SDAN Membership Meeting: Community Living and Olmstead Rights
July 12, 2024
July 12, 2024
SDAN’s July meeting featured a presentation and listening session with the Olmsted Section team of The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The OCR plays a pivotal role promoting community living through enforcement of Federal disability civil rights laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1999 decision in Olmstead v. L.C. found that the unjustified segregation of people with disabilities is a form of unlawful discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA’s community integration mandate requires home and community-based services to enable “individuals with disabilities to interact with non-disabled persons to the fullest extent possible.” In other words, people with disabilities should not have to move into group settings—such as nursing homes and group homes—to obtain the services they need to live independently and thrive in society like anyone else.
The recorded meeting can be found HERE
The slide deck, with OCR contact information, can be found HERE.
A Fact Sheet from OCR on disability rights can be found HERE