By Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, January 29, 2023

Since 2018, Children’s Aid and Family Services has used video cameras to keep a close eye on the residents inside the 18 group homes it runs for people with developmental disabilities in north Jersey.

The Paramus-based nonprofit spent about $10,000 a home to install cameras in doorways, living rooms and kitchens and train employees what to do, or not do, when a resident is experiencing a behavioral crisis, said Melinda Iannarone Geraghty, the agency’s vice president for Disability Support Services. The video recordings are evidence when investigating a resident’s injury and an allegation of abuse.

By Elaine S. Povich, Stateline | January 24, 2023

Numerous websites promise to qualify any pet as an emotional support animal that the sites claim can go nearly anywhere — inside restaurants and stores, into “no pets” apartments and throughout college dorms. The easily obtained certificates are making it tough for states to crack down on fake support animals without running afoul of federal fair housing or anti-discrimination laws.

Emotional support animals, which are supposed to help people overcome anxiety or other psychological ills, are different from “service animals,” which are trained to help people with disabilities navigate their surroundings or to warn owners of physical ailments such as low blood sugar.

There are specific criteria for service animals in state or federal law, mostly having to do with training or the performance of specific tasks, and the animals are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Emotional support animals don’t have the same ADA protection.

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By Karen Yi, Gothamist.org,  January 19, 2023

NJ Transit has six months to start improving its Access Link public ride service foar people with disabilities, after the U.S. attorney’s office found a pattern of late trips and excessively long rides.

Gothamist found a similar trend in a review of more than five years of ridership data provided by NJ Transit, and in interviews with longtime passengers. Gothamist additionally joined a rider with a brain injury for four trips last summer. One time, the driver arrived four hours after the appointment window. During another time, the driver got lost.

NJ Transit agreed to improve measures of its reliability, like how often it picks up riders later than scheduled, in a settlement with the federal government in December. But advocates and riders say if Access Link wants to substantially change, it’ll need far more drivers. Yet the number working for the service has been on the decline over the last few years. Access Link had nearly 700 drivers in 2019 but that number dropped by hundreds during the pandemic, NJ Transit records show. In the last few years, the rate of late trips also ticked up.

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New Mobility,  October 28, 2022

As a manual wheelchair user himself, Colorado state Rep. David Ortiz knows how critical timely repairs can be when your wheelchair isn’t working. Something as simple as a missing bolt can be the difference between independence and bed rest, yet those simple solutions can take days, weeks — even months — to secure because of insurance and provider complications.

“I don’t need pre-approval for every stupid little repair I need on my chair,” says Ortiz, the first wheelchair-using member of the Colorado General Assembly in that legislative body’s 146-year history. “We know that I have my chair, we know that it’s a critical piece of mobility device, and it needs to be repaired as quickly as possible.”

In hopes of making that possible, Ortiz was one of the prime sponsors of the Consumer Right to Repair Powered Wheelchairs, the first Right to Repair law focused on power wheelchairs in the nation. The law allows wheelchair users access to parts, software and manuals so they can repair their own power wheelchairs. Under the law, power wheelchair manufacturers could be cited for an unfair trade practice if they refuse to allow access to parts and manuals.

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by Michelle Diament | DisabilityScoop.com, October 24, 2022

Physicians are using excuses to intentionally dissuade people with disabilities from their practices, researchers say in a new study exposing just how pervasive discrimination against this population is in health care.

In focus groups, doctors described making strategic choices to turn away individuals with disabilities. They reported telling patients with disabilities that they would require specialized care and that “I am not the doctor for you.” In other cases, physicians said they simply indicate that “I am not taking new patients” or “I do not take your insurance.”

The findings come from a study published this month in the journal Health Affairs. It is based on focus groups conducted in late 2018 by researchers at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the University of Massachusetts and Harvard Medical School with 22 primary care and specialist doctors who were selected from a national database.

Many of the participants described accommodating people with disabilities as burdensome and some used outdated language like “mentally retarded.” Doctors frequently indicated that individuals with disabilities account for a small number of patients, making it hard to justify having accessible equipment. They also had little knowledge of their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, with one suggesting that the law works “against physicians.”

The latest study builds on findings published earlier this year from a survey of 714 doctors that was done by some of the same researchers. Just 56% of physicians who participated in the survey said they welcome people with disabilities at their practices and only 41% indicated that they could provide such patients with a similar quality of care to others. Meanwhile, more than a third of doctors queried said they had little or no knowledge of their legal obligations under the ADA.

“Taken together, the focus groups and survey responses provide a substantive and deeply concerning picture of physicians’ attitudes and behaviors relating to care for people with disabilities,” the study authors note.

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