Oregon's ADA Report Card: How is Oregon Doing 30 Years Later?
How close are we to fulfilling the promise of this 30-year old law?
Throughout July, we heard from our Board members about the changes they've witnessed since the ADA became law. You may be wondering how is Oregon doing on fulfilling the ADA's promise? Are we off-track? Do significant barriers to remain? It depends on which aspects of life you look at.
Below is a snapshot of areas where Oregon is on the forefront of opening doors to people with disabilities and other areas where more work remains.
Community jobs for workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities
First, some great news. Oregon is leading the way nationally in creating community jobs for workers who experience intellectual and developmental disabilities, according to data released in February. The percentage of workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Oregon who work in integrated employment (57 percent) is nearly three times greater than the national average (20 percent).
Why is Oregon ahead of the curve? The settlement of the first U.S. class action lawsuit to challenge sheltered workshops that pay sub-minimum wages to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Disability Rights Oregon brought this landmark lawsuit in 2012 and enforces the settlement agreement that requires that state to find 1,115 people community jobs by mid-2022.
By the middle of last year, the state helped 914 people land community jobs. And the number of people working in sheltered workshops has plummeted. According to the state:
From mid-2013 to mid-2014: 2,717 people worked in sheltered workshops.
By March 2019: 296 people worked in sheltered workshops.
Hurdles to getting people services persist. But, overall, we've made real progress.
Living in our own homes and communities
Opening up workplaces to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities didn't happen overnight. The groundwork was laid decades ago, when Oregonians began challenging the institutionalization of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Fairview Training Center was the largest institution of its kind in the nation, housing thousands of babies, kids, adults and the elderly individuals with disabilities. After years of advocacy, Fairview's doors were permanently closed.
Fairview’s closure created a new challenge: a wait-list of more than 7,000 Oregonians who needed support services in the community. Disability Rights Oregon filed a lawsuit against the state. As a result, today, every child and adult with an intellectual or developmental disability in Oregon is eligible to receive support services to help them live in their own home or with family or friends and to fully participate in community life. That's the "brokerage" service system that the Staley v. Kitzhaber case helped to create.
To sustain this transformational system, we must continue to fund—on the federal and state levels—the community-based services and supports that allow people to live in their community.
Access to streets and sidewalks
As of two years ago—28 years after the ADA passed—97 percent of curb ramps across the Oregon were not ADA compliant. We helped to secure the largest commitment to an accessible transportation system in state history. Partnering with the Association of Centers for Independent Living and eight individuals with mobility and visual disabilities, we filed a lawsuit in 2016 against the Oregon Department of Transportation.
As part of the settlement agreement, the state promised to install missing curb ramps, fix substandard ones, and upgrade crossing signals on the entire state highway system. These improvements will connect parts of communities that have been difficult or unsafe to access for Oregonians with physical disabilities.
We know that missing or non-compliant curb ramps pose a serious safety risk, can lead to devastating injuries or even fatalities, and represent a daily stressor for people with physical disabilities. We continue to monitor this settlement agreement to ensure ODOT meets the goals set out before the agency.
Parental rights
Oregonians were outraged by the discriminatory treatment Redmond parents Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler endured. Disability Rights Oregon successfully fought to pass legislation to prohibit the termination of a person’s parental rights just because an individual has a disability. The law make clear that parents with disabilities are entitled to supports and services to assist them in parenting.
Schools
The ADA continues to be one of the primary laws that guarantees children with disabilities the right to attend school with their peers, but much work remains to be done before that promise is fulfilled in every Oregon classroom.
From Astoria to Ontario, children are still pushed out of school because of their disabilities in a number of ways. The problem is particularly serious for hundreds of children who receive a shortened school day because of behavioral issues that are caused by their disabilities.
Children as young as five end up not attending full days of school for months or even years.
We're fighting in the courts to make sure that these children receive the supports which they need to attend a full day of school alongside their classmates.
In some schools, children with disabilities are secluded in rooms by themselves away from their classmates or physically restrained in dangerous ways. We fought to help pass H.B. 2939, a groundbreaking law that limited—for the first time—the use of restraint and seclusion in Oregon schools by requiring planning, training, and greater parental involvement. With the passage of that law, Oregon parents and teachers have a new tool to ensure that children get the help that they need to learn how to better understand and manage their own behavior.
Greater power over our lives
Everyone should have as much self-determination and independence as possible to make decisions about their life and well-being, such as where they live, what healthcare they get, and how they spend their time. Before 1990, there was a low bar to get emergency/temporary guardianships under Oregon law. Disability Rights Oregon filed a lawsuit to change that and won.
Disability Rights Oregon advocates to limit guardianships as much as possible and promote other options that allow people with disabilities to make more decisions about their own lives. Disability Rights Oregon has successfully helped pass laws passed that require consideration of less restrictive alternatives to guardianship, notice to the protected person of their legal rights, and increased review as to whether a person needs a guardian.
Guardianship is not a matter that should be taken lightly. In too many courtrooms throughout Oregon, a person's liberty is taken without legal representation. Too frequently, less restrictive options that support independence have not been considered.
Mental illness
For years, Disability Rights Oregon fought to improve conditions at the state's three previously overcrowded, understaffed psychiatric hospitals. Though none remains standing, a strong community-based mental healthcare system has not materialized. For two decades, Oregon's behavioral health system has remain stalled.
Investment in community-based housing and supports is nowhere near sufficient to meet the needs of Oregonians. In the absence of a robust community mental health system, many people with behavioral health needs end up in jails and prisons. Efforts to bring mental health services to more children in Oregon is not meeting the need, resulting in children waiting in emergency rooms and motels for over-burdened foster care beds.
Our investigatory reports have brought to light shocking conditions in both adult and youth jails. Last year, we filed a lawsuit against the Department of Human Services to ensure that children in Oregon's foster care system get connected to mental health services as soon as they need them.
Oregon's Ongoing Need for Improvement
Oregon has taken monumental strides forward in the last three decades, but we're not where we need to be yet. You can help us get there.
Support our work with a donation so we can fulfill the promise of the ADA across every area of life in Oregon.