Client Rights

Title 34_B: 5605 Rights and Basic Protections of a Person with an Intellectual Disability and Autism serves as the guiding framework for services that IAM provides clients. This law says how people are supposed to be treated; here is an easy-to-read version.

1. No one can tease you or make fun of you. You can tell them to leave you alone if they do.

2. No one can stop you from attending church or saying prayers if you want to.

3. No one can read your mail, email, or messages unless you say it’s O.K. No one can stop you from mailing a letter.

4. No one can stop you from using the telephone, and no one can listen to your phone calls unless you say it’s O.K.

5. No one can stop other people from coming to visit you, and no one can hang around when you

have company unless you say it’s O.K.

6. If you have a job, you must be paid fairly according to existing laws.

7. No one can stop you from voting, and no one can tell you who to vote for. After you vote, no one can make you tell who you voted for unless you want to tell.

8. No one can take away your clothes or money or touch your things unless you say it’s O.K.

9. No one can take away your food to punish you or to be mean to you.

10. No one can stop you from going to the doctor if you don’t feel well or to the dentist if your teeth hurt. No one can stop you from asking the doctor to come to see you if you don’t have a way to get to his/her office. If you want to see the doctor or dentist, just ask. No one can make you go to the doctor or dentist if you don’t want to go.

11. No one can make you take medicine to punish you or to keep you quiet or sleepy.

12. No one can stop you from talking to other people.

13. No one can stop you from going where you want, like going outside to walk around, going to the movies, or things like that.

14. Nobody can hit you or hurt you for doing something wrong.

15. No one can hold on to you against your will unless they are sure you will hurt yourself or someone else. No one can hold you against your will to punish you or be mean to you.

16. No one can put you in a bed with bars unless it protects you from falling out.

17. You have a right to see anything written about you. All you have to do is ask. No one can show these records to anybody unless you say they can.

18. You have the right to get together with the other people you live with and to form a group to make your needs known to those who own and run the place you live and work in.

19. Before anyone can make you live somewhere you don’t want to, such as an institution, a judge needs to say that you need to go and that it is the best and only place for you at the time.

20. If you think someone is trying to stop you from doing any of these things or isn’t treating you as they are supposed to, you can tell your caseworker or your friend to help you and make them stop treating you wrong.

21. No one can talk about you to others without your permission.

22. If you use sign language or gestures to communicate, you have the right to work, live, and relax with others who can sign to you and understand your signs and gestures.