Latest news with #DisabilityRightsWisconsin
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Cracking down on fake emotional support, service animals among notable bills from May
While state budget negotiations happen in the background, Wisconsin lawmakers have been busy introducing dozens of bills, spanning from mental health care for college students to protecting endangered bees. Several hundred pieces of legislation are pitched each session, and only a fraction end up becoming law. Around 300 proposals have been introduced since lawmakers reconvened at the state Capitol in January. Here's a roundup of notable ones from May. Most haven't yet received public hearings, the first step on the path to becoming law. You can read our April roundup here. Republicans leading the bill say business and property owners have reported higher cases of emotional support and service animal misrepresentation, with owners using fake harnesses or vests. The bill would enshrine in law landlords' ability to ask tenants for documentation showing a prescription for an emotional support animal. Tenants who provide false documentation or health care providers who don't have a 30-day, established relationship with the patient could face a $500 fine. Under the bill, people who bring fake service animals in public places could face a $200 fine. The state Department of Workforce Development would be required to create signs for businesses that say "task-trained service animals are welcome" and misrepresenting a service animal is against state law. The bill "does not infringe on the federal protections under the Fair Housing Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act. It simply reinforces responsible and verifiable use of those protections in Wisconsin," lawmakers argue. Disability Rights Wisconsin didn't immediately have comment on the bill but is reviewing the proposal. Other states have moved to crack down on people passing off their pets as service animals. Authors: Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton; Rep. Paul Tittl, R-Manitowoc Lawmakers introduced a group of bills aimed at protecting pollinators. One would name the endangered Rusty Patched Bumble Bee the official state native insect. Another would create a "Protect Pollinators" license plate, generating revenue for the state's endangered species fund. While there are some Republican supporters, the bills have typically been sponsored by Democrats in past sessions and never made it far in the state Legislature. Bees, butterflies and other insects keep ecosystems thriving, and a whole week in mid-June is dedicated to pollinators. Authors: Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay; Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee; Rep. Deb Andraca, D-Whitefish Bay; Rep. Elijah Behnke, R-Chase; Rep. Lee Snodgrass; D-Appleton; Rep. Vincent Miresse, D-Stevens Point More: These Wisconsin specialty license plates were the most popular in 2024 This bill would require the University of Wisconsin System to contract with a vendor to provide virtual mental health services for students, beyond traditional business hours. Campuses have already utilized telehealth, lawmakers note. "Telehealth services have proven to be effective in shortening waiting times to see a provider, and allow patients to receive care at their convenience," bill authors wrote. The bill doesn't include any new funding. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' budget proposal included $22 million for the UW System to support student mental health, including telehealth services and 57 new counselor positions. Republicans on the Joint Finance Committee removed several UW-related portions of Evers' budget at their first meeting, but didn't strike the mental health provisions. The budget will likely be signed later this summer, so it's not clear if mental health funding for UW will be in the final version. Authors: Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp; Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville More: The state of mental health across Wisconsin's public universities in 4 charts In Wisconsin, each city, town or village sets its own early voting hours and locations, where voters can cast an absentee ballot in-person starting two weeks before Election Day. This bill would require municipalities to offer a minimum of 20 hours of early voting. Bill authors argue early voting access has become unequal between large cities and smaller towns. Milwaukee offered 10 sites for the November election, for example. But some election officials told VoteBeat it wouldn't make sense for communities with only a few dozen voters and limited clerk capacity. Supporters plan to propose funding in the budget to help smaller communities reach the 20-hour minimum. Authors: Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton; Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater; Rep. Scott Krug, R-Rome More: Wisconsin early voting surges compared with the 2023 spring election This bipartisan proposal would require the state Department of Health Services to work with health care providers to develop informational materials on menopause and perimenopause, the transitional phase. Those handouts would include information like symptoms, treatments, when to consult a provider, the biological process and how to talk to friends and family. The bill is modeled after legislation in Pennsylvania, where public testimony highlighted the "difficulty women have in being heard and taken seriously discussing menopause and the issues that surround it," lawmakers said. Authors: Sen. Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton; Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton; Rep. Karen DeSanto, D-Baraboo This proposal could provide up to $2 million for a data sharing pilot program for police and sheriff's departments in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties. The grant would reduce siloed data between agencies, helping solve cases faster, bill authors argue. The bill was introduced May 12 and quickly received a hearing May 27 in the Senate. It has at least one Democratic cosponsor. The Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association, which supports the bill, testified that the proposal would help agencies struggling with staffing. "While geographic boundaries may define our jurisdictions, the individuals committing crimes do not recognize or respect those lines," the association said. "Effective information sharing is essential to modern policing." Authors: Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine; Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield This bipartisan bill would allow funeral processions to use flashing purple lights. Current law allows flashing amber lights during the procession, but that can be ambiguous to divers, lawmakers argue. Bill authors point out purple is a symbol of mourning in many cultures and would be distinct from red and blue lights used by emergency vehicles. Wisconsin would join about a dozen other states that use purple lights for funeral processions, including North Carolina. Authors: Sen. Julian Bradley, R-New Berlin; Sen. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit; Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah Two lawmakers are leading a resolution that urges the "overdue induction" of Jack Vainisi into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Vainisi scouted and drafted 12 future Hall of Famers, from Bart Starr to Ray Nitschke, and played an important role in persuading the team to hire Vince Lombardi. He "may have had more influence on the Packers dynasty than any player or coach," lawmakers wrote. Resolutions are different than bills — they express the opinion of lawmakers but don't carry the force of state law. The Hall of Fame selection process is intense, with a 50-person selection committee and only a handful of new enshrinees each year. Authors: Sen. Andre Jacque, R-New Franken; Rep. Rob Kreibich, R-New Richmond This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Legislature's May bills include fake service animals
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How people with disabilities navigate voting hurdles
Denise Jess walked into a Madison, Wisconsin, polling place on Saturday, April 29, to vote early in person, and encountered a familiar barrier: an absentee ballot envelope with a blank space for writing in her name, birthdate, and address. Jess, who is blind, chuckled along with her wife, who accompanied her to the polls. Who was going to do all that writing? A poll worker quickly offered help, reminding Jess that she had the right to assistance, Votebeat says. Jess, who is executive director of the Wisconsin Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired, knew she had those rights. But the moment still bothered her. "It's just a bummer," she said, comparing voting with other tasks she performs independently, like identifying birds by ear, paying bills online, posting on social media, and grocery shopping. Voting is a constitutional right in Wisconsin and yet, she said, it remains far less accessible. Other industries have prioritized accessibility because it benefits their bottom line, she said, but voting systems were not originally designed with accessibility in mind. "We're making strides," she said, "but it's still always, always about retrofitting and trying to catch up." Jess's experience illustrates a persistent tension in election policy: how to ensure both ballot security and accessibility for all voters. Electronic absentee voting is particularly nettlesome. Disability rights advocates have pushed for this option as a way for people with vision or other disabilities to vote independently, and in private, from home. But cybersecurity experts warn that current technology cannot guarantee that ballots returned electronically will be safe from hacking or manipulation. Over a dozen other states provide fully electronic absentee voting for people with disabilities. In those states, voters with disabilities can receive a ballot electronically, mark it using a screen reader, and return it electronically—similar to signing and returning a document electronically. Wisconsin isn't one of them. Here, voters with disabilities must cast their votes on a paper ballot, or on an accessible voting machine at a polling place that prints out a paper ballot. That means that voters who are blind, visually impaired or unable to write must often rely on others to complete their ballots—undermining ballot secrecy, which is also constitutionally protected. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many disabled voters were reluctant to visit the polls in person, Wisconsin's rules presented an even bigger barrier. Last year, four voters with disabilities, along with Disability Rights Wisconsin and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit seeking access to electronic absentee voting. A lower court initially granted some voters that option, but an appeals court paused and eventually reversed that order. The case is now before the Dane County Circuit Court. Beyond the roughly dozen states that offer fully electronic voting, a few others, including Vermont, Michigan, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, allow voters with disabilities to fill out ballots electronically, but they have to print out the ballots and return them by mail, drop box, or in person. Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election technology group, promotes this option as a step forward for states wary of fully electronic voting. That wouldn't solve the issue for everyone, though. Jess pointed out that many blind voters don't own printers, meaning they'd still face accessibility hurdles. At a time of heightened concern over election security and integrity, some technology experts say fully electronic voting is still not ready to be used widely. Between August 2021 and September 2022, the University of California, Berkeley, hosted a working group of election, technology, and cybersecurity experts to discuss the feasibility of creating standards to enable safe and secure electronic marking and return technologies. The group found that widespread adoption of electronic return would require technologies that don't currently exist or haven't been tested. A 2024 report by several federal agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Election Assistance Commission, found that sending digital copies of ballots to voters is safe, and that filling them out electronically is somewhat safe, but that returning them electronically adds significant security risks. "Sheer force of will doesn't suffice to solve this problem," said Mark Lindeman, the policy and strategy director at Verified Voting. "There needs to be extensive technical innovations that we can't just dial up." Lindeman said threats from electronic ballot return include the possibility that somebody hacks into the system and changes votes. One potential safeguard—having voters verify that their selections were received and counted correctly—remains unproven at scale, the UC-Berkeley working group said. "That's the fundamental technical tragedy at this stage of the game," Lindeman said. "Paper ballots are obviously inconvenient for many voters. They pose real obstacles to voting, but we haven't found a technical alternative to paper ballots that solves all the problems." In Wisconsin, Jess chooses between three imperfect voting options. She can vote on Election Day in her polling place, whose layout she has memorized, though it can get too busy for her comfort. She can vote using an accessible machine but still has to hand-sign the poll book, something she typically does with the assistance of a poll worker and a signature guide, a small plastic card with rectangular cutout that frames the area where she has to sign. Alternatively, she can vote absentee in person during the early voting period, but then she has to receive help with paperwork and navigating an unfamiliar polling place. Or she can fill out an application online and vote by mail, which she avoids because she can't fill out a paper ballot without assistance. "It's kind of like, what's the path of least pain?" she said. For this Wisconsin Supreme Court election, given the potential for bad weather, she opted for early in-person voting at the Hawthorne Public Library, which isn't her regular polling place. "There's enough consistency here at Hawthorne, but still there are surprises," she said, sitting at a table at the library on Madison's east side. "Even the simple navigation of going to the table to get the envelope, getting in line. They're queuing people to wait behind the blue tape, which, of course, I can't see." She could opt for more hands-on help from poll workers to speed up the process, but she said she sees her voting trips as a chance to learn more about the potential barriers for people with disabilities. Some voters who are newer to vision loss or have more severe barriers can quickly become demoralized by the extra energy they need to put into casting a ballot, especially if poll workers aren't trained or ready to help, she said. "We've had voters say, 'I'm not going back. I'm just not doing that again, doing that to myself,' she said. "So then we lose a voter." If electronic voting were available, Jess said, she would do it a lot more often than voting in person because she wouldn't have to depend on transportation or the weather. "It would just be absolutely liberating," she said. "I might still vote in-person at my polling place periodically, because I like my poll workers, and I always like to visit with them and give them kudos. But it would surely ease some stress." This story was produced by Votebeat and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
My brother was disabled. Defunding disability programs will cost lives.
I grew up sitting across the dinner table from my developmentally disabled brother Jack. Left to the advice of specialists, Jack would have been sent to an institution for the 'benefit' of him and of my family. But my parents did not heed that advice, instead focusing on making sure Jack was included in community life. Jack was the neighborhood paper boy, earning a wage well before most kids his age. The neighborhood kids included him in their baseball games, and he won medals for baseball in Special Olympics. Jack did not date, but he sure would have liked to had he been given education on healthy, safe relationships. He was most happy when he worked in the kitchen at a hotel along with his fellow crewmates and their employment coach. He was so proud to get a paycheck ― one that reflected a real wage, not the few dollars he got each week back when he was at a sheltered workshop. For most of his life, Jack was labeled with intellectual disabilities by the systems that were set up to serve him. It wasn't until he was in his 50's that we learned that he was also autistic. Jack never learned to tie his shoes, read, live on his own or appropriately use the telephone. He would have been considered 'severe.' Letters: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is wrong about autism destroying families. Each has value. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr.'s recently comments asserting that autistic people (later clarifying he meant 'severe autism') cannot hold jobs, date, toilet independently, or even play baseball. In his words 'autism destroys families.' Secretary Kennedy, from a proud sibling, you are wrong! What may have gone unnoticed in the press over Kennedy's comments is a leaked version of a proposed budget for the federal Department of Health and Human Services which would eliminate direct funding for many programs for people with disabilities, including those in Wisconsin run by my organization, Disability Rights Wisconsin, and our partner organizations in this work, the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Waisman Center. Congress created these programs in every state and territory to advocate for the health, safety, and well-being of people with developmental disabilities, and to ensure people with disabilities in every state would be given the opportunity to live full lives in the community. Disability Rights Wisconsin specifically exists and is funded to defend the rights of residents with disabilities who want to live and work in their communities or need protection from abuse and neglect. Whether the leaked budget as it is written becomes reality or not, it sends a disquieting signal regarding the administration's priorities. It is not hyperbolic to say that the cost of cuts like these would be paid in lives. Without our three organizations, the most vulnerable in our state will be silenced. And yes, fewer autistic people may be able to hold a job, pay taxes, date, or play baseball. Opinion: I'm the father of son with Down syndrome. Using the 'R' word is never acceptable. Who do we want to be as a country: one that believes Americans with disabilities are less than and should be hidden away, as my brother would have been; or one that recognizes individuals like Jack and the 26% of Americans who have a disability deserve to live in our communities, free from abuse and neglect? Secretary Kennedy, I await your answer. Jill Jacklitz is executive director of Disability Rights Wisconsin. Jack was an avid sports fan. Jack and Jill grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kennedy's remark that 'autism destroys families' flat wrong | Opinion
