I'm Art Blaser in Orange, California
South of Los Angeles.
And the first question had to do with
my background and how I became aware
of the ADA, a disability association
In my case, although I had some knowledge before,
not a lot less than most people,
til I became disabled,
Which was in 1983, I had a brain stem stroke
and became disabled and a full time
wheelchair user today.
and I would say that
the issues of disability
I confronted
a big one was access to my home
and a simple one was access to my job.
That although curb cuts were in theory
supposed to be in place
by 1995, in practice, they weren't.
They are today, which I think is
emblematic of the impact of the ADA.
As of now we've got things
to the time but,
the spirit of the ADA
was the confrontation of
people being public about their needs
and eventually, Orange, where I lived,
had curb cuts at the corners, which meant
it was possible for me to live
about five blocks from campus.
I had improvements and accommodations
which included a computerized voice
that makes it possible to teach.
The kinds of things that
wouldn't have existed decades ago.
Fortunately, in California as a professor
I was able to take advantage of
good state laws.
But I think they're being forced by
the spirit of the ADA.
We see the ADA's affect for good point of the spirit
and some things that don't work
just about every day that they
try to get access to different buildings.
and quite often the experiences
of other people say
this shouldn't be happening,
but in fact it is.
But the big difference is
is that were people motivated,
eventually things change and adapt.
I've noticed it most
in education.
that I teach
at Chapman University, since 1981,
so before the ADA.
And, When I was not disabled I taught it there
I noticed a lot of the affects through
teaching disabilities, at least.
and I've had students
who actually grew up knowing
that the ADA existed
and they're the so-called "ADA generation"
Which makes a big difference
People are claiming disability and trying
to make the world a better place.
And, in many cases, they're successful
and in some cases, not.
But there are reasons for it
and I think there's a desire
to understand the reasons.
I think they want us to
The association
where and how people live
and the contrast between nursing homes
and lacks of the community
Or medical setting
and we're experiencing through Covid-19 the current crisis
a lot of death in nursing homes worldwide.
and we also
I think one of the
unfortunate things we are seeing
is the lack of forward movement
toward nursing home reforms
or estates
we can't continue to live in congregate settings
and a number of people are
the independent living centers
and independent living movement
some things that I feel privileged
in a lot of ways to be involved in
with a center for independent living
for Orange county and LA
and a major issue has been
transitions from nursing homes
and that will continue to be a major
issue including interpretations of cores.
which I think it's very important
not only in the Untied states
but also whereas well
England has notes ruffly the same thing happing
About half the deaths
are people in nursing homes
is that now were seeing a lot
of people who've covid 19
tested positive and recovered
but a lot of indications that they
haven't recovered perfectly
that many of them like me have stroke
some things similar to multiple sclerosis
and a lot of people haven't thought
of themselves as disabled but in fact
have many of the conditions of disability
and an important factor in the coming years
I think will be that people claim disability
and discover that it's actually a part
of the way a lot of us live
and that's something that's
going to go away, become impotent
to people like me is that
we can make the world a lot better
by anodizing the rights
that should come along with disability
the most important step that
we as community members can take
is education so that they can see that
all of us are involved in thew their life span
because they can inside..........
and considering people of both
dimensions of disability
some with pride and positive atitudes
towards human differences continue
thew the life spans and
at first, might find it difficult to
deal with disability threw politics
like the Americans with Disability Acts
and......... Right
but thats very