Two New Congressional P&A Programs Impact People with Disabilities

P&A Program for People with Traumatic Brain Injury

Equip for Equality was recently awarded a $50,000 competitive grant from the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Protection and Advocacy Grant Program for a three-year demonstration project. Then Congress doubled the funding for the P&A TBI program, which made the program national in scope, and will mean additional funding for EFE.

"Individuals with traumatic brain injury have health and service needs that are often unique from other disability groups," says Zena Naiditch, President and CEO. "They face significant barriers in securing an appropriate education, employment accommodations and the necessary support to live as independently as possible. This new funding will enable EFE to focus on the legal advocacy needs and public policy issues affecting people with traumatic brain injury in Illinois previously not possible."

Heading the new P&A TBI Project as Manager is Joanne McC. Schwartz, who has been with EFE management for 15 years. "Joanne's association with Equip for Equality is longstanding, and her contributions over the years have been significant," says Barry Taylor, Legal Advocacy Director, who will oversee the project. I am gratified that she was willing to assume the leadership role as TBI Project Manager, which will ensure its success."

Addressing the importance of the grant is someone with a very personal interest in traumatic brain injury. Cathy Ficker Terrill, a former Vice President of the National Brain Injury Association and current President and CEO of the Ray Graham Association for People with Disabilities, herself sustained a traumatic brain injury seven years ago in a head-on car collision. Although she terms her recovery "remarkable," she says that the "residual challenges don't go away."

"It is outstanding that Equip for Equality was selected through a competitive process to launch one of the first advocacy initiatives for people with brain injury funded by the federal government. People with brain injury need to have their voices heard and have equal protections and representation," says Terrill.

The grant will enable EFE to:

Identify some of the systemic issues uniquely affecting the Illinois traumatic brain injury community at large.
Provide one-on-one self-advocacy assistance to individuals with traumatic brain injury.
Provide legal services, resources permitting, to individuals with traumatic brain injury who fall within EFE's priorities such as employment discrimination, guardianship rights, and abuse and neglect.
Develop resource information and training in disability rights for individuals with traumatic brain injury and their families.

An Advisory Council composed of individuals with traumatic brain injury, family members and service members will meet quarterly to provide input to assist the project in meeting its goals and give feedback on its progress.

"We are hopeful that the TBI program will be so successful that it will achieve permanent status among our comprehensive services after expiration of the grant period," says Naiditch. =

Voting P&A Program

In the wake of the debacle following the last presidential election in which Florida's election practices achieved national notoriety, President Bush signed into law the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) on Oct. 29, 2002, to improve the administration of elections in the United States by providing financial assistance to the states and creating new minimum election standards.

The new Act also allocates $10 million to the federal Protection and Advocacy System (P&A) for this fiscal year through 2006 to improve voting access for people with disabilities. Congress appropriated $2 million to the P&A network for the current year, which means that Equip for Equality will receive about $60,000.

Specific requirements of HAVA include funds for providing physical accessibility and nonvisual access to polling places; at least one voting machine in each polling place, with private and independent access for individuals with disabilities by Jan. 1, 2006; and funds for research on accessible voting technology. It also requires participation by people with disabilities in developing a State Plan for compliance with the Act.

Equip for Equality, the Governor-designated P&A for the state of Illinois, will be setting project priorities in the coming months. Areas that may be addressed include state and local election policies and procedures; training of election judges on disability-related issues; training and technical assistance for people with disabilities in the use of voting systems; and demonstrating and evaluating such systems and technologies by individuals with disabilities, including blindness.

The State Board of Elections, which is responsible for developing the HAVA State Plan, held a kickoff and initial planning meeting in March at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Election clerks from around the state attended, along with disability advocates, civil rights organizations and other invited groups.

President and CEO Zena Naiditch is serving on the State Board of Elections' HAVA State Planning Committee and is facilitating the HAVA Disability Work Group, which will develop criteria for use by the other committees for reaching decisions that consider the impact on people with disabilities.

"I am encouraged that the State Board of Elections has taken leadership early in the process to ensure that local election boards have the resources and policies in place to facilitate greater and more accurate voting by the people of Illinois, including those with visual, hearing and mobility impairments," says Naiditch. "Individuals and organizations that have encountered barriers to voting or have other pertinent information should share it with me as soon as possible so I can bring it to the attention of the Disability Work Group."

As new information on HAVA pertaining to people with disabilities becomes available, it will be posted in the Voting Rights Project on EFE's Web site. =

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