The ADA in the US Virgin Islands

On this special edition of Ask About the ADA, we visit with Archie Jennings, the lead attorney at the Disability Rights Center of the Virgin Islands, an affiliate of the Northeast ADA. Archie has more than 40 years of disability law and advocacy experience, and he tells us about the specific issues facing people with disabilities in the US Virgin Islands. For a transcript of today's episode, please visit the Ask About the ADA podcast feed on BuzzSprout.

Learn more about the Disability Rights Center of the Virgin Islands at drcvi.org. 

NortheastADA.org

Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING] JOE ZESSKI: Hello, welcome to ask about the ADA, the podcast where we answer your questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act. I'm Joe Zesski, program manager at the Northeast ADA. Our center serves New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S Virgin Islands. That's our part of the ADA national network. 

On this week's episode, we're going to talk with Archie Jennings. He is the lead attorney at the disability rights center of the Virgin Islands. DRCVI is our Virgin Island affiliate. And so he's joining us today to tell us more about what they do, and how the ADA affects the Virgin Islands. Archie welcome to the show and thank you for joining us today. 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Well thank you for inviting me Joe, glad to be here. 

JOE ZESSKI: It's my pleasure Archie, and I'm glad to have this opportunity. A number of years ago, I was on ability radio which is a program produced by DRCVI. On that show Archie interviewed me, so this is a little bit of closing the circle. Today, let's begin by talking about DRCVI, and you personally. Archie can you share with us some of your history working in disability rights? 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Oh sure, and glad to return the favor. I am an attorney here in the branch now so. But I started off actually legal services in Ohio. I was working for some county legal services in the North part of their state. We were like a satellite office in Cleveland legal services actually but, we had our own program as legal services was expanding during those late 70s and they start covering more counties. 

I moved to Columbus, Ohio, the state capital and was on the staff of legal services of Franklin County, and in that role, I started off as a staff attorney but they've created a unit called the law reform unit. And that way we were going to address actions or address issues on a collective or class action basis where possible. So that was my first contact with working with disability issues, with concerning transportation, air transport service in Columbus, Ohio. 

And they are actually already adding a group organization that was formed at the time I was working for them. I'm so technical assistance legal counsel to them, and so I gained experience working with a already formulated group in Columbus, Ohio. Subsequent to that, I moved to the Virgin Islands and become the litigation director for legal services of the Virgin Islands. And as part of that role, not only did I do, look for or tried to address issues from the class or what we call systemic basis. I again ran into a coalition of citizens with disabilities who when they had no para-transit service here in the Virgin Islands. 

And it was through working with that organization, that they took advantage or press the local government to take advantage of it. I think it was called the 5310 program where they would obtain an accessible vehicle. No organization would not own it, but they would operate today at 10. so working with that group I got to know some of the other members in the community who were leaders at that time and advocate for persons with this of course. 

And of course, transportation was a very critical issue. Virgin Islands is an island three separate islands major being st. Croix the largest, st. Thomas, and st. John district. And so the service initially was for all three islands. And I was fortunately the management team, but I got it off the ground, and I think right as it started off for one bus, and by the time I went on to other work because I worked for legal services for four years before I went out in private practice and a lot of people don't remember but at that time during the reagan years, they cut back on legal services being able to file class action lawsuits. 

So they had I guess decided they were too aggressive, and approaching need, and advocating for persons with disabilities as well as persons who were of lesser income. But the downside service was in place and I kept them as a client when I went out in the private practice. 

And sat on the board for a number of years I think through 1995 as a matter of fact, when we had we were hit with Hurricane Marilyn at that time. But in private practice I did more employment work with union support for civil rights cases, I worked on the individual basis, and also it was during that time that the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990 and effective 1992. So that was another era in my quiver of working for people. 

Many times because of workman's compensation having fallen through, working through with the unions, and people who got terminated, and other barriers that came up in the workplace, I actually started using American disabilities act in some of my lawsuits before they even got the regulations in place. So very familiar with the Americans, with disabilities act because of my employment background. 

JOE ZESSKI: It makes sense that with all your advocacy work over the years. 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Right, right. And again I was coming out of legal services during that time. That was in 1996, 1997. One of the attorneys I worked with at legal services became the executive director of what was then called the AI advocacy hint which we now call disability rights. In the Virgin Islands, Tom Bayer built the program up from almost a demised. There was some issues that had come up but she was able to revive the program, get it back on track, and proceeded as executive director. 

I was called upon to assist as an outside contractor when a 1997, 1998 she led an accessibility campaign for structuralists building in the Virgin Islands. Also at that time there was issues related to education for handicapped which I was part of a lawsuit before I left the legal services that carried over to her office. And by that time it was individuals with disabilities education act. 

So therefore there was a lot of activity afoot with regard to organizing, supporting, accessibility issues, and getting it grounded in the Virgin Islands and just making it known that this act was in place. And that's what the accessibility campaign's age group had put together a list of not only hotels, banks were sued, there were restaurants, there was pharmacies, I think we touched upon government offices, yes accessibility to the hospitals. So having been to the Virgin Islands st. Croix is more flat. 

JOE ZESSKI: And this structure is much more st Thomas's agricultural field. To me as an outsider, it feels much more agricultural. St. Thomas to me when I visited and I've been able to visit a couple of times and st. Thomas seems more like a city setting where St. Croix is more rural if you will. 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Right, right. Exactly. And that's true. St. Thomas is much more dense, but it also comes right part of the ocean and goes back down like a bridge at the North side, South side. And so it's more mountainous. So with those two aspects we have different the approaches on how we went about access. 

But we always try to touch base with the community and have community lead on the issues because there are so many issues related to living on the island first of all and being far from resources that are readily available like in Columbus, Ohio, whereas in Virgin Islands you really have to plan it out, and make sure that you have those resources way ahead of time before you get involved in litigation because of the lack of yes. 

JOE ZESSKI: It sounds like it is one of the unique challenges there with being in a territory that's literally physically separated from other places. It seems to create some of its own unique local issues that you were just saying, in Ohio, you have more resources you can more easily access. 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Correct, correct. And that's very critical when you get to talking about accommodations and structures but so those were always those issues that are sort of subtle and not outright public but it creates a lot more work in order to get a production. And what a lot of people don't know is that there we filed this lawsuit mainly as injunctive relief. There's no payout at the end for the plaintiffs. They're basically doing it on behalf of the entire community. 

JOE ZESSKI: It's about getting in access. Yeah. 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Right. It's about getting in access. So I think that in particularly put up that barrier because they didn't want to give their I guess any leverage for everybody we're not soon. And immediately after they passed that law. So but over the years slowly but surely, people sometimes take on the lawsuits themselves or fund themselves, in regard we really wanted the outlets that could least act as the legal end and other purchase still need your experts when it comes to more complex accessibility issues. 

JOE ZESSKI: We certainly have covered a lot, Archie what has a relationship between the Northeast ADA and DRCVI meant to people in the Virgin Islands? 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: The support that the Northeast ADA has given to the Virgin Island is immeasurable because you bring the resources not only of the University, but research and information which is not here embedded in the Virgin Islands. 

Given a good example, one of the things that we were looking for and had a hard time locating which Cornell provided was the census for persons with disabilities in the Virgin Islands. It's my understanding that the raw data was available, but no one in the Virgin Islands had the capacity to separate out the raw data and make it a concrete fact-based number. That was based on the 2010 census. 

When I joined dispo right center one of the first things I was looking for was, what are the numbers? How many people do we have who are blind? Who's out there and what are the needs of the community based upon our demographics? We really never had a good handle on that until the Northeast ADA helped put together census data. So that and measurable in and of itself along with other resources that have been provided by Cornell and anything more. 

JOE ZESSKI: And just for those who are listening, one of the resources Archie is referring to, is a website that is maintained and operated here through Cornell University, which is the host of the Northeast aid center. It is disabilitystatistics.org and it uses information based on different surveys. National population survey, American community Survey, census information to pull together data and statistics related to people with disabilities including things like participation in the workforce, types of disabilities, economic issues, and things of that nature. Archie, earlier you mentioned that the geographic isolation is an issue in the Virgin Islands. But are there other issues that are specific to people with disabilities within the Virgin Islands that are different than those for people with disabilities on the mainland? 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Well, one of the things that I had a background in as I was saying I worked in Ohio and Columbus, Ohio. And I had worked in the area of Medicaid Ohio was fighting what they were I guess assuming imposition of Medicaid upon their medical system there. But really that I was involved in the class action lawsuit regarding Medicaid and nursing homes. And I learned about supplemental security income and how it was tied to Medicare and Medicaid for persons with disabilities from both. 

And then understanding that system, that income, and the whole area of destitution socialization was being evolving in the United States. And whether they were having group homes were being developed or assisted living was also being developed for adults with disabilities who have been disabled their entire life. And then coming to the Virgin Islands and seeing none of that system evolving, and I started even when I was in private practice because you have also people with workman's compensation issues and the so security disability issues, but not seeing that part of the population receiving medical coverage who were people who had been disabled from birth. 

So that was the biggest difference because it really funds the whole foundation of a medical system. If those persons are able to get medical care prior and have early interventions take place as they would in Ohio once they're poor. And sometimes like the child may have a neurological issue which they can get medical assistance. 

They don't become developmentally delayed or later on in their toddler years because they're being treated. Whereas here in the Virgin Islands, there was no available treatment, they weren't eligible for Medicaid usually the parents. We also had a cap on Medicaid here. So there was a barrier to health care, automatically set up that's different than the rest of the 50 states. And in every country that was a major thing. 

Many other issues are important, are practically the same. I did some nursing home work and had their children who were in need of supervision or having issues in school. Most of the other services in one form or fashion may be of a lesser quantity, but they would be available, the major issue that I saw that was the lack of supplemental security and availability of those persons receiving Medicare and/or Medicaid. So that jumped out at me right away just because here the area I was dealing with being of course, employment, and seeing workman's comp come through social security disability, come through that. Nothing along the lines of those who would be eligible for supplemental security income. 

JOE ZESSKI: And of course being 2021, we do have to touch on COVID-19. Have there been any particular challenges for people with disabilities in the Virgin Islands around the COVID-19 virus? 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Well, Joe, the isolations played in our favor because we have no one point. Last March no airplanes, no ships coming in there. Only the population here was the basic population. There is no , people going and coming and we're on the shutdown. So the numbers of persons being infected with the virus are very low. We have very low death rate on all three islands, and it was just one of those things I would sit back and I said well, this is one time where isolation from the mainland has paid off. 

JOE ZESSKI: So it has some benefit finally. Yeah. 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: And what's happend now is those who can sail, and once the airlines open up, soon, it became medical tourism spot. People who have townhouses or timeshares started coming here, and especially after the vaccinations were released because there was no long lines in order to get vaccinated. I got vaccinated a month and a half after the release of the first vaccine. So that's happened that I would go up there and you very seldom see anyone from the Virgin Islands in the line. 

So some of that has to do with suspicion, people being suspect of the vaccination but I'm the prior duration I have been to the polio shots, the boosters both German measles shots that gave out. So I've been very well vaccinated and ready for international travel. So those are the issues. 

JOE ZESSKI: Exactly. Archie, it's been a pleasure having you on the podcast and we look forward to having you come back in the future. 

ARCHIE JENNINGS: Thank you for having me Joe. Great to have returned the favor. Glad to do so. 

JOE ZESSKI: I appreciate that, and that's it for today's episode of Ask about the ADA. Please remember to visit our website northeastada.org. Look for us on social media. Send us your questions about the Americans with disabilities act and thank you again for joining us. Let's continue the conversation. 

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