Protection and Advocacy Program for
Individual Rights
The
Protection and Advocacy Program for Individual Rights (PAIR) was established by
Congress as a national program under the Rehabilitation Act of 1993. PAIR programs were established to protect and
advocate for the legal and human rights of persons with disabilities not served
by the Protection and Advocacy System for Persons with Developmental
Disabilities (PADD) or the Protection and Advocacy Program for Individuals with
Mental Illness (PAIMI) programs. The
Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), Rehabilitation
Services Administration administers the PAIR program.
The
following objectives and priorities will be followed by the Center in
conducting our PAIR activities during fiscal year 2007.
OBJECTIVE #1: Increase access by persons with disabilities
to services, programs, and facilities open to the public.
Description: Ensure
that health care providers not refuse treatment on the basis of disability,
health care providers provide auxiliary aids and services when needed for
effective communication, and governmental entities and public accommodations
remove physical barriers to accessibility and make reasonable modifications in
policies to avoid discrimination.
Priorities:
1. Provide
information and referral, technical assistance and short term assistance to
individuals with disabilities who want to challenge discrimination by health
care providers who refuse to treat them based on their disability or refuse to
provide auxiliary aids for when seeking treatment.
2. Litigate
selected cases which present systemic issues and where litigation promises to
be far‑reaching and have high‑impact.
3. Provide advocacy
and legal services to advocate for removal of physical barriers to
accessibility, reasonable modifications in policies when necessary to avoid
discrimination, and provision of auxiliary aids and services to ensure
effective communication with individuals with hearing and/or visual impairments
pursuant to case selection criteria.
4. Monitor public
transportation and paratransit service to ensure that it remains accessible and
reliable to people with disabilities.
5. Provide information
and referral, technical assistance and short term assistance to individuals who
want to challenge disability discrimination by day care facilities.
OBJECTIVE #2: Ensure
access to comprehensive and appropriate healthcare services for individuals
with disabilities who are beneficiaries of Medicaid and/or Medicare.
Description:
For many individuals with
disabilities who are beneficiaries of Medicaid and/or Medicare, access to
appropriate healthcare services is often the key to living independently at
home and in their communities. When
seeking healthcare services, individuals with disabilities are often denied
critical healthcare services that allow them to be as healthy and independent
as possible.
Priorities:
1. Provide
advocacy and legal services to advocate for systemic changes that increase
access to medically necessary services for individuals with disabilities.
2 Provide
advocacy and legal services to challenge systemic denials of healthcare
services by AHCCCS and/or its contractors which subject individuals with
disabilities to health risks and potential loss of independence.
3. Conduct
outreach activities to train individuals with disabilities and advocates in the
various steps involved in accessing health care services, including how to
initiate requests for medically necessary services and how to challenge denials
of requested services.
4. Provide
information and referral to individuals and their guardians.
OBJECTIVE #3: Expand
access to appropriate and high quality special education services for students
who do not qualify for services under our PADD program.
Description: The
overwhelming majority of children with disabilities are capable of
participating in a regular education environment with adaptations or
modifications, provided that they receive quality educational programs to meet
their individualized needs. Through this objective, the Center is attempting to
ensure that children with disabilities, who do not qualify for services under our
PADD program, truly benefit from special education and related services and
have real opportunities for independence, productivity and inclusion.
Priorities:
1. Provide
advocacy and legal services to challenge the actions of local educational agencies
in which there have been significant denials or procedural rights or
substantive benefits regarding children with severe or multiple disabilities
leading to the denial of a free appropriate public education such as lack of
total progress, complete denial of services, or total absence of procedural
rights.
2. Provide
advocacy and legal services to advocate for children with disabilities who have
been long-term suspended or expelled to receive a free appropriate public
education.
3. Conduct trainings
on the educational rights of children with disabilities.
4. Provide timely
and accurate information and advice to families and students on special
education issues and referral to appropriate advocacy resources.
OBJECTIVE #4: To
reduce the discriminatory barriers which prevent qualified people with
disabilities from being hired, obtaining reasonable accommodations and working
in a workplace free of unlawful harassment, retaliation and intimidation.
Description: More
than 15 years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),
people with disabilities continue to face barriers to employment
opportunities. These barriers include
physical obstacles that either make it difficult or impossible to get into and
around a workplace to apply or work. In
other cases, there are communication barriers in the hiring process or on‑going
in the workplace that prevent people with disabilities from being hired, doing
their job or maintaining their job.
Still others are excluded because of rigid policies or procedures that
do not permit flexibility for people with disabilities. Other employers deny employment opportunities
or make adverse employment decisions because of attitudinal barriers. People are denied opportunities to work or
continue working because of barriers in other people’s minds: fears, stereotypes, presumptions,
misconceptions about work performance, safety, absenteeism, costs, or lack of
acceptance of co‑workers and customers.
This objective is designed to address these barriers by providing legal
advocacy to promote: (1) discriminatory‑free hiring procedures, (2)
provision of necessary reasonable accommodations for hiring, working and
enjoying the terms and benefits of employment, and (3) effective policies and
procedures to prevent unlawful harassment, retaliation and intimidation, and
unlawful termination in the workplace.
Priorities:
1. Provide legal
advocacy services to advocate for effective and reasonable accommodations when
necessary for people with serious disabilities to have an equal opportunity in
the hiring process, to be able to perform their jobs, and to receive the
benefits and privileges of employment and the implementation of employer lawful
reasonable accommodation policies.
2. Provide legal
advocacy services to oppose hiring and recruitment procedures that do not
create an equal opportunity for people with disabilities to apply, be
considered for employment and to pass unlawful employment entrance medical
examinations.
3. Provide legal
advocacy services to oppose unlawful disability harassment, retaliation or
intimidation and employer policies and procedures that fail to prevent
disability‑related harassment, retaliation and intimidation and address
them with effective correction action.
4. Provide legal advocacy services to
challenge unlawful withdrawal of job offers and job termination of people with
disabilities based on stereotypes and myths about disabilities or fears about
costs to employer-sponsored health insurance.
5. Provide
training about rights protected by federal and state law.
6. Provide
information and referral and self-advocacy technical assistance to individuals.
OBJECTIVE #5: Promote equal opportunity to housing under the fair housing act for
people with disabilities. Bring about
this awareness through trainings, dissemination of written information,
information and referral services, short term and technical assistance, and
litigation, where appropriate.
Description: Since
the Fair Housing Act (FHA) was amended in 1988 to add disability as a protected
status in prohibitions against housing discrimination, people with disabilities
continue to face barriers to equal opportunity in housing. Housing providers continue to discriminate on
the basis of disability by refusing to provide reasonable accommodations,
declining reasonable modification of policies and practices, failing to provide
physically accessible housing and including discriminatory terms and conditions
in housing. Additionally, municipalities
continue to enforce exclusionary zoning practices. We wish to address these discriminatory
practices that decrease the lot of available housing for people with
disabilities and ensure that individuals with disabilities and their housing
providers know of the FHA.
Priorities:
1. Provide
information and referral about disability rights protected by the FHA and how
to enforce them.
2. Provide
training about disability rights protected by the FHA and how to enforce them.
3. Provide short‑term
assistance to consumers whose circumstances are likely to be resolved by
informal advocacy by the Center.