Coloradoans on Hold: Real Stories from the VR Waiting List

Coloradoans on Hold: Real Stories from the VR Waiting List

By Dan Burke

Earlier this month, the NFB of Colorado started putting out its call
for names and stories from blind and other Coloradoans with
disabilities who have been placed on Colorado's Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation (DVR) waiting list, or those who had been discouraged
from even applying.  We have been increasingly concerned that more and
more blind and other Coloradoans with disabilities were going to be
forgotten, and that no discernible plan or action was in the works to
do anything about it.

Out of this concern, we've met with DVR's new Director, Joelle Brouner
earlier this month, and on Tuesday, February 18, President Scott
Labarre sent a letter to the administrator of Colorado's Department of
Human Services to request an appointment to talk about the waiting
list and other matters.  His name is Reggie Bicha, and his department
includes DVR.  To his credit, his office replied the same day and an
appointment was set for Friday, March 7.

Then, this week, DVR announced that it had at last received
 permission from the higher-ups in CDHS to begin squeaking open the
valves of its waiting list of more than 6000 Coloradoans with
disabilities.  After slamming the door on all new clients last April,
this is a welcome sign.  The active services valve, however, will only
be ratcheted open in phases.

According to a letter sent out to "stakeholders" on Tuesday, the first
500 clients who have been caught in the waiting-list-limbo were moved
off that list on Monday.  They should be contacted shortly, while
another slug will follow in 45 days.  The first priority will be those
with the classification of "Most Significant Disability" under state
and federal rules.  Again, this is welcome, but we need to keep in
mind that there are now over 6,000 people who have applied for
services, been determined to be eligible for services, but have simply
had to wait because no new Individualized Plans for Employment (IPE)
were being developed, and no new services being approved or provided.
Whittling down the waiting list is going to take some time.  That
makes sense when you think about it.  It's taken almost a year for it
to get this big, and other new applicants will continue to come
knocking on the door.

DVR can't just open the floodgates and then swamp themselves, either.
The process of contacting clients on the list, meeting with them and
beginning the process of identifying vocational goals and planning for
services is one of the most important activities in the VR process.
We want them to do this right, and so do they.

But that is all the administrative stuff.  The thing that is critical
here is that this waiting list hurts blind people in Colorado, as well
as DVR applicants with other disabilities.  The numbers are huge -
it's the biggest Voc Rehab waiting list in any state in the union
today.  And because it's so big, it's hard to think of how it affects
people, real people that we may know.

So what will follow are some of the stories of those people.  Maybe
some of them will be in the first 500 to move off the waiting list,
but as long as there is a waiting list we need to make sure that
Governor Hickenlooper, elected Representatives and Senators in the
General Assembly and the professionals running the Colorado Department
of Human Services can't forget the words and  the faces of those that
are still waiting.

Yes, those stories will appear in the coming days and weeks, and the
NFB will do the telling.
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