Bates helps shepherd bill to aid the disabled.

The plight of wheelchair-reliant lawyer Aaron Bates--who needs a personal care attendant to work--helped persuade legislators to pass a bill that will make a pilot program permanent and statewide.

"It finally passed and it's a done deal," said Bates, a 27-year-old Orlando lawyer with muscular dystrophy who wheeled through the halls of the Capitol lobbying for change.

"After three years, we were able to finally push it through. This is a point in time when the government did what was right. It is important to commend the state of Florida for being progressive in this area," Bates said.

SB 370, sponsored by Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville, and HB 731, sponsored by Rep. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, amends the existing personal care attendant program for individuals who are disabled as a result of a traumatic spinal cord injury and expands the program to include persons who have severe and chronic disabilities of all kinds.

In Florida, the original Personal Care Attendant Program of July 2005 had limited funding and only supported individuals with spinal cord injury. Bates was ineligible because his disability is from cell disease, not injury. The 2006 Legislature created a pilot program with the expanded eligibility in Lake, Orange, Osceola, and Seminole counties.

The new law expands the program statewide and makes it permanent. According to a legislative staff analysis, the program will serve between 34 to 70 individuals a year, paying up to $1,500 a month based on a sliding scale. The money for the program comes from the Tax Collection Enforcement Diversion Program and the Motorcycle Specialty License Plate Program.

The bill names the program the James Patrick Memorial Work Incentive Personal Attendant Services Program.

Martina Schmid, executive director of the Florida Association of Centers for Independent Living, who lobbied for the bill and will administer the program, explained the legislation's namesake:

"Jimmy Patrick collected unremitted sales tax in the Jacksonville state attorney's office [a funding source for the personal care attendant program] and was the incentive for the [original] spinal cord bill, even though he had a tumor and didn't qualify for the program. He had no use of his limbs, and used voice-activated software. He passed away. It showed Sen. Wise how productive someone who is a quadriplegic can be."

And Bates, Schmid said, helped show legislators, by his testimony at committees and lobbying, that many people would rather work than sit at home and collect disability benefits.

"It allows people who have chosen to work, instead of getting SSI or SSDI, to now get a small payment to help them with a personal care attendant and work and be independent," Schmid said.

Muscular dystrophy keeps Bates in an electric wheelchair, but the crippling disease has never kept him from reaching high. His dilemma was featured in the January 15, 2006, Bar News.

The personal care attendant he needs--to help him dress, bathe, and get in and out of his motorized wheelchair--was provided by the state Division of Rehabilitation throughout his education, but stopped once he landed a job as an assistant state attorney in the Fifth Judicial Circuit. Therefore, he could not accept the $40,000-a-year job, because an attendant costs about $35,000 a year, so he had to return to Alabama to live with his parents. The irony was that Bates could receive disability benefits if he chose to stay home and not work, but that was not an option for this ambitious, bright Florida State University College of Law graduate.

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After publicity of Bates' plight, he was hired at Mirabilis Venture, Inc., a mergers and acquisitions corporation, where they sweetened the job offer by including a personal care attendant in Bates' compensation.

For the past 11 months, Bates has opened his own practice in Orlando, handling generally complex commercial litigation, with partner Matthew Mokwa.

And there's one special case he has taken on contingency: a client with a form of dystonia, which causes muscles to contract involuntarily, which was denied access to an air flight unless he was accompanied.

"The 11th Circuit [Court of Appeals] has said explicitly there is no private right of action if you are discriminated against by an airline. If I prevail, I'll make new law.... So I am still able to do some of the issues close to my heart, which are issues dealing with disabled individuals."

According to the Department of Education, for every dollar spent to assist people with disabilities, $16 are returned to the economy in terms of saved public funds and taxes paid. Further, if persons with disabilities are able to work and live independently, they are more likely to avoid more expensive long-term care options, including nursing home care, which averages $62,000 a year in Florida, according to a legislative staff analysis.

By Jan Pudlow

Senior Editor