Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Sam Bagenstos, of the US Justice Department gave a speech about the Olmstead decision. He gave the keynote talk at the August 9, 2010 Reinventing Quality conference in Baltimore Maryland.
He described the government’s renewed commitment to implement the 1999 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. That decision found, for the first time, a Constitutional right of people with disabilities to live in the community and not in institutions.
His speech was videotaped and it is available for viewing and downloading on the web at http://www.vimeo.com/14309540
Thanks to Donna Obermeyer for the update and the ARC of Washington State for the article!
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In looking back, to even imagine that people with disabilities were not able to decide for themselves whether to live in equality in the community and be able to make the decisions that most everyone else in our society take for granted, is quite unfathomable.