Tag Archive for: Disability Law Center

‘This is what democracy looks like’: Mass. voter coalitions call on legislature to pass voting reform bills

Below is the full text of a Boston Globe article from 09/05/25.

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Full Article from the Boston Globe.

By Katarina Schmeiszer

In front of Boston City Hall, Geoff Foster stacked 1125 pieces of paper on top of a box labeled “ballots.” Then he placed a sign on top which said “REJECTED ‘BALLOTS.’” Behind him, dozens of people held up signs reading “Every Vote Counts” and “Dissent is Patriotic.”

The demonstration showed just under half of the provisional ballots rejected in the November 2024 election, and a call to reform Massachusetts voting laws. this.

“This only represents 1125 provisional ballots that were rejected in Boston,” said Rahsaan Hall, director of Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. “This many votes, this many opportunities to engage and access our democratic process. Is this what we want democracy to continue to look like?”

Foster and Hall are a part of a coalition of organizations calling on the state legislature to pass three bills which aim to increase access to the ballot box and make voting more accessible.

MassVOTE, a nonprofit organization focused on promoting political participation, and the Election Modernization Coalition, a legislative advocacy coalition, hosted a press conference on Wednesday, explaining the three bills and why they believe the bills must be passed.

The bills focus on three different aspects of voting access: same day voter registration; decoupling the municipal census from voter registration; and increasing accessibility for voters with disabilities. They are set to be voted on by legislators on Sept. 16.

“We are here because we believe in this city and in this country, we believe in democracy, not just as an idea, but as a lived reality that must include every single voice,” City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said at the press conference. “Too often that has not been the case. Too many of our neighbors have been shut out, marginalized, or told directly or indirectly that their vote does not matter, and today, we stand together to change that.”

The same day registration bill would allow residents to register to vote or update existing registration on Election Day and during the early voting period, by showing proof of residency, according to MassVote’s website.

Currently, voters must register to vote no later than 10 days prior to election day. Boston’s preliminary election is next Tuesday, Sept. 9.

The bill to separate the local census from voter registration would mean that a resident who does not answer the census is not automatically dropped from the voter rolls. Under current law, inactive voters must re-register to vote.

The disabled voter bill would address barriers to voters for people with a range of disabilities, such as visual or fine motor skills.

“It’s time that we start understanding that disability rights are civil rights and they are human rights,” said Barbara L’Italien, executive director of the Disability Law Center.

The center checked various polling centers during last year’s presidential election and found barriers, including inadequate handicap parking, inaccessible or unusable ramps and too heavy doors, she said.

Inside some polling places machines designed for people with visual disabilities, limited fine motor skills or who might not be able to fill out the typical ballot, were often not present or not functioning properly. All of these barriers, L’Italien said, prevent voters with disabilities from exercising their right to vote.

Advocates said it is essential that the legislators pass the bills.

“The three proposed bills, if passed into law, would remove barriers to voting and ensure equity in elections and strengthen access to the ballot,” said Traci Griffith, racial justice director for the ACLU of Massachusetts. “As proponents of same day voter registration, we believe that no eligible voter should be turned away at the polls due to an error or out of date voter registration.”

Currently, Washington, D.C. and 22 states, including Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have some form of same day registration, officials said.

State Representative Carmine Gentile, a Democrat from Sudbury, filed the same day registration bill.

“Evidence shows that same day voting increases the number of votes any given election from three to 11 percent. Black and Latino turnout increases two to 17 percent,” he said.

Not all of his colleagues agree.

House Majority Leader Michael J. Moran of Brighton said the state has an accessible system, making voting readily available to constituents.

“A few years ago, the House voted to make vote by mail permanent and expand early voting options. The House also voted to push the registration deadline back in order to ensure that eligible residents are able to register to vote up to 10 days before any election,” Moran said in a statement to the Globe. “In addition to these legislative reforms, eligible voters are automatically registered to vote when they engage in transactions with the RMV, MassHealth and the Health Connector – and they also have the option to register online, by mail or in person. Voters in Massachusetts have ample opportunities to engage in the democratic process.”

Correction: A previous version of this article implied that Moran told the Globe his stance on same day voter registration. In response to an interview request about this topic, he instead issued the statement that’s quoted in full.

As Mass. tests its aging devices for voters with disabilities, advocates stress their critical role (WBUR)

Below is an excerpt of an article published by WBUR on October 29 where disability advocates express hope that any problems with accessible voting machines will be minimized this election, although they acknowledge that the aging technology may become less reliable over time. Disability Law Center’s Brianna Zimmerman is quoted

Before every election, Massachusetts tests accessible voting machines that all polling locations must provide voters with disabilities, like those who are blind or low vision, so they may vote independently. Many of these machines, called AutoMARKs, are nearly 20 years old.

Despite the aging tech, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office said the test runs help voters avoid problems at the ballot box.

“You shouldn’t really run into any issues on Election Day,” Deborah O’Malley, the office’s communications director, said. She added the state keeps backup machines on hand and an employee ready to deliver them if an issue arises.

Disability advocates say they’re hopeful the AutoMARKs will operate without complications this election. Though rare, however, they say machine malfunctions or printer jams have forced voters to wait to cast their ballots. Pressed for time, some voters opted to let poll workers mark the ballots for them.

Read more at WBUR.

Massachusetts dedicates millions to address long waits for wheelchair repairs (Boston Globe)

Below is an excerpt of an article published by the Boston Globe on October 22. The article highlights wheelchair users in Massachusetts welcoming new state regulations intended to reduce long wait times for repairs. Still, they express concern that the measures may not go far enough. Disability Law Center’s Rick Glassman is quoted.

Wheelchair users are applauding new state regulations that address painfully long wait times for wheelchair repairs but worry the initiatives don’t go far enough to ensure people will no longer be immobilized for weeks or months as they await urgent fixes.

“The people who are doing the repairs do need to put more effort into this service,” said Rich Levasseur, a wheelchair user from Tewksbury who spoke at a virtual public hearing Monday about the new regulations. “People can’t be without a repair for months at a time. It’s cruel and inhumane.”

The rules, which went into effect earlier this month, are Massachusetts’s latest attempt to address a national lack of investment in repair operations among the biggest companies in the wheelchair industry. This summer, a bill written to address the widespread problem of slow repair times stalled out in the state legislature. As the industry has consolidated around two large providers, infuriating delays for even basic repairs have become the norm.

The initiatives from MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid administrator, include a $1,000 bonus payment for wheelchair providers that complete repairs for MassHealth members within 12 days. Eighty percent of that money must be reinvested into repair operations, including maintaining stock, staffing, and offering expanded hours. Providers will be required to share with the state quarterly data on repairs and how the money is used. That data will be made available to the public, state health officials said.

Read more at the Boston Globe.

Wheelchair users look to House for relief (Lowell Sun)

Below is an excerpt from an article published by the Lowell Sun on July 4 that reveals the timeline of disability advocate efforts to establish greater wheelchair repair protections in Massachusetts. Disability Law Center’s Executive Director Barbara L’Italien and Rick Glassman are quoted.

BOSTON — Leyla Connolly’s battery-powered wheelchair has been broken for over a year. As she waits for it to be fixed, she is consigned to her Dorchester apartment, where she feels trapped without a safe way to leave to get groceries, go to doctor’s appointments or visit the nearby park.

“My whole life has been on standstill for a year,” Connolly said.

The Senate has twice passed a bill (S 2541) to expand wheelchair warranty protections and require faster repairs and replacements. The House left the bill untouched last session and this session representatives have not taken action, with formal meetings set to end July 31.

Rep. John Lawn, the House chair of the Health Care Financing Committee, held a closed-door negotiation meeting in April with disability rights advocates and wheelchair repair companies, trying to come up with compromise language to put before the House, according to a handful of advocates familiar with the conversations.

“I’ve appreciated the engagement of the committee in working to understand and facilitate conversations,” said Chris Hoeh, a wheelchair user and disability rights advocate who attended the meeting. “They could have just taken the Senate legislation and buried it, or rewritten it and done a compromise that was really bad for us. But they gave us time to try and negotiate. And now, I’m looking forward to working with them to get it to the governor’s desk.”

Read more from the Lowell Sun.

Here’s what could change for the embattled Bridgewater State Hospital (MassLive)

Below is an excerpt from an article published by MassLive on March 20 discussing the impact of a recently released report by the Disability Law Center on Bridgewater State Hospital.

Last week, a watchdog group released a damning report about the Massachusetts Department of Corrections’ Bridgewater State Hospital — a psychiatric hospital for men who have been accused or convicted of a crime. Major changes could be in store for the hospital in coming months.

The 46-page report from Disability Law Center — a Boston-based disability advocacy nonprofit — alleges a litany of eye-popping patient abuses at the hospital, including involuntary restraint through medication, physical violence from staff, seclusion for all but a handful of hours and negligent medical care.

Patient stories in the report made Bridgewater State Hospital sound like the psychiatric hospitals of a previous era that are now most often featured in horror media. The nonprofit detailed accounts of patients being dragged to a bed to be forcibly injected with a restraint drug, left alone and naked in their room for weeks and wasting away with little to no medical or mental health care in a dangerously moldy and decrepit building.

Read more at MassLive.

Mistreatment persists at Bridgewater State Hospital, report says (WBUR)

Below is the text of a March 13, 2024 article from WBUR about a recent report by the Disability Law Center detailing mistreatment of patients at Bridgewater State Hospital.

By Deborah Becker

There are continuing problems at the Massachusetts Department of Correction mental health hospital, according to a new report from the agency that monitors the facility for the state.

The report, from the Disability Law Center, found patients at Bridgewater State Hospital were subjected to illegally forced medication injections, violence from staff, lack of medical care, inappropriate medication for opioid use disorder and mold contamination. The report recommends that the state transfer control of Bridgewater State Hospital from the Department of Correction to the Department of Mental Health.

“Massachusetts must cease involuntarily committing people with complex mental health needs and disabilities to a state prison facility where they will foreseeably face countertherapeutic conditions and suffer violations of their legal rights by those meant to provide them treatment,” the report’s authors urged.

Bridgewater State Hospital houses more than 200 male prisoners and other people with serious mental illnesses who are charged with crimes.

Department of Correction officials said they have taken steps to address some of the concerns raised in the report, such using daily video reviews of instances of physical restraint, and hiring Dr. Debra Pinals, a former Department of Mental Health official, to review the hospital’s practices and policies.

“The DOC has enhanced staff training and increased independent oversight by behavioral and mental health experts who have reviewed policies to ensure alignment with Department of Mental Health policies and regulation,” correction officials said in a statement responding to the report.

The report reviewed Bridgewater State Hospital over six months, from June 2023-December 2023. The Disability Law Center has been monitoring the facility for a decade and said although some improvements have been made, there are ongoing problems with the care provided to patients and the condition of the buildings.

“The treatment and conditions at Bridgewater State Hospital are simply not acceptable, and they don’t meet the needs of the Bridgewater State Hospital population,” said Tatum Pritchard, director of litigation for the Disability Law Center.

Among the issues outlined in the report is the use of security staff from Wellpath, the Department of Correction’s health care provider, to forcibly inject patients with medications. Disability Law Center investigators talked with patients and reviewed video footage and policies on forced medications. They found Wellpath staff in riot gear were utilized to subdue patients, and that “involuntary medication and prison practices merge to produce violent, often dehumanizing, experiences” for patients.

“DOC and Wellpath must cease, as a rule, using teams of security staff in riot gear to
implement by force involuntary medication orders, including medication restraint,” the report’s authors wrote. “To the extent such a practice would ever be acceptable, it must be reserved for exceptional circumstances.”

The investigators also cited instances where patients were not provided medical care they needed and were not given appropriate medication for opioid use disorder. The Disability Law Center asked Dr. Evan Gale, associate medical director of the Addiction Consult Team at Massachusetts General Hospital and its director of inpatient training for the Addiction Medicine Fellowship, to review Wellpath’s practices regarding addiction medications.

According to the report, Gale’s review found the hospital’s care for those with opioid use disorder raised “significant concerns.”

“Dr. Gale found BSH providers conflate mental health symptoms with withdrawal symptoms and, based on the stigma of both and lack of management of medication options, provide substandard care,” the report said.

Additionally, the investigators reported that the Department of Correction has not followed previous recommendations from the Disability Law Center about mold control and remediation, making the facilities unhealthy for patients and staff.

“These inactions have caused the mold problems to become worse in certain areas observed and potentially more harmful,” the report said.

The report has been sent to lawmakers for review. It comes as the legislature considers a bill to transfer oversight of Bridgewater State Hospital to the Department of Mental Health. Wellpath’s contracts to provide medical services in all state prisons and at Bridgewater State Hospital expire in June.

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Read this article on WBUR.org

This story was also covered by Hoodline, Boston.com, the Boston Globe, Boston 25 News, and WCVB News Center 5.

Bear Mountain nursing home report alleges neglect, overmedication (Boston Globe)

Below is an excerpt from an article published on January 31 by The Boston Globe detailing a report release by Disability Law Center, covering the harmful practices of the neurobehavioral unit at the Bear Mountain nursing home in Worcester. Nina Loewenstein, senior attorney for the Disability Law Center, is quoted. 

A nursing home can be a supportive environment for elderly residents to live out their last years with companionship and medical care. It can alternatively be a place where vulnerable people with severe physical and mental health needs are warehoused and neglected.

A report released Wednesday by the Disability Law Center examining a neurobehavioral unit at Bear Mountain nursing home in Worcester illuminates in stark terms what allegedly happens when people with schizophrenia, dementia, and other ailments are left alone, with few programs and inadequate staffing. The Disability Law Center writes, speaking broadly about nursing home patients, “They become vulnerable to abuse and neglect because of inadequate staffing and clinical expertise, excessive use of medication, substandard conditions, and prolonged isolation.”

The report, while difficult to read, cries out for a response — from Bear Mountain and the state. Lawmakers and state administrators have responded to nursing homes’ financial needs by increasing reimbursement rates. But as the report points out, rates need to be paired with oversight to ensure the money is going to provide at least a minimal standard of care.

Read the article here.

Restraining a patient is supposed to be a ‘last resort.’ Why is Massachusetts doing it so often? (GBH)

Below is an excerpt from an article published on October 2 by GBH discussing the implications of the use of restraint at inpatient facilities. Disability Law Center’s Staff Attorney Walter Noons is quoted.

Jess Thompson, 27, of Abington views her life in two parts; before she was restrained, and after.

Thompson had been sent to South Shore Hospital by ambulance in September 2020 after staff at an outpatient clinic feared she might be suicidal. Thompson says she was seeking treatment for PTSD, but was not considering suicide in any way.

Moments before the restraint, she’d been told she was on a 72-hour hold. Thompson told the staff she would like to leave.

“I started to walk up to the door and I am bear-hugged by this security guard. I had my arms crossed sort of in front of my chest and I’m trying to free my arms and they had thrown me to the ground. My lip hit the dirty hospital floor and instantly busts,” Thompson told GBH News.

Thompson said more than half a dozen staffers, most of them male, put her on a stretcher in the middle of the hallway where she screamed, begging them to let her go.

Read more at GBH.

Thousands with complicated disabilities languish as Massachusetts struggles with staff shortages at care programs (Boston Globe)

Below is an excerpt from an August 8 article published by the Boston Globe describing the impact of shortages in day care for people with disabilities who have complex medical or behavioral needs. Disability Law Center’s (DLC) Senior Attorney Hillary Stanisz is quoted.

BARNSTABLE — Most days, hour after hour, Tyler Bourne hunches in a blue easy chair in his mother’s living room, watching the reality TV show “Wicked Tuna,” or crinkling up free magazines from Stop and Shop.

He overheats easily, so this time of year, the 37-year-old won’t leave the house for days, sometimes more than a week at a time.

His life wasn’t always so stagnant. Bourne, who was born with a rare chromosomal disorder that caused profound developmental disabilities, attended for about 12 years a day habilitation program, or day hab, in Mashpee five days a week, six hours a day. But over the past three years, he has been allowed back only rarely.

Bourne is among roughly 2,000 individuals, most of them people with complex medical or behavioral needs, who have been effectively exiled from day hab since the pandemic, placed on waiting lists for a service that is much more than just day care. The programs also provide skilled nursing, physical therapy, speech therapy, group outings, and opportunities to socialize. But they are currently so understaffed, according to state officials and providers, that some are finding it difficult to provide one-to-one care for everyone who needs it.

Read more at the Boston Globe

Blind and low-vision voters hail Massachusetts’ new statewide online voting option (GBH News)

This year, Massachusetts became the fourth state in the nation to enact a new electronic voting system for people with disabilities, as a provision of the VOTES Act passed in June. This milestone stems from a 2020 lawsuit filed by the Disability Law Center, as reported by GBH News in an Oct. 28 article.

An excerpt from the article is below.

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In 2020, the Disability Law Center partnered with the Bay State Council of the Blind and the Boston Center for Independent Living to sue the state over lack of accommodations made for disabled people to vote safely and securely during the pandemic. Secretary of State Bill Galvin settled the lawsuit right before the election to allow disabled voters to vote electronically.

But during the 2020 election, voters with disabilities who chose the electronic method still needed a printer and had to physically sign the ballot. Advocates pushed for the option to last beyond that single year and worked with the secretary of state’s office to make it even more accessible.

Read more from GBH News.