GOOD NEWS!We’ve got some good news. The Senate was back in session last week and passed over 200 bills, including two from our 2009 Disability Priori

We’ve got some good news. The Senate was back in session last week and passed over 200 bills, including two from our 2009 Disability Priority Agenda!

S.5396 (Huntley) Incorporate Title II of ADA into NYS Human Rights Law

Title II provides protections against discrimination on the basis of disability in services provided by public entities, including state and local governments.
This bill clarifies the scope of protections against discrimination on the basis of disability by these entities, including in the provision of services,
programs and activities. The Assembly version of this bill, A.781-B (Paulin) passed the Assembly on May 11th as part of the Disability Awareness Day package.


S.1058 (Addabbo) – Poll Site Access Bill will require all poll sites to comply with the accessibility guidelines of the ADA. It also eliminates the practice
of granting waivers for inaccessible sites. The Assembly version of this bill, A. 584 (Cahill), also passed the Assembly on May 11th as part of the Disability
Awareness Day package.

Also of importance to the network, the legislation to make Timothy's Law permanent, S.5672/ A.8611, passed the Senate on July 10th and was signed into law
by Governor Paterson. This law mandates private insurance parity for mental health services and is a major victory for the mental health community!


Special thanks to the NYAIL Subcommittees for their hard work in pushing these bills through, and to the entire network for your endless calls, letters,
faxes and emails! We’ll keep you posted as more unfolds in Albany.