VOR Presents Key Principles to Congress
VOR is a national non-profit, non-provider organization advocating for high quality care and human rights for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).
With this letter, we present our “Key Principles in Support of the Rights and Opportunities for All People with Disabilities: Respecting Individual Choice” (VOR, September 2013).
As you will read, VOR is distinguished from all other national advocacy organizations in our support for a full array of residential and support options. We expressly support community-based care for individuals who choose that level of support, and expressly reject the closure of specialized congregate care settings (“deinstitutionalization”) for people who choose and need that level of care.
Our principles embrace the reality that people with disabilities are individuals with unique and varying needs. VOR rejects a “broad brush” approach to policies and rights which help most people with disabilities, but not others who experience profound I/DD or other serious I/DD and medical and/or behavioral disabilities. Civil and legal rights should not be spliced, applying to some, but not all, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
