DRA Unveils 2015 Disability Eagles and Turkeys

DRA Unveils 2015 Disability Eagles and Turkeys
Eagles model disability inclusion and integration: innovating and setting precedents benefiting the disability community. Turkeys actively discriminate against people with disabilities. DRA works every day to ensure more Eagles soar!

San Francisco, Calif., November 18, 2015 — Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) recognized three disability heroes (Eagles) and two Turkeys at its annual luncheon today.

Annually, DRA presents Eagle Awards to businesses, government entities, individuals and organizations who distinguish themselves by actively working to support people with disabilities through: developing and implementing accessibility solutions; changing polices, practices and behaviors to benefit people with disabilities; partnering with the disability community; innovating and setting precedents that influence peers to take similar proactive measures; employing and promoting people with disabilities; and committing resources to support disability-focused organizations.

This year’s Eagle awardees were Sutter Health, Eye to Eye, Daniel Carione and James Phillips.

The award recognizes Sutter Health’s network of hospitals, medical foundations and health care providers for making significant strides to improve access to health care for patients with mobility, vision, hearing and speech disabilities.  Since 2008, Sutter has been removing architectural barriers, acquiring and installing accessible medical equipment, and reviewing and updating policies and training relevant to people with disabilities at all of its California facilities. This resulted in better access to healthcare for hundreds of thousands of patients with disabilities throughout the state.

The award recognizes Eye to Eye for its outstanding efforts to promote a world in which people living with learning disabilities are fully accepted, valued, and respected.  Eye to Eye, under the leadership of David Flink, has 57 chapters in 22 states as well as a week-long summer camp. It matches college-aged mentors with learning differences with middle-school mentees. Eye to Eye’s innovative mentoring program helps us all to rethink the traditional concept of “learning disabilities” and instead to celebrate diversity.

The award recognizes Daniel Carione and James Phillips, two NYPD officers with more than 20 years of experience, for their steadfast work to change the NYPD’s discriminatory blanket policy banning the use of hearing aids by uniformed officers.  Both Daniel and James have hearing loss that stems from job-related injuries and were forced into early retirement despite exemplary work performance.  The changed policy not only impacts Daniel and James but also hundreds of thousands of officers with hearing loss in New York City and nationwide—as many veterans return home from foreign wars with hearing loss—who would be well placed for careers in law enforcement.

Annually, DRA presents Turkey Awards to entities that actively discriminate against people with disabilities.  These entities have have received multiple complaints from the disability community and failed to respond. They have been sued by DRA, or other lawyers who share DRA’s mission, and actively fought the lawsuit.

This year’s Turkey awardees were Bethesda Hospital East and New York’s Department of Transportation. Bethesda Hospital for its discriminatory policy of not providing interpreters during many critical procedures: including childbirth.  New York’s Department of Transportation for its blatant disregard for laws established to improve accessibility of New York City’s broken sidewalks.

DRA held its annual Eagle Awards Luncheon today in San Francisco at the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

 

About Disability Rights Advocates

With offices in California and New York, Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) is one of the leading nonprofit disability rights legal centers in the nation. Its mission is to advance equal rights and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities nationwide. For more information visit www.dralegal.org.

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For Immediate Release

Contact: Kate Hamilton, Development and Communications Director, 510-665-8644