Elevating Disability Policy within the White House Domestic Policy Council

A CALL TO THE DISABILITY COMMUNITY

FROM RUD AND ANN TURNBULL
BEACH CENTER ON DISABILITY
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

ELEVATE DISABILTY POLICY WITHIN THE
WHITE HOUSE DOMESTIC POLICY COUNCIL

Background

The audacity of hope lies in the heart of the disability community.

The insistence on rights is still part of its daily agenda.

As individuals with disabilities and their families perform their civic responsibilities, they prove that rights create opportunities for effective citizenship.

The integration of disability policy into other policies can threaten individuals and families affected by disabilities; there are no assurances that policy reforms will always be disability-sensitive and provide for reasonable accommodations or other means for equal treatment.

But the integration of disability policy also creates opportunities because policy-integration advances integration and full participation of people with disabilities.

Individuals with disabilities and their families need a change they can believe in – a change that only President Obama and his leadership team can offer.

They need the opportunity to participate as equals in domestic policy debates.

So, we propose elevating disability policy.

Proposal

The President should create a Disability Policy Section within the White House Domestic Policy Council.

The Disability Policy Section should have the same status, opportunities, responsibilities, and staffing as policy sections related to all other major areas of domestic policy.

In particular, it should have the opportunity and responsibility to participate in all other units of the Council to develop new or assure the vigorous implementation of current policy.

To these ends, it should have leadership with the same expertise as the other sections related to domestic policy.

To the maximum extent practicable, it should be directed and staffed by individuals who have disabilities and are parents or other close family members of individuals with disabilities.

That kind of staffing will acknowledge that families are the core units of society and that attaining the nation’s four disability policy goals – equal opportunity, economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and full participation – depends on the strength of families as much as on the opportunities for and strength of people with disabilities.

Accordingly, it should be directed by an individual who has extensive experience in developing disability policy as a result of service in Congress, as a senior member of the staff of a Congressional committee with jurisdiction over disability policy, or as a member of an executive agency responsible for implementing disability policy.

Further, its director or the director’s designee should have ex officio membership on such existing federal commissions and committees as the National Council on Disability, the President’s Commission on People with Intellectual Disability, and comparable entities.

If you agree in substance with our proposal, please contact

· Melody.barnes@ptt.gov

· Heather.higginbottom@ptt.gov

They are members of the transition team charged with domestic policy work.