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Disability Plank of Barack Obama/Joe Biden |
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Monday, 10 November 2008 |
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Following is the disability plank of our new President and Vice President-Elects, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Most notably, it includes a commitment to: · Fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, · Task the Secretary of Education with identifying and recommending strategies to overcome barriers to education for people with disabilities, · Appoint Judges and Justices who respect laws designed to protect people with disabilities, · Restore funding to the agencies tasked with enforcing anti-discrimination laws that protect workers with disabilities, · Approve universal health care legislation that will assure that Americans with disabilities will have quality, affordable, portable coverage that will allow them to take a job without fear of losing coverage, · People with disabilities who lose their Medicare or Medicaid eligibility by taking a job, but still cannot afford coverage, will be provided a subsidy in order to purchase coverage, · Prohibit insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions, · Reinstate a Clinton Executive Order aimed at hiring an additional 100,000 federal employees with disabilities within five years, · Require the federal government and employers who are federal contractors to “take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities,” · Direct the Secretary of Labor to bring together employers, employer associations, human resources professionals, disability advocates, service providers, and the labor movement to identify, promote, and disseminate best practices in accommodating workers with disabilities, · Launch an aggressive effort to educate employers about tax benefits like the Disabled Access Tax Credit, a Tax Deduction for Architectural and Transportation Barrier Removal, and the Work Opportunity Tax Credit so that more employers use them to hire greater numbers of employees with disabilities. · Establish a National Commission on People with Disabilities, Employment, and Social Security that looks at overcoming work disincentives in the SSDI, SSI, Medicare and Medicaid programs, revisits the Ticket to Work program and current definitions of ‘substantial gainful activity,’ · Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act by reducing the threshold for which employers are covered from companies with 50 or more employees to those with 25 or more, · Mandate a ‘reasonable amount of sick leave’, minimally at least 7 paid sick days a year for all workers, · Assure the rights affirmed in the Olmstead decision and approve the Community Choice Act and the CLASS Act, · Streamline the Social Security approval process, · Protect voting rights and · Invest in assistive technologies. http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/DisabilityPlanFactSheet.pdf
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Last Updated ( Friday, 14 November 2008 )
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