HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-16-24 Correspondence - Disability Rights Montana - 2024 - A Year of Action & Accountability!Disability Rights Montana
Hi Bozeman commissioners,
I know that Disability Rights Montana is accountable to you and the rest of the diverse members of
Montana’s disability community. Whether you live with an intellectual disability, are Autistic, are a Deaf
Montanan or are hard of hearing, are blind or low vision, use a wheelchair, walker, cane, or crutches to get
around, or have anxiety, dyslexia, schizophrenia, cancer, or HIV, your input, leadership, and support helps
push Montana to be a better place for people with disabilities to live.
Your active participation has been instrumental in shaping Disability Rights Montana's advocacy this
year. Over 100 of you shared deeply personal insights to help set our priorities, enabling our board—
composed of individuals with disabilities and their families—to craft a new advocacy agenda focusing on
housing affordability and accessibility, transportation, education in rural and reservation schools,
employment support and discrimination, mental health services, and more. Your questions to political
candidates elicited thoughtful responses from over 70 candidates, resulting in a voters’ guide that assisted
over 900 people in making informed decisions. Additionally, your experiences about living without the ability
to drive were central to Montana's first Week Without Driving campaign, educating policymakers and the
public on necessary community improvements.
I am truly grateful to everyone in the disability community who helped lead Disability Rights
Montana’s work over this last year. We need your continued engagement and support to sustain our
daily culture change work.
I would like to tell you a bit more about an incredibly important initiative that only exists because of the direct
input and leadership from the disability community.
You have likely read articles over the years or heard politicians and state agency employees talk about the
problems at Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs. Everyone seems to know the facility is poorly
operated and many people have shared their thoughts about what should be done to address this
From:Disability Rights MontanaTo:Bozeman Public CommentSubject:[EXTERNAL][SENDER UNVERIFIED][BULK] 2024 - A Year of Action & Accountability!Date:Monday, December 16, 2024 10:02:23 AM
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Sincerely,
David Carlson
Executive Director
institution. However, hospital patients’ voices, experiences, and opinions are conspicuously absent
from public discourse on the hospital’s deficiencies and possible solutions.
Two people involuntarily committed to the hospital asked me whether I could help change this broken
system. I believe we will.
This year, Disability Rights Montana started helping these two people and other patients learn more about
their rights and how to be heard when their rights are violated. Disability Rights Montana’s public policy
director, Christa Gabriel helped them learn about and act upon their right to advocate with the government
actors who confine them in a locked facility miles from any family, friends, and community.
The patients wanted to partner with us to encourage their fellow patients to embrace their inherent political
power as citizens through registering to vote. Kona Franks-Ongoy, our communications director, helped
them share their message of political empowerment throughout the hospital. A large number of Disability
Rights Montana staff then visited with patients to share voter registration forms and help mail those forms to
patients’ home counties.
When some of those counties refused to register patients to vote, Disability Rights Montana’s legal director,
Tal Goldin, quickly filed a lawsuit and requested an immediate order to stop voter interference. Disability
Rights Montana appeared in the case not only as lawyers, but also used our special legal standing to
appear as a plaintiff in the lawsuit in order to enforce the rights of all potentially disenfranchised patients.
So far, the court has agreed with all of Disability Rights Montana’s legal arguments, rejected those of the
state Attorney General, and issued two orders preventing government interference with our client’s voting
rights. The preliminary wins are excellent and protect the voting rights of one patient, but our legal work is
not done. As the case continues, we will work tirelessly to move these initial temporary victories to being
permanent and apply to all patients so they can have their voices heard in the political halls that shape the
way our state provides care to Montanans at the failing hospital in which they are confined.
This is an example of how Disability Rights Montana approaches problems – we look to the
disability community for leadership, we use our federal access authority to go where others cannot,
we teach people with disabilities about their rights and how to use them, we use the right advocacy
tool for the job, and if powerful people still refuse to respect the established legal rights of our
community, we are able to bring legal cases to enforce those rights.
Your generosity gives us the resources we need to wage these fights.
During this season of giving, please donate to Disability Rights Montana to continue protecting and
advancing your civil rights and the civil rights of your friends, family, and neighbors with disabilities
across our treasured state.
Give Today!
Disability Rights Montana
1022 Chestnut Street, | Helena, Montana 59601
Question? Email us at communications@DisabilityRightsMT.org or call 406-449-2344
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