May Advocacy Update
Help Pass Accessible Housing and Workplaces Legislation
Please join the GBC’s ongoing advocacy to pass legislation to address the need for safe, accessible housing in our communities for older adults and people with disabilities as well as legislation to remove barriers to employment for people with disabilities. One of the best ways to help is to email and call your state senator and representative. You can get the contact information by putting your address into Find My Legislator.
People have been advocating for this for over a decade. We have had success getting support within the Senate for a comprehensive bill, but more difficulty doing so in the House. Recognizing this we chose to decouple the issues in the House with the expectation that this will make it easier to succeed.
Ask your Senator to cosponsor and support S.1629 ACCESSIBLE MA ACT that deals with housing and workplace accessibility.
Ask your Representative to cosponsor and support H.2420 ADAPTABLE HOUSING MA that focuses on housing. And H.2419 ACCESSIBLE WORKPLACES MA that focuses on making workplaces accessible.
More details about each piece of legislation can be found on these fact sheets:
ACCESSIBLE MA ACT (Senate) fact sheet
ADAPTABLE HOUSING MA (House) fact sheet
ACCESSIBLE WORKPLACES MA (House) fact sheet
Please contact Chris Hoeh if you have questions, or want to be more involved in this effort.
Outdoor Dining for All
Over the past year, have you gazed wistfully at new outdoor dining areas, established hastily to keep restaurants afloat during the pandemic, wishing you could gain access to the space and to a usable table? Have you had trouble maneuvering around restaurant furniture and fencing on the sidewalk or in the street that block your access to curb cuts and nearby destinations? Are you worried that poorly-designed facilities will become permanent? Well, the Chapter’s Advocacy Committee, the Massachusetts Office on Disability (MOD), and the greater Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) want to help!
Here’s a tool you can use right now. MOD created a detailed fact sheet and held a webinar on April 14 to teach city and town governments and businesses how to comply with ADA and other standards in establishing outdoor dining areas. Share the fact sheet with your local Commission on Disability, Transportation Board/Department, and Planning Board/Department so they know how to review restaurants’ applications and correct problems!
Also, the Boston MPO is working on the second phase of their Future Of The Curb study to recommend which pandemic-era innovative uses of traditional curbside parking spaces their 97 member cities and towns should consider imitating and making permanent. The Advocacy Committee is at the table with the researchers to speak for SCI/D community needs and perspectives!
For more information, contact Advocacy Representative Abby Swaine: abby.swaine@gmail.com
Bill H.1256192nd (Current)
DPC drafted and is leading the charge for a crucial bill that would address systematic discrimination against people with disabilities in the healthcare system: H.1256 and S.745, “An Act relative to preventing discrimination against persons with disabilities in the provision of health care,” filed by Representative Cutler and Senator Chang-Diaz. This bill will ensure that people with disabilities in Massachusetts cannot be denied treatment on the basis of disability, and that their lives will not be devalued through the use of discriminatory measures or metrics. Discrimination against people with disabilities has been absolutely rampant during the pandemic, from the level of individual providers all the way up to state policies like the Crisis Standards of Care. This bill would prohibit denying or deprioritizing an individual for treatment based on their disability, as well as making it illegal to tell someone that they must sign a DNR or other advance directive as a condition of receiving care.
We really need as many representatives and senators as possible to co-sponsor this bill, so please fill out the attached template letter and send it to your state representative and senator.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19gJkWjz9cf6VoqDRKt5b4bVSTI-qVhVm/view?usp=sharing