093-2005 AsiansPacific Islanders With Disabilities Hold Major Conference to Break Barriers.htm

CDCAN
CALIFORNIA DISABILITY COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK
DISABILITY RIGHTS NEWS REPORT
#093-2005 November 20, 2005 Sunday
Connecting people with disabilities & seniors to rights and unified action
REMEMBERING NATASHA LITTLETREE
1225 8th Street Suite 480 - Sacramento, CA 95814 916/446-0013 Fax: 916/446-0026
Marty Omoto - director email: martyomoto@rcip.com    website: www.cdcan.us

Asian and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities, Families, Advocates and Community Organizations Hold Major Conference In Orange County To Increase Outreach and Visibility and to Break "Cultural Barriers"

ANAHEIM (Orange County) CA - Citing the urgent need to mobilize and organize, about 300 Asians and Pacific Islanders with developmental and other disabilities, their families and a wide range of community organizations convened a regional conference held November 18-19 in Anaheim at the Embassy Suites Hotel.   The conference - the third conference of Asian and Pacific Islanders with disabilities held since 1999, was also organized to increase outreach, visibility and advocacy and to break "cultural barriers" that advocates say can be a significant factor in denial of rights under federal and state civil and disability rights laws. Advocates at the conference vowed to continue the efforts by organizing a more permanent coalition, establishing a website and organizing another conference soon.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up over 14,400 or over 7% of the children and adults with developmental disabilities served by the 21 non-profit regional centers contracted by the state's Department of Developmental Services. In addition, thousands of that number - and thousands more with other disabilities and traumatic brain and other injuries, receive services or supports through Medi-Cal, In-Home Supportive Services, Department of Rehabilitation, special education, housing, transportion, employment, aging programs, and other local and state services. Some advocates at the conference said that the numbers of Asians and Pacific Islanders with disabilities who receive services does not reflect the actual numbers of the population who are in need of services and supports, largely due to barriers, including language and culture. Some advocates at the conference cited the the need to increase the visibility and presence of Asians and Pacific Islanders and other minorties in statewide disability rights advocacy efforts, which they claim is largely dominated by persons who are white.

Reflecting the diversity within the Asian and Pacific Islander disability community was the continuing presence of interpreters translating five languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and American sign language. The conference was attended by a wide range of children and adults with developmental and other disabilities, including those with autism, mental health needs, physical disabilities including those caused by polio. Several local groups - including Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese disability rights support groups were present and active on several conference panels, including one on special education led by Dr. Barbara Wheeler, director of the Center for Disability Studies and Community Inclusion, USC-Developmental Disabilities Center. Several community based state and regional organizations, including East Los Angeles Regional Center, Orange County Regional Center, Asian Rehabiliation Services, UCP of Orange County, Team Advocates for Kids, Dayle McIntosh Center and other independent living centers, and other community providers also were present or participated on several panels. Protection and Advocacy Inc (PAI) was one of the major sponsoring organizations and also provided resources, and staff to participate in several panels.

First Vietnamese In State Legislature Opens Conference
The conference was opened by local Assemblymember Van Tran (R-Garden Grove, 68th District), the first Vietnamese-American to serve in the California State Legislature. who noted the growing presence of Asians and Pacific Islanders in California - the second largest minority group in the state after Latinos. Tran, a former Garden Grove city council member, and a former board member of the Orange County regional center, was elected to the Assembly in 2004. Tran sponsored a bill, AB 462, passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor this year dealing with certified public access specialists relating to Department of Transportation projects. The bill was strongly opposed by some disability advocates and supported by others.

Opening Session Panel Focus on "Life Journeys Overcoming Barriers"
* The opening panel before the entire conference of nearly 300 persons, focused on "life journeys" in advocacy and overcoming barriers, from perspectives of persons with disabilities, a family member, and community advocates. The opening session panel was Joyce Chan, Coordinator/Peer Counselor for Deaf Services, Center for Independent Living Berkeley; Thuy Do, Transition Counselor, San Diego Center for the Blind; Dr. An Le, Orange County Health Care Agency; Lillibeth Navarro, Executive Director of CALIF, an independent living center in Los Angeles, and Marty Omoto, director of the California Disability Community Action Network (CDCAN).
* The conference then continued with a series of workshops andbreakout session panels covering a range of issues impacting Asians and Pacific Islanders with disabilities including employment; special education rights; knowing legal rights under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act; understanding the California Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act - the civil rights act for people with developmental disabilities and how to access regional center funded services; self advocacy, mental health; and cultural perspectives and barriers.
* The ending lunch session before the entire conference on Saturday afternoon focused on persons with disabilities in various professonal and work experiences and heard personal experiences from Richard Devylder, Deputy Director of External Affairs for the Department of Rehabilitation; Dr. Hope Le, Hospitalist, Hematology/Oncology Fellow at UC Irvine; Sarah Tom, doctorate candidate in demography at UC Berkeley; and Thai Yang, graphic designer from "Postive Attitude, Inc" based in Fresno.
* A performance by the Rainbow Dance Group - made up of Chinese American children and adults with disabilities from the Chinese Parents Association for the Disabled followed the lunch panel session on Saturday.
* A mobilizing and organizing breakout session closed the conference late Saturday afternoon.

Conference Organized Largely By Volunteers
The event - the 3rd such conference, was organized largely by volunteers led by co-chairs Jean Lin, Multi-cultural advocate with Protection and Advocacy, Inc. and Patricia Kinaga, a disability rights attorney, and supported with funding and resources from Protection and Advocacy, Inc (PAI), UCP of Orange County, the Department of Rehabilitation, the Department of Employment Development, the California Endowment, and several community organizations and groups including the Chinese Parent's Association for the Disabled, the Asia and Pacific Islanders American Health Forum and Team Advocates for Special Kids. Hope Yasui, an analyst and marketing and constituent services with the Employment Development Department, and Becky Nguyen, program coordinator with United Cerebral Palsy of Orange County played major roles in the conference program and facilitating several panels, along with Eva Casas-Samiento, Mimi Chou, June Kuehn, Guy Leemhuis, Sharon Nguyen, Lisa Schoyer, Aleyda Toruno and Joy Tsuhako.
The first conference was held in 1999, and the second was held in Oakland in October 2001.

CONTRIBUTIONS NEEDED TO CONTINUE EFFORT CAN CONTRIBUTE VIA NON-PROFIT 501(c)3 see below
Contributions from people and organizations is very urgently needed to keep the advocacy efforts going for the next several months, as we work to establish non-profit status which we are working on. Your help is needed though to keep the effort going in 2005. Please make check or money order to: California Disability Community Action Network (or abbreviate CDCAN) OR, if for tax deduction purposes, you can make the check out to TTSR (Training Toward Self Reliance), which is a 501C-3 non-profit organization, and indicate on check that contribution is for support for "CDCAN". Send contribution to CDCAN (see address below). A method to contribute by credit card (through Paypal) is NOW set up on our website, at www.cdcan.us [new site address] Send contributions to: California Disability Community Action Network (see below for mailing address)

* How To Receive CDCAN Capitol News Reports and Alerts
The California Disability Community Action Network is a non-partisan link to thousands of Californians with developmental and other disabilities, people with traumatic brain and other injures, seniors and their families, community organizations and providers, direct care and other workers, and other advocates. These action alerts and news reports is for all of them. If you would like to get on this distribution (and conversely, get off of it) please send an email with that request to: martyomoto@rcip.com OR sign up via the NEW CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us Sharing information is part of our organizing effort. Please feel free to forward or copy this (attribution is nice). We're all in this together!