25 signatures reached
To: President Donald Trump, The Arkansas State House, The Arkansas State Senate, Governor Asa Hutchinson, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Access to the real world for disabled Americans
It has been twenty-six years since George Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990, granting disabled persons access to all public lands and spaces.
The A.D.A. states in part that, "People with disabilities have the right to choose whatever mobility device best suits their needs."
Federal and state Medicare and Medicaid programs put into place prior to 1990 have never been brought into compliance with the law, however, and still stipulate that the mobility devices they provide are, "for in-the-home use only. "
Medicare and Medicaid programs are in violation of the A.D.A.
We, the undersigned, hereby petition Congress to bring Medicare and Medicaid into compliance with the A.D.A. by having all references to mobility devices in federal Medicare and Medicaid documents that use the term, "in the home" amended to say, "in the home, on any public lands, or in any other places that the disabled have legal access rights to under the A.D.A." and that all references to mobility devices be amended to include the phrase, "of the disabled person's own choice."
Why is this important?
I have been in a manual wheelchair for more than twenty years due to a degenerative condition that has made it necessary to move to a powered wheelchair.
After more than two years of fighting with the State of Arkansas' Medicaid program for authorization, I finally received a powered wheelchair this past Christmas Eve.
It is Invacare's top of the line M 41 Pronto with "Sure-Step," it retails for six thousand dollars, and it is inadequate for navigating the real world.
It has less than two inches of ground clearance and gets stuck three out of every four times trying to get over the 3/4" high threshold of my front door. It cannot make it over cracks in the sidewalk to take my trash from my apartment to the dumpster.
When the hard plastic drive wheels are even just a little bit damp, they spin uselessly. It should have come with a membership in an auto club because it leaves me feeling as though I will need to call for a tow truck every time I leave my home in it.
We disabled have legal rights that are being denied by Medicare and Medicaid and those programs need to be made to comply with the A.D.A.