CFILC is a member of the new California Disability Leadership Alliance – a coalition of disability-led organizations with the goal of building cross-disability collaboration, solidarity, and political power to influence and improve policies for disabled people in California.
The Alliance has published its first report: State of the State: California Disability Policy in 2024, which targets policy areas like health care, education, transportation, housing, and employment in which lawmakers, state agency leaders, and advocates can partner to advance disability community interests.
To ensure that your voice is heard, you can sign on and endorse the State of the State: Disability Policy in 2024
Or read the document in its entirety using the dropdown under the title of this page
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Mental Health
- Mental health services are trending towards criminalization rather than care, threatening the progress of the peer movement.
- Court-ordered treatment is expanding.
- New laws expand involuntary holds for people with mental health disabilities.
- “Modernization” is a step backward.
- Housing and Homelessness
- High rental costs disproportionately harm people with disabilities.
- California needs to be a leader on disabled tenant rights.
- California must stop criminalizing homelessness.
- Public Safety and the Criminal-Legal System
- Over-policing endangers disabled people across California.
- When police respond to behavioral health crises, they harm disabled Californians.
- California must ban solitary confinement for people with disabilities.
- We lack adequate data to understand and address hate crimes against disabled people.
- Education
- School staff shortages worsen conditions for disabled students.
- Law enforcement involvement endangers disabled students.
- California participates in the “Troubled Teen Industry.”
- Inclusive education is still not the norm in California schools.
- Language and Communication Access needs to be the heart of Deaf Education.
- Employment
- California falls behind other states in disability employment.
- The push for in-person work is leaving disabled workers behind.
- Vocational rehabilitation services fall short of meeting the needs of disabled people who want to work.
- The ASL interpreter shortage is a barrier to Deaf inclusion in employment, higher education, and beyond.
- Disabled workers need access to services and supports that are not linked to poverty-level income thresholds.
- Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)
- Barriers to HCBS waivers reduce access to services needed to live in the community.
- The waiting list for the Home and Community-Based Alternatives Waiver traps medically fragile children in hospitals and institutions.
- The California Community Transitions Program remains temporary.
- Long overdue In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) changes are finally happening, but more changes are needed.
- People who need significant personal care assistance continue to face unfair limits on life choices.
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
- The Lanterman Act Entitlement does not live up to its promise.
- Systemic racism continues to create barriers to services.
- People with I/DD lack real choices about where to live.
- Communication access needs to be uplifted and expanded.
- Health Care
- Californians continue to experience accessibility barriers in health care settings.
- Children with disabilities need timely and affordable access to specialized health care.
- Health insurance fails to meet the needs of wheelchair users.
- Algorithmic bias threatens to embed discrimination into every aspect of our health care system.
- Public Health
- California Department of Public Health (CDPH) needs to do more to uphold the civil rights of people with disabilities.
- California fails to use proven public health tools to mitigate COVID-19 transmission.
- Disability demographic data is largely absent in California’s public health system.
- Transportation
- Huge gaps remain in accessible transportation.
- Voting
- California is behind in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).
- Voter’s Choice Act (VCA) implementation is incomplete.
- Accessible Voting Options are still missing for some disabled Californians.
- Disaster and Emergency Preparedness
- California lacks adequate disaster recovery funds.
- Insurance companies are leaving the state and dropping Californians at an alarming rate.
- Digital Accessibility
- Web content and other technology fall short of accessibility standards.
- Immigration
- California is a “sanctuary state” that still struggles to acknowledge and prioritize immigrants with disabilities as community members needing support.
- Immigrants with disabilities are still first in line to have services targeting their assistance threatened.
- Immigration status is still being shared with federal agencies which creates a jail/prison to deportation pipeline that disproportionately affects immigrants with disabilities.