504
–FINAL RULE–
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Ron Cranston Nancy Crowther
512-903-3340512-808-7486
ronniebonners@aol.com Ncrowther21@gmail.com
WHAT: REMOVE TEXAS FROM “TEXAS v KENNEDY”
DON’T MESS WITH OUR DISABILITY RIGHTS IN TEXAS
WHEN: July3, 2026, Friday, 12:00pm
WHERE: 1100 Congress at the base of the south steps of the Texas Capitol
Austin, TX, ADAPT of TX/ PACT, public figures and a host of Disability Rights Advocates will gather to send a message to Attorney General Ken Paxton: Remove Texas from “Texas v Kennedy”.
Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act is America’s oldest disability rights law. Attorney General Paxton is asking the court to make the 2024 update to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (a.k.a. THE FINAL RULE) UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
All but six states have dropped participation in the lawsuit.
The rule contains new opportunities for internet access, accessible medical equipment and services. The rule also contains new and stronger supports for persons with disabilities at a risk of being institutionalized, the community integration mandate, and many other provisions that fulfill society’s moral obligations to persons with disabilities of All ages. Also, the final rule contains protections against infanticide and assisted suicide. Repealing it would have a devastating effect on all programs that receive Federal Financial dollars and form the cornerstone of DISABILITY RIGHTS.
“…the elimination of these rights will lead to the decimation of civil rights to persons of all ages with disabilities. This would destroy basic access and the civil rights we have acquired for over 50 years.” said Ron Cranston, citizen with a disability.Press Conference: Join ADAPT/PACT and other disability advocacy organizations Friday, July 3rd at 12:00 pm to send a message to Attorney General Ken Paxton:
Drop the Texas v Kennedy Lawsuit.
Author: cjohnmurph
News release on the DOJ OLC statement
For Immediate release: June 22, 2026
For more information contact:
Latoya Maddox: (267) 809-2454
Lydia Nunez: (832) 630-8419
National ADAPT, the disability led cross disability activist organization that has fought relentlessly for home care since 1990, joins the stream of disability groups expressing outrage at the recent statement released by the Trump Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). The OLC seeks to justify forcing people with disabilities to be locked away in institutional settings in complete opposition to the 1999 United States Supreme Court decision in Olmstead vs L.C and E.W., a decision that affirmed the right of people with disabilities to live in their own homes and communities.
“We in ADAPT have been fighting for our right to access and live in our own homes and communities with our family and friends since 1978,” said Lydia Nunez of Texas ADAPT. “Because of the home care I get I have been able to volunteer as an ombudsperson to protect people who are locked away in institutions, many of whom don’t have families to look out for them. The Trump people have gone after immigrants, Somalians and other people of color, and now they’re coming for us. They have tried to erase our civil rights, parts of this country’s history, and now they’re trying to erase us, too.”
The Olmstead decision is part of a whole body of law that established and affirmed the rights of disabled people to live in, work in, go to school in, participate in and contribute to their communities. Those rights are additionally guaranteed by laws that include the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that says disabled students have the right to a free and appropriate education like any other student, to be delivered in typical school settings with any needed services and supports; Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act; the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act; and the 1988 Fair Housing Act as amended.
“Because of my home care I am not locked away in a nursing home,” said Latoya Maddox of Philadelphia ADAPT. “Because of the home care I get I am raising my child, I am attending grad school to better myself, I am a valued employee serving my community in a local organization, and as a volunteer I also support other moms with disabilities. Shame on the Justice Department for trying to take away my rights and lock me away.”
Sister organizations to ADAPT that have also expressed outrage at the OLC statement include the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Arc of the United States, the American Council of the Blind (ACB), the National Centers for Independent Living (NCIL), Not Dead Yet (NDY) and a multitude of other state and local organizations. The disability and civil rights communities are united in their support for the rights of disabled people to live in their own homes and communities.
Recent action in Texas
A special thanks to our videographer
Attention Disability Advocates
How would you like to wait 36 years or 53 years to get a checkup or x-ray?
Do you think the government should be able to terminate your life if you become “defective” from injury/illness?
What if your hospital insisted on speaking to you in a language other than your spoken one?
General Paxton is promoting these kinds of problems for people with disabilities with his lawsuit Texas v. Kennedy (formerly Texas v. Becerra).
He says the Health and Human Services rules for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are unconstitutional. Medical facilities and social services have been given a 53-year pass on doing what everyone else had to do years ago. Places that get federal financial dollars should provide access and not discriminate.
Make no mistake, this is just the beginning of a campaign to strip people with disabilities of their hard-won rights to equal treatment, being equally valued and having access to society.
Tell Paxton to withdraw from this lawsuit. Don’t let him take us back to the bad old days.
People with Disabilities fought for integration for decades. We won our integration mandate through the 1999 Olmstead Decision, when the U.S. Supreme Court stated that people with disabilities have the right to live in the most integrated setting.
This is why we must demand that General Paxton take Texas off the lawsuit, Texas v. Kennedy.
Please Join Us on Tuesday, May 19th.
If you want to March: Meet to the left of the Price Daniel Sr. State Office Bldg.,
209 W. 14th Street. Just behind the LEAD ON! drop off location
Date and Time: Tuesday, May 19th at Noon
Please bring a sign about 504 and what it means to you
Press Conference: 1PM at 300 W. 15th Street, Austin, TX 78701
Call or write AG Paxton: 800-252-8011 or PO Box 12548 Austin, TX 78711-2548
If you have any questions, you can contact: Cathy Cranston at flacacata@aol.com or
CALL A.G. PAXTON
TELL HIM TO DROP TEXAS FROM
“TEXAS V KENNEDY” LAWSUIT
1.800.252.8011
512.463.2100
512.463.2007
Disabled, Not Disposable Campaign
The Disabled, Not Disposable campaign, led by National ADAPT, is rooted in the ‘power in numbers’ mentality. The disability community is vast, diverse, and strong. When we show up together, our voices cannot be ignored.
We know the urgency of this moment. Many of us in ADAPT feel the need to head to DC and to stand directly in the presence of those making decisions that impact our lives. That visibility matters. But real change requires more than presence, it requires people. This campaign is about collective action, about building a chorus so loud that it demands to be heard.
We are calling on our community and our allies to take part by sharing your voice. Create a short video in whatever way works for you. Say clearly and proudly: “I’m disabled, not disposable.” Share why this matters to you, your family, or your community.
Your video does not need to be perfect. It just needs to be real.
Once you’ve created your video:
- Share it widely
- Send it directly to your legislators
- Tag @nationaladapt to help amplify the message
This movement only grows if we grow it together. It’s all of us that will carry this forward.
Here is our instructional video:
Video with captions and ASL:
Video with audio description (no captions):
Video in Spanish:
National ADAPT’s Position on Accommodations and the Political Process
ADAPT reaffirms our position against ableism and the negative stereotypes associated with it. We view holding an individual’s disability against them as an act of violence utilized by counterparts, who in their attempt to gain political power, run their campaigns on an ableist agenda. This type of situation sets the precedent that it is okay to view disability in a negative way.
- It is wrong to make assumptions about someone’s ability to perform a job based solely on disability.
- It is wrong to assume someone is incompetent based on other peoples’ biases towards disability.
Disability is part of life and the Americans with Disabilities Act affirms the use of reasonable accommodations that may be necessary to ensure accessibility to the person with a disability. Job seekers may need accommodations to perform the essential parts of any job. An accommodation is not something that should be looked down upon, rather, it should be viewed as a tool for equity.
John Fetterman, the current PA Lieutenant Governor, ran for reelection for the US Senate. He had a stroke earlier in the year and he is experiencing common symptoms of stroke survivors. As part of the campaign, he was challenged to and agreed to participate in a debate. Mr. Fetterman, who has difficulty with aphasia, struggled at times to get his words out. He used a closed caption television that included the questions and the opponent’s responses on screen. This is an example of a reasonable accommodation. Other potential accommodations could have been changing the format of the debate – for example receiving more time for responses, or not debating, since debating is not a requirement for holding public office.
Instead, take-aways from some people who watched the debate resulted in questions about Mr. Fetterman’s ability to comprehend the information and his ability to do the job of a Senator.
A disability does not equal incomprehension or incompetence. It does not make Mr. Fetterman less able to do the job. He stated that he is still making progress with his recovery and he is able to do the job. His doctor agrees. The ability to respond in the debate format is not an indicator of a person’s intelligence or fitness for a job. The negativity towards Mr. Fetterman as a result of the debate performance is ableism, and for every person who has experienced a disability, it’s an all too common problem.
“My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.”
-Stephen Hawking
ADAPT is a national grass-roots community that organizes disability rights activists to engage in nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, to assure the civil and human rights of people with disabilities to live in freedom.
9/12/25 ADAPT Sentencing Statement
Note from ADAPT post-trial –
We went to court today. We received our punishment for unlawfully
protesting. Three of us plead guilty and received suspended
sentences and probation. Four of us plead guilty and received
deferred sentence agreements. Two received deferred prosecution
agreements. We are all banned from the US Senate side of the
Capitol for varying lengths of time.
We submitted the following statement to the Judge and asked to
read it before our sentencing. The Judge denied our request saying
that they weren’t going to allow political speech. Here’s what the
nine of us tried to say:
Sept. 12, 2025
ADAPT Sentencing Statement
Thank you, your Honor, for allowing us to address the Court. As we
are sentenced for unlawfully protesting in the US Senate, we would
like the record to reflect our answer to the question: “Why did you
protest and risk arrest, prosecution and punishment?”
We are disabled people. Many of us have more than one disability.
Some of our disabling conditions, that affect us most, aren’t visible
or obvious. We are also parents, grandparents and caregivers.
We are people that have had to fight for the most basic liberty – to be
in the community – our whole lives. We depend on Social Security,
Medicare and Medicaid to pay for communication devices,
motorized wheelchairs, healthcare, in-home support and
assistance, as well as household bills and living expenses. Many of
us live in public housing or receive rental assistance from HUD.
Some of us, thanks to this assistance, are taxpayers. We all
volunteer in our communities. We are good neighbors and we all
belong in our own homes and communities.
The threats to make giant budget cuts and fundamentally alter the
way programs like HUD, Medicaid, Obama Care, Medicare, etc.
operate are unprecedented. We have been working decades to
develop and improve these programs so all disabled people and
aging community members can live in our own homes and
communities. The fact remains that notwithstanding significant
improvement, programs like Medicaid home and community
services, USDA Rural Housing, HUD, SNAP, etc. have all been
woefully underfunded and never fully covered needs for years.
These programs already have long waiting-lists and/or limitations in
benefits that still leave disabled folks and seniors unnecessarily
stuck in institutions, being isolated and not having a shot at life,
liberty and pursuit of happiness. Massively cutting funding of
already fragile, insufficient programs will cause suffering and death.
Those of us in the crosshairs of this radical social experiment are
being ignored, gas-lit and plain lied to by the majority of the US
Senate; same for the House and the President.
We emailed Congress. We rallied. We wrote letters. We asked for
meetings. We sang songs and did skits. Besides our small activist
group, lots of big, important organizations also tried to at least get a
listen from the Administration and over half of Congress, but to no
avail. To have such danger to our lives and freedom be so cavalierly
dismissed by policy makers, including most of the US Senate,
became untenable when every effort to even be heard was rebuffed.
You see, your Honor, we have been down this road once or twice
before, albeit never to this magnitude. These budget cuts neither
preserve the programs nor protect the people. When federal budget
cutbacks happen, negative consequences compound at the state
and local levels when matching funds are also lost and waiting lists
for services and housing lengthen and cut-backs in types and
amounts of services happen. It also becomes harder to find and
keep staff to provide services because pay for the workforce
stagnates and there are no benefits. The direct result is increased
institutionalization, loss of liberty and increased death and suffering
for disabled and aging people.
Our simple goal is to make our government care about us and listen
to us. We just want to be treated with the dignity and respect
afforded our non-disabled peers and to live our lives fully as equal
members of society. That is a cause worth fighting for even at the
risk of our own personal well-being.
Thank you, your Honor.
Mike Oxford, KS ADAPT
Rick Macias, KS ADAPT
Tom Earle, Philly ADAPT
Dillon Warren, KS ADAPT
Nancy Salandra, Philly ADAPT
Guy Anthony Brooks, Philly ADAPT
Misty Dion, North Central PA ADAPT
Ruben Fernandez, El Paso Desert ADAPT
Albert Metz, TX ADAPT
9/28/23 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: National ADAPT calls on HHS Secretary Becerra to End Institutional Bias
 |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Who: National ADAPT When: Thursday, September 28th, 2023 What: National ADAPT calls on HHS Secretary Becerra to End Institutional Bias Where: United States Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201 National ADAPT has tried effortlessly to work with the Center for Medicaid and Medicare and the Administration on Community Living regarding our issues with making sure all states are held accountable for ending the institutional bias. Some of these issues are how states allocate money for Home and Community Based Services. The attendant workforce needs network adequacy to begin getting a hold on retention of the attendant workforce. Attendants also need wages that will allow them to have health care and other benefits. Finally, to hold states accountable for the lack of oversight with guardianships. Again, National ADAPT calls on the Health and Human Services Secretary, Xavier Beccera, to come out and meet with us now. We are asking the public to call HHS and request the secretary come out and meet with National ADAPT Toll Free number: 1-877-696-6775 Comment line for office of Secretary 202.205.5445 Correspondence offiice for office of Secretary 202.690.6392 Scheduling office for office of Secretary 202.690.6610 For more information, please contact: Latoya Maddox, lmaddox83@gmail.com, Phone# 267.809.2454 Cathy Cranston, flacacata@aol.com, Phone# 512.650.6543 |
9/27/23 For Immediate Release: ADAPT Demands Congress to “Protect Traditional American Values”
What: National ADAPT calls on Kate Granger, chair of the Appropriations Committee, and Congress to immediately provide the necessary funding for affordable, accessible, integrated housing
When: Wednesday, September 27, 2023, 12PM
Where: Rayburn House Office Building,
45 Independence Avenue SW,
Washington, DC 20515
Contact:
Pam Auer, pauer41@gmail.com , Phone# 717.418.0419
Gina Barbara, ginambarbara@gmail.com , Phone# 516.318.9460
ADAPT Demands Congress to “Protect Traditional American Values”
ADAPT has been engaged in the struggle to end the institutional bias for over 40 years. People with disabilities and Older Americans continue to wait for home and community-based services, continue to wait for an adequate Community Attendant Workforce that is paid a living wage, and continue to wait for accessible affordable integrated housing, so they don’t have to be institutionalized. While Congress chooses to squabble over the budget or decides to fund our services at the same level as 2023, more people with disabilities and Older Americans go without services, are becoming institutionalized, and dying.
ADAPT demands Congresswoman Kay Granger, Chair of the House Appropriations Committee and Congress commit and create the following:
- A mandatory, fully funded, home and community services and supports program that is available in the US and Territories, that serves people without regard to age, diagnosis or type of disability that permanently eliminates waiting lists and that is available in urban and rural settings.
- A “Housing Moonshot” that develops, rehabilitates, and weatherizes housing that is affordable, accessible, integrated and weather hardened, that eliminates housing waiting lists and creates a human right to housing in the US and Territories in urban and rural settings.
- A home and community-based services and supports workforce that is paid a living wage with benefits and that has training available establishing adequate networks of workers available in the US and Territories in urban and rural settings.
With this increase in funding, existing programs will be enhanced and more people with disabilities will be able to receive services. It is time for Congress to keep its promise to ADAPT and all Americans – that they will truly invest in the long-term services and supports infrastructure!
National ADAPT Community
