Fighting For Disability Rights: Key Points

Fighting for Disability Rights 2/10/20, 5:08 PM
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ISSUES
Fighting for
Disability
Rights
As we near the 30th anniversary of the Americans
with Disabilities Act, we need a president who will
champion both protecting and expanding the
rights of the tens of millions of Americans with
disabilities. As president, Bernie will not only put
forward aggressive disability policy proposals
designed to promote access, autonomy, inclusion
and self-determination for all, but will also
incorporate disability issues into every other area
of public policy.
Key Points
Guaranteeing health care, including mental health care and home- and
community-based services and supports without waitlists, asset or income
restrictions, as a human right to everyone in America.
Protecting and expanding the Social Security Disability Insurance and

Supplemental Security Income programs by reversing the Trump
Administration’s attack on SSDI/SSI, ending the massive disability application
backlog, putting a stop to SSI’s draconian asset test and marriage penalty, and
raising the SSI benefit level to 125 percent of the poverty level, lifting millions
out of poverty.
Aggressively enforcing the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision, including for

people with mental illness. As President, Sanders will work to enforce the
Supreme Court’s landmark Olmstead decision protecting the rights of people
with disabilities to get support in the community. The plan places particular
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priority on the humanitarian crisis in our country created by the incarceration of

people with mental illness, leveraging Olmstead to ensure states fund the
voluntary, community-based mental health services that can save lives and keep
people in the community.
Providing mandatory funding to ensure that the federal government provides at

least 50 percent of the funding for serving students with disabilities, exceeding
the federal government’s original commitment of 40 percent when IDEA was
passed. The plan also provides schools with 100 percent of the additional costs
of serving students with disabilities in the general education classroom above
the cost of average per pupil expenditures.
Using executive authority to reject both renewals of and new proposals from
states to place disability and aging services under the control of for-profit
managed care organizations, including reversing Iowa’s disastrous experiment
with for-profit Medicaid privatization.
Create a National Office of Disability Coordination, run by a person with a

disability, focused on coordinating and making disability policy to advance the
full inclusion of people with disabilities, including ensuring every aspect of our
public resources are ADA compliant and that the civil rights of people with
disabilities are protected and expanded.
Ending subminimum wage for workers with disabilities while guaranteeing jobs
and living wages in the community for all.
Passing the Disability Integration Act, to establish a clear standard for the
delivery of high-quality services.
Details
Disability Rights Are Civil Rights
From the beginning of American history, people with disabilities have been a part of
our country. Often segregated and ignored, the disability community has fought for
equality, inclusion and access to the American dream. These efforts have been crucial
to building the best parts of our country – and are just as important to building the
future we want.
It’s time for us to acknowledge that disability rights are civil rights, and that a society
that does not center the voices and needs of people with disabilities has yet to fulfill
its most basic obligations.
As we near the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we need a
president who will champion both protecting and expanding the rights of the tens of
millions of Americans with disabilities. As president, Bernie will not only put forward
aggressive disability policy proposals designed to promote access, autonomy,
inclusion and self-determination for all, but will also incorporate disability issues into
every other area of public policy, including housing, health care, education,
transportation, technology and many others. Bernie will create a National Office of
Disability Coordination, run by a person with a disability, focused on coordinating and
making disability policy to advance the full inclusion of people with disabilities,
including ensuring every aspect of our public resources are ADA compliant and that
the civil rights of people with disabilities are protected and expanded.
Despite the progress that has been made over the past two decades, we
unfortunately still live in a world where people with disabilities have fewer work
opportunities, experience much higher rates of poverty, and where the civil rights of
people with disabilities are not always protected and respected.
Bernie believes that, as a nation, we have a moral responsibility to ensure that all
Americans have the support they need to live with dignity.
Disability rights will factor into virtually every area of policy-making in a Bernie
Sanders administration.
Using Executive Action to Advance Disability

Rights
Not only will Bernie pass Medicare for All, the Disability Integration Act, and other
crucial legislative priorities, Bernie will take bold and necessary executive action to
protect the rights of people with disabilities. Bernie intends to use the power of the
executive to make major disability policy advancements.
As president, Bernie will:
Appoint a person with a disability to serve as Senior Advisor on Disability

Policy on the White House Domestic Policy Council. The motto of the
disability rights movement is “Nothing About Us, Without Us.” With that in
mind, Bernie will appoint a person with a disability with experience in disability
rights advocacy as Senior Advisor to the President on Disability Policy, sitting on
the White House Domestic Policy Council. This will ensure that disability policy
will be a priority for the Sanders Administration and that a disability rights
perspective will be incorporated into all areas of domestic policy.
Instruct the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reject
both renewals of and new proposals for placing disability and aging
services under the control of for-profit managed care organizations. Across
the country, states are contracting out the operation of their Medicaid Long Term
Services and Supports programs to for-profit insurance companies. As Iowans
have discovered from the state’s disastrous Medicaid Managed Care
implementation, handing over control of Medicaid-funded disability and aging
services to for-profit companies puts people with disabilities and older
Americans at serious risk. Most managed care implementations require federal
approval prior to proceeding. As president, Bernie will instruct CMS to withhold
approval from any state managed care application that proposes to place
disability and aging services under the control of for-profit insurers and to deny
renewals for for-profit managed care arrangements. These services are simply
too important to be placed in the hands of for-profit corporate insurance
companies.
Reverse the Trump administration’s disgraceful attack on the ability of

home care workers to come together in a union and raise wages and
workforce standards. States have developed innovative arrangements to
ensure that workers providing self-directed services to people with disabilities
and older adults are still able to form a union. Unfortunately, in May 2019, the
Trump administration issued regulations that attacks home care workers' ability
to use automatic paycheck deductions for union dues, health insurance
contributions and other common expenses. As president, Bernie will reverse the
Trump administration’s disgraceful attack on the collective bargaining rights of
home care workers.
Issue an executive order requiring any state applying for Medicaid 1115
demonstration waivers to include a plan for eliminating their waiting list
for 1915(c) home and community-based services within a five-year period.
Unfortunately, Medicaid currently possesses an institutional bias that permits
states to run waiting lists that can force people with disabilities and older adults
to wait for years to access vital services to allow them to survive and thrive in the
community. Under Medicare for All, this will no longer be the case. But we know
that people with disabilities shouldn’t have to wait for Congress to act. States
use Medicaid 1115 demonstration waivers to experiment with new approaches
in Medicaid that differ from federal statute. As president, Bernie will issue an
executive order requiring any state applying for a new Medicaid 1115
demonstration waiver to include a plan to eliminate their waiting list for home
and community-based services within a five-year period after approval. He will
also instruct CMS to refuse any Medicaid 1115 demonstration waiver coming
from a state that does not possess a realistic plan to end their waiting list within
that time period.
Vigorously enforce the Home and Community Based Settings Rule. In 2014,
the Obama Administration issued a new Home and Community Based Settings
Rule providing for crucial protections for people with disabilities, requiring that
every state ensure that people with disabilities have such basic liberties
respected as the right to choose where and with whom to live, when to wake up
and go to sleep, the ability to have visitors in their own home and much more.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration has delayed and weakened
implementation of this rule. Bernie will instruct CMS to issue new guidance
articulating more robust standards for enforcement of the Settings Rule,
including requiring each state to establish a mechanism for individual
complaints and investigation of violations of the rights articulated within the
rule.
Issue an executive order leveraging the federal government’s role as a

model employer to drastically increase disability employment efforts.
While employment opportunity was central to the goals of the ADA, only four
out of ten working-age people with disabilities are employed. To help address
the unemployment and under-employment of people with disabilities, Bernie
will issue an executive order instructing federal agencies to expand their hiring
of workers with disabilities utilizing the Schedule A Hiring Authority.
Instruct the Department of Labor to issue new regulations expanding the

federal government’s role as a model contractor to promote disability
employment. Bernie will also instruct the Department of Labor Office of Federal
Contract Compliance Programs to devote more resources to the aggressive
enforcement of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, encouraging federal
contractors to hire workers with disabilities, and issue new regulations raising
the Section 503 utilization goal for federal contractor hiring of people with
disabilities to more closely reflect the proportion of people with disabilities in
the general population, and introduce a new sub-goal for workers with targeted
disabilities, aligning implementation with the definition of competitive
integrated employment in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
Instruct the Department of Justice and the HHS Office of Civil Rights to
issue new rules protecting people with disabilities against health care
discrimination. Thirty years after the ADA, people with disabilities still face
significant discrimination in a wide variety of areas. In areas like organ transplant
discrimination, medical futility determinations and the inaccessibility of medical
equipment, people with disabilities often experience unacceptable prejudice
and inequitable treatment when seeking the care to which they should have a
right. To remedy this, Bernie will instruct the Department of Justice to make the
Access Board’s Medical Diagnostic Equipment standards mandatory for health
care providers, pursuant to its authority under Titles II and III of the ADA. Bernie
will also instruct the HHS Office of Civil Rights to issue regulations protecting
people with disabilities from discrimination in organ transplants, medical futility
determinations and other areas of potential health care discrimination.
Issue an executive order instructing the Secretary of Health and Human

Services to incorporate people with disabilities into their definitions of
Medically Underserved Populations. Though people with disabilities face
serious health disparities, they are not incorporated in existing federal
definitions of a Medically Underserved Population. This deprives people with
disabilities of a variety of funding preferences and loan repayment programs
designed to target health care resources to populations that have access to this
designation in order to close disparities. As president, Bernie will instruct the
Secretary of Health and Human Services to designate people with disabilities as
a Medically Underserved Population across programs, enabling access to
funding priorities and loan repayment programs dependent on this designation.
Begin rule making process to overturn President Trump’s so-called “public

charge” rule to ensure our system does not discriminate on the basis of income
or disability and that immigrants do not have to fear endangering their
immigration status in order to access basic supports and services.
Reverse the Trump administration’s cruel eligibility rule for SSI and SSDI.
Bernie will also appoint an Attorney General who will ensure that the Department of
Justice will vigorously enforce the Olmstead decision, building on the important work
done under the Obama Administration to challenge states that segregate people with
disabilities into institutions through inadequate supports and waiting lists for home
and community based services. This will include:
Protecting the rights of people with disabilities to access integrated

employment services. In October 2016, the Obama administration broke new
ground in advancing the rights of people with disabilities by issuing guidance
on applying the Olmstead decision, which requires states to offer services to
people with disabilities in the most integrated setting, to employment services.
Unfortunately, in December 2017, the Trump administration withdrew this
guidance. We will restore this Olmstead guidance on including people with
disabilities in the workplace and make advancing integrated employment a high
priority for the Department of Justice’s Olmstead enforcement.
Leveraging the Olmstead decision to divert people with mental illness out
of jails and prisons and into the community. Recognizing the humanitarian
crisis in our country created by the incarceration of people with mental illness,
we will use the Olmstead decision to challenge states that have failed to
adequately support the voluntary, community-based mental health services that
can divert people with mental illness from ending up in the criminal justice
system.
Prioritizing accountability in law enforcement interactions with people

with disabilities. All too often, people with disabilities, especially people of
color with disabilities, face violence from law enforcement. This requires more
than just training – it requires accountability. Approximately half of all people
who die in police-involved shootings have a disability. In order to protect the
rights of people with disabilities, we intend to make discriminatory law
enforcement interactions with people with disabilities a major enforcement
priority of the Civil Rights Division and dedicate staff to focus specifically on this
problem.
In addition to using executive action, Bernie

will advance a comprehensive disability
policy program:
1. Guaranteeing the Right to Community
Living
People with disabilities and older adults are a part of our shared community, and
deserve the same rights and opportunities as any other American. Unfortunately,
despite decades of activism from disability rights advocates, much remains to be
done to fully welcome everyone into the mainstream of community life.
Twenty-nine years after the Americans with Disabilities Act and 20 years after the
Supreme Court’s landmark Olmstead decision, more than 700,000 people with
disabilities and older adults are on waiting lists to receive the home and community-
based services they need. Many who need services are not even able to access the
wait list, due to oppressive asset and income restrictions that force those with
disabilities to spend their lives in poverty.
Medicaid – the leading payer for long-term services and supports in this country – has
a longstanding institutional bias. Because Medicaid requires states to make available
nursing home and institutional care immediately, but forces people with disabilities to
wait years to get access to services in their own homes and communities, many end
up institutionalized even as they desperately wish to remain in the community. No one
should have to choose between being taken out of their homes and communities or
being denied the support they need to survive and thrive.
What’s more, our profit-driven corporate health care system is threatening the lives
and freedom of people with disabilities and older adults already in the community by
underpaying home care workers and contracting out the operation of state Medicaid
programs to for-profit insurance companies that deny access to the services people
need to survive and thrive. Profit-driven health care is failing our people. Our country
deserves better.
Many of these flaws are the result of the inconsistent and inadequate way in which
policymakers have approached disability and aging services, treating the needs of the
more than 13 million Americans with long term services and supports needs and their
families as secondary to broader discussions of health policy. This has a grave impact
on those who need support – and on those who provide it.
The home care workers who assist people with disabilities and older adults provide
vital services at a rate of compensation at or only slightly above the minimum wage.
This creates an unsustainable dynamic, leading to high turnover rates and poverty for
those providing vital services to people with disabilities and older adults.
This status quo has grave consequences for marginalized communities. The majority
of home care workers are people of color, and nearly 9 in 10 are women. Over half of
the home care workforce has not completed any formal education beyond high
school. Almost one-third of home care workers are immigrants. Our lack of
investment in these workers does a disservice to the people they support and reflects
systemic bias on the basis of race, gender and class. To make matters worse, the
Trump administration has recently made it harder for many home care workers to be
represented by a union.
Together, we will ensure that every American who needs it can be supported in their
own home by workers that are compensated at fair wages.
Long-Term Services and Supports within Medicare for

All
Because health reform that fails to include disability and aging services is incomplete,
Bernie worked in partnership with disability advocates to build a framework for
ensuring that the needs of people with disabilities and older adults are met within
Medicare for All. As president, Bernie will ensure that everyone can get the support
they need to survive and thrive on their own terms:
We will pass the Disability Integration Act, to establish a clear standard for the
delivery of high-quality services endorsed by a broad cross-section of the
disability community.
Under Medicare for All, people with disabilities and older adults who are unable
to perform without substantial assistance at least one Activity of Daily Living or
who require substantial assistance with communication, social interaction,
learning, self-care, self-management or other impairments that impact a
person’s capacity for social or economic participation, will be entitled to receive
home- and community-based services at a level necessary to ensure they can
survive and thrive in the community. No asset and income restrictions will be
placed on these services.
All people with disabilities and older Americans will possess the right to convert
their existing home- and community-based services into a self-directed model of
service, where those receiving support may choose who provides them with
assistance. This will include the option of both employer and budget authority,
at the preference of the person receiving services. This will give people
receiving home- and community-based services the right to manage their own
support staff, consistent with the disability rights movement’s longstanding
commitment to autonomy, independence and self-determination. States will be
required to work with disability rights advocates and labor unions to establish
collective bargaining arrangements for workers delivering self-directed
services, modeled after successful state models like the Oregon Home Health
Care Commission and the California In-Home Supportive Services Statewide
Authority. Such arrangements – which have recently come under attack from the
Trump administration – already protect the rights of people with disabilities to
self-direct their care while ensuring that workers have the opportunity to be
represented by a union able to bargain for improved wages and benefits. Where
collective bargaining arrangements result in wage and benefit levels above the
median wage level for the geographic area, under this plan state and county
government will receive a one to one federal match to fund enhancements to
wages and benefits.
The existing Medicaid program will continue to cover skilled nursing facilities,
intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities and other
forms of currently available institutional care. To ensure that all seniors and
people with disabilities have the opportunity to access community-based
alternatives, we will make permanent the successful Money Follows the Person
(MFP) demonstration program, which has helped more than 90,000 people
with disabilities and older adults transition to community life over the last 14
years. MFP will provide states with additional financial assistance to assist in
supporting people with disabilities and older adults to leave institutions and
nursing homes, after which they will be eligible for home and community based
services under Medicare for All.
We will establish a new robust funding stream to Protection and Advocacy (P&A)
agencies to ensure that all services delivered under Medicare for All will remain
safe and high-quality, tying funding levels to enrollment in the LTSS benefit to
ensure that P&A agencies have the resources they need to protect the rights of
all receiving services.
We will work with Congress and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services to
set minimum standards for case management and care coordination services,
including maximum caseload ratios for different populations and service needs.
We will work with Congress to fully repeal the Electronic Visit Verification
mandate, an unconscionable intrusion on the privacy and autonomy of people
with disabilities that has also made it more difficult for support workers to do
their jobs.
To assist CMS and other agencies in implementing new policy under this plan,
we will propose a significant expansion of the National Council on Disability
(NCD), providing the agency with an annual budget in line with other
comparable independent government agencies, such as the United States
Commission on Civil Rights and the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access
Commission (MACPAC). We will also authorize NCD to establish regional
offices, develop a more robust internal investigation capability and access
authority and will empower the agency to play a more active role providing
technical assistance to other parts of the federal government.
Investing in the Home Care Workforce

We need 7.8 million home health and personal care aides by 2026 to meet our needs.
In order to meet the growing demand, we need to make direct care a quality career
that pays a living wage. The people who support people with disabilities and older
adults shouldn’t have to live in poverty. Home care work should not just be a job, it
should be a career that people can spend their lives in while supporting themselves
and their families. We will boost the wages of home care workers across the country.
We’re also proposing new collective bargaining arrangements to grow the number of
workers delivering these services who enjoy union representation, the swiftest path to
political and economic empowerment for working Americans of all kinds.
We must ensure our care workers are afforded a living wage and a safe working
environment. Bernie will provide strong protections for collective bargaining,
workers’ rights, and workplace safety for all workers, including caregivers.
Pass Bernie’s Workplace Democracy plan and pass Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s
Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act to ensure our care workers are afforded a
living wage and a safe working environment.
We will pass inclusive labor protection laws for domestic workers, who
have historically been intentionally excluded to allow the exploitation of
disproportionately minority and immigrant workers. This means providing
domestic workers with strong protections for unionizing, sectoral
collective bargaining, workers’ rights, workplace safety, and fair
scheduling, regardless of immigration status, and that they have the
information and tools they need to act on these rights and protections.
We will set wages, benefits and hours for all direct care workers, not just
employer-by-employer. In addition, under this plan, all cities, counties,
and other local jurisdictions would have the freedom to go beyond the
minimum federal standards and establish their own higher wage floors and
guarantee even stronger standards and benefits for workers. We will
create an economy and a government that works for direct care workers.
We will provide paid direct care training to workers in the field and also
expand direct care training through union training fund programs, public
colleges, trade schools and apprenticeship programs to help train the
workforce we need.
Direct care workers, who are overwhelmingly women – in particular,

women of color and immigrants – too often do not receive health insurance
through their employment. We will guarantee them high-quality health
care under Medicare for All.
We will provide direct care workers guaranteed vacation leave, sick leave
and family and medical leave.
Family Caregivers
We will also give the tools and assistance needed to the more than 43 million family
caregivers in this country.
Enact the Social Security Caregiver Credit Act to compensate the more than 43
million unpaid caregivers for their work.
Expand access to caregiving programs provided by the Older Americans Act

(OAA). OAA provides critical funding for a wide variety of social and legal
services such as home-delivered meals, employment opportunities for low-
income seniors, and caregiver support. The National Family Caregiver Support
Program provides caregiver counseling, training, support groups, and respite
care so caregivers can have a break for a few hours to help avoid burnout.
Ensure that every family caregiver is able to receive compensation for their labor
through self-directed services if that is the preference of the individual with a
disability receiving support.
Make available a national entitlement for in-home respite care for all people with
disabilities and families who desire it. In doing so, we will build on the values
framework established in the Developmental Disabilities Act and the Older
Americans Act.
Make available to family caregivers training and enhanced case management

services upon request to better support them in managing any complex care
needs that may emerge.
2. Health Care for All

Today, 11 percent of people with disabilities are uninsured. One-third of adults with
disabilities ages 18 to 44 skipped receiving the care they need because of cost. One-
fourth of adults with disabilities did not have a check-up in the past year. It is time for
the United States to join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care
to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare for All program.
It is past time that we protect Americans with disabilities from the greed and cruelty of
the corporate health care industry. Medicare for All will create a single-payer, national
health insurance program to provide every resident in the United States
comprehensive coverage. Medicare for All means guaranteed health care, no matter
what. Freedom and security. No networks, no premiums, no deductibles, no copays,
no surprise bills.
Bernie will introduce his Medicare for All bill in during his first week in office.We will
build the movement necessary to pass Medicare for All and guarantee health care as a
human right.
Guarantee health care as a human right by enacting Medicare for All. The plan
would:
Guarantee home- and community-based services, assistive technologies

and mental health care to all, without waitlists or asset or income
restrictions. Medicare for All covers everyone’s health care needs. This
includes: hospital services, including inpatient drugs; outpatient care;
primary care and preventive services, including treatment of illnesses;
prescription drugs, medical devices, and biological products; mental
health and substance abuse treatment, including inpatient care; lab and
diagnostic services; hearing aids; comprehensive reproductive, maternity,
and newborn care; pediatrics; dental and vision, including dentures and
eyeglasses; rehabilitative services and devices; emergency services and
transportation; home- and community-based long-term services and
supports; and more.
Stop the pharmaceutical industry from ripping off people with disabilities
by making sure that no one in America pays more than $200 a year for the
medicine they need by capping what Americans pay for prescription
drugs.
Provide transportation for individuals with disabilities to receive the care

they need.
Cover assistive technologies and medical devices.
Make sure that mental healthcare will be free at the point of service, with
no copayments or deductibles which can be a barrier to treatment.
Ensure that the nearly 1 in 6 Americans with chronic pain and the nearly 20
million with life-altering pain have access to pain management and
treatment, including, where appropriate, access to pain medication. We
will work actively to ensure that policies designed to curb opioid use in
general do not result in people with disabilities who rely on opioids for
chronic pain losing access to them, or being abruptly or forcibly tapered or
abandoned in care altogether. We will also cover evidence-based
alternatives for pain care, and invest in pain research and the education of
clinicians about pain treatment.
Medicare for All would also:
Require an evaluation of health disparities, including geographic

disparities, and a plan for addressing the disparities found in the
evaluation. And create an Office of Primary Health to figure out how to
increase access to care, including how to train the workforce we need to
address these disparities.
Ban Medicaid estate recovery.
Update the asset limit to account for inflation as it has not been updated
since 1988, which determines eligibility of Medicaid institutional long-
term support and services.
Take action to address discrimination against people with disabilities in health

care contexts, including:
Designating people with disabilities as a Medically Underserved

Population, enabling access to loan repayment and funding preferences
for clinicians and health professionals that serve people with disabilities.
Banning providers from discriminating against patients, including

discrimination based on race, color, gender and pregnancy, and allows
courts to award damages to patients if this is violated.
Issuing and enforcing regulations ensuring the accessibility of medical and

diagnostic equipment.
Issuing regulations addressing discrimination against people with

disabilities in medical futility determinations and organ transplant
allocation decisions.
Expand data collection on disability status across federal health programs

to more effectively target discriminatory practices and identify appropriate
remedies.
Address this health workforce and infrastructure shortage crisis, especially our
serious shortage of mental health practitioners, by increasing funding for the
National Health Service Corps, which provides scholarships and loan repayment
to clinicians working in underserved communities and bring more providers to
underserved communities by increasing federal funding for community health
centers, which provide primary care, dental care, low-cost prescription drugs
and mental health care to more than 28 million Americans in underserved
communities.
Through executive authority, Bernie will lower prescription drug prices by:
Exercising federal march-in rights to produce lower-priced generic versions of

medications that were originally developed at taxpayer expense.
Issuing an HHS certification of a drug importation program to allow American

pharmacists and wholesalers to purchase lower-priced FDA-approved
prescription medications from Canada.
Reinstituting and enforcing the National Institutes of Health policy that requires
medicines developed at taxpayer expense to be offered to consumers at a fair
and reasonable price.
3. Reverse the Criminalization of Disability

According to the Department of Justice, 1 in 5 inmates in prisons has a cognitive
disability, while another 1 in 5 inmates has a serious mental illness. Instead of
incarceration, we should be providing people with disabilities with the services and
supports they need to stay in the community, including mental health care and home-
and community-based services. It is our moral responsibility to make it happen. Not
only is it the right thing to do, but it costs significantly less to provide someone with
the necessary supports and services to stay in the community than it does to
incarcerate them.
As president, Bernie will fight to end the criminalization of disability, while also
defending the rights of people with disabilities to make their own choices about
treatment. He will oppose proposals to expand involuntary commitment laws or
weaken HIPAA and FERPA privacy protections, recognizing that mental health
services work best when they are voluntary, evidence-based and available without
cost or waiting.
All too often, people with disabilities, especially people of color with
disabilities, face violence from law enforcement. This requires more than just
training – it requires accountability. Approximately half of all people who die in
police-involved shootings have a disability. In order to protect the rights of
people with disabilities, we intend to make discriminatory law enforcement
interactions with people with disabilities a major enforcement priority of the
Civil Rights Division.
Recognizing the humanitarian crisis in our country created by the incarceration

of people with mental illness, we will use the Supreme Court’s Olmstead
decision to challenge states that have failed to adequately support the
voluntary, community-based mental health services that can divert people with
mental illness from ending up in the criminal justice system.
Bar criminal charges for school-based disciplinary behavior and invest in school
nurses, counselors, teachers, teaching assistants, and small class sizes to
address disciplinary issues. We will ensure every school has the necessary
school counselors and wrap-around services by expanding the sustainable
community school model. By expanding the sustainable community school
model, we will ensure schools are able to provide trauma-informed care and
services in schools.
Work with teachers, school administrators, and the disability rights movement
to end restraint and seclusion in schools through passage of the Keeping All
Students Safe Act.
Invigorate and expand the compassionate release process so that people with
disabilities are transitioned out of incarceration whenever possible.
Invest in diversion programs as alternatives to the court and prison system for
people with disabilities and ensure those people have the community-based
supports and services they need.
Require and fund police officer training on implicit bias, cultural competency,
de-escalation, crisis intervention, adolescent development, and how to interact
with people with mental and physical disabilities.
Create a civilian corps of unarmed first responders, such as social workers, EMTs
and trained mental health professionals, who can handle order maintenance
violations, mental health emergencies, and low level conflicts outside the
criminal justice system, freeing police officers to concentrate on the most serious
crimes.
Establish national standards for use of force by police that emphasize de-
escalation.
Stop the criminalization of homelessness and spend nearly $32 billion over the
next five years to end homelessness. This includes doubling McKinney-Vento
homelessness assistance grants to build permanent supportive housing, and
$500 million to provide outreach to homeless people to help connect them to
available services. In the first year of this plan, 25,000 of the Housing Trust Fund
units will be prioritized for housing the homeless.
Create an Office of Disability in the DOJ focused on coordinating these efforts,

including the reduction of incarcerated people with disabilities, reducing
recidivism and guaranteeing a just re-entry for people with disabilities, and
ensuring every aspect of our criminal justice system is ADA compliant.
Ensure due process and right to counsel by vastly increasing funding for public
defenders and creating a federal formula to ensure populations have a minimum
number of public defenders to meet their needs.
Pass the No Money Bail Act to end cash bail and to end the criminalization of
poverty in America.
Enact a Prisoner Bill of Rights that includes among other things a determination
for the most appropriate setting for people with disabilities and safe, accessible
conditions for people with disabilities in prisons and jails; an end to solitary
confinement; and access to free medical care in prisons and jails, including
professional and evidence-based substance abuse and trauma-informed mental
health treatment.
4. Expanding Social Security

Today in America, about 1 in 4 Americans lives with a disability. Social Security
Disability Insurance (SSDI) is an earned benefit that covers more than 150 million
workers and lifts millions of people with disabilities and their families out of poverty.
Currently, the SSDI program faces a massive backlog and a wait time for applicants
that can stretch into years. Thousands of Americans have died waiting for a hearing.
This is unacceptable. The United States spends far less than other rich nations on
assistance for people with disabilities. We must ensure dignity for Americans with
disabilities by expanding benefit levels and giving them access to their earned
benefits in a timely manner.
Additionally, Supplemental Security Insurance provides a small but crucial lifeline for
those with disabilities and low incomes, including children. SSI supports 1.2 million
children with disabilities, lifting hundreds of thousands out of poverty and
substantially reducing deep poverty. But SSI benefits do not even reach the federal
poverty line and have been targeted for cuts by Trump and the GOP. We must protect
and expand SSI for those who need it the most.
Protect and expand the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs and end the massive disability
backlog to end wait lists for people with disabilities to access their earned
benefits.
Expand benefits across-the-board for all Social Security beneficiaries, including

SSI, and increase and index the SSI benefit level so that it is equal to 125 percent
of the poverty line.
Eliminate the SSI asset test. It is unacceptable that we force people with
disabilities to spend down so they qualify for SSI and force recipients off the
program if they see a small sum of money come in that puts them over the asset
threshold. When we are in the White House, we will eliminate the asset
threshold to ensure people with disabilities get the benefits they need.
Eliminate the SSDI benefits cliff. Currently, SSDI recipients lose all their benefits
when they go above the substantial gainful activity threshold, even if only by a
single dollar. We will work with Congress to fix the benefits cliff by providing for
a gradual replacement of $1 for every $2 of earnings, similar to the existing SSI
program.
Raise the Substantial Gainful Activity threshold. Current law places the
Substantial Gainful Activity threshold at $2,110 for blind Americans and $1,260
for non-blind Americans with a disability. People with disabilities should be able
to enter the workforce without facing serious financial penalties. As president,
Bernie will work with Congress to raise the Substantial Gainful Activity level and
equalize it at 250% of the Federal Poverty Level. This will raise the Substantial
Gainful Activity threshold for both blind and non-blind Americans with
disabilities and allow it to account for family size, recognizing the different
economic impacts of disability depending on family circumstances.
Bring back student benefits for children of deceased workers and workers with
disabilities that were eliminated in 1983.
Combine the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund and the Old Age and
Survivors Trust fund to protect benefits.
Issue a moratorium on all closures of field offices and other SSA offices.
Remove the marriage penalty from SSI benefits.
Remove barriers and disincentives to work for SSI benefits recipients.
Eliminate the “in-kind support and maintenance” provision.
Reverse the Trump administration’s cruel eligibility rule for SSI and SSDI.
Hold people with disabilities harmless from overpayments. Currently, if SSA

accidentally overpays an SSI or SSDI recipient, they may be held personally
liable for paying it back, even if the overpayment takes place over a period of
years, leading to a substantial backlog that is not the fault of the beneficiary. We
will end this practice.
Eliminate the two-year Medicare waiting period for SSDI recipients by passing
Medicare for All.
Hire more Administrative Law Judges to hear appeals.
Bring parity to the treatment of Puerto Ricans and others living in U.S. territories
in federal programs such as SSI.
Work with disability rights advocates and clinicians to update the Social Security
disability claims process to ensure people with conditions that are not easily
proven by tests, such as migraines, are treated fairly in the claims process.
Take SSA funding outside the budget caps established by the Budget Control
Act and sequestration, as allowed under the Social Security Act itself. We would
also work with Congress to ensure a permanent end to discretionary caps.
5. Education
Students with disabilities deserve the same educational opportunities as their non-
disabled peers. Unfortunately, too many receive a substandard education that fails to
ensure they get a chance to live up to their full potential. Worse still, students with
disabilities, especially students of color with disabilities, are often subject to
dangerous restraint and seclusion or are funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline.
More than 40 years ago, the federal government made a promise to school districts
around the country to fund 40 percent of the cost of special education. It is an
understatement to point out that the federal government has not come close to
keeping this promise. This is a failure in our country’s commitment to public education
– the cost of educating students with disabilities is part of the cost of educating all
students.
From child care and pre-k to higher education, students with disabilities should have
the opportunity to be fully included and access a high-quality education that prepares
them for a future of their choosing.
Early Childhood Education

Education begins in early childhood, and it is essential that we make available the
resources, rights and expertise necessary to ensure that children with disabilities
receive the supports they need and are included with their peers from an early age.
Bernie will guarantee childcare and universal pre-kindergarten for every child in
America
Enact universal child care and universal pre-kindergarten for every child in
America. Through the establishment of universal early education, children with
disabilities will have much greater access to inclusive settings in early childhood.
Require the Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Services to develop
federal standards for ensuring that all federally funded childcare settings include
children with disabilities and do not discriminate on the basis of disability.
Expand funding within the Institute for Education Sciences for research on how
early childhood professionals can best support children with disabilities,
including those with significant cognitive disabilities and complex medical
needs, in natural environments and inclusive early childhood education settings.
Ensure that students with disabilities who require it get access to Augmentative
and Alternative Communication (AAC) technology and the services necessary to
make it meaningful from a young age. This will include issuing new guidance
through the Department of Education to ensure that students who receive an

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device through their
school are able to keep it outside of school hours, as well as if they change
districts.
Invest in new technical assistance resources within the Department of Education

to support general education teachers in helping children with disabilities
develop pre-literacy and literacy skills in general education classrooms.
K-12
Because of inadequate federal funding, property taxes around the country are
increasing while kids with disabilities are not getting the attention they deserve. IDEA
helps about 6.5 million children with disabilities, but because of a chronic lack of
funding there is a shortage of special education teachers and physical and speech
therapists, and the turnover rate among them is incredibly high. In addition, many
students are forced out of the general education classroom due to inaccessible
schools, a refusal to make accommodations or other examples of programmatic and
architectural inaccessibility.
Provide mandatory funding to ensure that the federal government provides at

least 50 percent of the funding for serving students with disabilities, exceeding
the federal government’s original commitment with IDEA. He will also ensure
schools receive 100 percent of the funding for additional costs of serving
students with disabilities in the general education classroom above the cost of
average per pupil expenditures.
Guarantee children with disabilities an equal right to high-quality education by

aggressively enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act, addressing both programmatic and architectural
barriers.
Increase educational opportunities for people with disabilities, including

spending $50 billion over the next decade to expand career and technical
education opportunities to prepare students for good-paying community
employment.
Address the shortage in special education teacher recruitment, training

opportunities, workload, and pay for special education teachers.
Instruct the Department of Education Office of Special Education and

Rehabilitative Services and the Office of Civil Rights to issue joint guidance
ensuring that parents with disabilities have the opportunity to fully participate in
their child’s education.
Triple Title I funding to ensure students with disabilities are able to get quality
education regardless of the zip code they live in.
Ensure our schools are accessible by fully closing the gap in school infrastructure
funding to renovate, modernize and green the nation’s schools.
Work with teachers, school administrators, and the disability rights movement
to end restraint and seclusion in schools through passage of the Keeping All
Students Safe Act.
Address racial disproportionality in special education services by fully

implementing the Obama-era Equity in IDEA regulations on special education
disproportionality in discipline, classification and placement.
Require State Education Authorities to submit corrective action plans to address

gaps in student achievement, graduation rates, discipline and educational
inclusion between students with disabilities and students without disabilities,
disaggregated by race, disability type, class and gender.
Invest in expanding access to Augmentative and Alternative Communication

(AAC) for students who need additional communication assistance.
Ensure that Deaf students have access to American Sign Language and blind
students have access to braille literacy.
Establish a Protection and Advocacy in Special Education (PASE) funding stream,

to support students with disabilities and their family members in accessing their
legal rights.
Provide $50 billion in funding over the next decade for sustainable community
schools to provide a holistic, full-service approach to learning and the wellbeing
of our young people.
Instruct the Department of Education to issue new regulations and offer

technical assistance promoting access to Augmentative and Alternative
Communication for students who need it, ensuring access to effective
communication and language-rich environments for all students.
Reduce the age at which schools must begin transition planning for students
with disabilities from 16 to 14.
Protect students’ privacy. We must curtail the practice of monitoring students’

social media and use of other surveillance tools that have been recently
popularized.
Increase funding for peer support training in schools.
Pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act.
Pass Bernie and Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Universal School Meals Program Act to
provide universal, year-round, free breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner at
school.
Eliminate all school meal lunch debt and end “lunch debt shaming.”
Expand Summer EBT across the country to ensure no student goes hungry
during the summer.
Provide a $0.30 per meal incentive for schools that procure 30 percent of
their food from local sources.
Higher Education
Every person, regardless of disability or their family income, should have the
opportunity to receive higher education. According to a recent report, “14.3 percent
of people with disabilities (ages 25 to 34) attained a bachelor’s degree or more,
compared to 37.2 percent of their peers without disabilities, reflecting a 22.9
percentage point gap.”
The federal government should not make billions of dollars in profit off of student
loans while students are drowning in debt. Students with disabilities are 6 percent
more likely to default on their student loans. We should invest in young Americans –
not leverage their futures. And we must make sure our colleges and universities are
environments where students with disabilities can thrive.
Make public colleges, universities, and trade schools and apprenticeships

tuition-free and debt-free.
Provide students with disabilities the accommodations they need to thrive and
ensure all facilities are accessible.
Double funding for the TRIO Programs and increases funding for the GEAR UP
Program so more low-income students, students with disabilities, and first-
generation students can attend and graduate college with a degree. By
increasing our investment in these programs, we will reach 1.5 million students
through TRIO programs and more than 100,000 additional students through
GEAR UP than the program reaches today.
Require universities to have a minimum number of full-time University Disability

Services personnel determined by their enrollment, according to a formula set
by the Secretary of Education.
Expand Pell grants to cover non-tuition costs like housing, books, and other
expenses.
Cancel all student debt.
Fully fund Historically Black Colleges and Universities and make them tuition
and debt-free.
Cap interest rates on student loans at 1.88 percent.
6. Guarantee Jobs and Living Wages in the

Community
We unfortunately still live in a world where people with disabilities have fewer work
opportunities, are often forced to work in sheltered workshops where they are paid as
little as 2 cents per hour, and experience much higher rates of poverty. Unacceptably,
23.5 percent of adults with disabilities are living in poverty – close to double the
official poverty rate. According to a recent report, “35.5 percent of the population
with disabilities (ages 18 to 64) were employed. In contrast, the employment-to-
population ratio of people without disabilities was 76.5 percent, nearly double that of
people with disabilities.” The median wage for full-time workers with disabilities is
$5,000 less than the median wage for full-time workers without disabilities.
End subminimum wage certificates for individuals with disabilities so that all
people with disabilities are paid a livable wage.
Enact a federal jobs guarantee for every worker in this country. The program will
provide living- wage jobs integrated in the community to all people with
disabilities who want to work through the program.
Expand grants to states and municipalities to ensure employment and

employment services for workers with disabilities in their communities.
Medicare for All will also cover supported employment services, expanding on
coverage available in state Medicaid programs.
Work with Congress to fully fund the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability
Employment Policy, authorize it in law, and establish a new Demonstration and
Innovation Fund for ODEP to support state experimentation with improving the
country’s disability employment service-provision system.
Aggressively enforce the provisions under Sections 501 and 503 of the
Rehabilitation Act and ensure that Federal agencies and contractors meet their
affirmative action obligations under the law.
With respect to Section 503, Bernie will instruct the Department of Labor Office
of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to issue new regulations
increasing the utilization goal for federal contractor hiring of people with
disabilities to more closely reflect the proportion of people with disabilities in
the general population, and introduce a new sub-goal for workers with targeted
disabilities.
Increase the budget of the Employment Equal Opportunity Commission and

provide funding for employment “testers” to identify disability discrimination
and address it.
Provide every worker with guaranteed vacation leave, sick leave, and family and
medical leave.
Pass the Disabled Access Credit Expansion Act to help small businesses comply
with the ADA, which would open doors to employment in the small business
space.
Issue an executive order leveraging the federal government’s role as a model

employer to drastically increase disability employment efforts. While
employment opportunity was central to the goals of the ADA, only four out of
ten working-age people with disabilities are employed. To help address the
unemployment and under-employment of people with disabilities, Bernie will
issue an executive order instructing federal agencies to expand their hiring of
workers with disabilities utilizing the Schedule A Hiring Authority.
7. Housing for All

We have an affordable housing crisis in this country, and we must address it. It is not
acceptable that many people with disabilities are spending 50 percent or more of
their limited incomes to put a roof over their heads, leaving little money for food,
transportation, health care or medicine. It is not acceptable that many people with
disabilities in our country are homeless on any given night. It is not acceptable that
people with disabilities face housing discrimination in the year 2020. When we are in
the White House, we will guarantee housing as a right for all and end housing
discrimination once and for all.
Build nearly 10 million permanently affordable, accessible homes to fully close

the gap in affordable, accessible housing units.
Fully fund tenant-based Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8, and
make it a mandatory program for all eligible households, strengthen the Fair
Housing Act and implement a Section 8 non-discrimination law so that landlords
can no longer discriminate against low-income families based on their source of
income.
Invest $180 billion over 10 years in sustainable retrofits for public housing
through the Green New Deal and $70 billion in the Housing for All plan to repair
and modernize public housing including making all public housing accessible
and providing access to high-speed broadband for all public housing residents.
Implement the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule blocked by President

Trump’s administration to ensure federal funds promote fair housing.
Aggressively enforce the Olmstead decision, Section 504, and the Americans
with Disabilities Act to ensure access to accessible, integrated housing.
Ensure all new Section 811 housing is fully integrated.
Preempt laws that prevent inclusionary zoning and incentivize municipalities to

incorporate disability access into their inclusionary zoning requirements.
End exclusionary and restrictive zoning ordinances with zoning that encourages
racial, economic, and disability integration and makes housing more affordable.
Require that recipients of federal funding from the Department of

Transportation make these important zoning reforms.
Provide funding to states that preempt local exclusionary zoning

ordinances to make housing more equitable, accessible and affordable for
all.
Make federal funding contingent on creating livable communities.
Encourage zoning and development that promotes integration and access

to public transportation to reduce commuting time, congestion and long
car commutes.
Prioritize projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create livable

communities, and reduce urban sprawl.
Encourage zoning and development designed to expand and maximize

the number of units fully accessible to people with disabilities.
Create an office within the Department of Housing and Urban Development to

coordinate and work with states and municipalities to strengthen rent control
and tenant protections, implement fair and inclusive zoning ordinances,
streamline review processes and direct funding where these changes are made.
Create an independent National Fair Housing Agency similar to the Consumer

Financial Protection Bureau dedicated to protecting renters from housing
discrimination, investigating landlords who misuse Section 8 vouchers, and
enforce housing standards for renters. The Fair Housing Agency will also
conduct audits to hold landlords and sellers engaged in housing discrimination
accountable.
Implement a “just-cause” requirement for evictions, which would allow a

landlord to evict a tenant only for specific violations and prevent landlords from
evicting tenants for arbitrary or retaliatory reasons.
Provide $2 billion in federal matching grants for states and localities to provide a
right to counsel for persons in eviction or foreclosure proceedings, or at risk of
losing their Section 8 rental assistance.
8. Protecting the Rights of People with

Disabilities
In 2014, there were 38,691 charges filed on the basis of violating the Americans with
Disabilities Act. When we are in the White House, we will work to ensure no person
with a disability experiences discrimination or barriers to living a full and productive
life.
Create a National Office of Disability Coordination focused on coordinating

disability policy making to advance the full inclusion of people with disabilities,
including ensuring every aspect of our public resources are ADA compliant and
that the civil rights of people with disabilities are enforced. This office will be run
by a person with a disability.
Ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Ensure no person with a disability experiences discrimination or barriers to living

a full and productive life by fully enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Defend the Americans with Disabilities Act from attempts to weaken it whether
those attempts come from Congress through legislation or businesses
challenging the law.
Create an Office of International Disability Rights within the Department of State

focused on protecting and expanding disability rights throughout the world.
9. Transportation and Infrastructure

Bernie strongly believes that every person in the United States should have the right
to safe, affordable, and accessible transportation without fear of discrimination.
Period. Unfortunately that is not the America we live in today. According to the
American Association of People with Disabilities, “Adults with disabilities are twice as
likely as those without disabilities to have inadequate transportation (31 percent vs. 13
percent). Of the nearly 2 million people with disabilities who never leave their homes,
560,000 never leave home because of transportation difficulties.”
We will address the current crisis in ADA compliance in our infrastructure and ensure
all new infrastructure will be ADA compliant.
Invest in airport infrastructure to make sure our airports are fully accessible and
work with the disability rights community, the Department of Transportation,
and TSA to remove barriers to air travel for people with disabilities.
Ensure that relevant affirmative action and employment non-discrimination

provisions from federal disability law are applied and enforced to leverage these
investments to expand employment opportunities for workers with disabilities.
Invest $300 billion to build public transit that is affordable, accessible, fast and
resilient through the Green New Deal. We will ensure that reliable, affordable
public transit is accessible for people with disabilities, seniors, and rural
communities. In addition to expanding transit service to communities, we will
promote transit-oriented development to link this service to popular
destinations and vital community services. For too long, government policy has
encouraged long car commutes, congestion, and dangerous emissions. The
Green New Deal will reverse these trends and create more livable, connected,
and vibrant communities.
Build accessible regional high-speed rail. Many other developed nations have
advanced high speed rail systems. A $607 billion investment in a regional high-
speed rail system would complete the vision of the Obama administration to
develop high-speed intercity rail in the United States. This new system will give
travelers a meaningful affordable alternative to plane or car travel between
major cities.
Rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and make it fully accessible. We will rebuild
our crumbling roads, bridges, railways, water systems, sewers, dams, culverts,
housing and schools by investing more than $2 trillion on an infrastructure plan –
which is exactly what the American Society of Civil Engineers has told us we
need to spend. Throughout these infrastructure investments, we will work to
aggressively enforce Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to ensure full
accessibility for people with disabilities. We will also make sure that relevant
affirmative action and employment non-discrimination provisions of federal
disability law are applied and enforced to leverage these investments to expand
employment opportunities for workers with disabilities.
10. Protecting and Expanding Nutrition

Assistance and Energy Assistance Programs
More than 11 million people with disabilities rely on the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program. President Trump has repeatedly tried to cut this program and
make it harder for people to figure out where their next meal is coming from. At a time
when tens of millions of Americans are already struggling to put food on the table, we
are not going to cut these programs. Instead we are going to expand them.
Fifty-two percent of Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) recipient
households have a person with a disability. As home heating bills skyrocketed in
2008, Bernie led the effort to double funding for LIHEAP. As president, he will ensure
no one ever has to make the choice between paying for food, medicine, or their
energy bill.
Expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by $311 billion

to increase the benefits from the “thrifty” plan, which provides inadequate
benefits, to the more accurate “low-cost” food plan to include those with
incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line.
Remove punitive work requirements, remove barriers for college students

to access SNAP, and ensure people are not denied benefits due to past
interaction with the criminal justice system.
Allow SNAP recipients to purchase hot and prepared foods with their
benefits.
Allow SNAP and WIC recipients to use their benefits to purchase food
through online grocery shopping and delivery services.
Reverse the Trump administration’s punitive rules that make SNAP harder
to access. A Bernie Sanders’ administration will protect categorical
eligibility and make it easier, not harder, for families struggling to get by to
get the help they need.
Expand LIHEAP by $25 billion to help low-income families pay their heating and
cooling bills. Additionally, the program will be expanded to provide 10 percent
of program costs for maintenance of new efficient heating and cooling systems
and technical assistance for the installation and use of new furnaces, heat
pumps, boilers, and other upgrades for the duration of the 10-year transition.
We will build enough renewable energy generation capacity for the

nation’s growing needs through the Green New Deal. After 2035
electricity will be virtually free, aside from operations and maintenance
costs.
Weatherize homes and businesses through the Green New Deal to

perform energy efficiency upgrades to make buildings more energy
efficient and lower energy bills. Deep weatherization retrofits will reduce
residential energy consumption by 30 percent.
Ban utility shut-offs. Utility shut-offs can be a life and death matter for people
with disabilities. As a result of utility shutoffs, people in the wealthiest country in
the history of the world have frozen to death, died in fire, and have suffocated to
death due to their oxygen machines being shut off. We must recognize that
water, power, and heating are basic human needs.
11. Community-Based Research

Bernie believes that people with disabilities have a right to be included in the research
being undertaken about them. As president, he will take steps to ensure that people
with disabilities are meaningfully included in the research process, consistent with the
values at the core of the disability rights movement: “Nothing about People with
Disabilities, Without People with Disabilities.”
Double the budget of the National Institute for Disability, Independent Living
and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).
Require National Institutes of Health grant review processes to include people

with disabilities as reviewers.
Create a funding priority for Community-Based Participatory Research and

Participatory Action Research models across the National Institutes of Health.
Require condition-specific advisory committees, such as the Inter-Agency

Autism Coordinating Committee, to include individuals with the relevant
disability as at least half of the public members of the committee.
Expand pre- and post-doctoral training grants specifically for researchers with
disabilities in order to help diversify the research workforce.
Re-authorize the Autism CARES Act with provisions to increase the percentage
of autism research funding allocated to the needs of autistic adults and services,
grow the representation of autistic people and others with developmental
disabilities in the Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
programs, and center the voices of autistic people in autism policy.
Permanently re-authorize the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute

(PCORI) created by the Affordable Care Act.
Establish a Center for Clinical Research within the National Institutes of Health to
develop essential drugs in the public interest for public benefit. The medicines
developed at this center would be produced directly by the federal government
and generics could also enter the market immediately after FDA approval. The
center will focus on developing and testing drugs to treat diseases with limited
or expensive treatment options, including orphan diseases.
Create a prize model to spur innovation for new medications.
A company bringing a truly innovative treatment to market would receive a

cash prize instead of patent protection; the treatment would then be
placed in the public domain, allowing generic versions to come onto the
market immediately after FDA approval.
This ensures companies are still compensated for their research and
development, while keeping drug prices affordable for all patients.
12. The Green New Deal and Emergency

Preparedness
We must ensure that people with disabilities are provided with the resources they
need to adequately prepare for and recover from the increasing number of climate
related emergencies. This means everything from ensuring emergency preparation
and warnings are accessible to providing extra resources to people with disabilities to
ensure full and rapid recovery after a disaster.
Ensure justice for people with disabilities to recover from, and prepare for, the
climate impacts, by passing the READI Act and through a $40 billion Climate
Justice Resiliency Fund. We will provide frontline and fenceline communities a
just transition including real jobs, resilient infrastructure and economic
development.
Once the CJRF is established and funded at $40 billion, the EPA, together
with a number of other agencies, will conduct a nationwide survey to
identify areas with high climate impact vulnerabilities and other

socioeconomic factors, public health challenges, and environmental
hazards. Each community will then be eligible for funding in order of most
vulnerable to least vulnerable.
The interagency council will issue block grants to states, territories, tribes,
municipalities, counties, localities, and nonprofit community
organizations. The funds will be able to be used for climate resiliency
projects, building emergency community centers and shelters with reliable
backup power, wetland restoration, abandoned fossil fuel infrastructure
and other environmental hazard reclamation; seawalls; community
relocation; community evacuation plans and resources for safe and
complete evacuation.
Within the CJRF, we will establish an Office of Climate Resiliency for People
with Disabilities. The office will be led by people with disabilities to ensure
that nationwide, the needs of people with disabilities are consistently
addressed during adaptation planning and that those efforts are
coordinated throughout the federal government.
Protect community cohesion. We will amend the Stafford Act to ensure that the
Federal Emergency Management Agency is empowered to address this
problem specifically to ensure that recovery and rebuilding efforts make
affected communities stronger than they were before the disaster so they are
more resilient to the next disaster.
Ensure health benefits in the wake of disasters. Under Medicare for All, benefits
will stay with you. Medicaid recipients will no longer have to re-apply for the
health benefits they need to survive if they need to relocate due to an
emergency.
Ensure the creation and implementation of the Green New Deal is accessible to
people with disabilities and non-English speakers. All publications will be in
multiple languages, including braille, and meetings will have language
interpreters, including sign language, as appropriate.
Pass the WATER Act, which will provide $35 billion per year to overhaul our
nation’s water infrastructure to guarantee clean and safe drinking water for all.
13. Voting Rights

When Bernie is president, we will ensure no person with a disability experiences
discrimination or barriers to living a full and productive life by enforcing the
Americans with Disabilities Act and expanding access to basic civil rights owed to
people with disabilities, including the right to accessible polling places. Bernie will
work with disability rights groups, voting rights advocates, and security experts to
ensure our election infrastructure is accessible and secure.
Abolish restrictive voter identification laws, which discriminate against voters

with disabilities as well as voters of color.
Dedicate new resources to the Department of Justice to enable it to expand its

existing work protecting the voting rights of people with disabilities, including
addressing the widespread use of inaccessible voting places and the failure to
provide reasonable accommodations.
End misuse of the ADA to close polling places in areas such as Randolph County,
Georgia. Instead of closing and relocating polling places in an area without
public transit, we will retrofit polling places to make them accessible or find
nearby options that are more accessible.
Secure automatic voter registration for every American over 18.
Restore and expand the Voting Rights Act.
Make Election Day a national holiday.
Expand early voting, vote-by-mail, and also making absentee voting easier.
Provide funding to increase and improve poll worker training on how to interact
with voters with disabilities.
Establish a new Protection and Advocacy for Voting Rights (PAVR) funding
stream, to support Protection and Advocacy agency efforts to protect the voting
rights of people with disabilities.
We will also ensure every voter has access to accessible, private, and expansive
voting options by:
Working with disability rights groups, voting rights advocates, and security
experts to pass ballot security legislation which ensures accessible voting
options for people with disabilities. Paper ballot mandates must not segregate
voters with disabilities from the rest of voters. We must ensure poll workers do
not bar someone from using accessible voting options on whether or not they
"appear disabled enough" and that anybody who wants to vote on secure,
accessible voting devices is allowed to do so.
Ensure there is no requirement for “hand-marked” paper ballots, which are

inaccessible for many people with disabilities. For people with disabilities,
hand-marked paper ballots require someone else to fill out the ballot for them,
which is not secure, independent or private.
Allocating funding for research in accessible mail-in ballot options, such as using
systems in place for military and overseas voters. As states expand mail-in
options, the same issues in lack of privacy apply, as many mail-in ballots must be
handmarked. We must make these mail-in ballot options accessible to all.
Provide funding for research, development, and testing of new accessible
voting technology. Our election infrastructure hasn't been updated in many

cases since 2001, and many systems are outdated and being decertified due to
security issues. We will also ensure that funding for research and development
of new election equipment is not restricted to inaccessible systems so that we
can move towards secure, accessible voting equipment that serves all voters.
Providing funding to states so that they can purchase new accessible voting
systems.
Bernie firmly believes every American over the age of 18 should have the
fundamental right to vote. Period. This includes people with mental health
conditions and intellectual disabilities, including those under guardianship.
Re-enfranchise the right to vote to the millions of Americans who have had their
vote taken away by a felony conviction. As we work to reverse the
criminalization of disability, we must ensure all voting-age Americans must have
the right and meaningful access to vote, whether they are incarcerated or not.
14. Supported Decision-Making

Bernie believes that people with disabilities deserve the right to make their own
choices. To do that, he will promote supported decision-making as a best practice
and alternative to guardianship and conservatorship.
Issue guidance through the Department of Education to require consideration of

supported decision-making frameworks as part of post-secondary transition
planning and to prevent schools from unnecessarily funneling students with
disabilities into guardianship and conservatorship.
Provide grants to incentivize states to take up supported decision making as an

alternative to conservatorship and guardianship. We will ensure that states
receiving funding track outcomes in order to research the implementation of
supported decision making models throughout the United States.
Expand funding for Projects of National Significance under the Developmental

Disabilities Act to allow for innovative new demonstration programs, data
collection and other activities relating to supported decision-making, legal
capacity and broader efforts to promote the autonomy and integration of
people with developmental disabilities.
15. Parenting Rights of People with Disabilities

Parents with disabilities deserve equal protection under the law. As President, Bernie
will work to safeguard parents with disabilities from discrimination in family law and
child custody contexts.
Aggressively enforcing the ADA’s Title II protections to ensure that parents with
disabilities do not face discrimination in child custody contexts, including from

child protective services.
Issue guidance through the HHS Office on Civil Rights on state responsibilities
under the ADA to not discriminate against and offer reasonable
accommodations to parents with disabilities.
Issue guidance through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services
clarifying that Medicaid home and community-based services can be used to
support parenting on the part of parents with disabilities.
Issue guidance through the Department of Education to ensure that school

districts make parental engagement opportunities fully accessible to parents
with disabilities.
Work through the HHS Office of Civil Rights to address discrimination against
people with disabilities in adoption contexts.
16. Immigration
We now have a president who is a racist, a xenophobe and a demagogue. He has
tried, as all demagogues do, to divide us by demonizing immigrants and blaming
them for society’s problems. He has used hateful and disgusting rhetoric to try to
dehumanize an entire group of people, and he has used the power of the federal
government to mistreat and terrorize immigrants at the border and in our
communities. We must stand together with our immigrant friends and neighbors and
stand up to President Trump’s xenophobic words and actions.
Bernie supports a family-based immigration system grounded in civil and human

rights – an immigration system that is fully accessible to people with disabilities.
Bernie believes we must stand up for our values and accept refugees, asylum-seekers,
and families who come to the United States in search of the American Dream. This is
how America was built and it has made our country strong.
Direct the newly created National Office of Disability Coordination to work with
agencies to ensure the immigration and citizenship process is fully accessible to
people with disabilities.
This includes streamlining our visa and citizenship system and making it
easier to navigate, fully accessible, and broadly inclusive.
Ensure customs and immigration agencies make reasonable

accommodations and, where necessary, disability waivers for the English
and civics test broadly available and publicized for people with disabilities
to access.
Begin rule making process to overturn President Trump’s so-called “public

charge” rule to ensure our system does not discriminate on the basis of income
or disability and that immigrants do not have to fear endangering their
immigration status in order to access basic supports and services. And pass a
permanent repeal of the public charge statute, so we do not penalize
immigrants who at some point may need to access support programs such as
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security
Income (SSI).
Pass the Embrace Act introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to ensure

immigrants get the assistance they need.
Work with Congress to pass the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act introduced
by Rep. Pramila Jayapal to fundamentally reform our immigration detention
system by:
Ending contracts with private immigrant detention centers.
Virtually eliminating immigrant detention by requiring a “presumption of

release” standard for determining detention, and ensuring that a past
criminal conviction cannot be the sole deciding factor in detention.
Requiring release on recognizance or alternatives to detention for

vulnerable persons – including people with disabilities – and caregivers.
Authorizing and funding community-based alternatives to detention,

which will connect immigrants with health, legal, educational, and work
resources.
Mandating all detention facilities meet standards in line with the American
Bar Association’s Civil Immigration Detention Standards.
Mandating routine inspections and enforceable penalties for facilities not

up to standards.
Requiring immediate notification and a mandatory investigation of any

deaths in custody of immigration officials.
Creating a cause of action for migrants mistreated or harmed in custody.
Ensure all detention centers and shelters necessary to provide temporary

housing for immigrants meet humane, accessible 21st century living standards.
This includes full ADA compliance, medical screenings and access to medical
services, nutrition, hygienic conditions and supplies, educational opportunities
and counseling.
Put a moratorium on deportations until a thorough audit of current and past

practices and policies is complete.
Reinstate and expand DACA on day one of a Sanders administration.
Completely reshape and reform our immigration enforcement system, including

breaking up ICE and CBP and redistributing their functions to their proper
authorities.
Dismantle cruel and inhumane deportation programs and detention centers and
reunite families who have been separated.
17. Digital Inclusion

Roughly 1 in 4 people with disabilities say they do not use the internet, and people
with disabilities are 20 percent less likely to have broadband. We must end these
disparities by connecting every household in America to high-speed internet,
regardless of their disability, income, or zip code.
Build resilient, affordable, publicly owned broadband infrastructure.

Internet access and Ensure people with disabilities have full access to the
internet.
Aggressively enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act to ensure the

accessibility of the Internet, cloud-based applications, and internet-
connected devices.
Ensure full Section 508 compliance, including making sure government

agencies can receive ASL video calls from Deaf people.
Ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Expand on the success of Senator Tom Harkin’s Television Decoder

Circuitry Act of 1990 and develop regulations to expand the availability
and quality of closed captioning and audio description on internet
platforms.
Reinforce and expand the national and state equipment distribution

programs for people with disabilities.
Reinforce and expand the availability and quality of accessible modern

telecom services to ensure everyone who needs these services receives
them.
Build resilient, affordable, publicly owned broadband infrastructure. Provide

$150 billion through the Green New Deal in infrastructure grants and technical
assistance for municipalities and/or states to build publicly owned and
democratically controlled, co-operative, or open access broadband networks.
Require that all internet service providers offer a Basic Internet Plan that provides
quality broadband speeds at an affordable price.
Increase the FCC definition of minimum broadband speeds to 100mbps

download speeds and 10mbps upload speeds.
Use broad categorical eligibility to fully subsidize this monthly plan for
low-income households.
Protect and expand the Lifeline program to connect low-income households to

the internet.
Provide $5 billion of the next decade for digital inclusiveness.
Grants will be distributed to schools, libraries, community centers, senior

centers, and other community-based programs to promote digital literacy,
adoption, and inclusivity.
Provide high-speed internet to all public housing residents. Invest $180 billion
over ten years in sustainable retrofits for public housing through the Green New
Deal and $70 billion in the Housing for All plan to repair and modernize public
housing including making all public housing accessible and providing access to
high-speed broadband for all public housing residents.
Restore net neutrality.
Reinstate and expand privacy protection rules and work with privacy experts,
racial justice activists, disability rights activists, and other stakeholders to
develop and pass a digital privacy bill of rights into law.
18. Eliminate Medical Debt and End Predatory

Lending
A recent survey showed 48 percent of people with disabilities were unbanked or
underbanked. The same report showed “households with a disability are almost twice
as likely than those without a disability to use alternative, often predatory, lending
services.”
Right now, medical debt is the leading cause of consumer bankruptcy in America. In
fact, 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies are connected to medical issues. Studies show
that 500,000 people are bankrupted by medical expenses each and every year – and
the true number may be far higher.
As president, Bernie will end predatory lending, eliminate medical debt, and ensure
everyone in our country the financial services they need.
Cap interest rates on consumer loans and credit cards at 15 percent across all
financial institutions. And states will be empowered to cap rates even lower than
15 percent. We will send a clear message to the modern-day loan sharks that we
will not allow them to make billions off of keeping people with disabilities in a
state of perpetual debt. We must stop the exploitative lending practices
suppressing economically distressed communities. We must ensure every
American has the opportunity to grow financially.
Ensure all people with disabilities have access to financial services by allowing
every post office to offer basic and affordable banking services and end lending
discrimination.
Eliminate the $81 billion in past-due medical debt. The federal government will
negotiate and pay off past-due medical bills in collections that have been
reported to credit agencies.
Reform bankruptcy laws to use the existing bankruptcy court system to provide
relief for those with burdensome medical debt.
Remove and exclude medical debt from existing credit reports.
Create a secure public credit registry to replace for-profit credit reporting

agencies.
This registry will use a public, transparent algorithm to determine

creditworthiness that eliminates racial biases and biases against people
with disabilities in credit scores.
Allow Americans to receive credit scores for free.
Prohibit medical debt from being included.
End the use of credit checks for rental housing, employment, insurance and
other non-lending practices.
End abusive and harassing debt collection practices.
19. Veterans
No one who was injured through their military service should be denied benefits
because of complicated bureaucracy, period. We have seen too many veterans
struggle to get the benefits to which they are rightly entitled to receive. Worse still,
veterans who have fought for and won these benefits have them taken away when
their health improves. Bernie believes that veterans must be compensated for the
disabilities connected to their service without being penalized for working hard to
make improvements to their health.
Bernie believes that we must listen to the medical experts when it comes to
compensating veterans for injuries and illnesses connected to their military service.
Improve and simplify the claims process so veterans receive the compensation
they have earned quickly, accurately, and without bureaucratic red tape.
Eliminate the VA benefits backlog. A Bernie Sanders administration will no

longer tolerate more than 70,000 veterans having to wait over 125 days for a
determination on their benefits and up to seven years to wait for a decision by a
Veterans Law Judge.
End the disgraceful practice of President Trump and VA Secretary Wilkie, who
have willfully chosen to ignore the medical community.
On his first day in office, Bernie will validate the findings of the Institute of
Medicine (now known as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering
and Medicine) to make sure veterans exposed to Agent Orange are
compensated for bladder cancer and other illnesses. It is absolutely
unacceptable that our current President is actively working against our ill
and injured veterans, not for them.
Ensure no future president can do what Trump has done, by changing the
law to make the recommendations of medical experts automatic, not
reliant on presidential action.
Expand the list of injuries and illnesses presumed to be connected with military
service.
Include the most commonly associated illnesses and injuries found in

veterans from each era, including hearing loss and musculoskeletal
injuries, like back and knee injuries.
Finally include those veterans whose locations and occupations during

their service in the military was Classified, righting the wrong that far too
many of these veterans have gone without the care they’ve been entitled
to simply because the Department of Defense is unwilling to tell the
Department of Veterans Affairs needed information.
Fight for servicemembers exposed to toxic substances.
Ensure that veterans exposed to toxic substances from asbestos and

ionized radiation in World War II to Agent Orange in Vietnam to burn pits
in Iraq and Afghanistan are compensated for the myriad of diseases
associated with these dangerous chemicals. It is absolutely unacceptable
that we have exposed our brave military members to these dangerous
chemicals and even worse that we then fail to compensate and care for the
illnesses they cause.
Improve and expand VA’s comprehensive caregiver program.
Providing robust funding for the comprehensive caregiver program will

actually save money in the long run by spending less on more expensive,
less compassionate institutional care.
Expand eligibility for the VA’s Caregiver Program to include not only those
veterans with injuries connected to their military services but also illnesses,
like cancer, blindness and dementia. These veterans deserve the right to
be able to stay in their homes, cared for by those who love them.
Their families also deserve to be compensated for the care they

already provide; they deserve education on how to best care for their
loved one, transportation to and from medical appointments, and
respite care that allows them the time needed to care for themselves.
A sincere thank you to the many advocates for their help with this plan including
but not limited to:
Victoria Rodríguez-Roldán
Ari Ne'eman
Stacey Milbern
Jennifer Mathis
Rebecca Cokley
Kate Nicholson
Nicole Jorwic
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Fighting For Disability Rights: Key Points

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Protecting and expanding the Social Security Disability Insurance and

Aggressively enforcing the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision, including for

priority on the humanitarian crisis in our country created by the incarceration of

Providing mandatory funding to ensure that the federal government provides at

Create a National Office of Disability Coordination, run by a person with a

Using Executive Action to Advance Disability

As president, Bernie will:

Appoint a person with a disability to serve as Senior Advisor on Disability

Reverse the Trump administration’s disgraceful attack on the ability of

Issue an executive order leveraging the federal government’s role as a

Instruct the Department of Labor to issue new regulations expanding the

Issue an executive order instructing the Secretary of Health and Human

Begin rule making process to overturn President Trump’s so-called “public

Protecting the rights of people with disabilities to access integrated

Prioritizing accountability in law enforcement interactions with people

In addition to using executive action, Bernie

Long-Term Services and Supports within Medicare for

Investing in the Home Care Workforce

As president, Bernie will:

Direct care workers, who are overwhelmingly women – in particular,

As president, Bernie will:

Expand access to caregiving programs provided by the Older Americans Act

Make available to family caregivers training and enhanced case management

2. Health Care for All

As president, Bernie will:

Guarantee home- and community-based services, assistive technologies

Provide transportation for individuals with disabilities to receive the care

Cover assistive technologies and medical devices.

Medicare for All would also:

Require an evaluation of health disparities, including geographic

Ban Medicaid estate recovery.

Take action to address discrimination against people with disabilities in health

Designating people with disabilities as a Medically Underserved

Banning providers from discriminating against patients, including

Issuing and enforcing regulations ensuring the accessibility of medical and

Issuing regulations addressing discrimination against people with

Expand data collection on disability status across federal health programs

Exercising federal march-in rights to produce lower-priced generic versions of

Issuing an HHS certification of a drug importation program to allow American

3. Reverse the Criminalization of Disability

Civil Rights Division.

Recognizing the humanitarian crisis in our country created by the incarceration

Create an Office of Disability in the DOJ focused on coordinating these efforts,

ensuring every aspect of our criminal justice system is ADA compliant.

4. Expanding Social Security

As president, Bernie will:

Expand benefits across-the-board for all Social Security beneficiaries, including

Remove the marriage penalty from SSI benefits.

Remove barriers and disincentives to work for SSI benefits recipients.

Eliminate the “in-kind support and maintenance” provision.

Hold people with disabilities harmless from overpayments. Currently, if SSA

Hire more Administrative Law Judges to hear appeals.

Early Childhood Education

As president, Bernie will:

through the Department of Education to ensure that students who receive an

Invest in new technical assistance resources within the Department of Education

As president, Bernie will:

Provide mandatory funding to ensure that the federal government provides at

Guarantee children with disabilities an equal right to high-quality education by

Increase educational opportunities for people with disabilities, including

Address the shortage in special education teacher recruitment, training

Instruct the Department of Education Office of Special Education and