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TACIL Guiding Principles
The Texas Association of Centers for Independent Living has established a set of "Guiding Principles" to guide systems advocacy and service development activities. The following table of contents will link you to the specific Issues indicated.
Issue A: Long Term Care Services
Long term care services for people with disabilities should:
- Be based on individual functional need;
- Be available to people with disabilities, regardless of age, type of disability, sex, race, political affiliation or sexual preference;
- Serve people with disabilities and provide support to their families at home, work, in the community, and in school;
- Offer people with disabilities and their families maximum opportunities for choice and control of services, including a choice of providers;
- Promote independence and self-determination;
- Be designed and delivered according to an individual service plan, with the consumer or legal guardian as the principle figure in the process;
- Recognize and allow for changing needs and circumstances, over time, of individuals with disabilities;
- Include options for cost-sharing to eliminate income-based eligibility restrictions;
- Be available throughout the state, in both urban and rural settings;
- Provide training to people with disabilities on personal assistant recruitment, direction, and management on an optional basis, and provide for basic training of personal assistants;
- Provide an appropriate level of personal assistance services, without requiring a package of services which may be unnecessary or intrusive to the individual, and maintain resources that provide habilitation, nursing, therapies and related services;
- Be funded at a level that people on waiting lists have access to services;
- Be available without cost caps so that no individual is denied the opportunity to receive services according to need;
- Be consolidated to simplify application procedures, reduce duplication of effort, eliminate eligibility barriers, and promote a consistent appeals and grievance process;
- Be available according to the principle of "least restrictive environment" such that each person with a disability has the option of living in the community with appropriate services and supports;
- Be designed so that compensation is adequate to retain personal assistants and other long term care providers.
Issue B: Employment
Systems to provide Vocational Rehabilitation or promote employment of people with disabilities should:
- Be reformed to better meet the rehabilitation and training needs of individuals with disabilities, particularly those with significant disabilities;
- Require expedient and comprehensive implementation of new provisions in the Rehabilitation Act;
- Develop a standard definition of competitive employment to be used across programs and agencies;
- Require each program and agency to prioritize competitive employment in jobs that are integrated, community-based, and in compliance with minimum wage standards;
- Require a specific timetable for transition from sheltered workshops and other segregated programs which pay less than minimum wage and offer few options for movement;
- Give the consumer primary responsibility for deciding when the vocational objective has been accomplished and services are no longer required;
- Place emphasis on the quality of the job as well as severity of the disability in evaluating the success of Vocational Rehabilitation programs;
- Ensure that a full range of services and supports are available to people who are employed and need assistance for career advancement;
- Promote use of assistive technology to develop new avenues of employment;
- Expand efforts to develop non-traditional employment options such as temporary employment, self-employment, and home-based employment programs;
- Include people with disabilities at all levels of policy development, management, and service delivery;
- Continue and expand outreach and service delivery to traditionally underserved populations;
- Focus on local, state, and federal government entities as a leading source for employment opportunities for people with disabilities and as models for recruiting, hiring, providing reasonable accommodations to, and promoting employees with disabilities;
- Remove disincentives to work within public assistance programs such as loss of financial support and health care benefits as a result of earned income.
Issue C: Civil Rights
The civil rights protections of people with disabilities should:
- Be preserved in federal, state and local statutes;
- Be available to and defended by all people with disabilities, with priority to resistance of efforts to weaken statutes or exclude specific populations;
- Be strengthened through case law and precedent;
- Be enforced with greater resources and diligence at all levels of government;
- Be promoted by education and technical assistance efforts at the local, state and national level;
- Be publicized in such manner as to counter negative media accounts of civil rights enforcement;
- Be interpreted so as to apply the principle of "least restrictive environment" to promote community-based service delivery;
- Maintain provisions to protect a broad range of individuals, including those who have a "history of" or who are "regarded as" having a disability;
- Include regulations and enforcement of protections available to people with low-incidence disabilities;
- Be interpreted to require equity and fairness in health and long-term disability insurance, with protection from exclusion or benefit limits based on genetic information or mental health or other specific disability diagnoses;
- Maintain provisions to ensure political participation of people with disabilities, with emphasis on accommodations necessary to ensure privacy, confidentiality and convenience in voting;
- Maintain and defend protections of people with disabilities receiving public education, resisting efforts to amend or otherwise weaken existing education laws;
- Include specific supports and assistance to people with disabilities involved in the criminal justice system as victims, witnesses, suspects, or convicted offenders;
- Include efforts to develop and enforce regulations for equal access to transportation services, including over-the-road buses.
Issue D: Housing
Housing available to people with disabilities should:
- Be accessible, integrated, convenient, and affordable;
- Be available without discrimination, with diligent enforcement of fair housing laws at all levels of government;
- Be available without links to services or other special terms or conditions;
- Allow for individual choice of living arrangements;
- Be expanded through additional subsidized housing with priority to tenant-based rental assistance which allow consumers to choose among housing options;
- Continue a transition from institutions to homes in the community;
- Be expanded through new construction of single-family and multi-family housing that meets minimal accessibility standards;
- Be supported by efforts to make new and existing housing more accessible, without restrictions imposed by zoning requirements;
- Be supported by programs that provide accessibility modifications;
- Include options for home ownership that incorporate reduced-rate and guaranteed loans, provision that allow low-income individuals to qualify for loans, down payment assistance, home modifications, and training and technical assistance on home ownership and maintenance.
Issue E: Assistive Technology
Programs and resources that provide assistive technology to people with disabilities should:
- Make assistive technology available to people with disabilities according to individual need to carry out activities of daily living, employment, and community access and inclusion;
- Be available through various funding sources;
- Be available to the consumer in all environments including home, work, school, and in the community;
- Be developed in cooperation with businesses and research organizations to expand the assistive technology options available to people with disabilities;
- Maximize efforts to incorporate assistive technology features in common business and industrial processes so as to enhance availability and affordability of technologies;
- Be developed, tested and distributed through community-based organizations serving people with disabilities;
- Support programs that allow people to learn to use assistive technology devices in natural settings;
- Be provided with adequate training to ensure maximum benefit;
- Include adequate standards for Assistive Technology Warranty Protection;
- Expand availability of communications technology such that the modes, methods, and technologies by which people with disabilities communicate are accessible, equivalent to those available to those without disabilities, and available without additional fees or surcharges;
- Be designed to protect the privacy and confidentiality of people with disabilities in all communications;
- Be designed with comprehensive and universal standards of accessibility for electronic communications.
Issue F: Health Care
Health care provided to all Americans should:
- Include guarantees for information disclosure such that consumers can receive information, and obtain assistance when needed, in order to make informed health care decisions;
- Ensure provision of interpreters, translators, and other types of assistance necessary for communications regarding health care decisions;
- Provide a choice of providers and plans sufficient to ensure access to appropriate high-quality health care;
- Provide access to, and ensure that health care plans provide payment for, emergency services;
- Guarantee participation of consumers in treatment decisions, including assistance from family, guardians, or other conservators when needed;
- Be provided without discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, genetic information, or source of payment;
- Maintain confidentiality of health information and records of consumers;
- Maintain consumers' right to access, review, copy, and request amendments to their medical records;
- Maintain a fair and efficient system of complaints and appeals, both internal and external;
- Promote understanding of consumer responsibilities.
Issue G: Transportation
Transportation services for people with disabilities should:
- Be accessible, integrated, convenient, and affordable as defined by federal standards;
- Include all public and private transportation options available to the general public, without eligibility restrictions, surcharges, or limits based on number or purpose of trips;
- Be expanded to provide local and inter-city services throughout the state, in both urban and rural settings;
- Be flexible and respond to consumers' real life needs (starting where people are and addressing social events, evening and weekend trips, as well as travel to and from employment during both "peak" and "off-peak" times);
- Provide a choice of accessible fixed route and paratransit services within designated service areas;
- Be provided by personnel who are trained on the specific needs of passengers with various types of disabilities;
- Include over-the-road bus systems that provide true equity of service through strict enforcement of federal standards of accessibility;
- Promote unique rural solutions compatible with resources, needs, and values of rural communities;
- Seek to equalize the federal funds allocated between urban and rural areas by increasing the overall funding allocation;
- Support and promote implementation of new and expanded programs of accessible and affordable transportation for Texans in rural areas who are disabled or elderly, including new ventures and cooperative efforts with existing transit providers;
- Promote cooperative efforts to evaluate and share information about the cost and resources available, effectiveness, and impact of innovative practices in rural transportation.