EVV will funnel a give-away of hundreds of millions of dollars to private companies to surveil people who may already struggle with everyday living. These federal funds should instead be used to raise the pay of home care workers above minimum wage, or to ease the suffering of seniors and people with disabilities who are forced to live on SSI at $898 a month (including food and housing). This is not enough to afford even a studio apartment and avoid having to go into a nursing home. Tell your representatives not to waste this federal funding on EVV, but instead help us to be able to stay out of institutions, to not become homeless, and not have to live with chronic hunger.

? EVV undermines the civil rights that the disability community and our allies have fought so hard to establish over many decades. Now we are fighting again against this costly boondoggle to protect our rights to self determination, freedom of movement, independent living, and the ability to be active in our communities and to participate in civic life.
ELECTRONIC VERIFICATION IS THE OPPOSITE OF INDEPENDENT LIVING AND CONSUMER CONTROL. Some states are starting to require that, to facilitate monitoring, people with disabilities must stay at home to receive In-Home Support Services.

The National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), which opposes this law, reports that EVV systems basically place people with disabilities under house arrest because they’re constantly monitored when they’re with their personal care workers. “This requirement, which appeared last minute in a markup will only serve to harm people with disabilities and seniors and is little more than a handout to EVV companies.”

? This electronic surveillance mandate discriminates against seniors and people with disabilities who need to use home health services. It relies on prejudice and stereotypes that we are helpless and homebound. To the contrary, the civil rights laws passed in the last thirty years for people with disabilities mandate that we are have the civil right to equal participation in our communities. In-Home Support Services are intended to support us to be part of society, not to keep us prisoners at home so that we and our care workers can be monitored by the state.

? All of the progress we’ve made in making our country more accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act is useless if our ability to leave our homes is undermined by EVV reporting requirements that put restrictions on our freedoms.
WE WILL NOT LET OUR HOMES BE TURNED INTO OUT-CALL NURSING HOMES
TELL YOUR LEGISLATORS TO DEFEND OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES

The National Council on Independent Living reminds us that “People with disabilities and seniors who receive services are students, employees, volunteers, athletes, artists, consumers, and voters. We speak many languages; we go many places; we participate and add to the richness of our communities. Beyond our opposition to the EVV requirement on principle, we oppose this requirement because our lives are not congruent with EVV systems, which are essentially government tracking systems for Americans with disabilities and seniors.”

? EVV WILL CHANGE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES AND CARE WORKERS. Independent living and consumer control of our lives means that we and our care givers work closely together. The individual with a disability trains and directs workers in achieving our daily living goals. With EVV, the state steps into the middle of this relationship, usurping the role of the employer with a disability. EVV forces workers to divert precious time with consumers to instead enter electronic data about very personal activities. Consumers can find this invasion of our privacy humiliating as it gives information about hygiene and bodily functions through electronic methods that are not secure from hacking.

? Turning this employer relationship on its head, EVV tells workers they are responsible to the government more than to the person with a disability, and that the disabled person may be less than competent. EVV portrays the person with a disability more like a patient in the medical model, and undermines the very essence of consumer-driven independent living. Loss of this consumer control will force many back into institutions.

? EVV will be more compatible with home care placement AGENCIES than with individual workers whose only priority is the consumer that hires them. This

default to agency placement of workers in the home will undermine consumer control. Agency employees will follow agency rules instead of directions given by the consumer.

? EFFECT ON PROVIDERS – EVV imposes new stringent requirements on IHSS providers that didn’t exist before. Learning how to use EVV technology will be too big a challenge for many workers. Adding technology makes the job more difficult, and puts more pressure on their time when their pay will not be raised to match. The type and duration of services performed changes daily. Having to report every detail to the state is onerous and will turn away potential workers of which there’s a chronic shortage.

? Consumers face huge challenges recruiting and retaining quality homecare workers. There are never enough people willing to do the work for the low pay. EVV will only exacerbate the shortage of workers and make it more difficult for consumers to remain safely in their homes. At minimum wage, many workers live on the brink of homelessness, and they often face late pay checks from the state. EVV adds more hoops to jump through, and will discourage many who might consider this employment.

? Electronic Verification is NOT More Effective and is less secure against hacking than existing paper Peer Review Systems. A written timesheet with sign-offs from attendants and consumers effectively verifies that a shift has been completed, and also keeps the consumer’s confidential personal information safe from electronic hacking. So, why must be millions of dollars be squandered in a giveaway to high-tech organizations that would spy on us in our homes instead of providing care for us?!

? Missouri appears to exempt Consumer-Directed Personal Assistance (CDPA) services from EVV. What can we learn from their independent living consumer-based model?
PRESERVE YOUR PRIVACY AND AUTONOMY

ORGANIZE..NETWORK..ACT UP..SIT IN..LAY DOWN..FIGHT BACK!

SAY NO TO TURNING OUR HOMES INTO OUT-CALL NURSING HOMES

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