The Virginia Board for People with
Disabilities has been asked to share the following important alert from its
state Developmental Disabilities Network partner, the Virginia Office for
Protection and Advocacy, with its constituents. The Virginia Board agrees
with and supports VOPA’s position and has joined it in testifying before the
General Assembly on this matter both last year and this year.
Please pass this information along to others who might be
interested as appropriate. Replies and requests for additional
information should be addressed directly to VOPA as indicated below.
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Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy Alert:
Assault on the Virginians With
Disabilities Act
The Virginia Lottery is pushing a measure
through the General Assembly that would weaken the Virginians with
Disabilities Act (VDA). HB 1356
takes away the state's promise that it will not use businesses that
discriminate. The bill will be heard by
the House Committee on General Laws, Tuesday morning, February 5, 2008, at
8:30am.
HB 1356 is a bad policy. It
is a move in the wrong direction. Where
other bills this year are making the VDA stronger, this one will weaken it. This bill will give the Commonwealth
permission to do business with contractors and licensees that discriminate
against people with disabilities. It will
start with the lottery. Where will it
stop?
HB 1356 adds this to the VDA:
“For purposes of this chapter, a private, nongovernmental entity
that sells a product, license, or other thing on behalf of an agency of the Commonwealth
pursuant to a license or other regulatory process shall not on that basis alone
be deemed to be under any program or activity receiving state financial
assistance or under any program or activity conducted by or on behalf of any
state agency.”
As the VDA now stands, the Commonwealth promises to
assure access to all of its programs, whether it operates them directly or
operates them through private businesses. HB
1356 removes that assurance. No longer
will
What can you do?
Call Paula Otto, the newly appointed Director of the
Lottery, at 804-692-7000. Ask her why the Lottery is attacking the
rights of Virginians with disabilities.
Call Governor Kaine at (804) 786-2211 (Voice), 1-800-828-1120 (TTY/TDD), or 711 (on your
cell phone), or send him a message via his website at http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm. Ask him to instruct his lottery director to stop this attack.
Call your delegate. Ask her or him
to oppose the bill. It is especially
important to make this call before Tuesday if your delegate is on the General Laws Committee. The members of General Laws are Terri Suit,
Chris Jones, David Albo, Thomas Wright, Glen Oder, Thomas Gear, John Cosgrove,
Charles Carrico, Edward Scott, Salvatore Iaquinto, Todd Gilbert, Jackson
Miller, Watkins Abbitt, Clarence Phillips, William Barlow, Robert Hull, Jeion
Ward, Rosalyn Dance, Roslyn Tyler, David Bulova, Albert Eisenberg, and Dan
Bowling.
To find out who your legislator is, go to the “Who’s
My Legislator?” section of the General Assembly’s website at http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform.
The Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy
strongly urges Virginians to ask their public
representatives to preserve the state’s current position of leadership in
providing and advocating for accessibility for all Virginians. Please share this alert with others committed
to this important principle and encourage them to act as well.
To respond or for additional information, please
contact:
Colleen Miller, Executive Director
Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy
804-225-2042 (Voice/TTY)
1-800-552-3962 (Voice/TTY, Toll-Free in
804-662-7057 (Fax)
general.vopa@vopa.virginia.gov
www.vopa.virginia.gov