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.
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