Members of the intellectual and developmental disability community held a meeting Wednesday to learn about bills that are moving through the Arizona Legislature that could impact them.
Jon Meyers with the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council says the state's disability program has been chronically underfunded for years.
"Arizona has one of the largest numbers of new enrollees in DD services of any state in the country. People continue to move to Arizona because Arizona's DD system is seen as a model for many other states," Meyers says.
Meyers says several bills could affect the disability community, including measures on voting, education and health and safety. He also talked about Gov. Katie Hobbs’ budget proposals, which included proposed funding for provider rate increases, which Meyers says are desperately needed.
"Arizona has seen a number of minimum wage increases in recent years and a number of increases in costs simply to do business as a DD contracted provider," Meyers says.
The governor is proposing nearly $75 million in provider pay increases over the next three years.
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The Arizona Department of Education has secured a $5 million federal grant to support special education apprenticeship programs. -
Current orthotics can be heavy and bulky. But Sam Hopkins, a doctoral student at Northern Arizona University, has a new model that could help fix that. -
Around 3% of U.S children aged eight are diagnosed with autism. But an ASU professor found many of these kids were diagnosed through schools and not in a clinical setting. -
Adaptive Recreation holds social classes, field trips and events for people with disabilities 6 and up. The fashion show has been a tradition between the Chandler and Mesa programs in one way or another for over 20 years. -
The city of Phoenix is now considered a Certified Autism Center, the largest municipality in the U.S. to earn the designation.
