Disability Network/Michigan is promoting an accessibility icon that is not ADA compliant and directly harms both local disability communities and businesses and local governments that are required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The Go Logo website (migologo.org) explains it bluntly: “[It] has the power to change public perception of people with disabilities from one of stationary helplessness to one of active independence.”

According to Michigan Capitol Confidential, bill sponsor and State Representative Beau LaFave said of the legislation, “We don’t have to use the stick figures anymore and we can make it look like a human being that is doing something. As it looks right now, it’s just like someone is just sitting there doing nothing.”

The idea that independence and access to civil rights are related to physical strength and the ability to assimilate into non-disabled society is ableist in the extreme. The stated intent of the Go Logo is to communicate that the significance of a physical disability is directly proportional to helplessness.

This message reinforces society’s negative assumptions about disability and harms the people it is intended to help. For example, a person without an accessible parking placard cannot be ticketed for using an accessible parking space that is not properly marked with the International Symbol of Accessibility. That infringes on our rights and decreases access to our communities.

It also presents a major legal problem for the businesses and local governments that are required to comply with the ADA and / or the Rehabilitation Act.

Disability Network seeks to change state law to require entities covered by the ADA to use the Go Logo. However, state law does not change federal requirements to use the International Symbol of Accessibility.

• Read about Michigan’s proposed legislation, which has passed the House and is currently under review by the Senate.

According to the US Access Board, “a symbol other than the ISA [International Symbol of Accessibility] will not comply with the ADA Standards unless it satisfies the ‘equivalent facilitation’ provision (§103)”.

Freedom of Information Act

The Michigan Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC) has once again declared itself exempt from Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The SILC is a governor-appointed independent agency and a public body funded 100% with taxpayer dollars. The SILC is refusing to respond to any FOIA requests until the Michigan Attorney General issues an opinion forcing them to comply with the law.

The SILC claims that it is exempt from FOIA as both a corporate entity and part of the Governor’s staff. Neither of these two statements are true. The SILC is unequivocally a public body in the most literal sense. In addition to state law and federal requirements, this directly violates the Governor’s Executive Directive on Transparency in State Government. 

Open Meetings Act and Federal Standards and Assurances

The SILC has closed all State Plan for Independent Living (SPIL) development meetings to the public in violation of federal Standards and Assurances and the Open Meetings Act (OMA). Development of the SPIL is an “exercise in governmental authority that effectuates public policy” and therefore subject to the requirements of the OMA. The federal Standards and Assurances for SILCs also require SPIL development meetings to be open to the public:

Indicator (4): The SILC receives public input into the development of the State Plan for Independent Living in accordance with 45 CFR 1329.17(f) ensuring all meetings regarding State Plan development and review are open to the public and provide advance notice of such meetings in accordance with existing State and federal laws and 45 CFR 1329.17(f)(2)(i)-(ii)”.

Take Action

You can contact the Michigan Governor and Attorney General’s offices by using this quick link. A copy will also be sent to the federal Administration for Community Living (ACL), which is supposed to be providing oversight to the SILC.

Here are some sample talking points. We encourage you to put these into your own words.

Be sure to include your name and address at the bottom, and please let us know if you get a response!

Sample Talking Points

Dear Governor Whitmer and Attorney General Nessel,

The Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC) is a governmental entity and must comply with Michigan’s transparency laws.

The SILC is currently violating FOIA and the Open Meetings Act and refusing to comply until forced to do so by the Attorney General’s office.

The SILC is refusing to respond to FOIA requests and has closed all State Plan for Independent Living (SPIL) development meetings to the public. In addition to state law and federal requirements, this directly violates the Governor’s Executive Directive on Transparency in State Government. 

SPIL development is a critical exercise in governmental authority that effectuates public policy. These meetings are subject to the Open Meetings Act and are also required to be open to the public by federal standards and assurances.

Please inform the SILC that they must immediately come into compliance with FOIA and the Open Meetings Act.

Please act quickly to address this issue. Michiganders with disabilities are desperately in need of a functioning SILC that complies with all state and federal law.

Please direct me to the person within the Governor and Attorney General’s offices who is handling this issue.

Thank you.

Watch for planned response and comments.
Add your thoughts suggestions or questions in the comment box

Muskegon Area Transit System Route Study and Comprehensive Operational Analysis
Draft Final Report, January 2020 (PDF)

What has changed in Michigan IL services over the
last twenty-five years?

by Darma J. Canter

Money and the decisions that flow from putting an entity’s business success over the well-being of the disabled they are contracted to serve. Large increases in core funding with contracted service relationships with other publicly funded entities has elevated Michigan Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and their administrators to CEOs with soaring compensation packages. Between 2008 and 2017, Michigan households with a working-age disabled member had a 25% increase in income, $31,000 to $41,000. In 2017 28% of disabled in Michigan lived in poverty. A CIL Director’s salary changed from $50,000 to $90,000 in 2019, nearly 200%, in comparison to disabled income. It represents the elevation of IL leaders to a position superior to the consumers they serve and suggests their voice is not our voice.

Non-disabled professionals have taken over leadership in Michigan’s Independent Living (IL) Program and re-oriented Centers to a corporate model focusing on expanded revenues and partnerships with the systems that segregate and exploit the disabled. Many CILs present themselves as independent, private corporations and assert they are not subject to transparency laws like the Open Meetings Act and FOIA, even when they are 90-98% funded with taxpayer dollars. The Client Assistance Program provider, Michigan Protection & Advocacy Services, has refused to pursue consumer complaints about IL services and cannot or will not provide information about IL grievances and appeals. IL consumer rights processes have nullified. This must be corrected and our rights restored.

Michigan Centers grew out of the local disability community and for many years staff and volunteers advocated for access and inclusion. The Center and staff were allied with disabled community members and shared a vision of social and political change. Over time, Michigan Centers were revised from organizations with boards elected from the membership to boards of appointed directors with their connections to service agencies and influence in the political process; the Centers disengaged from the disability community and enrolled in the local Chamber of Commerce. One day I looked up and our Centers for Independent Living were paying dues to the Association of Rehabilitation Organizations, which specifically lobbies for sheltered workshops.

As Michigan’s IL Network has mutated from a leader in disability empowerment and advocacy to a corporation providing services, our Centers assumed their place alongside Goodwill, Peckham, AFCs, MRS, CMH, and Special Ed. How many programs, case managers, guardians, and payees does a disabled youth need to be self-determined?

Independent Living philosophy assumes the right of every disabled person to be autonomous decision makers. Independence doesn’t mean I don’t need services and supports, but it does mean I am the person with the rewards or consequences of my actions. I will always need some level of assistance and connections to public programs and their agents, which interferes with my independence and autonomy. It has always been easier, faster, cheaper to let the agents act on my behalf, which separates me from the satisfaction and pride of accomplishment as well as the opportunity to learn from my mistakes. Too many youth with significant disabilities are taught to be cooperative, compliant and grateful; and are in fact denied access to all the incentives for growth and independence.

Michigan consumers must reform the IL Network and restore consumer-control, rooted in the local disability community’s values and priorities, and re-imagine the IL service model of peer-delivered self-help and empowerment.

Please read and comment to build a common language and consensus.

by Darma Canter

The benefit of disability identity and culture is counterbalance to the stereotype of disability that perceives us as inferior, less than the non-disabled peer. We refer to that perception as “ableism”. Society has interpreted significant mental or physical differences as undesirable, incapable, unequal, unimportant and treated the disabled as dependent and even a burden. Some differences are observable and some are not, but if a teacher, doctor or parent has labeled you as disabled then you are not deemed worthy; your place in the family or community is diminished. The social model of disability teaches us that “people who have disabilities are more harmed and hampered by discrimination and physical barriers in the community than by their actual bodily impairments”.

In the 1970s, Independent Living leaders used the term consumer in the same way Ralph Nader used it to mean decision-maker. Individuals with disabilities intended to position themselves as informed consumers, directing services and choosing products specific to their individuals goals. Consumers have rights and responsibilities and are ready to be active participants with agencies and service providers to build and maintain a full life in the community. No small step, Independent Living philosophy changed the way we feel about ourselves; we are not our diagnosis, we are not objects to be acted upon, not a social experiment. We are entitled to own our personal hopes and dreams. For my generation, it was liberation from an oppressive social bias, and told a counter-narrative that equated disability and self-worth.

In typical fashion, the swollen disability services business responded to the consumer movement by conflating ‘consumer’ with someone who uses their services. Rather than acknowledge the intended shift in power described in the legislation, agencies adopted  term, but used it as a substitute for ‘client / patient’ and ignored the implied partnership.

Legislation used the term consumer to address the intended shift in decision-making and the power of consumer control to transform the service delivery model. IL funding mandated the Centers for Independent Living (CILs) would be operated by disabled people who deal with ableism, and live with discrimination. The law says the State Plan for Independent Living is written by the Statewide Independent Living council (SILC) and its consumer majority. The concept of consumer control is used to give power and authority to the people who experience the problem and design the solution. Independent Living and the disability rights movement were grassroots political movements by and for people with disabilities. Who could think in a decade the distinction between disabled and non-disabled would evaporate… but not in the way intended. 

Today in Michigan’s Independent Living Program, “everyone has a disability” and every medical condition is disabling. Disability identity as a lived experience is devalued, nullified, and irrelevant. What was once grassroots activism impassioned by our shared experience has been converted to a non-profit service delivery business operated by professionals. Yes, some of the professionals have disabilities, but their disabilities are second to their identity as social workers, employment councilors, business managers and members of the chamber of commerce. Changing policies or practices in the community isn’t fueled by their personal oppression or subjugation; it is rather more an academic issue to study and profit from.  

All the civil rights legislation and the policy changes in disability programs and services occurred between 1970 and 1995 when the disability community drove a social agenda to end discrimination. As the movement gained recognition and secured federal and state funding for peer-run programs, it became an advantage in some situations to claim a disability.

We are experiencing a period when many disabled don’t see themselves as represented in the movement. What does it mean to describe yourself as ‘disabled’ in a medical model vs. a social model? Who has the right to call themselves a consumer? How can the IL movement claim to represent a cross-disability, justice agenda if it continues to be led by business professionals who aren’t motivated by the experience of discrimination?

I am going to think through this dynamic over the next few weeks and I hope you will comment or offer alternative perspectives to the discussion.

After a brief hiatus, Peer Action Alliance is back online at www.peeractionalliance.com.

Here are a few recent accomplishments:

• The former Executive Director of Disability Network Blue Water Center for Independent Living (BWCIL) in Port Huron who tried to extort $75,000 from consumers has left or been removed from his position.
• A convicted embezzler who was serving as the accountant for BWCIL and the Michigan Statewide Independent Living Council (SILC) was apprehended and is currently facing new charges of embezzlement.
• Three SILC Council members were removed from their posts for exceeding their term limits.
• The federal government informed the SILC that it cannot use its shell corporation to avoid its responsibilities under FOIA and the Open Meetings Act.
• The former Executive Director of Disability Network West Michigan, which threatened us repeatedly, has left or been removed from her position. Unfortunately, the new Executive Director has chosen the same path and we continue to be excluded from the design and delivery of Independent Living services in Muskegon.
• The former Executive Director of the SILC has fled to a civil service position within state government. Unfortunately, he will still be able to wreak significant havoc from his new position overseeing Michigan’s Centers for Independent Living at the state level.

We still have significant work to do. We must reform Michigan’s 15 Centers for Independent Living by:

• Restoring consumer control and making sure every Michigan CIL is closely connected to and driven by the advocacy priorities identified by local disability communities, which are incredibly diverse.
• Bringing Michigan CILs into full compliance with state and federal law, as well as all taxpayer-funded contract requirements and internal policies and procedures.
• Ensuring that every Michigan Center for Independent Living is providing Independent Living Plans and the core services required by law, specifically Individual and Systems Advocacy, Peer Support, and Independent Living Skills Training.
• Educating Michigan CIL staff and board members on Independent Living history and philosophy, as well as state and federal law relating to America’s Independent Living Program.
• Implementing affirmative action policies as required by federal law.
• Ensuring that all Michigan CIL board meetings are open to the public.