Obama signs act that gives voice back to disabled
President Obama Thursday evening, ensuring Medicare and Medicaid include access to speech-generation technologies, New Orleans's WDSU-TV reported.
After a series of sweeping changes at Medicare last year, the expensive speech-generating devices used by people unable to speak, according to ESPN.
The act is named after Steve Gleason, the former New Orleans Saints football player who was diagnosed with a serious debilitating illness in 2011.
Gleason was distraught at last year鈥檚 developments and called it a 鈥溾�� in a Washington Post op-ed.
鈥淲e saw it happen far too many times. People who wished to live productively, denied access to the one tool that could liberate them. People in hospice, who had their SGDs seized, so their last words to their loved ones were mere silence,鈥� he wrote on the website of his foundation, Team Gleason.
The former football player's foundation spearheaded the act, but Gleason maintains it was a team effort.
He was elated when the act passed the US House earlier this month and according to ESPN, said, 鈥淧eople, like myself, who are literally voiceless, were heard. Loud and clear [鈥 This legislation may have my name on it, but please know it is the ALS community and the diligent legislators who deserve our applause.鈥�
ESPN noted the technology covered under insurance will now include speech-generating devices like the one Gleason uses to type through eye movements.
鈥淟ast year, Gleason requested Microsoft create a way for him to . The company unveiled the technology this week, according to a Team Gleason representative. While it鈥檚 not available yet, Gleason called the new technology liberating.鈥�
In the meanwhile, the new law will affect patients across the nation.
The new legislation will 鈥渆nsure that eye-tracking and 鈥榞aze interaction accessories鈥� are covered under Medicare for ALS patients with demonstrated medical needs,鈥� WDSU reported.
Politicians also applauded the president鈥檚 decision to sign the law.
Senator David Vitter announced on his Facebook Page: 鈥淣O WHITE FLAGS! The Steve Gleason Act is official, the law of the land. The President signed my bill this evening. for your tireless, inspirational efforts to get this across the goal line."
This development closely follows the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), celebrated on July 26.
Kaaryn Gustafson, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, acknowledged the ADA made a 鈥渄ramatic difference鈥� but felt there was .
Although the act provided legal rights, Gustafson noted they could only be exercised 鈥渋n isolation by filing individual claims with the Office of Civil Rights or by filing suits in federal court.鈥澛�
鈥淚 use a wheelchair. In the last year I鈥檝e checked into several recently renovated hotel rooms described as accessible online only to find that the rooms were not entirely wheelchair accessible 鈥� and sometimes unsafe,鈥� Gustafson wrote. 鈥淎nd while the A.D.A. has for 25 years made it a civil rights violation for taxi drivers to refuse service to persons with disabilities, last month I had three drivers do just that.鈥�
