{"content":[{"text":"Spread the True Meaning of Olmstead:","bbox":{"left":0.151144,"top":0.132748,"width":0.35844499999999996,"height":0.016926999999999998}},{"text":"Preserving Choice and Opportunity","bbox":{"left":0.520483,"top":0.132748,"width":0.33011199999999996,"height":0.016926999999999998}},{"text":"Recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Administration for Community Living \n (ACL) issued press releases celebrating the 17th Anniversary of the Olmstead decision. \n VOR shares their view that there is much to celebrate in opening doors to community \n living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) who are able and \n wish to take advantage of such opportunities. Unfortunately, their ideological \n preoccupation with one key part of Olmstead, community integration, at the expense of \n the other key part, choice, has reduced options for all people with I/DD. This crimped \n and, VOR would submit, inaccurate application of the plain language of Olmstead has \n done significant harm to many of our most disabled citizens.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.168102,"width":0.7614129999999999,"height":0.15834100000000004}},{"text":"By insisting that all people with I/DD live and work in the community, the DOJ and ACL \n are treating people with I/DD as a monolithic group, not as the individuals they are. DOJ \n and ACL are substituting the wishes of the government for that of the person with I/DD \n or, where relevant, the legal guardian. While their policies have opened doors for the \n less severely disabled, they have closed important doors for the more severely \n disabled. Many of these individuals have lifelong needs that require higher levels of \n care, the kind often found only in public and private Intermediate Care Facilities for \n Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICFs/IID), sheltered workshops and facility- \n based day programs.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.34487,"width":0.760777,"height":0.15834099999999995}},{"text":"DOJ and ACL are pursuing this agenda in the name of the ADA and Olmstead, but that \n is not what the ADA and Olmstead call for. Both the statute and the Supreme Court \n case embody the best values of American society — nondiscrimination and choice. All \n of our civil rights laws contain both elements. Civil rights laws do not tell people where \n they must live or work. They guarantee individuals are not denied opportunities based \n on a particular factor, and they expand choices for individuals who have suffered \n discrimination. In sharp contrast, DOJ and ACL are using federal dollars to bring \n lawsuits and promote policies that needlessly and dangerously eliminate important \n options – ICFs/IID, sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs – that many of \n our most disabled individuals rely on and prefer over small community settings.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.521637,"width":0.7607349999999999,"height":0.176018}},{"text":"In pursuing its one-size-fits-all ideology, DOJ and ACL are ignoring the vital right of \n choice embodied in the ADA itself. As the Court stated in Olmstead:","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.716082,"width":0.7138929999999999,"height":0.03460300000000005}},{"text":"“We emphasize that nothing in the ADA or its implementing regulations condones \n termination of institutional settings for persons unable to handle or benefit from \n community settings . . . . Nor is there any federal requirement that community-based \n treatment be imposed on patients who do not desire it.\" Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581, \n 601-602 (1999)","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.769112,"width":0.75973,"height":0.08763399999999999}}],"images_bbox":[{"left":0.117647,"top":0.045455,"width":0.202614,"height":0.065657}],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[{"left":0.117647,"top":0.045455,"width":0.202614,"height":0.065657}]}