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Senator Clarence Lam to Receive Public Policy Leadership Award

Photo of Clarence Lam an Asian man with short Black hair wearing black suit, white collared shirt and blue tie.

BALTIMORE, July 30, 2024 – Disability Rights Maryland (DRM) is pleased to announce that Senator Clarence Lam, who represents Howard and Anne Arundel Counties Maryland in the General Assembly, will receive the Public Policy Leadership Award at DRM’s 2024 Breaking Barriers Awards Gala. The gala will be held on Thursday, September 26, at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.  

DRM’s Public Policy Leadership Award recognizes individuals who have shown outstanding dedication and creativity in shaping and advancing legislation that helps create a more inclusive and just world for people with disabilities.  

Senator Lam went the extra mile this legislative session, centering the voices of people with disabilities and advocating for choice over coercion. He spearheaded critical anti-discrimination bills and educated the senate finance committee on the need to focus on disability rights in the policy making process. His sponsorship of the Self-Directed Mental Health Care bill and his steadfast opposition to assisted outpatient treatment left a profound impact on our community.  

Senator Lam showed people with disabilities that he is a true ally. His integrity, courage, and commitment to justice exemplifies the essence of this award.  

To learn more about DRM’s Breaking Barriers Awards Gala, visit DisabilityRightsMD.org/Breaking-Barriers-Gala.  

 

About Clarence Lam, MD, MPH, FACPM 
Dr. Clarence Lam is a state senator representing District 12 (Howard and Anne Arundel Counties) in the Maryland General Assembly, where he serves on the Senate Finance Committee and the Executive Nominations Committee.  He chairs the Howard County Delegation, the Joint Committee on Audits and Evaluations, and the Joint Committee on Fair Practices and State Personnel Oversight.  He is also a member of the Anne Arundel County Delegation and is the chair emeritus of the Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.  He is currently the only physician and the only Asian American legislator in the Senate of Maryland.  In October 2023, Senate President Ferguson appointed him to become the first Asian American chair or vice chair of a Senate committee.  He previously served in the Maryland General Assembly as a state delegate from 2015-2019. 

Dr. Lam serves on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management.  He leads the school’s preventive medicine residency program as its program director and practices clinically as the medical director of occupational medicine at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.  He is board certified in preventive medicine and occupational medicine.  

For two years beginning in March 2020, he served as the interim director for Occupational Health Services and the Department of Health, Safety, and Environment for Johns Hopkins Medicine and University where he was responsible for the health and wellbeing of over 50,000 employees in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Florida throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

About Disability Rights Maryland (DRM)
Disability Rights Maryland (DRM) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that advances the rights of people with disabilities in Maryland. DRM provides free legal services to address issues like abuse, neglect, or discrimination that might occur in education, housing, transportation, healthcare, voting, and more. Ensuring that people with disabilities don’t have to live in institutions unnecessarily is a primary goal. DRM envisions a world where everyone has access to the services they need to fully participate in the workplace, neighborhoods, and all aspects of community life. 

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Celebrating PAVA Programming

Man smiling and holing an 'I voted' Sticker

DRM’s PAVA program aims to ensure individuals with disabilities can fully participate in the electoral process.

What is the PAVA program?

The Protection & Advocacy for Voting Accessibility (PAVA) program was established in 2003 as part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which was signed on October 29, 2002. HAVA provides funding for accessible voting systems. It guarantees the right to a private and independent vote for people with disabilities. Under the PAVA program, P&As have a mandate to help ensure that individuals with disabilities participate in the electoral process through voter education, training of poll officials, registration drives, and polling place accessibility surveys.

PAVA empowers DRM to:

  • Inform individuals with disabilities about their voting rights through events, institutions, and online platforms.
  • Facilitate voter registration and conduct training sessions.
  • Manage a dedicated voting hotline and email for receiving voter complaints and aiding in the investigation of obstacles faced by individuals with disabilities in exercising their voting rights.
  • Investigate circumstances that may hinder individuals with disabilities from voting.
  • Actively engage in and bolster coalitions dedicated to advancing voting rights.
  • Offer testimonies in favor of legislation supporting the voting rights of people with disabilities, and oppose bills that run counter to these rights.

Upcoming Elections in Maryland

In 2024, Marylanders will have an opportunity to vote in both a Primary Election on May 19, 2024 and General Election, November 5, 2024.

The deadline to register to vote in the Primary Election is April 23, 2024. The deadline to register to vote in the General Election is October 15, 2024.

Information about how to register, accessibility and more: Here

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Celebrating PADD Programming

Four girls posing after doing yoga

We are excited to celebrate the anniversary of the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities (PADD) Program. 

What is the PADD Program? 

Congress established the PADD program in 1975 as the first Protection and Advocacy (P&A) program to protect the human and civil rights of people with developmental disabilities. The PADD program was a part of Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 1975 in response to the horrific conditions that were exposed at Willowbrook State School. An investigation of Willowbrook, a New York state institution for people with intellectual disabilities, revealed widespread abuse and neglect and sparked a national movement to protect the rights of people with disabilities. 

How does PADD Impact the Community? 

The PADD program is designed to provide a safety net for people with developmental disabilities and to ensure they have access to the services and supports they need. This includes investigating allegations of abuse and neglect, advocating for the rights of people with developmental disabilities in legal and administrative proceedings, providing information and referral services, and educating the public about the rights of people with developmental disabilities. 

For example, DRM’s PADD program has helped draft and advocate for the End the Wait Act, which passed in 2022. Several of Maryland Medicaid’s home and community-based services programs have extensive waitlists, with some applicants waiting up to 10 years to access services. In 2021 there were 3,694 people on the waiting list for Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) services, 6,221 children with autism on the Autism Waiver Registry, and over 20,000 people on the Home and Community-Based Options Waiver waitlist (despite there being approximately 1,100 unused slots). The End the Wait Act requires the state to develop a plan to cut the Medicaid waitlists in half by fiscal year 2024. 

Additionally, DRM has assisted people with developmental disabilities by helping to shut down an unsafe public residential institution, abolishing the payment of subminimum wage to individuals with disabilities working in the state of Maryland, ensuring that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have access to vaccines, and spearheading the passage of a Supported-Decision Making bill. 

Together with our partners – the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council and the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities – DRM continues to work every day to create a more independent, inclusive and just society for people with developmental disabilities. 

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Focus Group Participants Needed

photo of people in group. Young Black woman talking

The Schaefer Center at the University of Baltimore is conducting focus groups of Maryland renters who were represented by an attorney in an eviction case. The focus groups are a part of an evaluation of the Access to Counsel in Evictions program administered by the Maryland Legal Services Cooperation (MLSC).

Focus groups will be held around the state of Maryland. If you are interested in participating, please click the link below to see if you qualify. You can also call 866-986-7649 to speak with someone about the focus groups. Space is limited.

During the survey, we will determine eligibility and provide more information on date and time of the focus group. Qualified participants will receive a $75 gift card upon completion of the focus group. 

 Click Here for Eligibility Survey

For more information, please call the Schaefer Center at 866-986-7649. The phone lines will be open Monday- Friday from 10am- 8pm. 

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Celebrating 30 Years of PAIR Programming

4 older adults outside smiling (one in a wheelchair, one with a walker, and two with canes) and a worker

We are excited to celebrate the anniversary of the Protection and Advocacy for Individual Rights (PAIR) Program.

What is the PAIR Program?

Congress established the PAIR Program in 1993 under an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act. With PAIR Program funding, DRM protects and advances the legal and human rights of people with physical, hearing or vision disabilities.

What type of advocacy does the PAIR Program fund?

DRM used PAIR Program funding to help Baltimoreans who are d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing engage in local politics.

In 2021, DRM began working with a resident of Baltimore who is hard-of-hearing and has a keen interest in politics at all levels. Our client was extremely frustrated because virtual meetings hosted by Baltimore City were not accessible for them. These meetings were broadcast live on a platform called CharmTV.

DRM took action! We wrote a letter to the mayor highlighting our concerns about how d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens were being denied meaningful participation in the City’s programs, and stressing the City’s obligation to make all programs and services accessible. After several meetings involving DRM, our client, the City officials, and with the support of the Maryland Governor’s Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, we achieved some positive outcomes.

The City agreed to incorporate American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters for public addresses and introduced Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioning. CART captioning uses a special kind of keyboard to provide accurate translations that appear on screens, laptops, and devices. Further, the mayor’s office created a Frequently Asked Questions document and internal resource guide to make sure meetings are accessible to everyone.

DRM’s advocacy, funded by the PAIR Program, has the potential to impact the population of over 117,100 individuals who are hard of hearing or deaf in at least one ear in Baltimore City.

We are happy to be able to serve more people, creating a more integrated and just society, thanks to funding from PAIR program.

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