National Council on Disability
Federal Advisory Committee International Watch
Conference Call Minutes
March 1, 2007
12:00 noon EST

Present

Kathy Martinez
John Vaughn
Joan Durocher
Mark Quigley
Gerrie Hawkins
Sylvia Caras
Dawn Blankenship
Nora Groce
Eric Rosenthal
Anne Hayes
Laura Burdick
Kimberly O’Haver
Rob Horvath
Alicia Contreras
Arlene Kanter
Sylvia Yee

I.          Roll Call and Welcome

II.        Amend/Approve the Agenda
Agenda with amendments approved.

III.      Update from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on current agency disability inclusion work

Ms. Hayes stated that she has started conducting stakeholder meetings to discuss how USAID could work better with them with respect to disability policy.  She added that they are continuing to have meetings and to place it into the disability strategy that can be used within the disability team in this department.  The plan is to take the input gathered and incorporate in USAID’s strategic plan.  Ms. Hayes added she would like to share the information gathered with staff members within the USAID to show that inclusion of people with disabilities in all projects is possible.

Mr. Horvath reported that the last couple of fiscal years (FY 2005 and 2006) there were specific funds earmarked from Congress for disability activities within USAID.  This year is a little different because AID is operating under a continuing resolution (as many agencies are) so there are still a lot of discussions and unknowns about the budget figures.  All earmarks are being scrutinized by Congress at the moment.  In the meantime, AID will continue to work closely with its missions to encourage and help support them to use any type of resources and funds that they have to work towards more inclusion on disability. \

Ms. Durocher asked Mr. Horvath and Ms. Hayes if they had started thinking about FY07 yet.

Mr. Horvath responded that he doesn’t know yet whether there will be specific funds earmarked for FY ’07.

IV.       U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants - Assisting refugees with disabilities (Dawn Blankenship)

Ms. Blankenship stated that they established a project in October called, “Assisting Refugees with Disabilities” because there is an increasing number of refugees who are entering the country with disabilities and there is concern about the disconnect between refugee resettlement providers and disability services, whereby refugees are not getting disability services, or are getting them late.   The project that she is working on is a technical assistance project, which is funded by the office of refugee resettlement.  The intent is to try and build capacity as well as to produce materials to help individuals who are serving refugees whether they are disability providers or refugee resettlement staff so they are better equipped to serve this population.  The project has a 17 month grant and is now in its 4th month.  Right now, they are looking at citizenship and naturalization.  Ms. Blankenship stated that she invited Laura Burdick to join today’s call and discuss this project in more detail.

Ms.  Burdick stated that she has been working on issues around citizenship for people with disabilities for the last ten years and will first give an overview of some of the barriers to naturalization faced by people with disabilities. She stated under immigration law, applicants for US citizenship have to pass a test on their ability to read, write and speak basic English and also have some knowledge of US history and government.  The law provides an exemption from this requirement for people with certain types of severe disabilities that make them unable to learn the information for the test.  It’s called a disability waiver and it was created in 1994, and the immigration service issued regulations to implement it in 1997. There have been several policy guidances on this issued by the immigration service, the most recent in May 2006.

Ms. Burdick stated that in order to apply for a disability waiver an applicant has to submit a form completed by their doctor which explains their diagnosis and certifies that they are unable to learn the test information due to their disability.  According to Department of Homeland Security statistics only about 3% of citizen applicants request a disability waiver.  In our experience most disability applicants are elderly with deteriorating health and many of them are refugees who suffer from disabilities related to war trauma.  The disability waiver has been fraught with problems ever since its inception with the immigration service being reluctant to grant the waivers and making it difficult for applicants to qualify.  She stated that there was a successful class action lawsuit filed in Florida in 1998 which resulted in new policy guidance and there was a series of meetings with advocacy organizations that clarified the process and made it more transparent and improved the disability waiver application form.  Unfortunately, the situation has changed since then and it has become increasingly difficult in the last couple of years for qualified applicants to obtain a disability waiver due to the immigration services perception about fraud in the program.  The latest disability waiver policy guidance that was issued in May 2006 is of great concern to us because it places burdensome new requirements on waiver applicants.  It requires doctors to provide a lot of additional information that is not requested on the disability application form and further, singles out applicants who have mental disabilities for special scrutiny.  As a result, there are long delays in the citizenship process and people with Alzheimers; stroke; post-traumatic stress disorder; and depression are being denied waivers, when in the past they would have been qualified.  Ms. Burdick added that they will be meeting with the immigration service to discuss these issues in the next month and wanted to know whether NCD might be engaged on this issue. 

Ms. Kanter said that she has been working on cases of immigrants with disabilities who are seeking asylum – who seek to stay because they will face horrendous conditions if they return because of their disability.   Ms. Kanter asked if they had been pursuing any legal strategies with respect to this issue. Ms. Burdick responded that they have been doing administrative advocacy.  Ms. Kanter indicated that the ABA’s Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law had looked at this issue at one point and there was  a lot of interest but no funding and she will be happy to bring together some of  the people who worked on that issue.

Ms. Groce stated that she was asked to get involved with an immigration case and that she found that there are a number of cases around the United States which involve immigrants with disabilities either seeking asylum and/or other related issues.  Ms. Kanter added that she has a database of attorneys who are working on these cases and communicates with them on a regular basis and will share that information with IW.  Mr. Rosenthal also added that he receives a number of phone calls every week regarding asylum for people with disabilities facing human rights abuses in their countries.

Ms. Martinez said that she will take this issue back to the Council and perhaps there will be an opportunity at a quarterly board meeting to more comprehensively discuss this issue with the full Council and how NCD might engage on this issue.

Ms. Contreras added that legislation is being pushed less and less for opportunities for immigrants who have disabilities in this country.

V.       New Business

Mr. Rosenthal stated that the UN General Assembly adopted the UN disability rights Convention in December 2006 and it is open for signature March 30th.  A number of different disability groups have written to the Administration to try to get the United States to sign the treaty. He stated that there are going to be different groups hosting a conference on April 9th and possibly on April 10th in Washington, D.C. and is jointly sponsored by MDRI, USICD and the human rights center at the Washington College of Law of American University.  He added that the goals of the conference are to introduce the content of the Convention to the U.S. disability community.  As part of the outreach, the Washington College of Law is looking into having the conference webcast to provide maximum exposure to people with disabilities and advocates throughout the country.

Mr. Rosenthal stated the goals of the conference include building a broad U.S. constituency that will support the convention; and looking at strategies for gaining support in Congress for ratification and within the Bush Administration for signing.  Part of the conference will be focused on the implications of the convention for U.S. human rights, foreign policy and international development policies.  There is an excellent broad array of panelists pulled together from the international development community, the World Bank and mainstream human rights organizations.  Mr. Rosenthal added that invitations will be going out and he encourages people to RSVP and that MDRI would very much like to be able to reach out to some high level people, members of Congress and some famous spokespeople who would be interested in backing the Convention.

Ms. Caras stated that the city of Santa Cruz (California) has passed a resolution endorsing the Convention and she believes that the county will follow suit. 

Ms. Caras added that she had the opportunity to have dinner with Ms. Dina Feldman in Tel Aviv recently and that Ms. Feldman is working on implementing the Convention in Israel and the biggest item lacking is education for people with disabilities.  She is organizing a group of academic deans to visit the United States to tour and observe accessible schools.  She said that the tour will begin at Syracuse University and she asks for any suggestions from the International Watch committee as to the top three campuses for accessibility.

Ms. Caras also added that she attended the Global Alliance for Information and Technology Development meeting and they are having a meeting on March 26th at the United Nations in New York.  It is a partnership between business and the UN.  Mr. Vaughn stated that the Council will be presenting during the meeting on March 26th.

Dr. Hawkins provided information for one of the queries that was earlier listed about accessible campuses and stated that she would be glad to email it to the appropriate people.

Members of International Watch asked what NCD is doing with respect to the Convention.  Chairman Vaughn responded that NCD will be sending a letter to the White House urging the Administration/United States to sign the Convention. 

Mr. Rosenthal asked if NCD is also urging ratification.  Chairman Vaughn responded in the negative.

Ms. Groce asked if there is anything the International Watch membership can do to provide the Council with more information on ratification, to support ratification?

Chairman Vaughn responded that the Council will likely take this issue up at its April meeting if the US signs and asked Ms. Durocher to clarify legal ratification issues.

Ms. Durocher responded that if the United States signs the treaty on March 30, then they will be able to ratify at a later date with few time constraints.  If the United States does not sign on March 30, but decides to sign later, they (the US) will have to both sign and ratify at the same time.

Ms. Martinez added that the signing (only) option was the Council’s consensus, but a sizeable portion of the Council wants the US to sign and ratify as well.

Ms. Groce stated that she is pleased to hear that, and that the IW membership and disability community  really looks to the Council to take a strong leadership position on this. 

VI.       Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 1:00 pm eastern time.