NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
TWIN CITIES, MN PERMIT NO. 4766
October 2021
WWW.ACCESSPRESS.ORG
CFSS delay is raising many questions
- Jordanne Whiley, wheelchair tennis athlete
RAMSEY COUNTY
Casting ballots outdoors provided safety for voters in 2020. Read about other accomodations for voters on page 3.
Understand your right to vote under legal guardianship People with disabilities sometimes find their right to vote challenged by family members or legal guardians. Misunderstandings often center on people who are under guardianship. In 2020 more than 38 million people with disabilities were eligible to vote, according to the American Association of People with Disabilities. It’s not clear how many of those voters were under guardianship. What is guardianship? Guardianship is a court order that says someone is someone else’s legal responsibility. A guardian can make decisions for the person under guardianship, including decisions about health care and residency. But a guardian cannot tell a person how to vote. Persons under guardianship can vote in Minnesota, as long as a judge didn’t specifically restrict the right to vote
through a court order. The right to vote is rarely taken away and happens only under extreme circumstances. Persons with disabilities including a brain injury, a cognitive or developmental disability or those experiencing memory loss have sometimes had their rights to vote challenged. It often comes down to the guardian or a family member disagreeing with the voter on a choice in candidates. Unless the right to vote has been restricted by a court, these Minnesotans still have the right to vote and no one can take that away. A spouse, children, attorneys, caregivers, doctors or nurses cannot take away or improperly influence the right to vote. Election judges often ask if someone helping a voter with disabilities if the helper is assisting or influencing. That is GUARDIANSHIP To page 3
Check our Directory of Organizations for the supports and services you need for daily living! Exciting new name and features coming January 2022
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Minnesotans enjoy a golden Paralympics; 11 win medals Minnesota athletes brought home a slew of medals, including five golds, during the Tokyo Paralympics. Of 11 Minnesota medalists, Eagan’s Mallory Weggemann led the way with three swimming medals – two gold and one silver. Weggemann won gold in the 200-meter individual medley and the 100 backstroke, setting new Paralympic records. She took silver in the 50-meter butterfly. She competed in six events in Tokyo at S7 classification, finishing fifth in the 100 freestyle and seventh in the 50 freestyle. She didn’t make the finals in the 100 breaststroke. Competing in her third Paralympics, she now has five medals. She won gold and bronze in two events in 2012. Weggemann, 32, is an Eagan High School and University of Minnesota graduate. She became paraplegic after an epidural injection to treat back pain in 2008. She is a motivational speaker and is featured in the documentary The Current. Ian Seidenfeld won gold in Class 6 men’s table tennis. The Lakeville native bested defending champion and top-ranked player Peter Rosenmeier, Denmark. Seidenfeld, 20, is a second-generation table tennis Paralympian. His father, U.S. coach Mitchell Seidenfeld, is a four-time Paralympic medalist. Mitchell Seidenfeld won gold in 1992 in Barcelona and is in the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame.
FINIS
by Jane McClure A delay in implementation of the Community First Services and Supports (CFSS) program is raising red flags for Minnesotans with disabilities. The earliest possible implementation date has now been pushed back to June 1, 2022. While it’s not the first time that implementation of CFSS has faced a delay, the latest action frustrates many people with disabilities and their advocates. The Minnesotan Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities (MNCCD) hosted a meeting in September to discuss the challenges of another delay. Representatives of the Minnesota Disability Law Center were on hand to explain the delay and what it means. The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is emphasizing that the delay in implementing CFSS won’t affect anyone’s ability to continue receiving services, or to access assessments needed to start services. But there are worries that the delay will affect longsought assistance such as a 2021 state law change that provides flexibility for people with disabilities who need to be driven to destinations by a personal care attendant. About 45,000 Minnesotans are current in the Personal Care Assistance (PCA) Program, which would be replaced by CFSS. The delay is due to DHS’ need for additional time to receive approvals on waiver and state plan amendments from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand on state and federal staff to prepare, review and authorize peacetime emergency amendments. This has limited their capacity for CFSS and other important, nonpeacetime-emergency amendments, according to DHS. Natasha Merz, director of disability services for DHS, said state officials are committed to making the longawaited transition. “CFSS offers benefits that the current PCA program doesn’t offer,” Merz said. Those include more flexibility in paying providers and in purchases of goods and services. One challenge in making the transition is that Minnesota has such a large PCA program. Other states making the transition to CFSS have had far fewer people to deal with. “Most states make the transition with a smaller group,” Merz said, “We have broad eligibly for the PCA program.” Then there is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected workload at the state and federal levels. The change from PCA to CFSS needs multiple federal approvals. That’s because CFSS involves a number of program. Because CMS has been dealing with many issues tied to the ongoing pandemic and the federal American Rescue Plan Act funding and programs, that has delayed action on matters such as Minnesota’s request to make the program transition to CFSS. Merz said there is a federal backlog of requests from states for CMS DELAY To page 3
Even the seemingly small things matter if you want to be successful.
DIRECTORY of Organizations
Volume 32, Number 10
Paralympic Gold Medalist and 15-Time World Champion Mallory Weggemann Ian Seidenfeld is a student at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He and his father have psuedoachondroplasia dwarfism. Alexis “Lexi” Shifflett is a setter on the gold medal-winning sitting volleyball team. She didn’t play in the gold medal match, which the U.S. women won 3-1 over China.
Shifflett is a Waseca High School graduate, where she played softball and volleyball. She is also a graduate of DeVry University. Shifflett was born with fibular hemimelia. This is the second time she has been on the championship volleyball team. PARALYMPICS To page 8