Blind U.S Mum Pushes for Family Preservation Bill

A blind American mum who was declared legally blind when her children were 2 and 3 years old, due to Retinitis Pigmentosa, is pushing forward a new bill called Family Preservation for Parents with Disability after she was forced to move away in order to keep joint custody of her two children.

The place she was forced to move to had far less public transportation, something she relies on now she cannot drive a car. The move took away many of the ways she had learned to adapt to her loss of vision and made her job as a parent more challenging, something judges completely disregarded when making their decision. After her experience, she is fighting for bill HB-1104 to pass through the Colorado senate. It would mean that disability would not be allowed to be used as a reason to deny custody in divorce disputes or care proceedings or as a basis of denial of adoption.

The bill has already passed in the house, with the exception of one vote. This means that the final decision will have to be made in court.

Two other states in America already have similar acts. America also enacted its first anti-discrimination laws for people with disabilities in 1990, five years before the UK. It is high time the UK brought in a similar family preservation act of law.

See HB-1104.

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