Dear friend,

With LGBTQ Pride Month and Autistic Pride Day, we’ve had a lot to feel proud of this month even in the face of ongoing adversity! Read on for some updates of what we’ve released and accomplished this month.

This month saw the resolution of the debt ceiling debate. The outcomes of the deal were mixed. We are glad that Medicaid was protected from funding cuts and new work reporting requirements. Thank you to everyone who contacted their legislators to protect Medicaid, and helped keep this vital program unchanged! But we are disgusted at the way the debt ceiling deal harms people who count on other lifesaving programs. The debt ceiling deal caps federal spending on many safety net programs for two years. These programs will need more money to fund the same amount of services due to inflation, but the cap makes sure they will not get increased funding. This will work like a budget cut over time, hurting people who are part of these programs now or will need them in the future.

We released new resources about safer sex as part of our Proud and Supported Series! Everyone deserves access to sex education. But information about what sex is, and ways to make sex safer for everyone involved, isn’t always accessible. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities can and do have sex and deserve accessible sex education! Check out “A Self-Advocate’s Guide to Safer Sex” and “What Do I Need to Know About Sexual Assault?” today!

We were awarded more funding to continue our accessible health care toolkits like our COVID-19 resources! We are excited to continue our work to make discussions around health care policy accessible for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It is vital that we can be part of conversations on the issues that affect us.

As part of our effort to spread more accessible toolkits, we presented about writing and formatting Easy Read documents as part of SARTAC’s series of zoom meetings for self-advocates! You can check out the recording here.

June also marks the anniversary of the Olmstead decision, a 1999 Supreme Court case about disabled people’s right to live in the community. The ruling for the case says that disabled people have a right to live in the community with the same level of supports that would be paid for in an institution. Olmstead is a major moment in disability rights history, because it meant that disabled people could get services in our own homes and make our own choices. To mark this important decision, members of our policy team attended a Senate panel on the Olmstead decision, and you can rewatch the panel here!

Pride Month is a reminder that none of our rights have come without a fight. We are honored to fight alongside you, and we will not stop that fight until we all live with dignity, equality, and justice.

With pride,
The Team at ASAN