people gathered watching a panda mascot
Sibling

Why So Many Organizations & Nothing Happening?

people gathered watching a panda mascot

There are so many disability advocacy organizations and little is happening. There is so much overlap and duplication of services, it becomes confusing who is advocating for what.

  • ARC- federal, state, and local
  • Consortium of Constituents with Disabilities
  • American association of people with disabilities
  • All the diagnosis specific organizations- Autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Rare Disease, blind, deaf, and the list goes on
  • American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
  • National Council on Disabilities
  • Diversity specific and combined with disabilities such as with the LBGTQ+ community
  • National Organization on Disability
  • National Disability Rights Network
  • Center for Independent Living
  • Disability:In
  • Invisible Disability Association
  • National Disability Institute
  • Not Dead Yet (new one for me)
  • ADAPT

This is just at the federal level. Each state has even more organizations. I did not link the organizations. Wouldn’t this spread the money thinner? If someone understands this, I am willing to be enlightened.

I am so happy to report that the federal government did pass that physicians and other medical professions are not allowed to use QALS anymore.

H.R. 485 would prohibit the use of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) and other similar discriminatory measures in all federal programs—an expansion from the current prohibition that only applies in a limited fashion to the Medicare program. 

QALYs devalue the lives of people with a disability or those with chronic illnesses to determine whether the treatment is cost-effective enough to be paid for by the federal government. The use of QALYs is a clear form of discrimination. For more information- here is the link to the bill.

Now changing mindsets will be a separate battle.

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