In 2004, the Virginia Disability Commission continued in its role as the leading policy forum in the Commonwealth for developing and reviewing services and funding related to Virginians with physical and sensory disabilities, and identifying and recommending legislative priorities and policies for adoption or examination by the Virginia General Assembly. After having been reconstituted by legislative resolutions several times over its fourteen-year history, the Commission was finally codified as a legislative commission during the 2004 General Assembly Session. With this new standing for the Commission came the responsibility of securing its own appropriations from the General Assembly beginning in 2005, and the transfer of staffing duties from the executive to the legislative branch of state government. These changes, in addition to many new member appointments, made 2004 a year of transition and new beginnings for the Commission. However, the Commission was still able to examine many important issues for Virginians with physical and sensory disabilities, their families, and indeed all Virginians.

The Commission held three meetings in the fall of 2004 [under its new format,] and one meeting in January of 2005, continuing its recent emphasis on employment, housing, and transportation, among other issues. This report contains summaries of presentations, testimony and discussions from those meetings as well as links to the Commission's website and other agency and organizational websites where more detailed information can be obtained.

Several items carried over from the previous year's deliberations were examined in depth, such as the status of the Medicaid Buy-In Program and the potential for a Medicaid brain injury waiver in Virginia. The Commission also monitored the work of its housing work group and the Inter-Agency Transportation Council, which was awarded a federal grant in 2004 to perform the first comprehensive inventory of Virginia's specialized transportation network. Other issues studied include public housing assistance, the accessibility of polling facilities, the impact of the Governor's 2005 budget proposals on the disability community, the status of Virginia's Olmstead Initiative, access to assistive technology, the status of Virginia's Centers for Independent Living, and the increasing rate of autism. Meanwhile, the Commission continued its tradition of welcoming comments from the public. Drawing from these deliberations, the Commission made several budgetary, legislative and policy recommendations, which are set forth in this report.

[The reporting mandate for this Commission now falls under § 30-232 of the Code of Virginia.]