Recognizes all people with disabilities are entitled to inclusive educational opportunities; Affirms the importance of ensuring people with disabilities can achieve independence and autonomy to the greatest extent possible and that people with disabilities should play a central role in the design and implementation of the support they receive; Recognizes the financial challenges that many families with members who have disabilities face and the importance of supporting these families with appropriate public and private resources. The community relations field should: Advocate that members of the Jewish community who have disabilities have access to and within community facilities, camps, agencies, schools, and places of worship; Call upon the United States Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities; i Review the Convention [on the Rights of People with Disabilities] and use it as an educational tool to raise awareness and to change attitudes towards individuals with disabilities; Call upon the U.S. Congress to fund federal programs which support people with disabilities; Conduct disability education, awareness-raising campaigns, and training in order to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities; Help to create the conditions that expect, encourage and support individuals with disabilities to participate in all aspects of Jewish community life, organizations and governance; Plan for and include both children and adults with disabilities in the programming and outreach of the Community Relations Councils to the degree it is fair and appropriate; Recommend that Jewish communities create an accessibility study and consult with people with disabilities and caregivers in order to plan and implement physical, communication, programmatic or schedule changes to Jewish community institutions; Develop relationships with other community organizations that support people with disabilities so that opportunities and areas for cooperation, volunteering and education may be explored, enhanced and actualized; Support advocacy by its member organizations for public policies, programs and funding toward the goal of full inclusion of people with disabilities into society and to benefit the needs of people with disabilities; Emphasize the importance that qualified trained and compensated caregivers have on the quality of life for people with disabilities, their families and the entire community; Should prepare and circulate resource materials that foster programming advocacy for people with disabilities and include individuals with disabilities when preparing these materials. (Resolution 2014 Plenum) 1
United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=259
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