Friend –

30 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law – a landmark civil rights bill making discrimination against people with disabilities unlawful and promising opportunity to live integrated lives in our communities, outside of segregated institutions. But the joy of this anniversary is muted by a pandemic that has made clear how many barriers people with disabilities still face when it comes to true equity.

Since the outbreak began, tens of thousands of deaths have occurred inside nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, and other institutions for people with disabilities – a cruel reality that is disproportionately impacting both people of color and women.

This is a grave situation and people with disabilities continue to be left behind, which is why the ACLU is doing all we can to educate activists like you as we fight for immediate change.

You'll gain a more in-depth understanding in my piece here, but in sum, here's what needs to happen on the federal and state level to help repair this deadly crisis:

• Heed the dangers inherent in institutional life that the pandemic has exposed by greatly reducing the number of people living in these congregate care facilities and increasing support for home- and community-based services.
• Protect those who remain in these facilities by improving staffing, infection control, and care, while requiring data and transparency about workers and residents in all settings for people with disabilities.
• Provide PPE, paid sick leave, overtime pay, and 'hero’ pay for essential workers who care for residents in these facilities and whose economic security is already precarious.

ACLU Supporter, our team is urgently pushing states, governors, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement these actions – critical work which you can read more about here.

Because if nothing changes, then COVID-19 in these facilities will continue to unjustly ravage institutions, playing out across disability, racial, and gender lines. People living in these congregate settings make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, but nearly 50% of COVID-19 deaths. The staff in congregate settings – disproportionately women of color and immigrants – also face high death rates.

These facts are not coincidental, ACLU Supporter. They stem from decades of indifference, invisibility, and discrimination against those who live and work in these segregated institutions. And with 30 years of the ADA and lives now at stake, we must do better – and we must do it now.

Thank you for reading,

Susan Mizner
ACLU Director, Disability Rights Project