1 00:00:01,219 --> 00:00:05,599 My name is Jeff Moyer. I am a 71 year old disability rights advocate, 2 00:00:05,599 --> 00:00:10,109 writer, and musician. I've been involved with the ADA since before 3 00:00:10,109 --> 00:00:14,209 it's inception when we were working to establish the 4 00:00:14,209 --> 00:00:20,579 beginning of disability rights through the 504 regulations 5 00:00:20,579 --> 00:00:28,079 that were signed in 1977 following a 26 day sit in at 6 00:00:28,079 --> 00:00:32,079 the San Francisco federal building and I was a musician 7 00:00:32,079 --> 00:00:35,439 during that, although I did not live there like those heroes did. 8 00:00:35,439 --> 00:00:41,219 I came and went. I had a young child. My involvement with the ADA began 9 00:00:41,219 --> 00:00:49,189 when I heard Justin Dart speak in 1988 I was captivated by his soaring oratory, 10 00:00:49,189 --> 00:00:53,189 and his unifying message. I introduced myself and 11 00:00:53,189 --> 00:00:57,999 asked if I might one day record his oratory, he said yes and that 12 00:00:57,999 --> 00:01:04,059 began our friendship which led to him inviting me to perform my song 13 00:01:04,059 --> 00:01:10,099 the ADA anthem at the U.S. senate at the evening reception following 14 00:01:10,099 --> 00:01:14,099 the signing of the ADA at the white house in the morning. 15 00:01:14,099 --> 00:01:20,499 I then became involved as a member of the ADA implementation network 16 00:01:20,499 --> 00:01:25,169 and worked pro bono with people all over the country. 17 00:01:25,169 --> 00:01:31,119 Helping ensure that the rights created by the ADA were realized in their lives. 18 00:01:33,907 --> 00:01:40,057 I began to go blind the summer of 1954, two weeks before my younger 19 00:01:40,057 --> 00:01:44,967 brother was born with a severe cognitive disability and I think my 20 00:01:44,967 --> 00:01:53,197 realization of exclusion and such occurred for me as I was trying to see 21 00:01:53,197 --> 00:01:59,117 in first grade, to read and the materials were not accessible, 22 00:01:59,757 --> 00:02:03,757 but my teacher had to write out everything she wrote on the board 23 00:02:03,757 --> 00:02:07,757 and hand it to me separately. So it was my first realization 24 00:02:07,757 --> 00:02:11,757 of a need and also the human intervention that met my needs. 25 00:02:11,758 --> 00:02:18,298 For my brother it wasn't so easy and he became the victim of 26 00:02:18,298 --> 00:02:24,748 extreme thuggery, and childhood violence and there were no schools 27 00:02:24,785 --> 00:02:28,785 that would accept him, not even the schools for kids with disabilities. 28 00:02:28,852 --> 00:02:34,322 As a result, he was institutionalized when he was 9 years old and that 29 00:02:34,891 --> 00:02:41,141 opened a chapter in my life that continues about understanding 30 00:02:41,141 --> 00:02:48,151 the needs of people with cognitive disabilities that thanks to the mighty 31 00:02:48,151 --> 00:02:54,121 Olmstead decision as part of the ADA institutional life was considered a 32 00:02:54,121 --> 00:02:58,371 violation of civil rights. There's so much to that story. 33 00:02:58,772 --> 00:03:09,702 The ADA was a wonderful construct, however in it's construction, 34 00:03:09,711 --> 00:03:16,321 the decision was made by the senate to exclude blindness so 35 00:03:16,321 --> 00:03:25,017 every intersection in the country had curb cuts, but putting in accessible signals 36 00:03:25,017 --> 00:03:32,147 for people with visual disabilities is a local option and I'm afraid that 37 00:03:32,147 --> 00:03:38,127 and I know that for a fact. A dear friend of mine who's since passed 38 00:03:38,127 --> 00:03:42,807 was part of that whole process in Washington. Her name was 39 00:03:42,807 --> 00:03:51,237 Mary Jane Owen. So the ADA is a great promise, but it's only realized 40 00:03:51,237 --> 00:04:01,155 through individual action when people apply the skills of advocacy 41 00:04:01,155 --> 00:04:05,155 to make sure that case by case, it's realized. 42 00:04:05,808 --> 00:04:12,318 I was invited to the white house for the signing ceremony and I got 43 00:04:12,318 --> 00:04:16,318 there early just by virtue of when my plane landed so I was seated 44 00:04:16,318 --> 00:04:20,938 in the front row of the public section. There was a section for congress, and 45 00:04:20,938 --> 00:04:24,058 the administration and then a section for the public. 46 00:04:24,058 --> 00:04:28,058 When the president walked out crossing the platform that had 47 00:04:28,058 --> 00:04:31,628 been constructed so that he could be seen by the crowd, by the 48 00:04:31,628 --> 00:04:36,219 audience rather, of course the congressional section rose as one 49 00:04:36,219 --> 00:04:41,099 in applause and then there came people yelling, "We can't see, sit 50 00:04:41,099 --> 00:04:47,129 down!" Senator Kennedy was sitting right in front of me 51 00:04:47,129 --> 00:04:50,369 and the woman who I met who was sitting next to me said that 52 00:04:50,369 --> 00:04:55,819 he whipped around and realized that they were blocking the 53 00:04:55,819 --> 00:04:59,819 view of people in wheelchairs. So there was this moment of 54 00:04:59,819 --> 00:05:03,819 collision of protocol and accessibility 55 00:05:04,527 --> 00:05:11,067 Of course people sat down. So it was the first time, as the ADA was 56 00:05:11,067 --> 00:05:17,077 being signed, that accessibility was realized by virtue of personal action. 57 00:05:19,632 --> 00:05:23,632 I think this is going to be a difficult time for realization of anything new 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 concerning disability rights, because as our country is now 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 wrestling with the economic outcome due to being shut 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 down due to Coronavirus, I think we're going to be 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 working real hard just to maintain the ground we have. 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If I could have anything I wanted in terms of accessibility, it would 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 be to reopen the ADA's mighty pages to include information 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and orientation access and by that I mean if you're able to 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ambulate and you're blind or you can't read by virtue of a 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 cognitive disability, simple things like street crossings, bus numbers, 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 signs in buildings are difficult, impossible to read if you can't 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 see or can't read. This technology is called talking signs, and we came 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 very close. All of this is not required by the ADA, to see that 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 realized as part of the ADA. However, the republicans blocked 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the highway bill because they didn't want President Obama 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to have any victories and we had a high priority amendment 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to that, that would've made Washington, D.C. the first 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 accessible city in the world for people who can't see or can't read. 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When that happened after 10 years of effort to get to that 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 point, the little company went under. I had been a volunteer 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for it for 10 years and with it came really a crushing defeat 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 for that type of accessibility. Now, there certainly are many 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 types of access through one's cellphone if you're able to 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 do that, but so many people aren't able or can't afford it 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that it makes accessibility something that requires money 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and the responsibility that the ADA made clear is that the 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 responsibility for access is on behalf of the government. 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 People have disabilities, situations create handicaps. 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think what the ADA did was open the possibility for people 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that employment was going to be open to them. 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In fact we've lost ground since the ADA was passed, because people 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 hid behind it in terms of their response to hiring. 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We need to make greater progress in terms of employment equity. 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As well as orientation and information access. 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The ADA, I just heard Robert Moses who is one of the great 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 heroes of the civil rights movement, freedom summer 1964 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and he said the Civil Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 are ideas, but they have yet to be fully realized. 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The ADA, it's an idea, it's a construct, it's a mighty 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 accomplishment, but to see it fully realized in our lives 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 requires accessibility and said decision addresses 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what I consider to be the most extreme need we have. 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That is safe and accessible housing for people with 100 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 cognitive disabilities. Institutions still exist, and even 101 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the community it takes advocates to make sure that 102 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 people are able to live in safe and welcoming environments, even in 103 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 their own home. I saw this with my brother who died of lung cancer 104 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because of being addicted to cigarettes in the institution 105 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 when he was a child. 106 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But even in his last days there was thievery and violence in the home 107 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which is of course what we expected we would be getting 108 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 away from when I was able to move him from the institution 109 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 into a supported living home. So the greatest need is the 110 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 needs of the least among us. Once again, we must listen to 111 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 our heart intelligence, know what is right and then find 112 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the way that one's rights can address that. 113 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The ADA, IDEA, 504, the Voting Rights Act, or the Fair Housing 114 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Act amendments. There are many laws in the quilted protections 115 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we have, but each of them require individual planning and each of 116 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 them require advocacy. So all of you advocates, 117 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 all of you young people there that are reading this or 118 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 watching this, the torch is being passed and it's 119 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 important that younger generations now take on the 120 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 mantle of continuing to move forward with our beloved, hard 121 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 won disability rights, which are our civil rights. 122 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I hope that people are able to think more broadly about what we 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 need as a community and pull as one in common direction, 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 common cause for possibly the good of a few in the 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 community, but we all benefit when we are lifted up through 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 accessibility. 127 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I added music to our demonstration to the signing 128 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of the ADA, to the commemoration of it's 10th anniversary. 129 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Throughout I've understood the power of music. 130 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It communicates to the wider community. It buoys us up as 131 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 advocates and it unites us. Martin Luther King J.R.'s 132 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 widow said it the day of national service, the Martin Luther King 133 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 holiday, that we have when we were involved in the civil rights 134 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 movement, the 60's the disability rights movement 135 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the 70's, it was music that helped us create a community 136 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because we sang together as one and I do hope that 137 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 music is not lost as a means to pull us together. 138 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If there's one thing we need now, it is to know that we are one 139 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 as people with disabilities, that we all share the same histories of 140 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in different ways of discrimination and exclusion and our rights 141 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 are protected by the same laws. I do hope that culture continues 142 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 binding us together and giving voice through it's myriad ways 143 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so that people are able to express the reality and hope. 144 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Hope is what we need more than ever right now and 145 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that is what the ADA provided, was a great beacon of hope.