A new lawsuit brought by a group of intellectually-disabled people in Texas accuses the state of routinely “warehousing” the disabled in nursing homes, reports KVUE.
Advocates for the disabled say Texas is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal laws by denying more than 4,000 Texans the right to to live in the community. The state insists that it committed these disabled citizens in order to provide them with the highest quality of services.
Court records show that one intellectually disabled woman was left in bed for 165 hours a week without any physical therapies. She eventually was unable to straighten her wrists, ankles, shoulders, legs or hips and developed a spine deformity. The lawsuit against the state was filed in 2010, but is still working its way through the system six years later.
Yvette Ostolaza, an attorney for the disabled clients, said, “Our belief is that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have just as much right to live in the community as anyone else.”