Advocates see progress for people with disabilities, see room for improvement

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 1.1 million adults in Maryland have a disability. Photo by Danielle J. Brown

In the 30 years she has been working with people with disabilities, Ande Kolp has seen tremendous gains in the treatment and acceptance of them. And some not so tremendous gains as well.

“I’ve definitely seen how things have changed over the years,” said Kolp, who is now the executive director of the Arc Maryland. “Sometimes progress seems like it’s going really great and then things will happen in the environment and derail progress.”

Her reaction was typical of advocates who were asked to assess the progress, if any, for people with disabilities since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law July 26, 1990 – 34 years ago Friday.

The law , which guarantees equal access for people with disabilities, has lived up to its promise in many respects, they say, particularly in Maryland, which stacks up well against other states. But there are also many areas with room for improvement, particularly in the delivery of needed services.

“There’s been hard work and community engagement in self-identification and what it means to be a person with a disability, and taking away that stigma,” said Randi Ames, managing attorney for Disability Rights Maryland. “It’s possible that more people are comfortable with acknowledging or self-identifying as a person with a disability.”

And the law is likely to become more important, as the number of people who say they have a disability continues to increase, reaching almost one in four Marylanders in 2022, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is in part due to the fact that people are living longer and in part due to the success of the ADA, which has made people more willing to identify as having a disability, advocates say.

The ADA was groundbreaking for its time, guaranteeing civil rights protections to people with disabilities. Those have come to include everything from physical to mental and emotional disabilities.

The law’s impact can be seen in parking lots across the country, where the familiar blue-and-white signs designate accessible parking spaces and where curbs and sidewalks have cuts and ramps to accommodate those in wheelchairs or with other mobility issues. Most new buildings are now designed with ADA-compliant doors and elevators and hallways and bathrooms.

But just as important are the intangible benefits including accommodations in classrooms and public spaces, nondiscrimination in employment and housing.

On many metrics of ADA compliance, Maryland stands above other states.

“I think generally, in Maryland, I’m pretty proud of us that we’re a pretty progressive state when it comes to disability rights policy and just how we treat our fellow citizens with disabilities,” Kolp said.

She believes that Maryland “has a reputation of treating people with respect and having services” to help people with disabilities, factors that draw families to the state.

An April report from Policygenius, an insurance broker organization, rated the best states for living with a disability. Maryland was third best for its health care among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., and eighth best overall for someone with a disability.

With major medical centers in the region, such as the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, Kolp said that many families she’s worked with want to “flock to Maryland because of our hospitals and our services here.”

She also said Maryland is a leader in equal pay for people with disabilities, after the General Assembly in 2016 phased out 14(c) certificates, which let employers to pay subminimum wage to people with disabilities. As of 2020, employers must pay the same minimum wage to workers with disabilities and those without.

Maryland Disabilities Secretary Carol Beatty believes the state is a leader in supporting people with disabilities.

“There’s a lot of work to still be done, but I think in terms of supporting services for children and adults with disabilities, Maryland has been a leader for quite some time,” she said Tuesday, at an event where Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed an executive order directing state agencies to use “plain language,” in documents and on websites.

That move is expected particularly benefit persons with disabilities, for whom the simple act of navigating state websites to receive available support and services can be a challenge. But the transition to plain language on all state documents and sites will likely not begin until the beginning of 2025, according to Information Technology Secretary Katie Savage.

State agencies will use “plain language” to help residents access state services, info online

That is far from the only challenge people with disabilities face in Maryland, however.

Last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office notified the Maryland Transit Administration that its paratransit service, known as MobilityLink, was not in compliance with ADA protections.

“MTA’s paratransit service fails to provide service that is ‘comparable to the level of designated public transportation services provided to individuals without disabilities using such a system,” wrote U.S. Attorney for Maryland Erek L. Barron and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane E. Andersen in a June 29, 2023, letter.

Kolp the problem is long delays for service.

“There were people getting left out in the cold and sitting alone for hours, and their transportation would show up very late or didn’t show up at all,” she said. “We have an obligation through the ADA to provide these services to people. I do believe it’s getting better, but it’s nowhere near what it needs to be.”

Ames said that people with disabilities are “still an underserved population” and some of the major hurdles for Marylanders with disability are waitlists to receive services and administrative turnaround time for services.

“While there are a lot of services available, there are a lot of restrictions and limitations,” she said. “People can wait years to access services.

“Modifying some of the procedures and streamlining the system within the Department of Health to improve turnaround time for accessing services, reviewing requests and applications … that’s a big issue,” Ames said. “Improving those administrative procedures could be one way of freeing up both the state and local agencies capacity. And hopefully in doing that, freeing up funds to expand programs and serve more people.”

Meanwhile, the percentage of Marylanders who report having a disability has increased in recent years.

The CDC said more than 1.1 million adults in Maryland, or 24% of the state’s adult population, had a disability of some kind in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s higher than the previous six years.

One likely reason for the increase was the CDC’s addition of long-COVID symptoms to the the definition of having a disability in2022. It included questions about those experiencing long-COVID, which it described as someone having “symptoms lasting three months or longer that the person did not have before COVID.”

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“Some people with disabilities may be more likely to get very sick from COVID-19, or other respiratory viruses, because of underlying medical conditions, congregate living settings, or systemic health and social inequities,” the CDC said in a statement.

Advocates speculate that there may be other factors.

Ames said that people are living longer, including those with disabilities, which could be contributing to the rising rates among Marylanders.

“In our experience, people with disabilities in general are living longer because of improvements in health care and expansions in home and community-based services,” she said.

Rachel London, executive director for the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council, says that the updated numbers underline  the need for people with disabilities to have access to necessary supports in society.

“Everything needs to be inclusive of people with disabilities,” London said. “We always need to make sure that people with disabilities are a priority.”

Kolp agrees.

“Acceptance of disability and the disability pride has grown,” Kolp said. “Now it’s kind of like, disability is natural. And people are less hesitant to seek answers … to get a diagnosis.”

“I think we will see more progress in the next few years, than what we saw two decades ago…An equitable society is the best society. Equity is bringing all people to the same starting point,” she said.