MADISON – The Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities (BPDD) looks forward to working with new and returning elected officials on legislative policy priorities that focus on upholding the rights of people with disabilities to receive care at home, get an education, and live and work in their communities.
Half of Wisconsin residents are family caregivers, older adults, or people with disabilities[1]. The policy issues they care about directly affect millions of Wisconsinites throughout the state.
“Every elected official represents people with disabilities and family caregivers who rely on quality home care, housing, and transportation to be able to live and work in their communities,” said Sydney Badeau, BPDD board chair. “Disability is a group that anyone can join at any time without warning. All of us will either become a caregiver or need one. These priorities are not targeted at a small group of people. Our issues are everyone’s issues.”
“People with disabilities fought for decades for laws that ensure that we cannot be set aside and locked away in institutions,” said Jenny Price, BPDD Executive Director. “Medicaid cuts and federal actions threaten Wisconsin’s existing care infrastructure, which keeps people with disabilities and older adults out of costly Medicaid-funded nursing homes and other institutional settings. The budget decisions and policy choices made in the next few months will either uphold or jeopardize the ability for older adults, people with disabilities and unpaid family caregivers to live independently and contribute to their communities as workers and taxpayers.”
BPDD is Wisconsin’s Developmental Disabilities Council, an independent state agency established by the federal Developmental Disabilities Act, charged with improving the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We advise policymakers on issues that directly affect people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, including education, employment, health care, home care, and transportation.
