(00:00:04.583):
Episode 3, Nieta Greene, Making Democracy Accessible.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:11.158):
Alright, welcome back to Making Blank Accessible.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:15.686):
This is Disability Voting Rights Week and today we're tackling the very foundation

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:21.288):
of our civic society by making democracy accessible.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:26.226):
Voting and political participation are fundamental civil rights,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:30.269):
yet millions of voters with disabilities face physical,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:33.872):
digital, and legal barriers when trying to make their voices heard.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:38.435):
Joining me today is Nieta Greene,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:41.077):
CEO of the nonprofit Disability Community for Democracy and

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:45.700):
a fierce advocate fighting on the front lines of voting access.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:49.963):
Naida is leading a crucial conversation around voter suppression,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:54.466):
voting rights, and federal protections.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:56.587):
Nieta,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:00:57.951):
welcome to the Accessibility Show.

Nieta Greene (00:01:02.992):
Hi, how are you?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:01:05.374):
Doing well.

Nieta Greene (00:01:08.536):
So thank you for the intro.

Nieta Greene (00:01:11.999):
It is interesting because today is The 14th of September,

Nieta Greene (00:01:18.996):
and we are about halfway through the month.

Nieta Greene (00:01:22.779):
And there is a lot of things that I want to touch on today,

Nieta Greene (00:01:27.962):
but I just want to kick off and say thank you for inviting me.

Nieta Greene (00:01:33.046):
And I also think it's important to really talk about civic engagement beyond voting,

Nieta Greene (00:01:39.430):
because there is so many ways to participate.

Nieta Greene (00:01:42.705):
Specifically,

Nieta Greene (00:01:44.406):
I also serve on my city's Disability Commission as the Secretary of the Board,

Nieta Greene (00:01:54.013):
and I think sometimes we forget that voting is just the first step.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:02:02.283):
Yeah, for sure.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:02:03.144):
To start us off maybe,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:02:05.706):
was there a moment,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:02:07.928):
an initial experience for you that made you realize that civic engagement was

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:02:12.852):
so much more than just, are we able to vote?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:02:16.635):
How did this become kind of the core of your advocacy work and leading you

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:02:20.999):
to found your nonprofit?

Nieta Greene (00:02:24.591):
Well, it was a 20 year plus journey.

Nieta Greene (00:02:27.958):
And so I always knew civic engagement was beyond voting.

Nieta Greene (00:02:33.539):
I, on my father's side, they're Black Americans and my mother is Latina, Puerto Rican Cuban.

Nieta Greene (00:02:42.281):
So on my father's side,

Nieta Greene (00:02:44.482):
they knew Ozzie Davis and Ruby Dee and Malcolm X and Dr.

Nieta Greene (00:02:48.502):
King and my aunt who She is about 10 years older than me but graduated 10 years

Nieta Greene (00:02:56.466):
before I did from high school and is Gen X.

Nieta Greene (00:03:00.650):
She met Jesse Jackson.

Nieta Greene (00:03:04.153):
I come from a family who civic engagement was in my face since I was a little kid.

Nieta Greene (00:03:10.439):
It wasn't like my aunts though.

Nieta Greene (00:03:12.341):
My aunts and my uncle and my father where they had to go knock on doors and stuff.

Nieta Greene (00:03:17.247):
My aunt tells this story about she registered a Black woman in 1984.

Nieta Greene (00:03:23.293):
She was 17

Nieta Greene (00:03:26.035):
years old and she never voted before.

Nieta Greene (00:03:32.121):
And this was Jesse Jackson, who was running for president for the first time.

Nieta Greene (00:03:40.369):
And so she registered this Black woman.

Nieta Greene (00:03:42.170):
She did not know how to Um,

Nieta Greene (00:03:44.238):
read or write, so she signed with an X, and that just, like, blew her away.

Nieta Greene (00:03:48.221):
Now, mind you,

Nieta Greene (00:03:48.702):
my aunt was an honor student, uh,

Nieta Greene (00:03:52.044):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:03:52.345):
part of the Honor Society,

Nieta Greene (00:03:53.986):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:03:54.326):
she ended up,

Nieta Greene (00:03:55.187):
you know, she could have gone to, like, any Ivy League school she wanted to.

Nieta Greene (00:03:57.969):
She went to the Sister Ivies,

Nieta Greene (00:04:00.191):
you know, like,

Nieta Greene (00:04:00.971):
she went to,

Nieta Greene (00:04:01.752):
you know, like,

Nieta Greene (00:04:02.292):
the schools like Vassar and stuff like that,

Nieta Greene (00:04:05.275):
um, And Brandeis, like my aunt went to Brandeis.

Nieta Greene (00:04:08.517):
One of my aunts went to Brandeis.

Nieta Greene (00:04:09.637):
The other aunt, the one I'm talking about, she went to Vassar.

Nieta Greene (00:04:12.818):
So, you know,

Nieta Greene (00:04:13.198):
the sister Ivies that women,

Nieta Greene (00:04:15.399):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:04:15.639):
those were the schools that women could go to before the Ivy leagues were co-ed.

Nieta Greene (00:04:22.261):
So she went to one, that's the school she went to.

Nieta Greene (00:04:25.883):
And so I just grew up like knowing civic engagement was just beyond voting.

Nieta Greene (00:04:31.724):
It was just in my face all the time.

Nieta Greene (00:04:34.121):
What else can I remember?

Nieta Greene (00:04:36.382):
Remember watching the presidential results as a little kid?

Nieta Greene (00:04:45.865):
This was the 80s,

Nieta Greene (00:04:47.344):
so we still did not have a color TV in 1984 because my parents were still,

Nieta Greene (00:04:55.385):
my mother and father were still married.

Nieta Greene (00:04:57.426):
So we didn't have a color TV.

Nieta Greene (00:04:59.277):
So we were still watching it like we were in the 1950s on a black and white television.

Nieta Greene (00:05:05.821):
But then by the time... A little screen?

Nieta Greene (00:05:08.222):
No, not a little screen.

Nieta Greene (00:05:09.503):
Actually, we had a big... Because these TVs were from the late 70s, early 80s.

Nieta Greene (00:05:15.047):
So we had these big,

Nieta Greene (00:05:16.768):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:05:17.528):
regular traveled like TVs back,

Nieta Greene (00:05:19.810):
you know, in the 90s where they were heavy, but, you know, you can carry them.

Nieta Greene (00:05:23.872):
So they...

Nieta Greene (00:05:25.713):
Yeah, so they weren't like the big 1950 TVs that were pieces of furniture.

Nieta Greene (00:05:29.616):
No.

Nieta Greene (00:05:31.758):
But we had those TVs since the 70s, and people still did not have color.

Nieta Greene (00:05:36.642):
Not everybody had color TV.

Nieta Greene (00:05:37.963):
Color TV did not become really a big,

Nieta Greene (00:05:41.906):
big thing,

Nieta Greene (00:05:42.367):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:05:43.608):
until like the late 80s,

Nieta Greene (00:05:45.029):
early 90s, when they started making cable-ready televisions.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:05:51.454):
Yeah.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:05:52.275):
Hmm.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:05:55.401):
Yeah, you grew up learning and being involved in advocacy, so it was always part of your life.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:06:04.547):
What maybe prompted you in founding Disability Community for Democracy?

Nieta Greene (00:06:11.992):
Actually,

Nieta Greene (00:06:14.193):
what prompted me was the lack of engagement specifically with

Nieta Greene (00:06:17.196):
the disability community at the 2024 election.

Nieta Greene (00:06:21.699):
People will always say, well,

Nieta Greene (00:06:22.800):
the disability community,

Nieta Greene (00:06:24.101):
you know, is about a 50-50 split between the political parties, which is true.

Nieta Greene (00:06:28.564):
There's data that says it,

Nieta Greene (00:06:30.145):
but you still need to engage with the largest marginalized group in

Nieta Greene (00:06:37.211):
the United States, and neither political party does.

Nieta Greene (00:06:41.834):
Now, they'll do it by race or sexual orientation, gender, identity,

Nieta Greene (00:06:50.575):
Class Issues, but that doesn't help when you can't even access the

Nieta Greene (00:07:00.430):
Voting booth.

Nieta Greene (00:07:01.952):
Or if you want to run for office and you're on benefits, you can't because it counts as work.

Nieta Greene (00:07:10.138):
Stuff like that.

Nieta Greene (00:07:11.059):
So that was my saying, oh, we need to do more.

Nieta Greene (00:07:18.104):
And also I started seeing how ableism bleeds into political campaigns

Nieta Greene (00:07:26.051):
because I have multiple disabilities.

Nieta Greene (00:07:28.638):
They really weren't talking about psychiatric issues.

Nieta Greene (00:07:34.865):
And I say this with the respect of the OGs and stuff like that,

Nieta Greene (00:07:42.813):
but they keep wanting to rely, like they attach themselves to a political party.

Nieta Greene (00:07:47.918):
And I think that's a bad idea.

Nieta Greene (00:07:49.960):
I think we need to be free agents.

Nieta Greene (00:07:52.579):
And hold both political parties accountable in the same way.

Nieta Greene (00:07:55.422):
And we just don't,

Nieta Greene (00:07:56.663):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:07:57.024):
we still on some level,

Nieta Greene (00:07:58.886):
especially the older people,

Nieta Greene (00:08:00.832):
Still feel like, okay,

Nieta Greene (00:08:02.853):
the Republicans,

Nieta Greene (00:08:03.854):
we wouldn't,

Nieta Greene (00:08:04.654):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:08:04.974):
and it's true,

Nieta Greene (00:08:05.495):
we wouldn't have a lot of the disability access rights if it really wasn't

Nieta Greene (00:08:10.117):
for Republicans.

Nieta Greene (00:08:11.138):
It wasn't Democrats who did it.

Nieta Greene (00:08:13.039):
I mean, the reality is Section 504 said it happened under a Democratic president.

Nieta Greene (00:08:17.681):
Like, these are just, like, facts.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:08:19.682):
ADA was signed by a Republican president.

Nieta Greene (00:08:22.404):
Yeah, it was a bipartisan, it was a bipartisan

Nieta Greene (00:08:28.467):
cooperation, but...

Nieta Greene (00:08:31.038):
I remember the 88 election.

Nieta Greene (00:08:33.380):
I was in elementary school still, but I didn't remember that election.

Nieta Greene (00:08:39.365):
And they, George H.W.

Nieta Greene (00:08:43.488):
Bush was the first person to say disability and talk about civil rights for people

Nieta Greene (00:08:49.253):
with disabilities before any other presidential candidate.

Nieta Greene (00:08:53.837):
I know Carter promised to sign the Section 504

Nieta Greene (00:09:00.373):
Regs, but he put somebody in place that wouldn't sign it.

Nieta Greene (00:09:03.978):
Yeah, that's why we had the city to the first place.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:09:08.103):
Right.

Nieta Greene (00:09:08.804):
You know,

Nieta Greene (00:09:10.045):
the disability community was mad at Ford Ford because he wouldn't sign

Nieta Greene (00:09:14.591):
the regulations and all of that,

Nieta Greene (00:09:17.114):
but they were written by They were written,

Nieta Greene (00:09:21.017):
I think they were written by Nixon, you know, like the first administration.

Nieta Greene (00:09:25.845):
I think that might have been the reason why they didn't get signed.

Nieta Greene (00:09:28.970):
And I think people don't really understand how politics works.

Nieta Greene (00:09:32.135):
Nobody wants to sign somebody else's stuff.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:09:36.544):
Yeah, unfortunately, the divisiveness in politics, our disability issues transcend a party.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:09:46.591):
Like you said,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:09:47.192):
people need to be reaching to both sides,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:09:50.934):
all sides of the aisle when it comes to people with disabilities.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:09:55.237):
You actually, I believe, started to answer the next question that I was going to ask you.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:10:02.312):
Typical election season.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:10:03.812):
So we've got midterm elections coming up here in the United States.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:10:09.313):
What is it that you think is probably the most inaccessible thing

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:10:13.414):
about civic participation that the public doesn't realize?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:10:18.735):
Whether that's like the registration to vote process,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:10:22.556):
researching a candidate down to casting the ballot itself.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:10:27.296):
What barriers are there that the general public just aren't aware of?

Nieta Greene (00:10:31.509):
I think it depends on your disability.

Nieta Greene (00:10:33.170):
So I can't speak for all disabilities.

Nieta Greene (00:10:35.612):
Like I know someone who literally, because they have CP, they have to write with their feet.

Nieta Greene (00:10:42.097):
And in my state, we have what I like to call the standardized test Scantron

Nieta Greene (00:10:51.044):
ballot.

Nieta Greene (00:10:52.045):
Sure.

Nieta Greene (00:10:52.685):
Do the ovals.

Nieta Greene (00:10:55.287):
So if you're like needing either to vote, like, you know, you can't use your hands to vote.

Nieta Greene (00:11:02.423):
Or myself,

Nieta Greene (00:11:03.864):
I'm dyslexic,

Nieta Greene (00:11:05.385):
and I struggle with,

Nieta Greene (00:11:07.306):
and have dysgraphia,

Nieta Greene (00:11:08.347):
so I struggle with making sure our stuff is lined up,

Nieta Greene (00:11:13.851):
not using ruler or straight edge.

Nieta Greene (00:11:19.074):
It's absolutely ridiculous.

Nieta Greene (00:11:22.776):
That's not accessible.

Nieta Greene (00:11:23.797):
That's not an accessible ballot for me.

Nieta Greene (00:11:27.511):
To fill out.

Nieta Greene (00:11:28.851):
I mean, I fill it out,

Nieta Greene (00:11:30.032):
but I have to vote from home to be able to do that because I need the things I need

Nieta Greene (00:11:36.093):
to be able to vote.

Nieta Greene (00:11:38.414):
That's one of the main reasons why I vote by mail is that.

Nieta Greene (00:11:42.555):
And we have no excuse to vote by mail, but it's absolutely ridiculous.

Nieta Greene (00:11:46.776):
I've more than once had to call the Board of Elections.

Nieta Greene (00:11:51.657):
In my state, we don't have Okay, I want to say this correctly.

Nieta Greene (00:11:56.639):
A lot of places in my state don't have county government.

Nieta Greene (00:12:01.264):
And even if we do have county government,

Nieta Greene (00:12:04.448):
there are certain counties in my state that have county government.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:12:08.332):
Massachusetts, right?

Nieta Greene (00:12:09.714):
Yes, Massachusetts.

Nieta Greene (00:12:10.534):
Okay, yeah.

Nieta Greene (00:12:11.596):
But...

Nieta Greene (00:12:15.525):
The county government does not run the elections.

Nieta Greene (00:12:19.977):
It's the cities and towns, and we have 400 plus cities and towns running the elections.

Nieta Greene (00:12:25.892):
And so that's one of the things that is also very problematic,

Nieta Greene (00:12:31.236):
is that,

Nieta Greene (00:12:33.497):
for example,

Nieta Greene (00:12:34.238):
I'm just going to say this,

Nieta Greene (00:12:36.649):
because it's a matter of public record,

Nieta Greene (00:12:38.141):
the notes is going to come out about this in a month, so...

Nieta Greene (00:12:43.165):
At my Disability Commission meeting on Thursday,

Nieta Greene (00:12:47.328):
we talked about the fact that the state hasn't picked machines,

Nieta Greene (00:12:54.132):
accessible voting machines, for years, and they keep breaking.

Nieta Greene (00:13:00.616):
And then when people file a civil rights complaint,

Nieta Greene (00:13:07.280):
usually via the state vehicle,

Nieta Greene (00:13:12.357):
The state gets fined, but they don't have the ability to buy their own voting machines.

Nieta Greene (00:13:17.899):
So to me, I basically said this is, I'm going to just say it.

Nieta Greene (00:13:21.641):
I did say it in the meeting this way, but it's half-assed backwards.

Nieta Greene (00:13:24.822):
How are you going to hold a municipality accountable

Nieta Greene (00:13:28.043):
when they can't buy their own machines and they have to buy the machines that

Nieta Greene (00:13:37.707):
the Secretary of State tells you to buy?

Nieta Greene (00:13:42.516):
So that's another thing that happens is that people who are blind

Nieta Greene (00:13:46.259):
and low vision have other physical needs where they actually have to go vote

Nieta Greene (00:13:52.644):
in person because they can't see the Scantron, use the Scantron option.

Nieta Greene (00:13:58.389):
They can't because the machines are broken, right?

Nieta Greene (00:14:03.133):
They break, they test them, it's fine.

Nieta Greene (00:14:05.335):
And then when somebody goes vote, they can't.

Nieta Greene (00:14:09.921):
Wow.

Nieta Greene (00:14:11.122):
Now they would say you have the option under federal law and state law

Nieta Greene (00:14:17.246):
to get somebody to assist you with your ballot.

Nieta Greene (00:14:21.029):
Sure.

Nieta Greene (00:14:21.309):
And that is not your employer or somebody who works for you or something like that.

Nieta Greene (00:14:28.354):
But how is that helpful?

Nieta Greene (00:14:30.076):
If you don't have anybody to do that for you, then you can't vote.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:14:36.740):
Yeah, it's not completely thought through.

Nieta Greene (00:14:42.037):
So that's my city's biggest issue right now.

Nieta Greene (00:14:47.299):
One of the biggest issues we're talking about is that we have people who just cannot vote.

Nieta Greene (00:14:54.842):
They go to meetings, they do all the other things, but they can't vote.

Nieta Greene (00:15:00.244):
That doesn't make sense to me.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:03.265):
Everyone should be able to vote.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:04.786):
It's a basic right of participation in our society.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:09.728):
And it's It's terrible that there are so many inaccessible barriers to voting.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:15.449):
You talked about mail-in voting being restricted in various places.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:20.232):
I know there are some states that only mail-in vote,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:23.855):
so I'm curious how some of those challenges are going to work themselves out

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:27.878):
in court.

Nieta Greene (00:15:30.280):
I used to live in Washington State, so...

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:32.882):
Okay.

Nieta Greene (00:15:34.223):
So I know, I know, I mean, I know that was the only option to vote.

Nieta Greene (00:15:40.048):
Sure.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:41.480):
Yeah.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:43.701):
So transitioning a little bit here,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:46.902):
but kind of on the same topic,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:48.862):
I want to dive into the phrase that you've used for some of your recent advocacy,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:55.604):
and that phrase is Crip Crow.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:15:59.145):
I know there's a definition on your website evoking Jim Crow voting laws.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:16:05.867):
And reclaiming that crip phrase in the disability vocabulary.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:16:11.609):
So talking about crip crow and highlighting some

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:16:14.850):
of these modern voter suppression tactics

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:16:18.010):
that are specifically targeting our disabled disenfranchised voters.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:16:22.932):
Can you break down crip crow,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:16:25.432):
what that looks like in practice and what kind of restrictions

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:16:30.094):
and things you're seeing and why this campaign has been a focus of yours lately?

Nieta Greene (00:16:35.340):
So I'm going to just read from the site itself.

Nieta Greene (00:16:39.681):
Crip Crow is a term used in disability justice to describe systematic discrimination

Nieta Greene (00:16:46.783):
against disabled people when laws,

Nieta Greene (00:16:49.144):
policies,

Nieta Greene (00:16:49.784):
or institutions create second-class citizenship, segregation, or unequal access.

Nieta Greene (00:16:55.486):
It intentionally echoes Jim Crow to emphasize that the discrimination is structural,

Nieta Greene (00:17:01.007):
not just individual.

Nieta Greene (00:17:04.491):
Here it

Nieta Greene (00:17:08.735):
is shorthand for disabled people facing forced institutionalization

Nieta Greene (00:17:15.141):
or unnecessary segregation,

Nieta Greene (00:17:17.023):
unequal access to housing,

Nieta Greene (00:17:18.764):
education,

Nieta Greene (00:17:19.285):
transportation,

Nieta Greene (00:17:20.806):
erosion of disability rights protections,

Nieta Greene (00:17:23.248):
policies that fully exclude disabled people from fully participating,

Nieta Greene (00:17:28.857):
In society,

Nieta Greene (00:17:29.918):
and actually just to explain a little bit deeper process of that,

Nieta Greene (00:17:35.281):
so of where Crip Crow came from.

Nieta Greene (00:17:37.942):
So there is a phrase, if you can Google it, call it Cripping Jim Crow, right?

Nieta Greene (00:17:45.507):
And it comes from Black disabled individuals who were studying the intersection

Nieta Greene (00:17:51.510):
of being Black And disabled,

Nieta Greene (00:17:54.904):
and especially in like institutional environments,

Nieta Greene (00:17:57.465):
like prisons and jails and things like that.

Nieta Greene (00:18:00.727):
And I just was like, felt the phrase was so powerful.

Nieta Greene (00:18:05.169):
I was like, and I started using it way before the campaign.

Nieta Greene (00:18:08.931):
If you read some of the stuff earlier in the year,

Nieta Greene (00:18:12.153):
I started talking about segregation of people with disabilities during

Nieta Greene (00:18:19.176):
the Texas Kennedy Re-initiation of their lawsuit.

Nieta Greene (00:18:26.991):
Right.

Nieta Greene (00:18:28.292):
So I use that term and people asked me what it meant and I explained it in another article.

Nieta Greene (00:18:35.034):
And then it built, no one's coming to save us and we need to save ourselves.

Nieta Greene (00:18:38.776):
And the only way we can do that is to shake off Crip Crow from our society.

Nieta Greene (00:18:45.698):
We need to fight back.

Nieta Greene (00:18:47.159):
And it's a term that makes sense.

Nieta Greene (00:18:51.435):
And it's always been in practice.

Nieta Greene (00:18:53.116):
We just never had a name for it.

Nieta Greene (00:18:54.856):
I mean, we had ugly laws.

Nieta Greene (00:18:56.795):
We had ugly laws where people with disabilities at the city,

Nieta Greene (00:19:02.180):
county, and state level were hidden.

Nieta Greene (00:19:04.441):
They were literally on the books until 1974.

Nieta Greene (00:19:06.322):
That wasn't born too much after that.

Nieta Greene (00:19:11.805):
We were still institutionalizing certain types of people in

Nieta Greene (00:19:17.606):
And institutions like people who were blind and low vision into the 90s,

Nieta Greene (00:19:21.848):
people with psychiatric

Nieta Greene (00:19:25.710):
disabilities were kept in hospitals,

Nieta Greene (00:19:31.353):
especially state institutions,

Nieta Greene (00:19:32.634):
but also sometimes private institutions,

Nieta Greene (00:19:34.695):
more than like a week, you know, a week and a half, two, three, four.

Nieta Greene (00:19:41.132):
One of my exes was in the hospital for months in a private hospital when I was

Nieta Greene (00:19:47.517):
an undergrad in mid to late 90s.

Nieta Greene (00:19:52.641):
I don't remember the year.

Nieta Greene (00:19:53.682):
And Olmstead,

Nieta Greene (00:19:59.346):
Olmstead case started in 1995.

Nieta Greene (00:20:01.388):
I was still in high school when that case started.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:20:03.809):
Right.

Nieta Greene (00:20:05.391):
So...

Nieta Greene (00:20:07.272):
So I just want people to understand that they were still institutionalizing people

Nieta Greene (00:20:12.655):
because the vehicle that Medicaid and insurance companies would pay for back in

Nieta Greene (00:20:19):
the day was institutionalization or heavy outpatient institutionalization,

Nieta Greene (00:20:25.984):
aka partial hospitalization.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:20:30.267):
Okay.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:20:31.561):
Yeah, maybe for those of my listeners who this is all new to,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:20:36.883):
can you give us a little bit more background on the Olmstead guidance and

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:20:42.064):
the Texas versus Kennedy and some of these other topics that you've mentioned?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:20:48.006):
What are these laws and guidance in particular and why is this important right now?

Nieta Greene (00:20:54.188):
So I'm going to talk about Texas and Kennedy first because They all build on each other.

Nieta Greene (00:21:02.318):
So, Texas v. Kennedy actually started as a case, as a lawsuit under the previous administration.

Nieta Greene (00:21:12.201):
And what happened was, first,

Nieta Greene (00:21:14.682):
they were challenging the constitutionality of Section 504,

Nieta Greene (00:21:23.525):
full stop, because of the updated eight

Nieta Greene (00:21:31.513):
Regulations for Section 504,

Nieta Greene (00:21:34.315):
which finally caught up to the law,

Nieta Greene (00:21:36.896):
the case law that talks about integration mandate,

Nieta Greene (00:21:39.758):
and they really put it into effect.

Nieta Greene (00:21:42.239):
Now, they've been talking about the integration mandate since the 70s, right?

Nieta Greene (00:21:48.602):
But the Biden administration, Biden-Harris administration came out with these regulations.

Nieta Greene (00:21:58.588):
They've And then in September 2024,

Nieta Greene (00:22:03.266):
Texas as the lead case, surprise, surprise, you know, right?

Nieta Greene (00:22:07.991):
Like, and I think it was like 20 other states,

Nieta Greene (00:22:12.054):
mainly Southern states and Western states said, nope.

Nieta Greene (00:22:23.360):
We're challenging this.

Nieta Greene (00:22:24.241):
You're telling us how to spend our money.

Nieta Greene (00:22:25.661):
You're telling us how to do this, this, and this.

Nieta Greene (00:22:28.263):
There was a lot of political pressure.

Nieta Greene (00:22:31.225):
The lawsuit changed from the prior HHS secretary to the current one.

Nieta Greene (00:22:41.230):
I will talk about him in a minute.

Nieta Greene (00:22:46.393):
And then it became Texas v. Kennedy.

Nieta Greene (00:22:49.555):
They dropped out.

Nieta Greene (00:22:51.096):
They negotiated that They weren't going to enforce

Nieta Greene (00:22:58.302):
the preamble around gender identity, possibly being a disability.

Nieta Greene (00:23:08.249):
Most of the states dropped out.

Nieta Greene (00:23:10.631):
Then in February, They decided to update their lawsuit.

Nieta Greene (00:23:16.617):
So now, now we're not going to declare Section 504 unconstitutional.

Nieta Greene (00:23:21.720):
Now we're saying that the regs themselves are a problem

Nieta Greene (00:23:27.364):
because now you're telling us that how to spend money and keeping people in

Nieta Greene (00:23:32.247):
the least restrictive environment, et cetera, et cetera, right?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:23:37.731):
Yeah.

Nieta Greene (00:23:38.872):
While that's happening, the Justice Department I call it the Department of Injustice.

Nieta Greene (00:23:47.407):
It has still negotiating with states,

Nieta Greene (00:23:51.949):
especially around psychiatric institutionalization agreements.

Nieta Greene (00:24:00.793):
Stephen Miller,

Nieta Greene (00:24:01.613):
in his infinite wisdom,

Nieta Greene (00:24:05.555):
was like, nah,

Nieta Greene (00:24:07.116):
what you're doing is going against the spirit of of the executive order from July

Nieta Greene (00:24:15.679):
of last year,

Nieta Greene (00:24:17.179):
where they criminalize substance abuse disorder and mental health disorders,

Nieta Greene (00:24:22.380):
especially if you're homeless slash unhoused.

Nieta Greene (00:24:26.601):
Yeah.

Nieta Greene (00:24:28.701):
And then,

Nieta Greene (00:24:29.121):
of course,

Nieta Greene (00:24:29.461):
they did,

Nieta Greene (00:24:30.261):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:24:30.541):
prior to that, they did EO on veterans and conservatorships and how states could

Nieta Greene (00:24:41.893):
And all of these puzzle pieces fit together.

Nieta Greene (00:24:45.535):
At the end of the day, right, all of these pieces fit together.

Nieta Greene (00:24:51.678):
Then, June 18th, the day before Juneteenth, spit on my ancestors'

Nieta Greene (00:25:01.223):
graves.

Nieta Greene (00:25:02.164):
They decided to sneak on the cover of night this Olmstead memo that says that...

Nieta Greene (00:25:11.409):
And it was officially for psychiatric,

Nieta Greene (00:25:16.331):
I'm actually saying it wrong,

Nieta Greene (00:25:17.832):
mental disabilities did not apply to physical disabilities.

Nieta Greene (00:25:22.114):
Now, I say this all the time,

Nieta Greene (00:25:24.815):
I have two bridges that connect the city of Cambridge to the city of Boston

Nieta Greene (00:25:29.257):
to sell you if you think that was not going to apply to all disabilities.

Nieta Greene (00:25:35.680):
Sure.

Nieta Greene (00:25:37.365):
They said states,

Nieta Greene (00:25:39.867):
which includes our territories,

Nieta Greene (00:25:43.108):
are under no obligation under the ADA and Section 504 to provide

Nieta Greene (00:25:52.114):
the least restrictive environment.

Nieta Greene (00:25:55.696):
And the reason why they're saying that they decided to take the different opinions

Nieta Greene (00:26:01.759):
of the Olmstead case Which I will get into a little more detail after I explain

Nieta Greene (00:26:08.936):
the logic I'm going through here.

Nieta Greene (00:26:10.638):
And parse the opinions apart.

Nieta Greene (00:26:15.742):
Then, a month later,

Nieta Greene (00:26:20.105):
they decided to rescind the guidance that they had from 2011 due to the Chevron

Nieta Greene (00:26:31.461):
Which was a 40-year precedent around the administrative state.

Nieta Greene (00:26:36.042):
Then in August,

Nieta Greene (00:26:38.944):
the Department of Justice,

Nieta Greene (00:26:40.424):
they worked at this case for years,

Nieta Greene (00:26:42.205):
they sued the state of Florida,

Nieta Greene (00:26:45.146):
and they said, nah,

Nieta Greene (00:26:48.828):
we're not,

Nieta Greene (00:26:50.028):
the case that they won,

Nieta Greene (00:26:51.870):
That required the state of Florida to have children have access

Nieta Greene (00:26:56.573):
to community-based services, specifically home care.

Nieta Greene (00:27:00.796):
No, we don't want you to enforce the judgment on the state.

Nieta Greene (00:27:05.299):
We want you to reverse it.

Nieta Greene (00:27:06.780):
So they're going, they went to the, what's it called?

Nieta Greene (00:27:15.046):
The appellate court.

Nieta Greene (00:27:16.407):
Okay.

Nieta Greene (00:27:17.328):
And asked them to reverse themselves.

Nieta Greene (00:27:20.490):
Okay.

Nieta Greene (00:27:22.599):
While all of this is happening, they're now negotiating with Texas.

Nieta Greene (00:27:28.262):
There's five states.

Nieta Greene (00:27:29.943):
Texas is still the lead.

Nieta Greene (00:27:31.823):
Louisiana, Florida.

Nieta Greene (00:27:38.367):
I'm not going to list them all,

Nieta Greene (00:27:41.688):
but it's our usual red state suspects that hate anybody who is not white,

Nieta Greene (00:27:49.012):
heterosexual-presenting.

Nieta Greene (00:27:52.053):
And wealthy and non-disabled,

Nieta Greene (00:27:56.496):
or if you have a disability like the governor does,

Nieta Greene (00:27:59.157):
could afford to pay for their own care because of a lawsuit that he got money for

Nieta Greene (00:28:05.701):
because the tree fell on it.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:28:08.422):
Oh dear.

Nieta Greene (00:28:09.383):
That's how he became disabled.

Nieta Greene (00:28:12.184):
And so I'm just going to say this, that...

Nieta Greene (00:28:17.894):
The proposed resolution is saying that

Nieta Greene (00:28:26.384):
the administration,

Nieta Greene (00:28:27.746):
I call it the current occupant and his co-conspirators,

Nieta Greene (00:28:31.210):
agrees with the take that Texas and these other five states are saying,

Nieta Greene (00:28:36.936):
and they want to rescind.

Nieta Greene (00:28:39.222):
All of the integration mandate guidance.

Nieta Greene (00:28:42.664):
Specifically, they want to get rid of all of the 2024

Nieta Greene (00:28:49.487):
regulations that were approved.

Nieta Greene (00:28:54.009):
So why is Olmstead important to Texas v. Kennedy?

Nieta Greene (00:29:02.694):
Texas v. Kennedy is pushing back on the integration mandate.

Nieta Greene (00:29:07.517):
In 1995, the,

Nieta Greene (00:29:08.978):
how do I say this,

Nieta Greene (00:29:13.900):
without like getting angry,

Nieta Greene (00:29:15.901):
because this part makes me angry,

Nieta Greene (00:29:18.223):
a Black woman,

Nieta Greene (00:29:21.545):
Lois Curtis,

Nieta Greene (00:29:22.445):
and a white woman,

Nieta Greene (00:29:24.106):
Elaine Wilson, decided to sue the state of Georgia saying, I want to go home.

Nieta Greene (00:29:29.429):
My doctor says I can go home.

Nieta Greene (00:29:31.880):
And they did.

Nieta Greene (00:29:33.441):
The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, and they kept winning, right?

Nieta Greene (00:29:40.345):
And then Olmstead,

Nieta Greene (00:29:42.906):
who was the commissioner in Georgia, decided to say, nah, I'm going to fight it.

Nieta Greene (00:29:50.190):
That's why they call it the Olmstead decision.

Nieta Greene (00:29:53.572):
But it should really be called the Curtis decision.

Nieta Greene (00:29:58.877):
She was the one who sued state in the first place to get us where we're at.

Nieta Greene (00:30:05.161):
And now they just want to take away everything.

Nieta Greene (00:30:07.483):
So

Nieta Greene (00:30:10.915):
that decision first started off with forcing people to be institutionalized

Nieta Greene (00:30:16.989):
against their will.

Nieta Greene (00:30:18.430):
There's two parts to it that we need to explain why this is important.

Nieta Greene (00:30:22.493):
The doctor has to agree.

Nieta Greene (00:30:25.088):
And the person in the institution has to agree to want to go home.

Nieta Greene (00:30:32.691):
And that's the first two parts.

Nieta Greene (00:30:36.372):
And that's why states have been forced to cover community-based services,

Nieta Greene (00:30:43.814):
even though, quote unquote, under Medicaid, they're not required to.

Nieta Greene (00:30:47.856):
It's still an optional service,

Nieta Greene (00:30:49.656):
but not really because of Olmstead, how this plays out in other realms?

Nieta Greene (00:30:57.229):
So number one, the VA is covered under 504, not Olmstead.

Nieta Greene (00:31:05.130):
Olmstead is a Title II case, which is states, states of territory.

Nieta Greene (00:31:11.151):
But it applies to shelter workshops, foster care,

Nieta Greene (00:31:18.793):
and

Nieta Greene (00:31:21.073):
schools.

Nieta Greene (00:31:23.007):
So even though they had the IDEA back when I was in school, yes,

Nieta Greene (00:31:29.612):
they had to now educate you,

Nieta Greene (00:31:31.273):
but they would segregate you and do unnecessary pullouts.

Nieta Greene (00:31:35.557):
So that's how Olmstead got expanded.

Nieta Greene (00:31:39.559):
The federal government would sue states because they were segregating students

Nieta Greene (00:31:46.405):
with disabilities, unnecessary pullouts.

Nieta Greene (00:31:50.475):
Not keeping kids in the community who might have psychiatric issues or other issues

Nieta Greene (00:31:55.179):
and saying parents have to turn their kids over to the state.

Nieta Greene (00:31:58.622):
That actually happened to me because I have multiple disabilities.

Nieta Greene (00:32:03.146):
And when I was younger, my psych issues, especially when I was a teenager, were really bad.

Nieta Greene (00:32:07.590):
And my mom tried her best.

Nieta Greene (00:32:10.472):
We were not poor enough to get Medicaid.

Nieta Greene (00:32:13.174):
She worked.

Nieta Greene (00:32:14.896):
Thank God she worked in the system.

Nieta Greene (00:32:16.936):
Because she knew if I was placed in the system as a teenager and

Nieta Greene (00:32:22.278):
that she was looking out for me while in the system,

Nieta Greene (00:32:28.941):
because they were saying no,

Nieta Greene (00:32:30.642):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:32:32.022):
because the system,

Nieta Greene (00:32:32.822):
of course,

Nieta Greene (00:32:33.183):
they resist like parents just dumping their kids,

Nieta Greene (00:32:36.204):
but they did not have therapeutic foster care.

Nieta Greene (00:32:41.867):
In the 80s and 90s,

Nieta Greene (00:32:43.989):
and even into the early 2000s,

Nieta Greene (00:32:45.730):
the only option is if your child had a psychiatric issue,

Nieta Greene (00:32:49.012):
you turn them over to the state, you didn't lose your parental rights.

Nieta Greene (00:32:53.075):
Mom's rights never got terminated.

Nieta Greene (00:32:55.937):
But those were the options.

Nieta Greene (00:32:59.259):
And now that's why they're why so Olmsted played a role in all of this stuff.

Nieta Greene (00:33:05.704):
And now they want to go back to pre 1973.

Nieta Greene (00:33:07.905):
Now,

Nieta Greene (00:33:11.314):
I hope that gives everyone a lay of the land.

Nieta Greene (00:33:14.595):
I will say this.

Nieta Greene (00:33:15.515):
I spoke to my mom a couple of weeks ago and she said she remembers in 1973.

Nieta Greene (00:33:22.397):
Now I'm doing math here.

Nieta Greene (00:33:24.798):
My mom was 13,

Nieta Greene (00:33:26.899):
14 years old in 1973, depending on when she saw the Gerardo Rivera

Nieta Greene (00:33:35.401):
expose on 2020.

Nieta Greene (00:33:39.154):
My mom is in her mid-60s now.

Nieta Greene (00:33:44.900):
Okay.

Nieta Greene (00:33:45.941):
Yeah.

Nieta Greene (00:33:47.202):
That was over 50 years ago.

Nieta Greene (00:33:50.265):
She remembers that video and how horrible it was with Willowbrook,

Nieta Greene (00:33:55.350):
which is, was in New York City and Staten Island specifically.

Nieta Greene (00:34:02.236):
And so

Nieta Greene (00:34:04.700):
Come on.

Nieta Greene (00:34:05.721):
That's what they want to go back to.

Nieta Greene (00:34:06.901):
They want to go back to the Willowbrook days where they could just stick us and hide us.

Nieta Greene (00:34:11.965):
They're saying, oh, we didn't have autism.

Nieta Greene (00:34:14.726):
No, you just stuck us in institutions instead.

Nieta Greene (00:34:17.128):
Right.

Nieta Greene (00:34:18.129):
We didn't have mental illness.

Nieta Greene (00:34:19.610):
No, you just stuck us in institutions instead.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:22.471):
Exactly.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:25.193):
Oh, my gosh.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:25.713):
Thank you for all of the background on the laws there.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:29.176):
I know that was a lot.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:30.817):
I'm sorry.

Nieta Greene (00:34:31.958):
I have to drink.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:33.290):
No, please, please take a drink.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:35.411):
Let me talk for a moment.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:37.152):
I'll switch this gears a little bit,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:38.512):
but I just wanted to say that that was very helpful for everyone to understand

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:42.194):
the background of what you're talking to.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:44.775):
Oh, say no to Crip Crow.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:46.495):
Is that one of those painted rocks?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:47.996):
I love those.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:49.456):
Do you put them out in the world?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:51.157):
It was a gift

Nieta Greene (00:34:53.118):
from me.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:53.558):
Okay.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:55.539):
I love that.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:34:57.066):
We should paint some and put them out into the world and spread the message.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:02.331):
So speaking of maybe spreading messages,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:05.053):
again, like I said, we're coming up on our midterm elections in the United States.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:09.357):
We're talking about access to democracy, to civic participation.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:16.524):
Walk us through, maybe if someone comes to you and says, Hey, Nieta.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:22.803):
I'm having trouble with my local elections here.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:26.885):
I don't think they've been accessible.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:29.186):
What do I do?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:31.568):
How do I speak up?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:35:32.628):
How do I, as a disabled person, make sure that my election is available and accessible to me?

Nieta Greene (00:35:39.832):
So what I would recommend is first and foremost,

Nieta Greene (00:35:43.694):
if you have a Disability Commission or a Human Rights Commission,

Nieta Greene (00:35:49.275):
You go to them first.

Nieta Greene (00:35:52.077):
Okay.

Nieta Greene (00:35:52.617):
And you give them a heads up and say, this is the barriers that I'm facing.

Nieta Greene (00:35:56.760):
I've already, you know, make sure you speak to the Board of Elections first and let them know.

Nieta Greene (00:36:03.004):
Then you speak to the Human Rights Commission if you do not have

Nieta Greene (00:36:07.987):
a Disability Commission specifically.

Nieta Greene (00:36:09.748):
If you do,

Nieta Greene (00:36:10.448):
speak to your Disability Commission

Nieta Greene (00:36:12.130):
because they are Those commissions are responsible for making sure that

Nieta Greene (00:36:18.003):
the other departments are enforcing the local, state,

Nieta Greene (00:36:28.471):
if you have county, county,

Nieta Greene (00:36:29.612):
government, county, county laws, and federal laws around access to the ballot.

Nieta Greene (00:36:37.498):
And so talk to them first.

Nieta Greene (00:36:39.019):
If you haven't gotten anywhere, file a complaint.

Nieta Greene (00:36:43.699):
File complaint with your state board of elections.

Nieta Greene (00:36:48.922):
Do it sooner rather than later.

Nieta Greene (00:36:50.504):
But in order to avoid all of that, make sure you have a voting plan.

Nieta Greene (00:36:55.047):
So make sure that if,

Nieta Greene (00:36:58.610):
let's say,

Nieta Greene (00:36:59.350):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:37:00.211):
for example,

Nieta Greene (00:37:01.992):
your voting plan doesn't Like,

Nieta Greene (00:37:06.892):
for example,

Nieta Greene (00:37:07.493):
you can't vote because you are deaf or hard of hearing

Nieta Greene (00:37:17.718):
and you require sign language interpretation,

Nieta Greene (00:37:20.419):
you want to go vote in person,

Nieta Greene (00:37:23.641):
you let them know ahead of time so they can have access for you set up

Nieta Greene (00:37:27.963):
and you document when you asked and stuff like that.

Nieta Greene (00:37:32.552):
It's important for any sort of accessibility request that you release,

Nieta Greene (00:37:37.594):
give them a month before elections,

Nieta Greene (00:37:40.215):
probably six weeks,

Nieta Greene (00:37:42.215):
so they have time to figure out how they can help you access the ballot.

Nieta Greene (00:37:48.277):
If possible,

Nieta Greene (00:37:51.238):
would ask, if you have the option to vote by mail, do so.

Nieta Greene (00:37:57.641):
Sure.

Nieta Greene (00:37:59.821):
Do so, but I'm going to do this caveat,

Nieta Greene (00:38:04.264):
but if you're going to vote by mail,

Nieta Greene (00:38:08.406):
my suggestion would be,

Nieta Greene (00:38:10.488):
unless you're going to drop it in a box two weeks out or 10 days out,

Nieta Greene (00:38:16.891):
go to a drop box.

Nieta Greene (00:38:19.313):
Or if they have early voting sites,

Nieta Greene (00:38:22.575):
I know my state,

Nieta Greene (00:38:24.836):
if you vote early,

Nieta Greene (00:38:26.511):
You can drop it off the ballot itself at an early voting site,

Nieta Greene (00:38:30.735):
and they can process it there.

Nieta Greene (00:38:32.057):
I have done that this year.

Nieta Greene (00:38:33.638):
I actually mailed it, but I got it.

Nieta Greene (00:38:36.101):
I put it in the mail like two weeks prior to primaries.

Nieta Greene (00:38:43.288):
Our primaries are late in New York City.

Nieta Greene (00:38:48.689):
Yeah, like, our primaries are late.

Nieta Greene (00:38:51.474):
Like, Rhode Island had their primaries last week, so did New Hampshire.

Nieta Greene (00:38:55.101):
Oh my gosh.

Nieta Greene (00:38:55.542):
Yeah, and we had ours, you know.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:38:57.625):
Ours were back like in March.

Nieta Greene (00:38:59.689):
Not us.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:02.169):
Yeah, so every state being a little bit different.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:04.730):
I know we have listeners all over the place.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:07.152):
So just getting involved.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:09.573):
First of all,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:10.513):
you said if you've got access issues in the past and there's a complaint to be had,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:16.316):
definitely speak to the Election Commission.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:19.177):
But then getting involved with your Human Rights,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:21.359):
your Disability Rights Commissions,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:23.139):
making a plan for voting access and maybe alternate plans

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:27.482):
in case things don't go exactly the way that you had hoped.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:31.777):
Luckily,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:32.538):
in a lot of places,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:33.518):
there are multiple means, like you said, early voting, drop boxes, mail-in voting.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:39.800):
So just the time is now to do your research to make a plan for the November elections.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:46.342):
Like you said, if you need access a good six weeks to a month in advance, Would be good notice.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:39:52.608):
So consider those access needs now and start contacting your public officials.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:40:00.053):
Another question for you,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:40:02.114):
still saying on the topic of disability voting,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:40:06.057):
but I want to talk maybe about now that we've got people making a plan to vote,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:40:10.700):
we're all showing up.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:40:12.641):
How do we measure the success beyond just like turnout statistics?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:40:18.285):
What benefits are there when we see more disabled people voting?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:40:23.787):
Why are we so passionate about this?

Nieta Greene (00:40:27.388):
Why do you need to vote?

Nieta Greene (00:40:28.769):
Well, if you don't vote, they don't see you as a constituency.

Nieta Greene (00:40:33.690):
If you don't want your hearing rights taken away, then you need to vote, right?

Nieta Greene (00:40:45.938):
Like, the reason why they ignore our needs, right?

Nieta Greene (00:40:50.881):
Like, and no shade to, like, I know ADAPT does a lot of great work.

Nieta Greene (00:41:01.426):
I know ADAPT played a huge role in making sure that the ACA

Nieta Greene (00:41:10.090):
did not,

Nieta Greene (00:41:10.671):
they didn't gut the ACA at all.

Nieta Greene (00:41:15.085):
And I know ADAPT is great work on getting people registered to vote.

Nieta Greene (00:41:19.707):
However, protesting isn't enough.

Nieta Greene (00:41:23.788):
We need to actually be at the table.

Nieta Greene (00:41:26.569):
And I'm just going to say this, and I might offend some people.

Nieta Greene (00:41:29.770):
Nobody gives a damn about how many spoons you have.

Nieta Greene (00:41:32.291):
They just don't.

Nieta Greene (00:41:33.452):
Nobody cares.

Nieta Greene (00:41:35.353):
Yeah.

Nieta Greene (00:41:36.053):
No one cares.

Nieta Greene (00:41:37.173):
I'm going to just keep it real.

Nieta Greene (00:41:38.454):
Nobody cares about how many spoons you have.

Nieta Greene (00:41:40.955):
You need to show up.

Nieta Greene (00:41:43.125):
And to the best of your ability, and say your piece.

Nieta Greene (00:41:50.851):
Make your phone,

Nieta Greene (00:41:51.451):
if you can't leave your house because of your disability,

Nieta Greene (00:41:54.533):
make your phone calls to your electeds.

Nieta Greene (00:41:56.975):
Send your emails.

Nieta Greene (00:41:58.596):
No one cares why you can't speak up.

Nieta Greene (00:42:05.401):
They just don't.

Nieta Greene (00:42:06.482):
And I'm not trying to be cruel.

Nieta Greene (00:42:08.163):
It's not saying that I don't personally care.

Nieta Greene (00:42:12.235):
The society is not built for a lot of different marginalized groups in a lot of different ways.

Nieta Greene (00:42:18.482):
And I say this all the time.

Nieta Greene (00:42:22.887):
People died for people to get the right to vote in this country.

Nieta Greene (00:42:26.872):
People went to jail to get the right to vote in this country.

Nieta Greene (00:42:31.763):
And sometimes,

Nieta Greene (00:42:33.064):
and at least in my experience,

Nieta Greene (00:42:34.906):
and sometimes especially white disabled people who complain to me a lot,

Nieta Greene (00:42:39.869):
it is not fair.

Nieta Greene (00:42:41.010):
You know, oh, it's too difficult.

Nieta Greene (00:42:43.252):
I don't want to.

Nieta Greene (00:42:44.032):
I'm like, I'm sitting here like, I don't want to hear it.

Nieta Greene (00:42:49.576):
Because at the end of the day, like,

Nieta Greene (00:42:51.678):
unless you were enslaved in this country,

Nieta Greene (00:42:54.020):
the United States of America,

Nieta Greene (00:42:55.801):
and you had to build from nothing to be able

Nieta Greene (00:42:59.204):
to get your political rights You're starting off with more advantages,

Nieta Greene (00:43:04.651):
like historically.

Nieta Greene (00:43:06.072):
I mean, you still,

Nieta Greene (00:43:06.732):
you know,

Nieta Greene (00:43:07.272):
you have your parents groups,

Nieta Greene (00:43:08.713):
you have all these different groups that will,

Nieta Greene (00:43:11.354):
if we play it right and we haven't always, advocate.

Nieta Greene (00:43:18.077):
Right?

Nieta Greene (00:43:21.979):
Like, I think that's what people don't understand.

Nieta Greene (00:43:25.870):
Republicans had the House, the Senate, and the Presidency in 2017.

Nieta Greene (00:43:32.397):
Sure.

Nieta Greene (00:43:34.800):
What is the difference?

Nieta Greene (00:43:36.041):
Why were they able to get away with...

Nieta Greene (00:43:44.297):
Them passing the big thievery bill, as I call it.

Nieta Greene (00:43:46.861):
You know why?

Nieta Greene (00:43:47.822):
Because we haven't learned to change tactics.

Nieta Greene (00:43:50.646):
Protesting is great.

Nieta Greene (00:43:52.709):
Getting arrested is great.

Nieta Greene (00:43:54.271):
But people, that's not moving people anymore.

Nieta Greene (00:43:57.476):
We need to start running for office.

Nieta Greene (00:43:59.438):
We need to start making phone calls.

Nieta Greene (00:44:01.639):
We need to actually go beyond civil disobedience and demanding

Nieta Greene (00:44:06.261):
that these bigger movements take our issues seriously,

Nieta Greene (00:44:11.564):
regardless of where you are politically,

Nieta Greene (00:44:14.125):
and demand that these political parties take our issues seriously.

Nieta Greene (00:44:17.147):
Right.

Nieta Greene (00:44:19.175):
Until we do that and say we are going to withhold of our vote,

Nieta Greene (00:44:23.897):
or we're,

Nieta Greene (00:44:24.577):
you know what,

Nieta Greene (00:44:25.258):
why should we vote for you if you're not going to support us,

Nieta Greene (00:44:28.499):
we might as well vote for the other guy.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:44:31.220):
Sure.

Nieta Greene (00:44:32.141):
Right?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:44:32.441):
So politics works, right?

Nieta Greene (00:44:35.722):
Yeah.

Nieta Greene (00:44:36.142):
You got to play the game.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:44:37.483):
Yeah.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:44:39.202):
All right.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:44:40.383):
This has been such a wonderful conversation and I know we've been at it for a little while now.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:44:47.867):
As we're wrapping up here,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:44:50.789):
maybe share some of the things that you're working on,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:44:53.450):
some of the links and projects and what Disability for Community for Democracy is up

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:45:00.214):
to.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:45:01.175):
I'll make sure I'll definitely share all the links in the resources for the podcast as well.

Nieta Greene (00:45:05.397):
I would like Before we close,

Nieta Greene (00:45:08.439):
I really want to talk about Say No to Crip Crow because I think that's important.

Nieta Greene (00:45:12.762):
We talked a lot about voting, but we have not touched on Say No to Crip Crow campaign.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:45:18.126):
Yes, please do.

Nieta Greene (00:45:20.148):
So Say No to Crip Crow campaign started immediately after the DOJ Olmstead memo.

Nieta Greene (00:45:32.517):
It is

Nieta Greene (00:45:35.354):
The campaign itself is to get Olmstead codified into law.

Nieta Greene (00:45:43.858):
The phrase say no to Crip Crow is beyond just, it's a bigger, it's our theme.

Nieta Greene (00:45:50.822):
But the campaign itself, it's our theme, but there's also the campaign.

Nieta Greene (00:45:54.083):
So the campaign itself is about getting Congress to pay attention

Nieta Greene (00:46:02.705):
to getting Olmstead codified into law.

Nieta Greene (00:46:06.706):
Now, there's been different options.

Nieta Greene (00:46:09.106):
There's been the, like, just to say this, there's been different bills introduced by Congress.

Nieta Greene (00:46:17.249):
There's been this bill around,

Nieta Greene (00:46:20.049):
and this is really important to understand how our work plays into this,

Nieta Greene (00:46:27.760):
There has been a bill that was introduced around expanding access to home

Nieta Greene (00:46:32.603):
and community-based services under Medicare.

Nieta Greene (00:46:36.105):
That was in August.

Nieta Greene (00:46:37.766):
Then there was also another bill brought to the floor to make home

Nieta Greene (00:46:41.388):
and community-based services mandatory under Medicaid.

Nieta Greene (00:46:46.051):
And then there was the Raise Freedom Act.

Nieta Greene (00:46:50.093):
I don't remember the person's first name, which is about being able to stay in community

Nieta Greene (00:46:58.712):
Access to Housing, things like that.

Nieta Greene (00:47:01.214):
There has never been support from leadership in both parties around that

Nieta Greene (00:47:05.477):
because there is a funding mechanism issue.

Nieta Greene (00:47:11.101):
There's a pay-as-you-go issue with a lot of these bills.

Nieta Greene (00:47:15.164):
What we're calling for is straight codification of Olmstead.

Nieta Greene (00:47:19.667):
We're not asking for any money.

Nieta Greene (00:47:21.629):
Proposed legislation that Disability Community for Democracy has written is called

Nieta Greene (00:47:29.654):
the

Nieta Greene (00:47:32.956):
Lois Curtis

Nieta Greene (00:47:36.478):
and Elaine Wilson Integration Act.

Nieta Greene (00:47:39.079):
And the objective is to formalize Olmstead v.

Nieta Greene (00:47:44.382):
LC decision concerning integration into statutory language of the Americans

Nieta Greene (00:47:49.724):
with Disabilities Act Hereby explicitly extending enforceable protections

Nieta Greene (00:47:55.980):
to public education,

Nieta Greene (00:47:57.221):
correctional systems,

Nieta Greene (00:47:58.642):
and the Veterans Affairs,

Nieta Greene (00:48:02.024):
the VA. And what we're asking is, we're not asking for people to spend more money.

Nieta Greene (00:48:08.488):
We're not asking the government to spend more money.

Nieta Greene (00:48:10.689):
We are asking the government, though, to...

Nieta Greene (00:48:16.513):
The most important thing we are asking the government is to...

Nieta Greene (00:48:21.020):
They have penalties,

Nieta Greene (00:48:22.300):
withholding penalties if they don't,

Nieta Greene (00:48:25.361):
number one, and not requiring people to exhaust all administrative procedures first.

Nieta Greene (00:48:35.244):
And so that's what we're calling for.

Nieta Greene (00:48:38.464):
And it's also about shifting the burden of proof.

Nieta Greene (00:48:42.445):
We're also preserving the fundamental authorization defense for state and Federal

Nieta Greene (00:48:53.278):
and all the different levels of government because we don't want,

Nieta Greene (00:48:57.474):
what we don't want is because if you remove that,

Nieta Greene (00:49:01.695):
that automatically requires a score from the government in terms of cost.

Nieta Greene (00:49:10.017):
So if we keep that in and we just say, hey,

Nieta Greene (00:49:13.498):
we're not pulling any funding,

Nieta Greene (00:49:15.399):
we're literally saying,

Nieta Greene (00:49:17.835):
If you don't integrate people into society,

Nieta Greene (00:49:21.477):
you're going to get your funding withheld.

Nieta Greene (00:49:25.060):
Okay.

Nieta Greene (00:49:25.520):
That's what we're calling for.

Nieta Greene (00:49:28.242):
So I hope that answers people's questions around why it is so important

Nieta Greene (00:49:35.426):
to have Olmstead codified because if right now Olmstead is a Supreme Court decision,

Nieta Greene (00:49:45.204):
and I'm just going to say this.

Nieta Greene (00:49:46.905):
We have a Supreme Court right now that does not even respect its own precedent

Nieta Greene (00:49:50.287):
that they set with the same people on the bench.

Nieta Greene (00:49:54.389):
We did this with the Calais decision.

Nieta Greene (00:49:59.352):
They overturned themselves on the same set of facts.

Nieta Greene (00:50:05.195):
They overturned themselves because the current person is in office right now.

Nieta Greene (00:50:11.246):
So, so, and we said, oh, Roe v. Wade will never be overturned.

Nieta Greene (00:50:16.891):
We don't have to worry about getting codified into law.

Nieta Greene (00:50:19.594):
Guess what happened?

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:50:20.455):
Look what happened there.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:50:21.596):
Yes.

Nieta Greene (00:50:22.236):
And do we want, do we want disability rights and disabilities?

Nieta Greene (00:50:26.911):
Human Rights and Civil Rights to be,

Nieta Greene (00:50:29.593):
you know, for you to be able to access based on what state you live in?

Nieta Greene (00:50:35.016):
I don't think so.

Nieta Greene (00:50:35.756):
People are dying not being able to get medical care if they're having a miscarriage.

Nieta Greene (00:50:40.679):
If you live in a state like Texas, Texas doesn't value people who are miscarrying.

Nieta Greene (00:50:48.904):
So do you think they're going to value people with disabilities?

Nieta Greene (00:50:51.506):
No.

Nieta Greene (00:50:52.026):
So that's why Olmstead needs to be And thank God for the states that signed

Nieta Greene (00:50:59.969):
a letter saying that we are not

Nieta Greene (00:51:09.394):
putting up with this,

Nieta Greene (00:51:10.414):
you're wrong, calling them out, contacting the DOJ.

Nieta Greene (00:51:16.037):
But that's not enough.

Nieta Greene (00:51:17.418):
We actually need these protections codified.

Nieta Greene (00:51:19.899):
So if you go for tell people how to find it,

Nieta Greene (00:51:22.581):
if you say no to Crip Crow,

Nieta Greene (00:51:25.825):
And the Curtis Wilson Act, you should be able to find the website.

Nieta Greene (00:51:33.007):
I know you're going to provide the links, the links, show notes.

Nieta Greene (00:51:38.828):
And I hope that answers the question.

Nieta Greene (00:51:41.629):
Also, please call your members of Congress, email them.

Nieta Greene (00:51:46.225):
The campaign to say no for the advocacy month ends on Friday,

Nieta Greene (00:51:53.069):
and I just want to talk a little bit about that before we wrap up.

Nieta Greene (00:51:55.570):
Yes, please do.

Nieta Greene (00:51:56.451):
So we have three options for people to sign up.

Nieta Greene (00:51:59.913):
Option number one is virtual phone base.

Nieta Greene (00:52:05.536):
Option number two is seeing your members of Congress in person by appointment.

Nieta Greene (00:52:12.878):
Option number three is unannounced visits to members of Congress.

Nieta Greene (00:52:17.460):
And members of Congress are going to be home in October because they're going to be campaigning.

Nieta Greene (00:52:22.301):
All 435 elected members of Congress seats are up for election, reelection,

Nieta Greene (00:52:34.180):
And also a third of the Senate is up for re-election.

Nieta Greene (00:52:38.781):
So just to put it out there,

Nieta Greene (00:52:41.161):
we need to stand on business and to fight for what we believe in as disabled people

Nieta Greene (00:52:49.343):
and hold the people who are still in office accountable just

Nieta Greene (00:52:52.364):
because they're running.

Nieta Greene (00:52:54.664):
And a lot of these seats, especially in the House, are safe seats.

Nieta Greene (00:53:01.126):
Some of them don't even have a...

Nieta Greene (00:53:04.508):
Have a Republican or independent challenger in the general.

Nieta Greene (00:53:11.032):
So like in my district, Congressman Pressley isn't facing anybody on the Republican side.

Nieta Greene (00:53:19.278):
So,

Nieta Greene (00:53:22.380):
especially if your person in the House is not facing a primary challenger,

Nieta Greene (00:53:28.564):
say, look, you're coming back in 2027

Nieta Greene (00:53:35.997):
What are you going to do?

(00:53:37.659):
Yeah.

Nieta Greene (00:53:39.840):
Absolutely.

Nieta Greene (00:53:41.361):
So that's, yeah.

Nieta Greene (00:53:42.382):
And so it ends Friday.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:53:44.103):
Okay.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:53:44.704):
Yes, this episode will be out.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:53:46.185):
We're recording on Monday.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:53:48.086):
It'll be out sometime this week.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:53:49.527):
So the Friday of this week,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:53:51.068):
if you're hearing this episode on its live broadcast,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:53:55.351):
ends the Sign up for the Advocacy Month.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:53:59.276):
That will be the month of October.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:00.799):
I know this.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:02.100):
I have personally, to your point earlier, I use some of my own spoons for this.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:08.009):
I stepped out of my comfort zone and I signed up to phone banks.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:11.995):
So I will make one phone call, two phone calls a day until someone listens to me.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:19.464):
I don't drive so that it's harder for me to get places,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:23.289):
but you had an option that was available to me and I will use my spoons for that.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:28.996):
So encouraging everyone listening to take a look at the Say No

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:33.342):
to Crip Crow information that we're going to link in the show notes and sign up for

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:38.149):
the Advocacy Month if that's something that you feel moved to do so

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:42.496):
after this episode.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:44.819):
So to wrap it up then, a huge heartfelt thank you to you, Nieta.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:50.968):
Thank you for joining us for Disability Voting Rights Week and Making Democracy Accessible.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:54:57.236):
Your leadership and your passion for civic equity are reminders that our democracy is only as strong as its accessibility.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:01.962):
So before you go, take a moment to support the accessibility show.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:09.611):
If this episode has inspired you to protect voting access in your community,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:14.057):
hit follow or subscribe in your podcast app.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:17.641):
Following the show is the best free way to support us and ensures

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:21.243):
that you never miss an episode where we fill in the blank.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:24.646):
So as always,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:25.587):
a full time stamped accessible transcript of our conversation along with all

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:30.391):
of Nieta's voting resources,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:32.432):
links to some Disability Voting Rights Week tools,

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:35.815):
all of that will be immediately available on our website over

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:40.198):
at accessibility show .com, A11yshow.com.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:44.963):
Thank you again for tuning in to Making Blank Accessible.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:48.548):
We'll be back soon to discuss making another part of our world accessible.

Britne Jenke, CPACC (00:55:53.495):
Until then, exercise your right to vote and keep building a more inclusive world.