Derechos de los discapacitados en Delaware

PADD serves individuals with a severe mental or physical impairment that developed before age 22, which causes multiple major functional limitations that are expected to last indefinitely.

The program also serves young children from birth to age 5 with developmental disabilities, or with conditions that may lead to developmental disabilities, without services.

PADD typically assists in securing rights to:

• Appropriate treatment
• A free and appropriate public education
• Freedom from discrimination in housing and family services
• Accessibility
• Financial entitlements, including Medicaid services and SSI
• Freedom from abuse and neglect
• Other rights related to the disability

Detailed priorities for PADD can be found here: FY25 PADD, PAAT, and PATBI Priorities

PAAT serves individuals with disabilities who are experiencing legal barriers to access to assistive technology devices and services.  Assistive technology includes durable medical equipment, wheelchairs, communication devices, and other disability-related aids.  Individuals of all ages with significant disabilities are eligible for services under PAAT.

PAAT typically assists in securing the rights to:

• Include assistive technology devices and services in Individualized Education Plans (IEP) for special education students
• Medicaid coverage of assistive technology devices and services for children and adults with disabilities
• Appropriate assistive technology devices and services in vocational rehabilitation and employment settings
• Other services directly related to disability and assistive technology

Detailed priorities for PAAT can be found here: FY25 PADD, PAAT, and PATBI Priorities

PAIR serves individuals with a severe physical or mental disability that is not considered developmental, or that occurred after the age of 22.

PAIR provides advocacy services to protect rights in the areas of:

• Freedom from discrimination in housing
• Accessibility to public accommodations
• Availability and access to transportation
• Public agency policy accommodations
• Other rights related to the disability

Detailed priorities for PAIR can be found here: FY25 PAIR Priorities

PAIMI serves persons with mental illness who either:

• Reside in a public or private facility (such as a hospital, nursing home, institution, or community care home) or
• Reside in the community but are at risk of abuse, neglect, or civil rights violations.

PAIMI typically provides services in securing rights to:

• An individualized treatment plan
• Appropriate treatment
• A comprehensive discharge plan
• Freedom from abuse and neglect
• A free and appropriate public education
• Other rights related to the disability

Detailed priorities for PAIMI can be found here: FY25 PAIMI Priorities

PABSS serves current Social Security or SSI beneficiaries who wish to work, particularly participants in the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program. Services include:

• Provision of information and training on work incentives and employment
• Advocacy to overcome barriers to employment
• Investigation of complaints against employers or providers involved in return to work effort
• Correction of defects in vocational rehabilitation, employment, and support agencies

For more information about employment and vocational rights of youth who are in transition to adulthood, visit DRD’s Transition to Adulthood site.

PATBI serves individuals with traumatic brain injury, an injury to the head caused by blunt, penetrating, or other force, which generally results in mental or physical dysfunction.

PATBI typically assists in securing rights to:

• Special education and vocational training
• “Safety net” public benefits such as SSI or Medicaid
• Freedom from housing discrimination
• Freedom from inappropriate institutionalization
• Other rights related to the disability.

Detailed PATBI priorities can be found here: FY25 PADD, PAAT, and PATBI Priorities

PAVA serves individuals with disabilities to ensure full and effective participation in the electoral process.

PAVA typically advocates to overcome policy and physical barriers to voter registration and to access polling sites and usable voting equipment. Typical advocacy includes training, technical assistance, and legal representation. However, Federal guidelines disallow project funds to be used for litigation involving disability-related election access.

Detailed PAVA program priorities can be found here: FY25 PAVA Priorities

CAP is an advocacy program for people with disabilities who are seeking or receiving services authorized in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and funded through the State of Delaware’s:

• Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR)
• Division for the Visually Impaired (DVI), and
• Centers for Independent Living (CIL):
  • Independent Resources, Inc. (IRI)
  • Freedom Center for Independent Living (FCIL)

CAP services include:

• Informing you about your employment rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Explaining your rights and responsibilities throughout the rehabilitation or Pre-Employment Transition Services process
• Helping you communicate your concerns to DVR/DVI staff
• Informing you about rehabilitation or Pre-Employment Transition programs and services
• Explaining DVR/DVI policies and procedures
• Advocating for you when a service has been denied or when you are unhappy with a service provided
• Arranging for legal representation when necessary to represent you in a formal appeal

Filed in 2024 in U.S. District Court on behalf of Delaware students with disabilities who are not receiving legally required special education supports and services while incarcerated

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Settled in 2017, this case advanced the rights of Delaware prisoners with mental illness and ended solitary confinement in Delaware

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