WHAT'S HAPPENING

ACA REPEAL WOULD CREATE CHAOS FOR THE DISABILITY COMMUNITY

Since the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell looked to fill her seat with a conservative justice who would side with them in repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in California v. Texas, which the court will hear November 10th.

The possible repeal of the ACA comes as the disability community is expected to grow by the greatest number of people in 30 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Insurers will likely now consider the more than 7 million people who have been diagnosed with COVID19 to have a preexisting condition, potentially leaving them unable to obtain or maintain insurance if the ACA is repealed. Ahead of the hearings to confirm Justice T Ginsburg's replacement, a new column from Rebecca Cokley, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, looked at the consequences of repealing the ACA for the 61 million Americans living with a disability, including:

• Limiting the freedom of people with disabilities to change jobs; without the ACA, disabled people would have no guarantee of insurance in a new job due to rules around preexisting conditions.

• Hurting young adults with disabilities, who would no longer be eligible to stay on their parents' plans until the age of 26, possibly leading to a return to institutionalization for some members of the disability community.

• Eliminating support for survivors of interpersonal or gender-based violence, many of whom are members of the disability community.

• Returning to annual or lifetime caps on coverage. Many disabled people, including disabled children, reached these caps at young ages, putting a huge financial burden on themselves and their families and sometimes leading to institutionalization.

• Limiting many disabled people's access to Medicaid.

• Erasing the ACA's essential health benefits provisions, which ensure that all Americans are covered for disabilities such as behavioral health issues and chronic health conditions such as diabetes.

"The ACA is the most important piece of legislation for disabled people since the Americans with Disabilities Act and in some ways even rivals the ADA in importance for our community," said Cokley, "Repealing the ACA would mean a return to the days when many disabled people were unable to afford the medical care they needed, unnecessarily institutionalized, and unable to pursue their careers out of fear of losing insurance. It is particularly cruel that Trump and McConnell are working to repeal the ACA in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic. Millions of people are acquiring disabilities for the first time or seeing their disabilities compounded by COVID-19. It's no exaggeration to say that repealing the ACA will lead millions of disabled people to suffer or die."

DOL CELEBRATES NATIONAL DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT AWARENESS MONTH & ADA ANNIVERSARIES

The U.S. Department of Labor commemorated the 75th National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) and passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act with a video celebration on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020. NDEAM's 2020 theme was "Increasing Access and Opportunity."

The video event, "Building a Future that Works," included remarks by U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia on how emerging technologies are making the American workplace accessible to all. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Office of Disability Employment Policy, Jennifer Sheehy, moderated the event, which featured insightful conversations with thought leaders. The event showcased accessibility innovations in development that spanned the fields of communications technology, artificial intelligence, and autonomous vehicles. Participating panelists included:

• Author Cathy Hackl, "Marketing New Realities: An Introduction to Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality Marketing, Branding, & Communications;"

• Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf, Google;

• Disability Policy expert Bobby Silverstein, Powers Pyles Sutter and Verville;

• Postdoctoral researcher Martez Mott Ph.D., Microsoft Research;

• Distinguished Professor Rory Cooper Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh; and

• Autism and neurodiversity legal expert Haley Moss.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights. This year marks not only the 75th observance of NDEAM, but also the 30th anniversary of the ADA. Both milestones are being commemorated with a range of events and activities centered on the theme "Increasing Access and Opportunity." The official poster commemorating the event appears below.

DANIEL TIGER'S COVID-19 SPECIAL AVAILABLE TO KIDS WITH DISABILITIES

Bridge Multimedia and the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) are excited to announce that the special COVID-19 episode of PBS KIDS' Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, is now available, on demand at no cost, for children with disabilities through DCMP's Accessible Television Portal.

The timely episode, titled Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood: Won't You Sing Along with Me? was audio-described by Bridge Multimedia with funding from OSEP. It joins DCMP's growing library of thousands of free family and classroom programs, augmented with audio description and captioning for viewers with sensory and cognitive impairments. The Accessible Television Portal offers online streaming of TV shows from Litton Entertainment, WNET, Fred Rogers Productions, Nickelodeon, Universal Kids, and others.

When Daniel learns he can't gather with all of his neighbors at the Neighborhood Carnival this year, it leads to lots of big feelings and questions, including what to do when he misses people he loves, how to keep himself and others healthy, and how to find ways to enjoy the extra time at home with his family.

DCMP and the Accessible Television Portal are serving an important need during the COVID-19 crisis, with the sign-up rate tripling in 2020. The Daniel Tiger special, with its Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) aligned audio description, speaks to challenges faced by all children during these times. •