Autism Vox

Obama’s Plan to “Build a World Free of Unnecessary Barriers, Stereotypes, and Discrimination”

by Kristina Chew, PhD on December 12th, 2007

Senator Barack Obama has unveiled his plan to empower Americans with Disabilities: This is an overview of the full plan (PDF file) and a short video message can be heard here in which Obama says

“we must build a world free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination……..policies must be developed, attitudes must be shaped, and buildings and organizations must be designed to ensure that everyone has a chance to get the education they need and live independently as full citizens in their communities.”

Obama’s plan has four parts: (1) providing Americans with disabilities with the educational opportunities that they need to succeed; (2) ending discrimination and promoting equality of opportunity for persons with disabilities; (3) increasing the employment rate of works with disabilities; (4) supporting independent, community-based living for persons with disabilities. My first reaction is that, compare to Hillary Clinton’s autism plan, Obama’s is more overtly focused on the practical and the concrete; certainly education, employment, and living arrangements are high on my list of concerns for my son.

Here are a few more details: Obama calls for fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); early intervention and universal screening of young children for disabilities; and improving college opportunities for students with disabilities. He plans to restore the Americans with Disabilities Act; to appoint judges and justices who respect laws designed to protect persons with disabilities; to support the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA); to guarantee health care coverage (under his plan, insurers will not be able to deny coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions); and improve mental health care. In regard to emplyment, Obama’s plans calls for effectively implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires the federal government and employers who are federal contractors to “take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities”; to provide resources to encourage the private sector to hire persons with disabilities; and to ensure that workers with disabilities and family caregivers get the flexibility they need at work. In regard to living arrangements, Obama’s plan seeks to ensure Americans with disabilities of the rights affirmed in the Olmstead v. L.C. decision, according to which states are required to place people with mental disabilities in community settings rather than in institutions, when such is deemed appropriate; streamline the approval process for Social Security; assure voting rights; invest in assistive technologies; and protect the safety of individuals with special needs.

Here Obama’s plan specifically refers to autism:

Supporting Americans Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders: More than one million Americans live with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a complexneurobiological condition that has a range of impacts on thinking, feeling, language, and the ability to relate to others. As diagnostic criteria broaden and awareness
increases, more cases of ASD have been recognized across the country. Barack Obama believes we need to research treatments and search for the causes of ASD. He has been a strong supporter of more than $1 billion in federal funding for ASD research on the root causes and treatments. Obama believes we must work to guarantee that Americans with ASD can live independent and fully productive lives and to assure that their families understand and are able to support a loved one with ASD. Obama will fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to ensure that no child with ASD or any other disability is left behind. Obama will also fight to assure that the government and our communities work together to provide a helping hand to people with ASD and their families.

Obama has a long record supporting people with ASD. In the state senate, Obama sponsored legislation that became law to create the ASD Program - a systems development initiative designed to promote the implementation of evidence-based practices. And in the U.S. Senate, Obama is also a cosponsor of a measure that would expand federal funding for life-long services for people with ASD, authorizing approximately $350 million in new federal funding for key programs related to treatments, interventions and services for both children and adults with ASD.

Certainly our world—-as attested by the “Ransom Notes ad campaign—is far from “free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination.” During the time that whoever is next elected President is in office, my son will become a teenager and will enter high school, and I suspect that vocational training and skills for independent living will become more and more a part of his learning—-issues that we—his parents, his family, his teachers, his community, his country—-would do well to start preparing and planning for now.

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