Cheers to 20 years!

2002-2022

LGBTQ+ Pride is invaluable for persons with disabilities. As for LGBTQ adults, 30% of men and 36% of women have a disability. However, the validation, community and love that stems from Pride alleviates feelings of hopelessness and depression that affects the LGBTQ+ community at higher rates than cisgender folks. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 10 to 34 in the United States. In 2019, around 23 percent of LGBTQ+ youth attempted suicide versus six percent of heterosexual youth. We will always be there to help, to hug, to beam with pride, to reaffirm your worth, and to fight with and for you for your equal opportunity to be yourself and love who you wish.

Work Hard Dream Big

We will add another section next month.

Over the last twenty years, we have focused on many important elements of community living for persons with disabilities.

Over the next year, I will reflect on each one of these issues and the progress that we have made in the past twenty years.

• Voting – Ensuring accessible voting as well as outreach into the disability community.

• Housing – Ensuring accessible multi-family housing and ensuring that accommodations are provided to ensure that persons with disabilities could use and enjoy their homes like anyone else.

• Safety – Providing communication tools and training to prevent harm to persons with intellectual or developmental disabilities when encountering first responders.

• Effective Communication – Defining effective and equal communication access for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and ensuring that medical needs are met, and employment opportunities are maintained.

• Freedom of Choice – Providing the ability to have the right to control one’s future is an issue in which all persons have a right, and is often denied to persons with disabilities. This includes protecting the rights of parents with disabilities to have and raise children throughout the dependency process, in addition to ensuring freedom from guardianship services whenever possible.

• Institutionalization and Medical services – Forced the closure of nursing homes that serve medically fragile children by ensuring provision of adequate services in homes.

• Animals for Persons with Disabilities – The choice of what to do to assist a person with a disability is that person’s choice, and animals have been used to assist persons with disabilities for years, and it is only growing.

• Education access – All persons are entitled to an equal access to an education. This includes a program to ensure an adequate education, or appropriate accommodations that measure each person’s intelligence, instead of disability. 

• Expanding Disability Inclusion in the Legal Profession – Ensuring that, as a profession, the doors to the courthouse are open to all persons with disabilities, and that persons with disability who want to be lawyers are given a fair opportunity to do so.

• Public Accommodations – People with disabilities have the right to physical access and freedom from unduly restrictive qualification rules so everyone has the right to equal use and enjoyment of all places of public accommodation. 

*reprinted from an article Matt wrote for the Florida Bar Journal.

The rejection of a potential client because that person does not speak English or may be Deaf[2] is considered to be discrimination — the decision to reject is based upon a protected status. For a person with limited English proficiency (LEP), it is considered national origin discrimination, and for a person who is Deaf, it is considered disability discrimination. However, the legal and ethical considerations for lawyers have been murky, and as a result, many persons with communication disabilities or LEP often cannot find competent counsel willing to represent them.

On October 6, 2021, the American Bar Association issued Formal Opinion 500 — “Language Access in the Client-Lawyer Relationship.”[3] The opinion clarifies that a lawyer’s duty for communication and competence extends to the requirement to obtain an interpreter or translator for the client who has a communication disability or may have limited English proficiency and recognizes the importance of conveying accurate information in a culturally appropriate method.

Click here to read the entire article in PDF.

Click here to read the entire article online.

Justine will be back soon with another article. 

Who

• For people who live in Miami-Dade County that need special help getting to a shelter.
• Also, can do a wellness call after a disaster.
• If you need health monitoring, help with daily living, or life saving medical tools that use power.

Where/How

This is the link to register for the special needs’ registry.

Phone numbers:

1. Help with registration: (305) 513-7700
2. TTY/TPP Line: (305) 468-5402
3. Fax: (305) 468-5401

Can ask for two types of requests: evacuation help and a well-being check.

Three parts to the application.

1. Will ask for personal information such as your name, home address, emergency contacts etc.
2. Will ask for your health conditions that you will need help with.
3. Will ask what type of aid is needed to help you with your condition. This includes what type of medical equipment, services, medications etc.

Why

• People who are pre-registered get priority during an emergency.
• After the emergency, help can be given.
• Was created by Florida Statute Title XVII Chapter 252.355
• If you have a special need or disability, you do not need to register but if you do not register shelters may turn you away if they cannot supply the help you need.

Service Animals/Pet Owners

• If you have a special need or disability and have a service animal, they can come with you to any shelter in accordance with s. 413.08.
• Emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship animals are not considered service animals.
• Service animal term is only for dogs or small horses.
• Service animals must be under control of the owner through a harness or leash, unless either the owner cannot do this because of the disability they have or if it would stop the service animal from being able to perform their service. In these cases, service animals must be under the owner’s control through voice controls, signals or other ways that would be effective.
• You do not need documentation that proves a service animal is trained to get into a shelter with a service animal.
• Shelters may ask you if an animal is a service animal needed because of a disability or ask what service the animal has been trained to do.
• You are responsible for any damages caused by the service animal.
• For animals that are not service animals, you need to find a pet-friendly shelter during emergencies.

This is the link with more information on pet-friendly shelters.

June is PRIDE month and I want to share with you some important information and statistics on the effects of domestic violence on the LGBTQI+ community.

The majority of the domestic violence movement has not focused on LGBTQI+ members, even though they are victims of domestic violence at higher rates of abuse than heterosexuals.

Here are a few quick statistics form the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

1. 43.8% of lesbian women and 61.1% of bisexual women have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner at some time in their life as opposed to 35% of heterosexual women.
2. 26% of gay men and 37.3% of bisexual men have experience rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner as opposed to 29% of heterosexual men.
3. Fewer that 5% of LGBTQ survivors of intimate partner violence sought orders of protection and 45% do not report violence to the police because they believe they will not be helped.

Abusers use a victim’s prior experience with bullying or threat of “outing” as tools to prevent them from seeking help.

In the last few years, both the nation and here in Miami-Dade County, we have been raising awareness of this issue and working to provide services, but barriers still exist. There are still societal barriers, homophobia, lack of training by staff in agencies that serve victims, lack of shelter beds for transgender individuals, and lack of trust in the police and court systems.

The good news is that we do have an organization in our community that focuses on culturally sensitive mental health counseling and advocacy for LGBTQI+ victims. It is called Survivors Pathways and has been serving victims since 2010. They are bringing the unique issues to the forefront and working with the rest of our community to forge solutions and support.

In support of Pride Month, I wanted to raise this important issue with all of you, so we can  promote awareness and craft solutions together. 

Accessibility & Inclusion Resources

Nonprofits and social ventures have the power to advance the equity of people living with disabilities. This initiative serves to connect Miami’s leaders with key accessibility and disability inclusion organizations to increase awareness and cultivate welcoming spaces within Miami’s social impact ecosystem. 

We continue to amplify these collaborations by partnering with local organizations that offer their services and by supporting nonprofits and social ventures in budgeting for these services to welcome individuals of all abilities into their programming.

Here’s what’s on the menu

STIPENDS

SERVICES

TEAM TRAININGS

Lesly will be back next month

The wallet card is a tool to be used by a teenager or an adult with a disability.

Currently, we have developed cards for persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or intellectual disabilities. 

We have finished our new caregiver card.

You can start ordering them online on our website.

Check out our new Facebook page for The Wallet Card Project.

Access The Vote Florida (ATVFL) is a state chapter of AAPD’s REVUP Campaign. REV UP stands for: Register! Educate! Vote! Use your Power!

We will be meeting by Zoom every Friday at 11am. The first Friday of the month will be a full chapter meeting and the other weeks will be committee meetings.

Email Olivia at oliviab@drflorida.org to get on our mailing list.

The chapter is a statewide coalition of organizations and self-advocates that are working to raise awareness about issues that impact persons with disabilities, encourage people with disabilities to participate in the voting process, and educate elected officials on issues important to persons with disabilities.

The video below was created as a virtual presentation for the 2021 Family Cafe.

The video will explain who ATVFL is, what we have done so far, and what we plan to do in the future.

The presentation will encourage self-advocates to join and become involved.

This Supper Social Club is on hold until it is safe to meeting in person again.

However, if you are looking for something fun to do, you should check out My Squad.

A new program sponsored by the City of Coral Gables.

You can text (305) 978-1196 (text preferred) for more information.

July 29, 2022, Sticky Messy Science and Karaoke

August 31, 2022, Fishing and Trash Art

September 28, 2022, Movie in the Park

Tickets are $5.00 and available at www.playgables.com.

Select “Event Calendar” if accessing from a cellphone, the dates will be stacked vertically, keep scrolling down to the date of the event.