On September 18 ^th, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided Schaw v. Habitat for Humanity of Citrus County , in a very easy to read opinion that spelled out the process for determining whether an accommodation for a disability is reasonable and necessary. U.S. Circuit Court Judge Kevin Newsom, the author of the opinion, acknowledged that the concept is a “little squishy”, and analogized that the difference between an accommodation that is required and one that is a fundamental alteration is the difference between saddling a camel and removing its hump. 

In 2006, when Albert Schaw was 20, he fractured his cervical spine in a wrestling accident and became a quadriplegic. Because of his disability, he was not able to get gainful employment and received Social Security Disability Income. In 2015, Albert rented a two bedroom home for $ 675 per month, but it was not accessible for him, to the extent that he could not even close the door of the bathroom because he used a wheelchair. 

Albert decided to apply for Habitat for Humanity’s Home Ownership Program because the payment would be less than his rent, and he would have the ability to be a homeowner of a house that he could actually use. However, Habitat for Humanity’s minimum income qualification to qualify for a home was more than Albert’s income received from Social Security. Albert requested that Habitat for Humanity either take into account his food stamp payment or a $100 per month support from his family to meet the minimum income requirement. This was refused, because Habitat for Humanity demanded assurances that the family support would not cease and requested the family set up an annuity plan or a trust. Not only would the creation of a trust be expensive, it may have also disqualified Albert from other benefits that he would have received.  As a result, Albert Schaw could not qualify for a Habitat home.  

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Keep Your Pets Safe

South Florida is a busy city made of sunshine and good times. Not always is it that way with hurricanes, bad drivers, and rain on most national holidays. South Florida has its ups and downs. This is the same when it comes to your pets. This is a list of things you should know to keep your furry companions safe.

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Join one of our new standing committees

ATVFL Outreach Committee – this committee will meet regularly to discuss planning and execution of ATVFL’s outreach efforts and related collaboration to counties and supervisors’ offices (our first phase of these efforts are underway and in draft format); this includes working to set up and build awareness of events such as poll worker education, equipment demonstrations, town halls and panel discussions with election officials, recruitment of poll workers with disabilities, voter education, et cetera.

ATVFL Candidate Engagement Committee – this committee will meet as appropriate to discuss approaches and opportunities to engage candidates for office at all levels of government (federal, state, county, and municipal) on the necessity of disability inclusion in voting/elections issues, but also on issues of importance to the disability community; this will include the possibility of structuring candidate questionnaires, organizing candidate forums, assisting others in the state hosting candidate events to make those events adequately accessible, compiling resources and information regarding website accessibility for distribution to the parties and campaigns, et cetera.

ATVFL Voter Engagement Committee – this committee will meet to discuss ways to increase voter participation and turnout within the disability community at multiple levels, including consideration of GOTV (Get Out the Vote) activities and efforts, planning for National Disability Voter Registration Week as well as National Voter Registration Week, and other needed avenues to ensure inclusion of a disability voting/elections presence in the state within other GOTV efforts underway.