Arizona native Henry Watkins is the new executive director for the Center for Disability Law, a non-profit law firm that represents the disabled in court to protect their legal rights in housing, transportation, employee and health care related issues, to name a few.

The Vietnam veteran and former regional chief administrative law judge for Social Security now oversees the center’s planning, day-to-day operations and 36 employees who seek to ensure the legal rights and well-being of Arizona’s 900,000 residents the U.S. Census Bureau defines as disabled. At the Legislature, the Center for Disability Law would like to see expanded preventative dental care for adults and additional funding for job training for the disabled.

Mr. Watkins assumed his position in mid-November, replacing the center’s founder and executive director Leslie Cohen. After a decade, Ms. Cohen left the center to pursue private practice and consulting on disability affairs. The many years and experience of Mr. Watkins, she said, leaves the center “in good hands.”

Regarding his clients, he say, “Disabilities cut across every category. In politics, they’re independents, they’re Democrats, they’re Republicans. They are of every religion, they’re every race, and so they’re basically America. They’re trying to realize their full potential and be the best they can possibly be. With a little help from us I think they can achieve that.” He was interviewed by Arizona Capitol Times in the Center’s Phoenix office Dec. 5.

What are the challenges facing the Arizona Center for Disability Law≠

The primary challenges that I have undertaken are to give to the disability center so we touch the lives of folks who can use our services and also so the community understands what we do and becomes supportive of us so that we can do even more with volunteer help, contributions and those sort of things. I’m trying to make known the excellent work that the employees in this center do to the broad community. I think it’s an underreported story.

Do you have any plans to run the center differently than its former executive director, Leslie Cohen≠

No. I think Leslie Cohen did a very good job. She was the initial executive director of the center. She brought aboard great staff, they did great work and helped a lot of people in the community. My goal is to improve upon the great foundation that she has already built.

What should the otherwise healthy and able population understand about the lives of physically and/or mentally disabled children and adults≠

That they have the same hopes, dreams and aspirations as everybody else. They have a few challenges and with a little help from their friends and a little appropriate assistance they can achieve most of those dreams and desires in their lives. Unfortunately there are some stereotypes that exist with regard to folks who have disabilities. Unhappily, more and more people are suffering from disabilities — war, ravages of age, accidents — some of those barriers are coming down. This is an unhappy way for the barriers to be coming down; for families to experience. What we’re trying to do is show them that these folks are like everyone else in the community. Disabilities cut across every category. In politics, they’re independents, they’re Democrats, they’re Republicans, they are of every religion, they’re every race, and so they’re basically America. They’re trying to realize their full potential and be the best they can possibly be and with a little help from us I think they can achieve that.

You have spent a large part of your career dealing with disability law, most recently as a southeast regional chief administrative law judge for Social Security. In your estimation how does Arizona compare to these other states in terms of its treatment of the disabled≠

Well I’m biased. I was born and raised and educated in Arizona. I think Arizona is a wonderful state. It is a state where people love their independence but they also love their fellow Arizonans. The helping hand is always been something I’ve experienced. People have helped me when I have lived here, when I went to school, when I went looking for jobs to work my way through school I always found someone who was empathetic and sympathetic to what I was trying to do. I think that’s what Arizona is all about. It’s been people of all political stripes from Barry Goldwater to Bruce Babbitt. They’ve all been helpful and I think they view Arizona as a big family. I think Arizona is filled with good people and what we have to do is to make sure that they’re educated and informed… so they can assist.

What does a society’s treatment, attention and care to its most vulnerable — those afflicted since birth with severe autism, multiple sclerosis and other diseases and those severely disabled by accident — tell you about that society≠

It tells us, I think, where the true character and the heart of that society is — how we treat those who can’t advance our career, who can’t help us or reciprocate necessarily. It tells us that we’re doing something because it’s the right thing to do and out of the goodness of our heart and not out of any self-interest. I think it speaks volumes in the loudest possible tone about the character, the worth and the heart of society.

It seems that you have thought about that a bit. Where did you get those realizations from≠

I’ve lived a long time and I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve lived in a lot of places. I have grown from my youthful view of being judgmental and thinking I knew everything and formed opinions about people. An example, I formed opinions about people based on certain stereotypes and those people later became my dear and best friends and this is from judges that I knew in Mississippi and Alabama who basically worked with me under my general supervision. Before I took that job I had never been in the state of Mississippi. It turns out that Mississippi is now one of my favorite states and I have a lot of dear friends there. It’s casting aside the stereotypes and opening yourself up so that you can get to know somebody to help them and perhaps be helped in the process.

What will the Arizona Center for Disability law ask from the Arizona Legislature this session≠

We don’t have a legislative agenda. We do have some issues that we would like them to pay attention to, but I don’t want to make my introduction — next week I will go over and meet at least five or six or seven of the legislators — I don’t want to make my introduction a request for an agenda. I want to let them know first who I am, what we’re trying to do and with that being accomplished, the broad goals the center is trying to achieve without regard to party line or affiliation or liberal or conservative — just open the dialogue and start focusing on working together. I believe that if people are released to realize their best instincts that we can get a lot of things done. If we avoid name calling and labeling and stereotypes, that’s what I hope to do in terms of working with the Legislature. But first, I want them to know who I am, what the center is about and make that introduction before we start any kind of conversation about what we want. I think that when you meet someone for the first time and you ask them for something it creates a bad impression, it suggests that the nature of the relationship is premised on them being able to do something for you and I want to avoid that at the outset.

What sort of issues is the state of Arizona having with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits workplace discrimination against the disabled≠

Issues all across
the board. Our first process is education and outreach — trying to educate the public, employers and also the disabled, these are what your rights are, these are what your responsibilities are and this is what you can achieve if you work together. Hopefully this will preempt and forestall a lot of problems down the road in terms of lawsuits. If that education doesn’t solve that problem our next process is mediation and negotiation to get the two sides together to reach some kind of agreement short of court. I view court as the last resort. I don’t think that because someone has sued that they are proceeding in bad faith. Some problems just aren’t worked out in those first two stages. We will respect the community and Arizona and I’m sure they will respect us as well, but sometimes you just have to take that last step and you have to go to court to vindicate the rights of the people with disabilities.

What challenges do the disabled have participating in the political process≠

A member of my staff is now working on an initiative with the secretary of state and with the registrars of all the counties to try to make sure that the barriers of registration — going to the polls and actually executing their ballots are totally eliminated. That project is ongoing even as we speak. It’s essential that every American participate in the political process. It’s not important to me who they support and what issues they support as long as they are informed and active and involved in the process. The center is making substantial progress with the cooperation, of course, of the secretary of state.

What sort of barriers are you talking about≠

There are barriers for the hearing impaired, the sight impaired, and access to the polls for people in wheelchairs. Once you get there to vote for a sight-impaired person to go and pull the curtain and actually know who they are voting for and to exercise their own ballot independently with full knowledge requires some accommodations with voting machinery and the entire process. We’re trying to figure out what is the best way to do that.

The medication of children diagnosed with behavioral or emotional problems has become a hot issue. Where is the line drawn between kids being kids and children requiring medication≠

That’s more of a medical problem than a legal question. Our job is to assess the situation and rely on the appropriate experts. If a child has an issue- be it attention deficit disorder or any other diagnosis- it’s not our job to go in and say this person should get this medication. Our job is to get the best medical advice we can in terms of the needs of the child to address those problems so that the child can fully integrate themselves into the community — the recreational community, the educational community and not be isolated from the rest of the community. If a doctor tells us this is the best way to do that, this medication, we have to at some point rely on the counsel and advice of the doctors. We don’t engage in medical diagnosis here.

Mr. Watkins, thank you for your time.

Thank you for coming.