Over the weekend, Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns and the Erie County Office for People with Disabilities held an awareness day at the Auto Bureau in the Eastern Hills Mall. Kearns, who has a brother with special needs, commented on the proposed federal cuts to the Special Olympics.
Just last Thursday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told senators they had to “make tough choices and decisions around the budget priorities” when defending proposed cuts to the Special Olympics. Later on that day, President Trump implied the cuts wouldn’t happen. Kearns said he sees these kind of cuts talked about at all levels of government.
“It reminds me a little bit of when the Governor (Cuomo) was going to close the Western New York Children’s Psychiatric Center and (State) Senator Gallivan and myself fought five years in a row working with the disability community to save it. In the end, not only is it going to be saved, but that facility was the number one rated facility in the state.”
Kearns said even with the American Disability Act passing in 1990, one challenge the disability community faces consistently is inclusion.
“They should be part of the community. Whether it’s transportation. Whether it’s employment. Whether it’s recreation. They deserve equal access. That is the law,” he said. “And whether it’s recreation participating in something to give them goals to work towards, that’s an important thing. I hope they don’t pass the cuts.”
The proposed cuts to the Special Olympics would total close to $17.5 million. New York Senator Chuck Schumer is pushing to increase funding by $2.5 million.
Kearns said it’s important to have disability awareness days so the disabled can feel more comfortable accessing services from places like the DMV.
“People in our disability communities, they deserve identification and in many instances it just takes a little bit more time,” he said. “And some of them are sensitive in crowds. So we give them this day. It’s a nice day where they can take their time, they can relax.”
During regular DMV hours you can make a reservation and get out in around 15 minutes if you are disabled.
“But many instances, people who have special needs, they can’t do that without proper help from maybe a sibling or a parent or an aunt or an uncle,” Kearns said. “So we really want to make it easy for them that day. We want them to come in and have a good positive experience. But anytime you’re filling out government forms, whether it’s the DMV or any office, sometimes there are some challenges and you have to ask questions and proper identification is the most important thing.”
And with Real ID’s needed to fly in just over a year, Kearns said identification is even more important to obtain in the following year. More disability awareness events will be announced in the near future.
