Cheri Emeringer, of Valparaiso, is fearful of the future for Everybody Counts, a Merrillville-based advocacy group for people with disabilities.

Emeringer doesn't want the organization to lose its federal funding and cease to exist, but she also doesn't want to see it bow to federal pressure to release every shred of clients' personal information.

"That's a breach of confidentiality," said Emeringer, a client of the organization for two years. "To just go in there and take everybody's records? That happened in communist countries."

Everybody Counts was labeled a "high-risk" organization by the U.S. Department of Education after it refused to hand over the internal records of all its clients during a monitoring review last month.

Thomas Kelly, chief of the department's Independent Living Unit, said in a July 5 letter that Everybody Counts could lose $440,000 in annual federal funding if it refuses to open all of its records for inspection.

Staff members at Everybody Counts create an internal file for every person who comes to the group for help, along with details about their situations and signed privacy guarantees.

That means the files would contain personal information about emotional and medical problems, financial matters, disputes among landlords and families, and other sensitive information, Executive Director Teresa Torres said.

Emeringer, 58, who has low vision because of multiple sclerosis, came to the group when she needed help with her landlord, who was trying to evict Section 8 tenants. Since then, she has relied on the group's advocacy for a number of reasons which she says are personal.

Typically, monitoring reviews of federally funded independent living centers like Everybody Counts are intended to ensure that the programs are serving as many people as the centers claim. Torres said inspectors in the past have accepted redacted documents, along with a general list of client names, for that purpose.

Roland Sykes, a chairman with the international advocacy group Disabled Individuals Movement for Equality Network, said he believes Everybody Counts is being targeted because it has pointed out flaws in how state and federal agencies distribute funding.

"The state has wanted to close them down for the last 10 years," Sykes said. "The easiest way to do that is to find some technicality. And that's what they're doing."

During a 10-year legal battle, Everybody Counts accused bus companies in Northwest Indiana of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act for the way in which people with disabilities were provided transportation. The suit was settled this year.