NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DISABILITY
Quarterly Meeting

NCD Conference Room
Washington, DC
February 4, 2002

MEMBERS

STAFF

Present
Ethel D. Briggs, Executive Director
Jeffrey T. Rosen, General Counsel and Director of Policy
Mark S. Quigley, Director of Communications
Kathleen Blank, Attorney/Advisor
Martin Gould, Ed.D., Senior Research Specialist
Gerrie Hawkins, Ph.D., Program Specialist
Allan Holland, Chief Financial Officer
Brenda Bratton, Executive Secretary
Stacey S. Brown, Staff Assistant
Pamela O'Leary, Interpreter
Joan Durocher, Esq., Fellow

GUESTS

Cathy Hollingsworth, Daily Labor Report
Wayne Welch, Disability Funding Groups

Monday, February 4, 2002

Team meetings were held from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

CALL TO ORDER

Chairperson Marca Bristo called the meeting to order and welcomed visitors at 1:30 p.m.

ACCEPTANCE OF THE AGENDA

Motion 1
Ms. Yazzie-King moved to accept the agenda. Passed.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Motion 2
Mr. Walker moved to accept the November quarterly minutes with a correction proposed by Dr. Andersson. The correction changed the last paragraph on page 9 to read: "The goal of the ICF is another effort in the International Standardization of Rules and Policies of the United Nations." Passed.

NEW NCD FELLOW

Ms. Briggs welcomed Joan Durocher to the NCD staff as its new fellow. She said Ms. Durocher has many years of experience with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as a paralegal specialist; is an active member of the American Bar Association, where she is vice chair of the Committee on Diversity for the business law section; and serves as the liaison to the American Bar Association Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law.

CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT

Ms. Bristo said that she and Mr. Rosen helped facilitate and participated in a meeting between the Coalition of Psychiatric Survivor Groups and the White House Office of Domestic Policy. She said the coalition was well prepared in raising issues to the White House staff, many of which were also raised in NCD's report, Privileges to Rights, and that the staff expressed interest in enhancing the representation of psychiatric survivors in bodies such as NCD.

Ms. Bristo expressed concern about the effects on people with disabilities of the chaos in air travel following the September 11 terrorist attacks, and said NCD had been working with the Department of Transportation to support provisions of the Air Carriers Access Act. She said the Federal Aviation Administration had immediately responded by clarifying its regulations to ensure that the new security measures would not trample on the rights of people with disabilities.

Ms. Bristo said she had attended a meeting at the State Department in a continuing effort to begin a dialogue about the Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities and a wide array of other issues that NCD has been attempting to work on with the department. She said the department had committed to establish an intergovernmental process by which the convention, as it goes forward, will seek input not only from stakeholders but from other federal agencies. She added that NCD has been invited to another meeting with the new assistant secretary for human rights and democracy.

Ms. Bristo said the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Work Group had met to discuss the analysis that Mr. Robert Burgdorf is doing under contract for NCD on recent Supreme Court decisions on ADA, the implications of those decisions, and some considerations for NCD to assess about the future of ADA (which NCD helped draft in 1988-1990). The work group includes constituent representatives and other stakeholders, as well as expert attorneys who helped NCD understand the implications of the decisions. She said the work group would reconvene to begin to frame a response by NCD and others. Before any concrete recommendations can be made, she said, NCD needs to understand better how the law has developed as a result of these decisions and how NCD could go about addressing those issues, and it needs to engage in a dialogue with its community.

Ms. Bristo said NCD filed a brief with the Supreme Court on the Echazabal case and oral arguments would be presented on February 27. She commended the staff for taking a ready response team approach following the recent Supreme Court decisions and said NCD is ready for any inquiries from the press.

Ms. Bristo said Dr. O'Day met with representatives of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) about the impact of ADA. Although the two agencies were not able to reach a consensus on whether this was the appropriate moment for a comprehensive assessment, they did agree that when an assessment is launched, NCD should play a leadership role, given its congressional authorization to monitor the implementation, effectiveness, and enforcement of that law.

Ms. Bristo said President Bush has nominated 10 members to NCD and they are awaiting Senate confirmation.

Motion 3
Dr. Andersson moved to accept the Chairperson's Report. Passed.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT

Ms. Bristo referred members to the minutes of the Executive Committee meeting from January 9, 2002, which were included in the meeting notebooks.

Motion 4
Mr. Kemp moved to accept the Executive Committee's report. Passed.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Progress Report
Ms. Briggs said the first draft of the annual report is being reviewed by the staff and then will be submitted to NCD members. Mr. Rosen said the first draft is excellent and he thinks NCD members will be very pleased with the quality of the product. He said that he and Dr. Gould had carefully reviewed the report to ensure that all the necessary items were included.

RFP
Ms. Briggs said the request for proposals (RFP) on Native Americans with disabilities was released, and letters were sent to 557 federally recognized tribes, informing them about the project. Letters also were sent to other key individuals involved with NCD and to the administrators of federally funded Native American vocational rehabilitation programs.

Supreme Court
Ms. Briggs said members and staff were interviewed by radio and TV stations and quoted in various newspapers about the Toyota v. Williams case.

Aircraft Oxygen Regulations
Ms. Blank reported that Ms. Bristo, Mr. Rosen and she attended a meeting of medical oxygen manufacturers, airline representatives and disability community representatives at the Air Transport Association of American on expanding and improving options for providing inflight oxygen to passengers with a medical need. This meeting, which grew out of the Department of Transportation (DOT) forums on improving air travel for people with disabilities, was an opportunity for medical oxygen manufacturers and providers to demonstrate several options for oxygen delivery that are more technologically advanced and safer than the technologies of 30 years ago. Three alternative options were presented, one of which will not require any change to current safety regulations. The remaining two options, even if they meet all DOT safety standards, would require a change to at least one regulation. Ms. Blank said the Department is amenable to looking at these options and discussing changes to the regulations. The airlines also are discussing with oxygen manufacturers how they can begin incorporating some of the new technology into their present operations, which would make oxygen more easily available to air travelers and at a lower cost.

DOT Forum on Improving Air Travel for People with Disabilities
Ms. Blank reported that the forum was held at the initiative of the DOT to get the disability community and airline stakeholders to identify actions necessary to correct ongoing accommodation problems experienced by air travelers with disabilities. Although the meeting was too large to be productive for that purpose, the participants did agree to form working groups to focus on several major categories of accommodation issues needing resolution by the airlines.

Air Travel Enforcement
Ms. Blank reported that AIR-21, passed in March 2000, directed the Department of Transportation to take specific actions to improve the enforcement of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). These actions included investigating all complaints (including informal complaints), establishing an ACAA educational outreach program, and requiring the Department to request data from the airlines on the disability complaints they receive, review the data and report to Congress on their findings annually, among others. Congress then significantly increased DOT's enforcement budget for FY 01 and FY 02, enabling the hiring of industry analysts and additional attorneys to carry out the new enforcement responsibilities. DOT now has significantly more capacity for addressing civil rights issues, including disability rights, through its Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings.

Ms. Blank also reported that the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been established to take over the security screening functions formerly carried out by airline and airport personnel. NCD has worked with PVA and others to raise disability accommodation issues in the context of security screening. The nominated director of TSA's Civil Rights Office was present at the forum and pledged to work with the disability community to ensure that disability issues are addressed properly in TSA training and operations procedures.

Fiscal 1993 Budget
Ms. Briggs said NCD has submitted its fiscal year 2003 budget request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and has received its pass-back figure for FY 2003, which is $2,830,000. She said NCD is in the process of developing its FY 2003 budget request to Congress, based on the pass-back figure from OMB. Ms. Briggs said that NCD will not have an appropriations hearing in the subcommittee on the FY 2003 budget request.

Fiscal 2001 Audit
Ms. Briggs said an RFP for the audited FY 2001 financial statements will be released on March 5, proposals will be reviewed and an auditing firm selected, and a final draft will be completed in May for presentation before NCD at its June meeting in Washington, D.C.

Motion 5
Ms. McCrimon moved to accept the Executive Director's Report. Passed.

FINANCE COMMITTEE REPORT

FY 2002 Status Report
Ms. McCrimon said the FY 2003 budget was the same as that for FY 2002: $2,830,000. She added that after operating under a continuing resolution of Congress since the end of the previous fiscal year, NCD received its current year appropriation on January 10.

Ms. McCrimon said the 2002 gift account has remained untouched for more than a year.

She said NCD did not appeal the 2003 budget pass-back. The only changes that NCD was concerned about were cuts that affected continuation of past practices and past expenditures and plans for future programs. These included overtime awards, communication, and training programs.

Ms. McCrimon said the staff has completed a budget template, which was included in members' notebooks. The template gives key dates for reviews to be conducted on a quarterly basis to see if funds need to be reallocated, reprogrammed, or shifted.

Audit Corrective Action Plan Update
Ms. Briggs said that Mr. Arthur Hazlewood of Scafford Forte, CPA, has been helping NCD develop and update the policies and procedures manual and has submitted a draft. Staff reviewed the draft and made some suggestions, and another draft will be available for the next Finance Committee meeting.

Ms. Briggs said other areas outstanding from the corrective action plan as it relates to the audit were a review and reconciliation of NCD's records with those records maintained in Kansas City. Mr. Holland completed the year-end reconciliation.

Ms. Briggs said Mr. Holland has received the financial reports for the first quarter; he will reconcile the data each month and submit this information as a part of his report to the Finance Committee each quarter.

Ms. Briggs said that NCD ended the fiscal year with a fund balance of approximately 14 percent of the budget, but that is misleading because of NCD's continuing problems in getting an invoice from the Government Printing Office for maintaining NCD's Web site.

Motion 6
Dr. Andersson moved to accept the Finance Committee report. Passed.

TEAM REPORTS

Section 504 Study
Dr. Gould reported in the absence of Dave Brown, team facilitator. He said the report on the study of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act has been reviewed, feedback has been received from external stakeholders, and any revisions will be made by mid-February. Then the report will be submitted to NCD members and later to the various agencies for their feedback. Mr. Rosen said the target date for a final report is April 28, the anniversary of Section 504.

Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act
Dr. Hawkins reported the absence of Gina McDonald, team facilitator. She said the contractors have completed information collection from people with disabilities who formerly lived in institutions and people involved in litigation and complaints filing. She said the staff has reviewed the executive summary and the report is on schedule. She said NCD expects to receive most of the report by February 20 and the full report the week of March 11, when the reviewing process will begin.

Mr. Rosen said that after September 11 the contractor experienced problems obtaining some records from the Department of Justice that were stored in off-site facilities. However, NCD had asked for the executive summary earlier and was satisfied with it.

Olmstead
Ms. Blank reported in the absence of Gina McDonald, team facilitator. She said the Olmstead study is behind schedule. She said that one of the staff attorneys left the project at the beginning of October and has not been replaced. As a result, she said, time lines have been renegotiated, as have various parts of the report. Ms. Blank said NCD originally intended to get a full draft from the contractors but renegotiated to get the executive summary and certain chapters of the report, because that appeared to be more feasible. These deliverables were expected on or before January 31, and had not yet been received.

Mr. Rosen said the information and reports that NCD has received from the Olmstead team were very thorough, careful, and detailed.

Ms. Blank also reported that the study will include an in-depth analysis of 10 sample states looking at their state plans for Olmstead implementation, their actual implementation activities and initiatives (including (CMS) Systems Change grant initiatives), the results of the same, and recommendations for federal and state officials and disability advocates for improving results toward full implementation.

Mr. Rosen said the study will examine federal barriers and policies, including those covered in the preliminary report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services and other coordinators, and will discuss of case law surrounding the Olmstead decision. Ms. Blank added that a section of the study will address the interaction between the states and the Federal Government and what the Federal Government is or is not doing to develop effective implementation by the states.

Mr. Rosen said the time line for the completion of the Administration's report on the implementation of the Olmstead decision was scheduled for January 28 and there has been no further word from the Administration as to when the full report will be released.

Native American Project
Ms. Yazzie-King said the title of the new report is People with Disabilities on Tribal Lands: Education, Healthcare, Rehabilitation, and Independent Living.

She said pre-proposal input was gathered through two conference calls with individuals from the field, including people representing Indian tribes, Alaska Native groups, and federal offices, and the information gathered from the calls enabled the group to determine the areas that would be the focus of the RFP.

She said the presolicitation notice was posted on January 14 and was also posted in a new online publication titled Federal Business Opportunities.

Ms. Yazzie-King said the RFP was released on January 30 and that as of this February meeting, NCD has received 27 requests for proposals application packages. The deadline for proposals is 5:00 p.m., March 30 at the NCD office.

Juvenile Justice Study
Ms. Rangel-Diaz said the delinquency and juvenile justice study RFP has been submitted to the public and there have been 47 responses. She said all proposals are due by March 1, and a three- to four-week review process will follow.

Dr. Gould said the study will examine an overlooked, underrepresented group of youth and young adults who often have multiple service and support needs that cross over education, mental health, social service, and foster care. He said the federal legislation that touches their lives is typically either the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, or the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act. He said these people have some of the highest school dropout rates in the nation among 14- to 21-year-olds.

Dr. Gould said individuals from culturally diverse backgrounds are overrepresented in the juvenile justice and residential service institution systems. NCD is interested in determining the barriers at the federal, state, and local levels to preventing delinquency among youth who are at risk for contact with the juvenile justice court system and for those who have already been identified as delinquent.

Dr. Gould said NCD is also interested in what practices will allow juveniles to move quickly through the system and back out to the community; what policies are needed to get them back to their communities, origins, or homes; and what will help prevent them from returning to the system.

IDEA Reauthorization
Ms. Rangel-Diaz reported in the absence of Kate Wolters, team facilitator. She said NCD may seek to contract with someone to assist with NCD's work on IDEA. She said three congressional hearings are scheduled to address general issues surrounding the reauthorization of IDEA--one on March 21 on general IDEA issues, one on April 11 on unemployment issues, and one on April 25 on discipline issues.

Ms. Rangel-Diaz said an IDEA working paper that is posted on NCD's Web site was reviewed by panelists who were to participate in a forum planned for the NCD quarterly meeting in Los Angeles that moved to Washington. As such, the forum was canceled.

Motion 7
Mr. Kemp moved to accept the Team Reports. Passed.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORTS

Cultural Diversity
Mr. Walker said the committee is trying to take advantage of the experience and expertise of each member and determine how they can make the best use of their time. He said the next meeting is scheduled for March 6 at 3:00 p.m. He encouraged interested NCD members to participate.

International Watch
Dr. Andersson reported that members of NCD's International Watch, the United States Agency on International Development, the U.S. State Department and various non-governmental organizations (NGO) will meet on February 11 for the first in a series of a round table discussions on disability inclusion in the arena of U.S.-sponsored foreign programs. Discussion during the first session will focus on the existing disability inclusion policies of each of the organizations represented and feedback from disability community representatives on those policies and their implementation. The follow-up to the first session will be the establishment of sector groups to deal with disability-inclusion issues in the areas of post-conflict reconstruction, health, education, civil society and democracy, infrastructure development, disaster relief for refugees and economic development. Participants will be asked to forward questions, information on existing projects, potential resources and contacts, etc. to the coordinator for each sector group. This information will be used to develop the agenda for the second round table session during the summer months.

Ms. Blank reported that NCD is working with the United States International Council on Disabilities, Mental Disability Rights International and the Landmine Survivors Network on a three-phase education and outreach project explaining the purpose and role of an international convention on the human rights of people with disabilities. The first phase is the development of a white paper explaining the rationale for a convention and how it relates to the civil rights of people with disabilities in the U.S. The white paper will be the basis for discussion at a summit of international human rights and national disability leaders to be held on April 8 - the second phase of the international convention project. Feedback on the white paper will be recorded at the summit and used to develop an education/outreach tool that will be presented at a forum for U.S. disability organizations on understanding the role of an international convention and how to participate in its development process. The forum marks the third phase of the project, and will be an opportunity for further developing strategies for raising the awareness and participation of the U.S. disability community in the convention process.

Ms. Blank also commented that the role of the International Watch (IW) as a federal advisory committee had changed over the three years of its existence. Initially, the IW advised NCD on disability-related issues and events in the international arena that NCD should be aware of. In April 2000, the IW made 5 recommendations concerning specific actions NCD should take with respect to the global status of people with disabilities. In early FY 2001, NCD made a decision to act upon two of those recommendations: 1) to work with the federal agencies responsible for U.S. foreign policy to embrace disability inclusion as a tenet of the operation of its foreign programs; and 2) to examine the role of an international convention in furthering world-wide acceptance of disability rights as human rights and educate the U.S. disability community about it. Throughout FY 2001 and into FY 2002, the IW has served primarily to advise NCD on the projects NCD has developed implementing these two recommendations.

Youth
Ms. Yazzie-King said that Youth Advisory Committee members are deciding how they want to commit their time and expertise to NCD studies and other NCD projects. She said background information has been provided to them about NCD's previous recommendations on IDEA in preparation for reauthorization work. Once the committee has selected its areas of interest, its decisions will be made public. Ms. Yazzie-King said the members have been given information about the Native American and Juvenile Justice projects. She said the next conference call was a public meeting scheduled for February 27 at 4:00 p.m. EST. Anyone interested in participating should e-mail NCD contractor Thomas McKeithan.

NEW BUSINESS

Language Translation
Ms. Bristo said the Finance Committee was asked to gather additional information on translation of materials for those with limited proficiency in English and to look at how NCD could best go about translating materials into different languages in a cost-efficient manner. Translation is required under President Clinton's Executive Order 13166, which also created the White House Initiative on Asian and Pacific Islanders, on which Mr. Walker has been NCD's representative.

Ms. McCrimon said that since the last conversation about translation, staff had conducted a survey on what other federal entities were doing. The survey indicated that NCD's practices thus far have been more significant than those of most other federal agencies. She said a Federal Register notice sought comments on what people were doing in implementation. The executive order and subsequent federal rules provide guidance to agencies on how and what to translate.

Meeting with FCC Commissioner Copps
Mr. Rosen said Dr. O'Day, Dr. Gould, and he attended a meeting with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Michael J. Copps to determine the level of his interest in disability issues and how the FCC would approach disability issues from a policy and program standpoint. Mr. Rosen said they talked about various issues that are on NCD's agenda and received enthusiastic responses from FCC.

To follow up, Rosen, O'Day, and Gould met with FCC Chairman Michael Powell and then sent him a letter suggesting some agenda items for him to consider.

Mr. Rosen said NCD wants to maintain a policy relationship with the FCC. Commissioner Copps's first official act was to attend a conference in South Dakota, also attended by deaf individuals, on the issues of relay services.

Mr. Rosen said that he and Dr. Gould met with Dane Snowden, chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau for the FCC Commissioner, and heard that the FCC was being restructured. He wanted to know how this would affect the disability community. The commissioner assured him that the FCC is committed to providing services to the disability community.

Mr. Rosen said they discussed the FCC's Advisory Committee and the complaints NCD was hearing about technical issues not having a consumer orientation. He said the commissioner promised to meet with the advisory committee members to get a better understanding of their agenda.

Dr. Gould added that Commissioner Copps had his staff follow up on what was the ongoing advice about the E-rate release, Notice of Proposed Rule Making. One of the issues was the applicability of ADA and other civil rights laws to the E-rate program.

NCD Nominations
Dr. Andersson said President Bush has provided 10 nominations of new NCD members to the U.S. Senate for confirmation. He suggested that once they are confirmed, Ms. Bristo should write a letter to the new members to congratulate them and should ask current members to share their institutional knowledge of NCD with the new members.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Dr. Andersson said that both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are having conventions in Italy in April, and he has been asked to attend on behalf of NCD.

Ms. Briggs said the next quarterly meeting will be held on June 10-11 in Washington, D.C. The following meeting will be held on August 19-20 in Los Angeles, California.

ADJOURNMENT

Motion 8
Mr. Walker moved to adjourn the NCD meeting. Passed.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.