Disabled advocacy groups are calling on Starbucks to reverse its phase-out of plastic straws from its stores, highlighting the controversy of the decision.
An international coalition of disabled rights groups sent a letter to Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, stating that his company’s decision to phase out single-use plastic straws has fomented “considerable anxiety” among the disabled community. The letter calls on Starbucks to research an alternative that satisfies both environmental concerns and disabled customers.
“It has been just over one month since your announcement of Starbucks’ intention to eliminate single-use plastic straws globally by 2020 caused considerable anxiety among the disabled community. Furthermore, the ambiguous follow-up statement has done little to reduce these concerns and has led to many disabled people feeling excluded by the world’s largest coffee chain,” read a portion of the letter to Johnson. Click Here to Read More
Every morning for about a month, in training designed for him, the high school senior with an intellectual disability practiced making steel brackets for trucks at a Des Moines factory. The skill took more than a few tries to master. But his co-workers, he said, cheered him on.
A supervisor stayed close, showing him how to pack the parts neatly into boxes that would ship to Ford, Honda and General Motors. And the effort produced something the 20-year-old once deemed distant: A job offer he could see turning into a career.
s the nation’s unemployment rate nears the lowest point in 50 years, sinking in May to 3.8 percent, companies are searching more widely to fill vacancies. Advocates say the labor shortage, coupled with growing openness to workers with mental and physical limitations, has brought record numbers of people with disabilities into the workforce — and it has also pushed employers to adopt more inclusive practices to support the new hires, such as longer and more hands-on training. Click Here to Read More
Some disabled rights advocates are speaking out against an emerging trend of restaurants and other companies phasing out the use of plastic straws with drink orders, arguing that the alternatives can be inadequate for customers with various disabilities.
Plastic straws have been disappearing from coffee shops, airlines, hotels and more amid concerns that they frequently wind up as ocean waste, presenting an environmental hazard. The campaign against them accelerated this week amid news that major companies like Starbucks, American Airlines and Hyatt are drastically reducing their use, in some cases opting for straw-less plastic tops on some drinks instead.
But disability advocates say they feel the campaign against plastic straws is being waged without adequate input from disabled customers.
Early last week a screenshot of a Yelp review for a nail salon started surfacing on Facebook. In the post, a woman from St. Peters, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, wrote about the shock and frustration she felt when a salon manager turned her daughter Beth away from getting a pedicure. The reason, Mintner claimed: because Beth was in a wheelchair.
Like Beth, I live in suburban Missouri, I use a wheelchair, and I enjoy getting my nails done. I also understand that the fairly uneventful experience is uniquely different when you have a disability. It doesn’t change the way kicking back in a massage chair makes you feel—that’s still heaven—but when you’re unsure about how willing a salon will be to accommodate you, something as relaxing as a spa day can be the source of stress and anxiety.
This year will be the 23rd time in my life that I cast a vote for a member of Congress. I remember back in 1972 being forced to vote two weeks ahead of time by absentee ballot because my polling place was not accessible. I remember in 1992 being challenged at the poll because of disability, and I remember the empowerment I felt by calling a state hotline while at the poll to “fix” the situation to my satisfaction.
Times have changed for people with disabilities in terms of voting ease. Now most polling places and polling booths are accessible. Voting early by mail is encouraged for everyone in many states. Yes, there are still barriers to voting—especially in other states, but there is no excuse for any person with a disability not to vote. Nothing about us without us, right?
But I want to talk about something besides voting. I want to talk about people with disabilities getting involved with political campaigns. I have done it twice when I first starting out. I worked on a statewide Republican campaign for governor and a county campaign for a Democrat. They both lost, and that may be a commentary of the type of person I support.
Norman A. Smith, Associate Executive Director
Nevertheless, these campaigns opened doors for me, and, more importantly, these candidates, their staffers and supporters gained a greater understanding of my needs as a person with a disability. This was a great asset in advocating on disability issues through these same people over the years.
“Nothing about us without us” can take many forms at all levels of government. But we need to be involved to make this come true! We need to be involved from the start by voting! Before we go to public meetings, before we demonstrate, before we sit-in, before we get arrested, WE NEED TO VOTE!!! The rest is meaningless unless we exercise our right to vote.
To paraphrase our great leader Justin Dart: We need to vote as if our lives dependent on it! We all need to vote on November 6!
I am sure we have all heard theses phrases before, so you won’t be surprised when I tell you that I am referring to issues revolving around Affordable Housing in New Jersey.
Yesterday I attended an open hearing of the Assembly Committee Housing. The committee members were called together by chairman Benjie Wimberly (D. Passaic) to discuss the state of affordable housing and the complaints of several Towns about the burden that affordable housing will place on their towns. This is the result of COAH not passing third round rules back in 2015, so the Towns have had to go to the Courts to resolve these issues. Most have settled with Fair Share Housing and have had their affordable housing plans approved by the Courts, however with numbers that they still don’t like. And so, a call for a return of COAH to administer these plans and settle these issues.
That would be all well and good, if COAH had been allowed to work as it originally was set up. In the early days, the COAH board was a bi-partisan Board and would work with towns to discuss their affordable housing issues and ultimately arrive at a settlement. However, the towns still railed against having to do their housing obligations, so then governor Christi’ sought to marginalize COAH to the point that it was no longer able to function. Ultimately, The Supreme Court ruled that until COAH is reconstituted, Towns would have to have their housing plans certified by the courts. So that is where we are today.
Settling through the Courts was always an option, however today it is the place of last resort, so that Towns now must finally settle, establish their plans and then help to get the construction done. This is what they don’t like. At yesterday’s hearing, I heard a lot of statements from the members of the committee, as well as from the mayors of many towns, of how they support affordable housing however they are worried that they don’t have sufficient infrastructure within their towns, to manage this new growth. They fear overbuilding of the town, overcrowding in their schools, and higher taxes. All this really without having any new construction being built yet.
So, this clearly is still a very big issue for towns in New Jersey. We are yet to hear about the new Governor’s position on Affordable Housing. Will the Governor re-institute COAH or a like body that will take up these issues and remove them from the courts. Or will he allow the process to run its course, through the judicial system, ultimately having judges making the decisions as a Town’s affordable housing plans.
My experience has been that even when COAH was an active body, some towns would still delay, and throw up barriers as to why they couldn’t comply with the law. However, with the issues in the hands of the courts, Towns have been forced to settle and move on. My recommendation would be to stay the course, allow the Courts to do their job, and settle these issues. No longer are towns allowed to get away with delay after delay, hoping for some governor or new legislature to change the law. Given some time, we will begin to see new housing develop that will ease the burden of those who need it. Finding decent and affordable housing should be something that we should all support.
Nearly 20 tenants from Project Freedom’s Mercer County housing complexes attended the RevUpNJ’s kickoff rally during National Disability Registration Week.
RevUp is a national nonpartisan effort by the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD). RevUp-NJ is organized by the Alliance Center for Independence (ACI) based in Edison, and it is sponsored by the NJ Council on Developmental Disabilities.
The rally featured information tables and speeches by disability leaders and candidates running in this year’s congressional elections.
Well it’s that time of year again, when the Governor and the State Legislature argue over the State Budget, which must be passed by June 30. If not, then the government is supposed to shut down.
Tim Doherty, Executive Director
Now the Governor has said that he doesn’t want to pass a budget that doesn’t have a realistic forecast that shows that the revenue to support the budget will indeed come in. He acknowledges that other governors have played games with the budget, often presenting very optimistic forecasts as to the amount of revenue that the State would generate, only to fall very short of that forecast, thereby having a severe shortfall at the end of the year. This is why he advocates for higher taxes which only further burden the citizens of New Jersey– A state that is the sixth most expensive state in which to live.
The opposition both from the Democrats and Republicans are urging some combination of tax cuts also with some tax increases. The problem is that the Governor has laid out such ambitious goals and has promised increased spending almost across the board, that there doesn’t seem to be any amount of money sufficient to pay for his new programs.
Along with this scenario, is the fact that the Governor wants to confiscate the money which is still in the municipal housing trust fund accounts, to help balance his State budget. These funds were raised as fees paid by for profit developers when they build commercial and market rate housing. They cannot be used for anything else but affordable housing, however, in the past governors have taken similar monies from dedicated fund accounts. Witness the gasoline tax, which was only supposed to fund repairs to our roadways, but has often found itself being put into the general fund to balance the budget. As a result, this past year, that tax was raised.
Furthermore, as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling with regard to COAH and the municipality’s affordable housing obligations, municipalities need those funds more than ever now, in order to fund their required housing needs. Without these funds, towns could legitimately tell the court that they are unable to comply because the State has confiscated their housing trust funds. These funds survived the several attempts of the Christi Administration to scarf them up, so it would be a shame for the new Democratic governor to now arbitrarily do that now.
So, a call to action is needed. Call you State lawmakers and tell them that you don’t want those funds put into the General Budget but to be used for what they were intended—and that is creating more affordable housing.
This year will be the 23rd time in my life that I cast a vote for a member of Congress. I remember back in 1972 being forced to vote two weeks ahead of time by absentee ballot because my polling place was not accessible. I remember in 1992 being challenged at the poll because of disability, and I remember the empowerment I felt by calling a state hotline while at the poll to “fix” the situation to my satisfaction.
