VOLUME 25 NUMBER 3 SEPTEMBER 2019 ININ THISTHIS ISSUEISSUE CELEBRATING CDPAP in Jeopardy DOH Sued Mayor And MOPD Present Annual Awards Over Proposed Plan PAGE 3 DiNapoli Audits Medicaid Flaws in System Cause Duplication of Payments PAGE 3 Accessibility Report Mayor and Commish Update NYers on Progress PAGE 8 PHOTO BY ANGELA MIELE MELLEDY MIELE ANGELA BY PHOTO Most Walkable City Sidewalk Safety Settlement Approved by Court PAGE 8 Staten Island Special Ed Elementary School Programs Expanded PAGE 9 Sapolin Accessibility awardees join Mayor Bill deB- Surpin of Independence Care System, Jill Rothstein AAPD Asks Candidates lasio, fourth from left, and Commissioner of the May- of the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Li- Questions On Where or’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) Victor brary, Eric Petersen of the NY Mets, Adam Weinberg Campaigns Stand Calise, foreground, at the 2019 Awards Ceremony. of the Whitney Museum and Carol Olivia Bentinck of PAGE 10 Displaying their awards are, left to right, Rick Fountain House. he NYC Mayor’s Office Disabilities (MOPD) and the eas of public accommodation, held its annual Sapolin Mayor host the Sapolin Ac- public service, communication TAccessibility Awards cessibility Awards, named in and technology, and employ- on the back lawn at Gracie honor of the late MOPD Com- ment. Mansion with more than 700 missioner Matthew Sapolin. Rick Surpin of Indepen- enjoying a barbeque. Each These awards are present- dence Care System was pre- year in conjunction with the ed to organizations that are sented with the Frieda Zames anniversary of the signing of actively working toward in- Advocacy Award for outstand- VISIT the American with Disabil- clusion and wellness for peo- ing work within the disability ABLE’S ities Act, the New York City ple with disabilities in the ar- community. WEBSITE Mayor’s Office for People with SEE MORE ADA CELEBRATIONS ON PAGE 7 WWW.ABLENEWS.COM ABLE NEWSPAPER P.O. Box 395, Old Bethpage, NY 11804 516 939-2253 FAX 516 939-0540 TO THE EDITOR [email protected] LETTERS www.ablenews.com To the Editor, dent’s words that seem to pur- El Paso and Dayton is a dere- We grieve with all those posefully confuse and conflate liction of duty. Congress and harmed by recent mass shoot- hatred, bigotry and gun vio- the president are increasingly ings in Dayton, El Paso and lence with mental illness. Cast- complicit. Gilroy. ing mass murder as a mental Written by DREDF unequivocally re- health issue while repeatedly Disability Rights Education Published By jects attempts to scapegoat failing to act on available solu- and Defense Fund. Melmont Printing mental illness in all areas, tions to gun violence is not only Publisher including gun violence, and misguided, it also distracts at- Angela Miele Melledy stands in solidarity with our tention from their own failures. To the Editor, friends, colleagues and allies Cast aside the self-serving The Arc, the nation’s larg- Editorial Assistant who seek real, effective policy political rhetoric, and this much est civil rights organization for Allison Howe solutions to racism, xenopho- remains clear – all nations are people with intellectual and de- bia, mental health stigma and home to people with mental ill- velopmental disabilities (I/DD), Staff Writers Beth Guarino (emerita) NEW YORK ABLE NEWSPAPER - SEPTEMBER 2019 PAGE 2 - SEPTEMBER 2019 PAGE ABLE NEWSPAPER YORK NEW mass murder. ness and people who play vio- which was founded by parents The honest, difficult, and in- lent video games, but no coun- and family members who re- convenient truth for those who try experiences anywhere near jected institutions and fought Columnists would prefer to blame mental the number of mass shootings for decades to close them, re- Disabled in Action illness rather than enact gen- that occur in the United States. leased the following statement Edith Prentiss uine solutions to rampant gun The unsubstantiated scape- on President Trump’s com- Anthony Trocchia United Spinal Association violence, is that in the Unit- goating of mental illness by ments about creating new in- Jim Weisman ed States’ bigoted beliefs and the president and others con- stitutions for people with men- easy access to deadly weapons veniently sidesteps one critical tal health needs. Production Director and ammunition has led to in- factor missing elsewhere – in The Arc and our constitu- Debbie Simko creased incidents of domestic the United States, we continue ents are all too familiar with terrorism. to allow easy access to a wide calls to reopen the institutions Art & Production Elected officials in the na- array of firearms, including as- of the past, where people with Jennifer Becker tion’s capital and across the sault rifles, that are more suit- all different disabilities were Ann Imbrogno United States have let us down able for warfare than for recre- imprisoned against their wills Marilyn Wheeler over and over again by failing ation and to ammunition, like and subject to horrific torture Technical Assistance to enact common sense gun large capacity magazines, that and abuse. For nearly 70 years, Louis Melledy control measures that could make deadly weapons even The Arc has focused on advo- curtail mass shootings and oth- more lethal in group or commu- cating for de-institutionaliza- Social Media Assistance er incidences of gun violence. nity settings. tion to ensure that people with Sofie Melledy Instead of getting rid of weap- According to the Washington intellectual and developmen- ons that have devastated the Post, “Before the 1999 shooting tal disabilities and other dis- Office Manager lives of thousands, far too many in which two teens killed 13 abilities can live meaningful, Fannie Miele (emerita) political leaders continue to at- and wounded 24 at Columbine independent lives in the com- tempt the old magician’s trick High School in Littleton, Colo., munities of their choice among Accounting Margaret Wenzel of misdirection to falsely lay mass shootings took place their families and peers, with the blame on mental illness. roughly every six months. Be- accompanying supports and Advertising Rates We are not fooled. We are tween Columbine and the mass services. Furnished Upon Request also angry. Angry about chron- shooting in Charleston, S.C., in We have spent decades Postmaster: Send address changes to Able News ic inaction by our government June 2017, the count was one building the community ser- at P.O. Box 395, Old Bethpage, N.Y. 11804. Period- vices we need, and we still icals are being paid for at Bethpage, N.Y. post of- and angry about the excuses every two and a half months. fice. ©1994 ABLE NEWSPAPER. Able Newspaper people like the president keep After Charleston? One almost have so far to go to ensure that is published monthly by Melmont Printing, 6 Robert Court, Bethpage, N.Y. 11714. Able welcomes man- making. every six weeks.” people with all disabilities, uscripts and suggestions for articles. However, to assure safe return, manuscripts must be accompa- In an address to the nation Last week there were three. but especially those with dual nied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. No re- on August 5, President Trump Our government has had diagnoses of I/DD and men- sponsibility is assured for unsolicited manuscripts or art. Submissions are the author’s warranty that once again asserted the false over two decades to take mean- tal illness, have access to the the material is not an infringement of the rights of others and that the material may be published accusation that mental health ingful steps to prevent such critical services they require to without further approval. Editorial material does not issues are a root cause of mass tragedies. They clearly have support community living. necessarily reflect the view of the editor/publisher of Able Newspaper. Advertisers are responsible for shootings and stated that “men- not. People with I/DD and mental the content of advertisements. No part of this pub- lication may be reprinted without the permission tal illness and hatred pulls the To continue to stigmatize illness are far more likely to be of the publisher. Able is not responsible for errors trigger, not the gun.” The pres- mental illness rather than tak- victims of violent crime than in advertisements beyond the price of the space occupied by the error. The publisher reserves the ident continued by saying that ing increasingly urgent, con- perpetrators of it. The mis- right to decline advertising for any reason. some should be forced into “in- crete steps that could actually guided idea that mental illness voluntary confinement” when halt mass shootings by improv- causes violence is inaccurate, necessary, without clearly de- ing background checks, closing harmful and discriminatory to Deadline for the fining who those people are gun show loopholes, and ban- the disability community. and what that means in this ning assault weapons and large Re-institutionalization would October Issue of context. capacity magazines like those bring people with disabilities Able Newspaper Will DREDF condemns the presi- used most recently in Gilroy, Continued on page 16 Be September 13 PAGE 3 SEPTEMBER 2019 - NEW YORK ABLE NEWSPAPER YORK 3 SEPTEMBER 2019 - NEW PAGE Advocates Sue Over Plan to Gut CDPAP group of associations and providers recent- A ly sued the New York state Department of Health (DOH) because of a funding policy that they claim will bankrupt the Consumer Di- rected Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). Medicaid’s increasingly popular CDPAP lets 90,000 seniors and disabled live in their community by allowing them to take charge of their own services. DOH issued a policy statement that jeop- ardizes the entire program, and it is set to go into effect Sept 1, unless Gov. Andrew THOMPSON ALEXANDER BY PHOTO Cuomo steps in.