Fully Participate in Public Life

I am the primary caretaker in a Neurodiverse family. All members of my family are members of the disability community. Navigating the systems meant to support us has opened my eyes to how fragile and inconsistent those supports truly are, particularly in rural and small-town Colorado.

For years, I have been deeply involved in my community; serving seven years as Mayor Pro Tem, and later working as the Deputy Town Clerk. I have always believed that when people with lived experience are involved in decision-making, better outcomes follow. I have also learned that families impacted by disabilities face unique barriers that the system is currently not built to address. The biggest barrier to people with disabilities is society.

Barriers in Schools and Public Participation

When I advocate for my children’s needs in school settings, from securing accommodations for ADHD and ASD to simply ensuring inclusive access to meetings, I encounter resistance, inconsistent policies, and processes that place the burden of proof entirely on the caregiver. Requesting remote access to participate in a school board meeting due to disability and caretaking needs should not require revealing private medical details to multiple uninformed personnel. Yet it often does or access is denied altogether.

Parents of children with disabilities already face significant emotional, financial, and time burdens. When systems require excessive advocacy just to access basic rights, it results in exclusion. Many families simply give up not because the needs disappear, but because the process is too dehumanizing.

Barriers for People with Disabilities and Caregivers Working in Government

As someone who served as an appointed municipal officer while caring for disabled children, I found that disability-related caretaking responsibilities were not recognized as requiring accommodation by many and in fact seemed to make me more vulnerable. My position was eliminated mid-term without due process, directly contradicting municipal code and state statute. There are no clear protections in Colorado law for appointed municipal officers or public servants who need accommodations tied to disability or caregiving.

We need to ensure that disabled people and caretakers can not only access public meetings, but can also serve their communities without fear of retaliation, demotion, or elimination for asserting their rights. Universal Design best practices should be the standard

Compounding Impacts of Government Service Failures

Within my municipal role, I discovered serious issues in billing systems that disproportionately harmed families with lower incomes; including many impacted by disability-related financial strain. Despite documenting errors and proposing policy fixes, these concerns were minimized as “de minimis.” Yet for many households, a single miscalculated bill can mean the choice between water and medication. The emotional burden on employees was extremely high. Administrative errors are not harmless when they affect the most vulnerable.

Recommendations Based on My Lived Experience

I hope the Task Force will consider the following:

1. Explicit protections for employees, officers, volunteers, and elected representatives with disabilities and caregivers in public service roles — including due-process requirements before removal or role modification.

2. Uniform and transparent ADA accommodation procedures for access to public meetings — remote participation should be recognized as a standard accommodation, not an exception.

3. Recognize caregiver status under disability-related employment protections — especially for parents of autistic and neurodivergent children, whose care needs are ongoing and unpredictable.

4. Statewide guidance and accountability measures for municipal service systems (utilities, notices, billing) to ensure errors do not disproportionately harm people with disabilities or low-income families.

5. Training for local government officials and staff — to reduce stigma toward invisible disabilities, neurodiversity, and mental-health related needs.

Why This Matters

The disability community is not small and it is growing. Yet families like mine are routinely told to sit down, stay quiet, or navigate systems alone. When the structures meant to protect civil rights are inconsistently applied or ignored, the result is exclusion from education, from civic life, and from the right to work and contribute.

I want my children not only to grow up in Colorado, but to stay here, thrive here, and believe that our state values them. Strengthening disability rights in every corner of government is how we make that future possible.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and for working toward a Colorado where people with disabilities and their caregivers can fully participate in public life. Not in theory, but in practice.