Nesmuth
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The California Disability Gaming Initative - A Path to Dignity and Self Reliance
By Richard Roehm
Thousands of Californians with disabilities still live in poverty, but the California Disability Gaming Initative is a good bet to provide hope and opportunities for all people with disabilities.
The California Disability Gaming Initative is to help the California deaf and disability organizations establish gaming revenues by owning and operating casinos in the rural areas of California. The gaming revenues will translate to improved service offerings and brighten the outlook on the future of the disability communities.
We've already had our 15 year gamble with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the payout for ADA litigation has been less than 5% which is far less than the payout of most slot machines at casinos. Barriers still remain in our ways to full participation in societal offerings. Barriers compounded by federal policy changes do very little to help our quest or journey toward independence. This includes cutting funding for domestic programs. Even now Vocational Rehabilitation is set to have it's budget slashed. Furthermore, due to lack of funding, the Ticket to Work Initative has been declared a joke by many disability organizations throughout the United States. The result we have seen so far has been nothing more than a continuous cycle of dependency on the taxpayer supported welfare systems.
How do we break the cycle of dependency? One proven solution is the California Disability Gaming Initative. We need to explore the California Disability Gaming Initative which is a good path toward establishing our dignity and self reliance. This type of initative has been proven to work very well with the Native American tribes, it will work with the disability communities once we make the effort to make it happen. This type of initative is a 'best practices' type of solution we need to seriously explore.
Once fully implimented, the California Disability Gaming Initative would utilize the resources of participating deaf and disability organizations to;
--Improve residential and health care opportunities for people with disabilities. We will have the means to establish our own residential health care systems that doesnt sound like a Laguna Honda nightmare.
--Offer new accessible housing to replace the aging, insensitive, and sub-standard housing already available to the deaf and disability communities.
--Work toward reducing and eliminating SSI, SSDI, and other welfare payments to people with disabilities.
--Offer pre-school and after-school daycare for children of working adults with disabilities.
--Award scholarships to people with disabilities going to college.
--Create jobs and job training to break the cycle of welfare.
--Establish mental health and counseling facilities to provide alcohol and drug addiction services.
--Enable economic diversification through investments in non-gaming businesses like hotels, office buildings, banking, social services, store and restaurant franchising, and others among many opportunities alread available to the non-disabled communities.
The impact of California Disability Gaming Initative would be thunderous. We would be able to become self reliant and help end the cycle of welfare. We would get hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities off welfare payments especially SSI and SSDI and that itself would result in taxpayer savings by the billions of dollars annually.
And the California Disability Gaming Initative would also enable Californians with disabilities access barrier free gaming establishments. Most California gaming establishements remain inaccessible to people with disabilities. Some gaming establishments are on mountainous areas making it unsafe for wheelchair users, many permit smoking inside the casinos, many have employees that are very insensitive to people with disabilities.
We've gambled 15 years of our lives with the ADA and it has not been an effective tool to help the deaf and disability communities become fully intergrated into our society. It's my belief that the California Disability Gaming Initative would change everything in the deaf and disability communities for the better and is worth a good look.
By Richard Roehm
Thousands of Californians with disabilities still live in poverty, but the California Disability Gaming Initative is a good bet to provide hope and opportunities for all people with disabilities.
The California Disability Gaming Initative is to help the California deaf and disability organizations establish gaming revenues by owning and operating casinos in the rural areas of California. The gaming revenues will translate to improved service offerings and brighten the outlook on the future of the disability communities.
We've already had our 15 year gamble with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the payout for ADA litigation has been less than 5% which is far less than the payout of most slot machines at casinos. Barriers still remain in our ways to full participation in societal offerings. Barriers compounded by federal policy changes do very little to help our quest or journey toward independence. This includes cutting funding for domestic programs. Even now Vocational Rehabilitation is set to have it's budget slashed. Furthermore, due to lack of funding, the Ticket to Work Initative has been declared a joke by many disability organizations throughout the United States. The result we have seen so far has been nothing more than a continuous cycle of dependency on the taxpayer supported welfare systems.
How do we break the cycle of dependency? One proven solution is the California Disability Gaming Initative. We need to explore the California Disability Gaming Initative which is a good path toward establishing our dignity and self reliance. This type of initative has been proven to work very well with the Native American tribes, it will work with the disability communities once we make the effort to make it happen. This type of initative is a 'best practices' type of solution we need to seriously explore.
Once fully implimented, the California Disability Gaming Initative would utilize the resources of participating deaf and disability organizations to;
--Improve residential and health care opportunities for people with disabilities. We will have the means to establish our own residential health care systems that doesnt sound like a Laguna Honda nightmare.
--Offer new accessible housing to replace the aging, insensitive, and sub-standard housing already available to the deaf and disability communities.
--Work toward reducing and eliminating SSI, SSDI, and other welfare payments to people with disabilities.
--Offer pre-school and after-school daycare for children of working adults with disabilities.
--Award scholarships to people with disabilities going to college.
--Create jobs and job training to break the cycle of welfare.
--Establish mental health and counseling facilities to provide alcohol and drug addiction services.
--Enable economic diversification through investments in non-gaming businesses like hotels, office buildings, banking, social services, store and restaurant franchising, and others among many opportunities alread available to the non-disabled communities.
The impact of California Disability Gaming Initative would be thunderous. We would be able to become self reliant and help end the cycle of welfare. We would get hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities off welfare payments especially SSI and SSDI and that itself would result in taxpayer savings by the billions of dollars annually.
And the California Disability Gaming Initative would also enable Californians with disabilities access barrier free gaming establishments. Most California gaming establishements remain inaccessible to people with disabilities. Some gaming establishments are on mountainous areas making it unsafe for wheelchair users, many permit smoking inside the casinos, many have employees that are very insensitive to people with disabilities.
We've gambled 15 years of our lives with the ADA and it has not been an effective tool to help the deaf and disability communities become fully intergrated into our society. It's my belief that the California Disability Gaming Initative would change everything in the deaf and disability communities for the better and is worth a good look.