00:35.268
or other similar organizations
for about 40 years

00:00:35.268 --> 00:00:38.926
and both as a lawyer representing people
and protecting their civil rights

00:00:39.005 --> 00:00:42.061
and their educational rights
and their housing rights,

00:00:42.141 --> 00:00:44.609
and then most recently
as the Executive Director.

00:00:44.762 --> 00:00:50.738
So the ADA to me is really
based on the foundations

00:00:50.804 --> 00:00:52.967
of other really important statutes

00:00:53.225 --> 00:00:56.472
and those include the Individuals 
with Disabilities Education Act

00:00:56.796 --> 00:00:59.025
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

NOTE Paragraph

00:00:59.362 --> 00:01:04.637
and both of those laws helped ensure
inclusion and end discrimination.

00:01:05.114 --> 00:01:08.474
So when I was a very young lawyer in 1977,

00:01:08.738 --> 00:01:11.457
I did a lot of work
in the area of education

00:01:11.768 --> 00:01:18.468
and one of the very first cases I worked
on was representing a child, Jeremy

00:01:18.578 --> 00:01:21.996
who was in 1st grade and in the summer,

00:01:22.077 --> 00:01:24.221
he had been crossing a street
with his family

00:01:24.283 --> 00:01:29.042
and unfortunately was hit by a car and
became quadriplegic as a result of that

00:01:29.651 --> 00:01:33.974
and when his mother went to enroll him
in school for the next school year,

00:01:34.206 --> 00:01:36.720
she was told that because of
his disability,

00:01:36.835 --> 00:01:39.674
he could not
return to his neighborhood school.

00:01:39.912 --> 00:01:45.097
and instead would need to go to
a segregated special education program

00:01:45.391 --> 00:01:47.849
because that's where students
with disabilities went

00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:51.222
and his parents contacted us
and we agreed to take the case

00:01:51.268 --> 00:01:53.649
because that discrimination of saying

00:01:53.744 --> 00:01:59.315
you couldn't be with your neighborhood
peers was just fundamentally wrong

00:01:59.789 --> 00:02:02.835
and contrary to the very foundations

00:02:02.928 --> 00:02:05.821
of the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act

00:02:06.057 --> 00:02:09.241
so we represented him in he hearing,
we went to court.

00:02:09.931 --> 00:02:14.015
When we went to court, I think
one of the most important things to me,

00:02:14.151 --> 00:02:18.734
was numbers of his classmates and
their parents came to court with us

00:02:18.885 --> 00:02:22.314
and the students,
they're 1st and 2nd graders,

00:02:22.378 --> 00:02:25.627
um, clearly enjoyed being with Jeremy

00:02:25.770 --> 00:02:29.215
but also more importantly,
talked to the news media that was there

00:02:29.259 --> 00:02:34.256
about how they couldn't understand why
Jeremy couldn't attend school with them

00:02:34.475 --> 00:02:38.480
and how important it was that their friend
be able to go to school

00:02:38.510 --> 00:02:43.534
and participate with them
just like he had in the years before.

00:02:43.760 --> 00:02:48.070
So that case to me, just represented
the fist opportunity

00:02:48.082 --> 00:02:51.707
to really challenge a discriminatory
practice and ensure that Jeremy

00:02:51.957 --> 00:02:54.160
could attend his neighborhood school

00:02:54.270 --> 00:02:57.395
and be included with his friends.

00:02:57.504 --> 00:03:03.475
So I think the first "aha" moment
of the ADA was our ability

00:03:03.627 --> 00:03:08.577
to use the ADA and to discuss
the United States Supreme Court decision

00:03:08.746 --> 00:03:14.231
called the "Olmstead Case" which said
that people with disabilities

00:03:14.388 --> 00:03:18.873
could not be
unnecessarily segregated in institutions

00:03:19.181 --> 00:03:25.227
and one of the most powerful ways we use
the ADA and that case holding

00:03:25.328 --> 00:03:28.021
was to challenge the budget cuts

00:03:28.402 --> 00:03:33.185
that were proposed when California
was deep in an economic recession in 2008

00:03:33.221 --> 00:03:38.345
and 2009. The state made the decision
that what it was going to do is

00:03:38.434 --> 00:03:42.519
significantly reduce community-based
supports like the

00:03:42.571 --> 00:03:44.442
in-home supportive services program

00:03:44.683 --> 00:03:50.417
Umm and our lawyers in
Disability Rights California

00:03:50.723 --> 00:03:57.090
decided that that violated the ADA and
would result in people needing to move

00:03:57.191 --> 00:04:00.844
into institutions, contrary to the
Olmstead Decision

00:04:00.986 --> 00:04:04.933
So twice we went into federal court.
Twice we were successful

00:04:05.057 --> 00:04:11.950
with the court holding that the ADA
prohibited the state from making decisions

00:04:12.038 --> 00:04:15.991
that would result in the unnecessary
institutionalization of people.

00:04:15.991 --> 00:04:20.289
So the ADA is an 
extraordinarily powerful tool to

00:04:21.070 --> 00:04:27.412
protect people's civil rights and one
that we need to continue to use today.

00:04:29.071 --> 00:04:34.801
So I think what we've learned um
in the last few months is that

00:04:34.870 --> 00:04:41.568
there is always room for us to continue
to use the ADA as a tool to push further

00:04:41.998 --> 00:04:46.705
and the pandemic really
reminds us of the high risk

00:04:46.814 --> 00:04:51.067
that people with disabilities,
particularly those living in segregated

00:04:51.282 --> 00:04:53.880
and isolated settings
like nursing homes face.

00:04:55.753 --> 00:05:00.526
COVID, which disproportionately 
impacted nursing home residents

00:05:00.638 --> 00:05:04.989
and it's in part because of the congregate
setting that they live in

00:05:05.059 --> 00:05:12.091
and the vulnerability of people with
disabilities to this particular disease.

00:05:12.214 --> 00:05:17.620
And so as we think about reopening
California and moving forward,

00:05:17.701 --> 00:05:22.679
we have to really remember the
importance of the ADA in saying

00:05:22.772 --> 00:05:25.370
that people need to live in the community.

00:05:25.832 --> 00:05:27.355
They need to be included.

00:05:27.613 --> 00:05:31.404
We have to be mindful of how do we
accommodate the needs of people with

00:05:31.491 --> 00:05:33.942
disabilities as part of our reopening.

00:05:34.149 --> 00:05:39.600
How do we redesign service systems so that
we no longer think of nursing homes as

00:05:39.630 --> 00:05:45.830
a primary place where people with
disabilities or seniors should be living

00:05:46.016 --> 00:05:51.921
How do we ensure that people with
disabilities, when they are participating

00:05:52.022 --> 00:05:58.653
in activities of the day aren't placed
in isolated day kinds of programs

00:05:58.782 --> 00:06:04.422
but instead given opportunities to
interact in the larger community

00:06:04.545 --> 00:06:08.074
So lots of work in that area to be done.

00:06:08.472 --> 00:06:14.296
I think the other part that's important
is to use this moment to

00:06:14.302 --> 00:06:17.968
engage in intersectional civil rights
advocacy.

00:06:18.277 --> 00:06:25.249
There's lots of energy now to looking
at issues of discrimination affecting

00:06:25.517 --> 00:06:29.094
black and brown people who are
also more disproportionately impacted

00:06:29.227 --> 00:06:33.890
by the pandemic and to use this as an
opportunity to come together as

00:06:34.003 --> 00:06:40.089
a larger civil rights community
to advance inclusion, integration,

00:06:40.391 --> 00:06:45.172
nondiscrimination for all people
including those with disabilities.