Reference 27 is problematic. That study looks only at crashes inside the blocks of streets where NYC made changes. These sorts of studies often exclude crashes at intersections just outside of the changed zones of streets. In this NYC study, “Only sections of projects that included protected bicycle lanes were analyzed.” This is like measuring beach erosion only at the new seawall and ignoring the down-coast erosion.
No study of protected bike lanes is complete when it does not include topography. It’s important to know if a change to a street reduces the visibility of a bicycle rider who is heading downhill.
Why and How We Should Build on the Curb-cut Effect to Increase Employment, Transportation Across America
This article captures how I feel about many of the issues facing the disability community and the Independent Living Movement. The author describes how enhancing quality of life for one population (in this case, by changing the built environment and altering programs and services to make them accessible to individuals with disabilities and older adults), benefits all of us.
I recommend that we build on these societal gains by fully funding and implementing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), PL113-128 of 2014 to ensure employment and community-based services and supports are made available for all eligible Americans. I suspect there are more of these folks than we have measured, mainly because of hidden stigma still associated with disability and aging.
We have the opportunity to embed the expectation of work and the provision of home and community-based services into the mainstream of society if only President-Elect Trump, Members of Congress, and the American people could come together to stand behind the expectation that anyone who can communicate in any way, shape, or form, is expected to work after thorough vocational assessment and providing appropriate community-based services and supports.
WIOA reauthorized the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and a half dozen employment and training programs, including consumer-controlled services and supports provided by the Centers for Independent Living (CIL and through the Independent Living Services (ILS) Programs. These full community integration and employment programs and the organization that implement them are tiny compared to the amount of funds dedicated to paying people to stay out of the workforce. (Barely $6 billion funds State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services and less than $100 million funds both Independent Living programs as opposed to over $500 billion to fund Social Security Disability (SSD) combined with Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.
The CILs, ILS, VR and other WIOA programs enable individuals of any age and any health condition, regardless of income –for CIL IL Core Servicess- to live in the community of his or her choice, find a job appropriate to him/her, with the appropriate, reasonable accommodations. After 15 years of false starts and ongoing negotiations, the final bill was approved by an unexpectedly overwhelming majority (95 – 3 in the Senate and 215 – 202 in the House) during a hostile political environment in July of 24, just in time for the 24th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To reach every American’s full potential and enhance their quality of life, we must fully implement and fully fund these critically needed services.
With enactment of WIOA, the expectation is that people can work. It is clearly a matter of finding the right job (permanent/intermittent or part-time/full-time) and securing reasonable accommodations (screen reader software/ASL interpreter/telework/wheelchair accessible desk/ergonomic key board, etc.)
One of the three percent of the bills introduced in Congress that actually became law, WIOA passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in both chambers of Congress after 15 years of stagnation and haggling. WIOA consolidates the workforce investment services, and connects the Independent Living Programs to aging and disability services. It reinvigorates Vocational Rehabilitation and other employment programs that were designed for injured, older workers and the disabled. I believe the planets have aligned during this strange year in which the Cubs won the World Series and an entertainment real estate mogul won the presidency for the full integration of individuals with disabilities into American society.
Connecting these WIOA Programs to mainstream health care would increase the employment rate and spread prosperity to all parts of America.
With pack injuries and obesity topping the list of those individuals receiving Social Security Disability, as appropriate, the incoming HHS Secretary, Representative Tom Price of Georgia, an orthopedic surgeon, could take the first step by urging his fellow health professionals to refer patients to CILs and VR before signing off on someone’s eligibility for SSD/SSI.
Unfortunately, right now we cannot afford to refer every patient to VR or CIL/IL Services because they are so underfunded and need a significant investment for infrastructure and capacity building.
For example, although every Congressional District has at least one CIL in it, I bet not 20 Members of Congress have visited a local Center for Independent Living and their State Council on Developmental Disabilities to meet the most resourceful people who are living to the fullest extent possible on such meager wages, if any, and such a tiny amount of Federal support.
CILs, SDDCs, and other organizations in the Independent Living Movement are the hidden backbone of our nation’s untapped potential and ability to prosper. Because of stigmas associated with age and/or disability status, most doctors and health professionals are oblivious to the good work these consumer-controlled, community-based, nonprofit entities. If more health professionals were aware of these resources, there would be more referrals, demanding more resources that would rightfully serve all who are eligible. The demand should drive increased funding for these critically needed services.
At the same time, CILs are required to provide IL Core Services, among others that meet the needs of their communities. They cannot be all things to all people, they can and should continue to serve the individuals with the most significant disabilities. CILs daily rightly refer individuals with disabilities to available resources, such as transportation and housing, the top issues impacting Americans with disabilities, particularly those in rural areas.
The full funning and full implementation of WIOA also hinges on J.D. Vance’ recommendations in Hillbilly Elegy that we ought to help those around us. If you know a kid or adult that needs your guidance/assistance, then offer it. In other words, it takes a village. By overcoming stigma and using my White Identification cane to disclose to those around me that I cannot see or hear everything around me, the village has helped me navigate through airports, prevents me from getting mowed down by my fellow Metro riders, and therefore enabling me to participate in life. People, get over yourselves, if you are losing some function in your body or mind, please do not kill yourself. Just visit a CIL and VR to learn what you can use to live your life to the fullest. Our Country’s infrastructure must be utilized and fully funded to enable us to support one another and move forward. Whomever you voted for, our founding fathers and the women who influence them created the longest surviving Democracy that can weather any storm and survive any crisis, particularly when the American people get fully engaged.
Great article, Angela. Thanks so much. This is the perspective we need to be driving home. You captured it beautifully in this paragraph in particular:
“These demographic shifts matter to every American. Not because there is something frightening about a nation where whites are no longer the majority. Rather, it is because the costs of society failing people of color are climbing as the population grows—and because the benefits of strategies that expand opportunity for people of color would extend to all. Knock down walls of exclusion and build accessible pathways to success, and everyone gains.”
The last sentence in particular says it all. We need people to not just understand this, but believe it to their core.
We pledge in the Cradle to Career Network to make equitable outcomes for all students in education to be a primary focus of all the Network members in the coming year. To keep with the transportation example, at our annual convening this year Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams of Memphis used the analogy of a highway and how we need to get make sure every child, regardless of their race, class, and/or culture, can get into the coveted HOV lane on our crowded and chaotic roadways.
Everyone should have that opportunity. We can make it a reality if we internalize the fact that everyone gains when we work together to uncover “curb cut” strategies.
What we need to acknowledge is that our promise to people is one of equal opportunity, not equal outcomes. In California, we have bent over backwards to help close the student achievement gap—with little gain. So disparities will continue in economic success, crime/prison populations, etc.
We further need to acknowledge that we have a surplus of people; society hums along with too many individuals not living up to their full potential. Actually, overpopulation is the root of many critical issues, including the degradation of the very environment we all depend on. The very definition of Earth’s carrying capacity has to do with whether we get by without harming critical life-dependent Earth systems.
Any discussion of curing inequities should address these issues. I’d like to know how many Americans agree to taxpayers continuously financing couples who can’t afford to raise their own children. This is a time when we ourselves are struggling and when we may be fighting for our share of clean water.
Great piece. Good reminder that objective, evidence-based C/B analyses should include an expectation to tally, retrospectively, unexpected side effects, including beneficial ones, and use that information to adjust estimates of the prospective C/B analyses used to inform decision-making, especially regulatory decision-making.
COMMENTS
BY Esther Lumsdon
ON December 20, 2016 07:45 PM
Reference 27 is problematic. That study looks only at crashes inside the blocks of streets where NYC made changes. These sorts of studies often exclude crashes at intersections just outside of the changed zones of streets. In this NYC study, “Only sections of projects that included protected bicycle lanes were analyzed.” This is like measuring beach erosion only at the new seawall and ignoring the down-coast erosion.
No study of protected bike lanes is complete when it does not include topography. It’s important to know if a change to a street reduces the visibility of a bicycle rider who is heading downhill.
BY Debra Jacoway
ON December 26, 2016 11:42 AM
Thank You, excellent and very informative
BY Deb Cotter
ON December 29, 2016 04:24 PM
Why and How We Should Build on the Curb-cut Effect to Increase Employment, Transportation Across America
This article captures how I feel about many of the issues facing the disability community and the Independent Living Movement. The author describes how enhancing quality of life for one population (in this case, by changing the built environment and altering programs and services to make them accessible to individuals with disabilities and older adults), benefits all of us.
I recommend that we build on these societal gains by fully funding and implementing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), PL113-128 of 2014 to ensure employment and community-based services and supports are made available for all eligible Americans. I suspect there are more of these folks than we have measured, mainly because of hidden stigma still associated with disability and aging.
We have the opportunity to embed the expectation of work and the provision of home and community-based services into the mainstream of society if only President-Elect Trump, Members of Congress, and the American people could come together to stand behind the expectation that anyone who can communicate in any way, shape, or form, is expected to work after thorough vocational assessment and providing appropriate community-based services and supports.
WIOA reauthorized the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and a half dozen employment and training programs, including consumer-controlled services and supports provided by the Centers for Independent Living (CIL and through the Independent Living Services (ILS) Programs. These full community integration and employment programs and the organization that implement them are tiny compared to the amount of funds dedicated to paying people to stay out of the workforce. (Barely $6 billion funds State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services and less than $100 million funds both Independent Living programs as opposed to over $500 billion to fund Social Security Disability (SSD) combined with Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.
The CILs, ILS, VR and other WIOA programs enable individuals of any age and any health condition, regardless of income –for CIL IL Core Servicess- to live in the community of his or her choice, find a job appropriate to him/her, with the appropriate, reasonable accommodations. After 15 years of false starts and ongoing negotiations, the final bill was approved by an unexpectedly overwhelming majority (95 – 3 in the Senate and 215 – 202 in the House) during a hostile political environment in July of 24, just in time for the 24th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To reach every American’s full potential and enhance their quality of life, we must fully implement and fully fund these critically needed services.
With enactment of WIOA, the expectation is that people can work. It is clearly a matter of finding the right job (permanent/intermittent or part-time/full-time) and securing reasonable accommodations (screen reader software/ASL interpreter/telework/wheelchair accessible desk/ergonomic key board, etc.)
One of the three percent of the bills introduced in Congress that actually became law, WIOA passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in both chambers of Congress after 15 years of stagnation and haggling. WIOA consolidates the workforce investment services, and connects the Independent Living Programs to aging and disability services. It reinvigorates Vocational Rehabilitation and other employment programs that were designed for injured, older workers and the disabled. I believe the planets have aligned during this strange year in which the Cubs won the World Series and an entertainment real estate mogul won the presidency for the full integration of individuals with disabilities into American society.
Connecting these WIOA Programs to mainstream health care would increase the employment rate and spread prosperity to all parts of America.
With pack injuries and obesity topping the list of those individuals receiving Social Security Disability, as appropriate, the incoming HHS Secretary, Representative Tom Price of Georgia, an orthopedic surgeon, could take the first step by urging his fellow health professionals to refer patients to CILs and VR before signing off on someone’s eligibility for SSD/SSI.
Unfortunately, right now we cannot afford to refer every patient to VR or CIL/IL Services because they are so underfunded and need a significant investment for infrastructure and capacity building.
For example, although every Congressional District has at least one CIL in it, I bet not 20 Members of Congress have visited a local Center for Independent Living and their State Council on Developmental Disabilities to meet the most resourceful people who are living to the fullest extent possible on such meager wages, if any, and such a tiny amount of Federal support.
CILs, SDDCs, and other organizations in the Independent Living Movement are the hidden backbone of our nation’s untapped potential and ability to prosper. Because of stigmas associated with age and/or disability status, most doctors and health professionals are oblivious to the good work these consumer-controlled, community-based, nonprofit entities. If more health professionals were aware of these resources, there would be more referrals, demanding more resources that would rightfully serve all who are eligible. The demand should drive increased funding for these critically needed services.
At the same time, CILs are required to provide IL Core Services, among others that meet the needs of their communities. They cannot be all things to all people, they can and should continue to serve the individuals with the most significant disabilities. CILs daily rightly refer individuals with disabilities to available resources, such as transportation and housing, the top issues impacting Americans with disabilities, particularly those in rural areas.
The full funning and full implementation of WIOA also hinges on J.D. Vance’ recommendations in Hillbilly Elegy that we ought to help those around us. If you know a kid or adult that needs your guidance/assistance, then offer it. In other words, it takes a village. By overcoming stigma and using my White Identification cane to disclose to those around me that I cannot see or hear everything around me, the village has helped me navigate through airports, prevents me from getting mowed down by my fellow Metro riders, and therefore enabling me to participate in life. People, get over yourselves, if you are losing some function in your body or mind, please do not kill yourself. Just visit a CIL and VR to learn what you can use to live your life to the fullest. Our Country’s infrastructure must be utilized and fully funded to enable us to support one another and move forward. Whomever you voted for, our founding fathers and the women who influence them created the longest surviving Democracy that can weather any storm and survive any crisis, particularly when the American people get fully engaged.
BY Albert.Persaud
ON December 31, 2016 11:19 AM
Excellent and engaging piece; This is a global message and could have great impact in Low & Middle income countries;
Mental Health
Mental Health, Human Rights and Human Dignity “Magna Carta for people living with Mental Illness”.
http://careif.org/magna-carta-people-living-mental-illness/
BY Jeff Edmondson
ON January 11, 2017 05:35 PM
Great article, Angela. Thanks so much. This is the perspective we need to be driving home. You captured it beautifully in this paragraph in particular:
“These demographic shifts matter to every American. Not because there is something frightening about a nation where whites are no longer the majority. Rather, it is because the costs of society failing people of color are climbing as the population grows—and because the benefits of strategies that expand opportunity for people of color would extend to all. Knock down walls of exclusion and build accessible pathways to success, and everyone gains.”
The last sentence in particular says it all. We need people to not just understand this, but believe it to their core.
We pledge in the Cradle to Career Network to make equitable outcomes for all students in education to be a primary focus of all the Network members in the coming year. To keep with the transportation example, at our annual convening this year Dr. Adriane Johnson-Williams of Memphis used the analogy of a highway and how we need to get make sure every child, regardless of their race, class, and/or culture, can get into the coveted HOV lane on our crowded and chaotic roadways.
Everyone should have that opportunity. We can make it a reality if we internalize the fact that everyone gains when we work together to uncover “curb cut” strategies.
BY Dee Louie
ON January 13, 2017 12:06 PM
What we need to acknowledge is that our promise to people is one of equal opportunity, not equal outcomes. In California, we have bent over backwards to help close the student achievement gap—with little gain. So disparities will continue in economic success, crime/prison populations, etc.
We further need to acknowledge that we have a surplus of people; society hums along with too many individuals not living up to their full potential. Actually, overpopulation is the root of many critical issues, including the degradation of the very environment we all depend on. The very definition of Earth’s carrying capacity has to do with whether we get by without harming critical life-dependent Earth systems.
Any discussion of curing inequities should address these issues. I’d like to know how many Americans agree to taxpayers continuously financing couples who can’t afford to raise their own children. This is a time when we ourselves are struggling and when we may be fighting for our share of clean water.
BY Shelley H Metzenbaum
ON January 23, 2017 12:29 PM
Great piece. Good reminder that objective, evidence-based C/B analyses should include an expectation to tally, retrospectively, unexpected side effects, including beneficial ones, and use that information to adjust estimates of the prospective C/B analyses used to inform decision-making, especially regulatory decision-making.