2024 Annual Report
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All images by CTD unless otherwise noted.
INTRODUCTION
We are pleased to report on our successes outside the Legislature in advocacy education, the arts, and coalition building. Our advocacy team made strides that left us feeling optimistic as we headed into 2025 and the 89th legislative session. What did CTD do to bring down barriers for Texans with disabilities in 2024? Read on!
STAFF CHANGES
In 2024, the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities took advantage of the interim year to navigate leadership transitions and restructure our staff. Executive Director Dennis Borel retired after 24 years of leading CTD. In addition to a long list of accomplishments at the Texas Legislature, Dennis has advocated to Congressional representatives on access to healthcare and services and served on national coalitions, like the Better Medicare Alliance. Dennis has not only become a respected leader in the disability advocacy community, but also a mentor and teacher for the next generation, including to his successor: Chase Bearden, who has been with the Coalition for almost 20 years.
“Chase’s dedication and years of experience position him to be well equipped to lead us into a new era of creative advocacy for Texans with disabilities. CTD’s phenomenal staff is prepared to continue demonstrating teamwork and expand their culture of supportive management.” – CTD Board President Kenneth Semien Sr.
Chase and Dennis at CTD’s old office in 2009, meeting with Susan Merrick (left) and Larry Johnson.
This year we also said goodbye to our colleagues Tim Canciglia and Jennifer Toon. Tim joined CTD's advocacy team as our 2022-2024 Public Policy Fellow. He contributed significantly to advocacy efforts that increased the wages of community attendants, added a Medicaid dental benefit for adults with disabilities, and more. Tim’s excellent communication skills, unshakeable commitment to quality output, and commanding presence as the voice of an issue were just a few of the assets he lent to CTD during this Fellowship. Tim is continuing his work as the SSVF Program Manager at Caritas of Austin.
Jennifer Toon served as our Mental Health Peer Policy Fellow from 2020-2024. During her tenure with CTD, she influenced a number of important policy reforms to support criminal justice-involved Texans with disabilities and their families. These efforts have included mental health support, high school education, accessible medical transport, and medical parole. Jen uses her lived experience to bring attention to the often-forgotten voices of other system-impacted women, youth, and people with disabilities. She is continuing with this important mission as the Community Advocacy Manager at the After Violence Project.
2022-2024 CTD advocacy team at a Telicon training, from left, Chase Bearden, Tim Canciglia, Jennifer Toon, Dennis Borel, and Jolene Foster (just out of frame).
We also welcomed two new policy fellows, Yulissa Chávez and Cole Glosser. Yulissa's policy interests are in democracy, healthcare, education, and immigration. She specializes in education policy, specifically how Texas public schools are funded and how education affects a person's quality of life, from health to incarceration and wealth. Cole is focused upon research, policy analysis, and recommendations to the Texas Legislature regarding the prevention, treatment, and recovery of children and youth with disabilities and their families in navigating the mental health care system. He is also playing a major role in CTD’s work to increase community attendant wages.
From left, Cole Glosser, Advocacy Director Jolene Foster, Yulissa Chávez, and Executive Director Chase Bearden at the Capitol
MAJOR ADVOCACY WORK
The legislature did not meet in 2024, so we worked to set the table for positive advocacy in 2025. We built on foundations laid last session and took advantage of opportunities to prepare ourselves and our membership for the session ahead.
Voting Rights and Elections
2024 was a key year for voting. From the primary elections in March to the general elections in November, CTD engaged all the tools at our disposal to empower Texans with disabilities to exercise their right to vote. This year, we:
- Shared resources to help people make a plan to vote, become an informed voter, and respond to obstacles that may come up.
- Provided updates to newsletter subscribers, RYV attendees, and attendees to other events on key dates for registration, early voting, and voting by mail in the 2024 election. We also provided updates about developments in Texas Election laws, voter resource guides, election protection hotlines, and ballot trackers.
- Pushed back against legislative efforts to end countywide voting. Such a measure would force voters to cast ballots only at their assigned precinct polling locations, which aren’t always accessible for Texans with disabilities. Our Executive Director Chase Bearden testified on this issue in a Senate State Affairs interim hearing in the spring. Read news coverage of the hearing.
Children and Education
Our state’s public schools are already severely underfunded, and in 2024 Texas lost $300 million dollars in annual funding for special education in a federal ruling. School districts will likely look to the state in the next legislative session to make up the shortfall, but Texas has a poor track record of increasing funds for public school budgets. Read news coverage of the ruling, with comments from our Advocacy Director Jolene Sanders.
CTD spent 2024 preparing to fight for children with disabilities to receive a quality public education. The Governor and Lt. Governor are committed to passing an education savings account (ESA) or vouchers program, which we oppose. Under a voucher program, students use tax dollars to attend private schools. This is complicated for students with disabilities, because in private settings, they relinquish their rights and protections under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). CTD will join forces with a broad coalition of education groups, parents, educators, administrators, and students to oppose this initiative in the 89th session.
Community Attendant Wages
Raising base attendant wages continues to be a top priority for CTD. The workforce of community attendants is collapsing as the gap between wages for community attendants and wages for competing employers has increased over time. In 2023, the Legislature raised the base pay for caregivers from $8.11 to $10.60, the biggest increase they’ve ever funded, but the compensation is still not in line with the job market and cost of living.
In 2024, CTD continued to push for wages to increase. We are framing the $10.60 raise from last session as a trend that needs to continue, not a one-time fix. At an interim Joint Budget Hearing with the Health and Human Services Commission & Texas Civil Commitment Office in the House of Representatives, Policy Fellow Cole Glosser testified in support of this needed change. View the hearing recording (Cole testifies from 01:08:18 to 01:11:05).
Cole is also among the leadership of a new coalition to advocate for another across-the-board wage increase. The Attendant Care Coalition is fighting for attendants in all Medicaid-supported home and community based programs that provide attendant care and all service delivery models within those programs. Together with our coalition partners, CTD will spend the 89th session fighting for a higher wage in the Legislature.
Healthcare Access
In the 87th legislative session (2019), CTD worked hard to support a bill for a dental benefit for Medicaid recipients, and we were successful. This year we worked with the American Institute of Dental Public Health to co-author an advocacy toolkit and lead a series of deep dive webinars on how individuals in other states can advocate for increasing dental benefits, learning from our case study here in Texas.
This year we also worked with Texans for Health Access to remove unnecessary barriers to care.
Civil Rights
There are several developments concerning the civil rights of Texans with disabilities that CTD has followed closely during the interim year. We have worked with coalitions, given comments on developing issues, and promoted efforts to protect them. In 2024, we:
- Joined several groups in Bernhardt Tiede’s lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Texas Attorney over inadequate heat-safety measures in TDCJ facilities. This suit has expanded beyond Tiede’s case, with potential implications for everyone incarcerated in Texas prisons. At a preliminary injunction hearing in July, the judge decided not to grant the state's request to throw out the suit and instead, let it proceed. Read more about the case.
- Amplified the call for Texas Governor Greg Abbott to grant clemency to Robert Roberson, an Autistic Texan facing execution for a crime there is substantial evidence he did not commit. Read more about the case.
- Gave testimony at Senate State affairs interim hearings on homelessness and a potential mask ban at public protests. View the hearing recording to see Cole’s testimony on homelessness and Texans with disabilities (5:08:07 to 5:10:15) and on a mask ban and immunocompromised Texans (00:39:12 to 00:41:00).
CTD Policy fellow Cole Glosser speaking at the Senate Committee on State Affairs
“Those who are chronically ill and immunocompromised deserve every right to health and safety in public life, as well as having their privacy respected in public” - CTD Policy Fellow Cole Glosser on a possible mask ban for protestors, Students, community members testify at Texas Capitol against possible mask ban for protesters, The Daily Texan, October 16.
IN THE COMMUNITY
While legislative advocacy and work with state agencies are at the forefront of our efforts to build a barrier-free Texas, that’s not all we do. In and outside the Legislature, we hold events, participate in coalitions, and more to build community and power among Texans with disabilities.
Coalitions
Our staff serves on a wide variety of workgroups, advisory councils, and boards. These include groups focused explicitly on disability issues, like REV UP Texas and the ECI Advisory Committee, and those who benefit from having a voice from our community at the table, like the Drug Utilization Review Board and the Texas Coalition for Healthy Minds.
Raise Your Voice
Our Raise Your Voice! (RYV) Advocate Connection Program held 17 virtual roundtables in 2024. Over 250 advocates and self-advocates from across the state joined us to learn, give input on CTD’s advocacy work, and prepare to make our collective voices heard in 2025. Even in an interim year, we had plenty to talk about:
- CTD staff and our guest speakers reviewed our priority issues — attendant wages, voting, education, and more — and signaled concerns and opportunities for the upcoming session
- We spent time talking about the legislative process, opportunities for action in the interim, and tools to support self-advocacy.
- We amplified the efforts of self-advocates who are preparing to bring issues before the Legislature in the 89th session, like Medicaid fair hearings and the “Florida employment model,” which allows a person on Medicaid who wants to work to have more than the $2,000 in savings currently permitted under Texas law.
In the News
Our staff and work appeared in the media 19 times in 2024, covering issues like unlicensed group care homes, heat in Texas prisons, and mask bans for protestors. Some highlights include:
- Texas conservatives want to end countywide voting. The costs could be high. Texas Tribune, June 12, 2024
- Special education enrollment grows: Alvin, Friendswood, Pearland ISDs look to state to help with funding, programming costs. Community Impact, December 16, 2024
- Exonerees and death penalty opponents ask for Robert Roberson execution to be halted. Austin-American Statesman, October 16, 2024
Cinema Touching Disability
In September, we returned to the Long Center for our 21st Cinema Touching Disability Film Festival, where attendees enjoyed shorts from many genres and countries. This year’s highlights included:
- Live performance from local musician Gretchen McMahon
- Voter registration support
- The second annual Gene Rodgers Creative Advocacy Award (awarded to Kristen Gooch and Liz Ross, co-founders of TUBU Fest)
- A Q&A with the local filmmaking team behind 3rd place non-documentary winner and Audience Favorite, EXISTING PATIENT, and
- A satellite screening of FANTASY A GETS A MATTRESS with the Hyperreal Film Club.
Find photos, full competition results, and more from this year's Fest.
Cast and crew of EXISTING PATIENT, from left, Jenn Covington, Leif Steenson, Aaron Abolt. Photo credit: Mike McDiarmid.
Literary Events
We continued holding our monthly Lion & Pirate inclusive open mic series with partner Art Spark Texas. The space has become a truly close-knit community that welcomes artists with and without disabilities, including poets, story-tellers, singer-songwriters, dancers, photographers, and more. This year, in addition to regular online gatherings, we rolled in several lively in person open mics. In July, we co-hosted a Disability Pride Showcase with Art Spark Texas at Alienated Majesty Books. Join us in 2025 for some exciting new developments including rotating guest hosts, writing groups, and hybrid open mics.
CTD and Art Spark also continued our support of the Thunder & Lightning Poetry Collective, which is led by and serves BIPOC disabled and queer disabled poets. CTD provided technical support and communications access for Storm the Mic! poetry showcases and monthly creative writing workshops.
In October, CTD co-hosted the virtual book launch of “Accessing Parenthood.” Years in the making, this collection of essays about parenting with a disability was co-edited by CTD Communications Director Laura Perna and former Editing Specialist Susie Angel. Purchase a copy.
CDS UPDATE
CTD continues to operate Capitol Care CDS, a program that allows Medicaid STAR+PLUS and STAR Kids recipients to hire and manage the people who will provide their attendant services.
Call (512) 236-1070 or email cds@txdisabilities.org for information.
IN MEMORIAM
This October, we received the sad news that a dedicated CTD board member, long-time disability advocate, and friend, John Curnutt, had passed away in Houston. John joined CTD's Board of Directors in 2010 and served for the next 12 years, until health concerns forced him to resign in 2022. During this time, he was a committed advocate, using his position and experience to advance legislation that would benefit his fellow Texans with disabilities, in their homes, out in their communities and especially at the polls. Whenever signing off from an advocacy activity (a call, training, etc.), John always encouraged everyone to "give 'em hell." When we're causing good trouble this upcoming legislative session, we'll be thinking of him. Read our full tribute to John.
John (left) and Dennis Borel speak at a CTD advocacy roundtable at UT Arlington in 2016.
In November, our dear friend, a staple of the Austin creative community, and Lion & Pirate co-host, Ms Boye Nagle, left this existence. Poet, playwright, producer, performer, wearer of bow ties, fervent supporter of creatives with disabilities, Dapper Butch Lesbian Neuro-atypical Crone Interfaith Minister (her words), friend, and so much more, Boye has been so many things to the Lion & Pirate family, and the many other families and communities she belonged to. Among the celebrations of her life, we held a hybrid open mic in December to honor her and pay tributes in stories, songs, and poems. Ms Boye always said of the Lion & Pirate, “we roll with whatever and whoever shows up.” In a world that seems to grow crueler by the day, we’ll all be holding on to her invitation to be adaptable, courageous, welcoming, and joyful. View photos and memories on Art Spark's tribute Facebook post.
October 2023, at the first in person Lion & Pirate open mic since the pandemic lockdown. From left, back: Celia Hughes, Juan Muñoz, April Sullivan, Ms. Boye Nagle, Laura Perna, Mary Rose Bushland, Devin Gutierrez; front, seated: Amy Litzinger and Krystal Cates. Photo credit: Patty Bushland.
