Floridians with disabilities applaud new law protecting their rights

by Sabrina Maggiore,Charles Frazier

Millions of Floridians with disabilities are celebrating a new law that protects their rights.

Those new protections are listed under a Florida law that took effect this week.

Under the law, courts are now required to consider what’s known as “supportive decision-making agreements” before they place someone in legal guardianship, allowing people with disabilities to appoint helpers for certain jobs.

Michael Lincoln-McCreight became the first person in Florida to end a guardianship in favor of a supported decision-making agreement. He spent four years lobbying for a change to the law after his rights were stripped from him.

Born with fetal alcohol syndrome, autism, and ADHD, Lincoln-McCreight today is living his dream life.

He’s accomplished a life-long goal of working for Universal Orlando and supports himself in his Orange County home. He says he does not take it for granted.

“I feel like I went from being a prisoner to being a free human being,” Lincoln-McCreight said.

Lincoln-McCreight says he remembers the moments he aged out of foster care, was declared incapacitated, and was placed under guardianship.

“They take all your rights away,” Lincoln-McCreight recalled. “The right to vote. The right to get married. The right to choose who your relationships are...everything is literally stripped for you.”

Lincoln-McCreight spent years in court fighting to restore those freedoms. In 2016, a doctor and judge found he could make his own decisions, and his guardianship ended in favor of supported decision-making.

“You get help with the support of family and friends that you trust,” Lincoln-McCreight said.

For the last four years, he lobbied for the new state law requiring judges to consider alternatives to guardianship, like a notirzed, supported decision-making agreement.

Matt Dietz of Nova Southeastern Law School says the informal agreements grant supporters privileges to help those with special needs.

“Think of it as a continuum between the most restrictive and the least restrictive,” Dietz explained. “Courts now have to say, ‘Okay, you’ve come here for a guardianship, what types of decisions can this person make by themselves,’ before they say ‘the person loses all of their rights.’”

For Lincoln-McCreight, the law was worth the fight.

“This is going to make not only a difference for one person but millions of Floridians with disabilities,” Lincoln McCreight said.

The law also requires third parties to recognize supported decision-making agreements.

For example, schools and hospitals must allow appointed supporters to access confidential records if the agreements are in place.

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Floridians with disabilities applaud new law protecting their rights