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So,

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My name is Michelle .....

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I am a social psychologist and

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teach at .......... College

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in psychology and biomedical[br]humanities program

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and I just wrote a book on Abilism[br]the causes and consequences

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of disability prejudice.[br]My first memory

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and I'll just back up and say in 1990,

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when the ADA passed [br]I was in graduate school,

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in Kansas, and disability prejudice,[br]the ADA or anything

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related to disability issues [br]were completely off my radar,

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and I worked at a place [br]where one of the pioneers

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of disability studies worked, [br]Beatrice Wright,

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and I had yet to have a class with her.

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It really wasn't until 1995,[br]which was five years later,

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when my daughter was born,[br]Sierra, with spina bifoda,

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that I became aware [br]of disability and found the work

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of Carol Gill and Simi Litton[br]and began to educate myself

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on disability studies and its scope,[br]and the first memory I have of

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confronting inaccessible spaces[br]was a few years later, when we enrolled

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my daughter Sierra in a preschool,[br]at a Catholic preschool,

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right down the road; and it just didn't[br]even dawn on me that we would have to

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work so hard for her to be accommodated[br]as a preschooler,

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and it was really a function of[br]the fact that the building was older,

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there were steps, and they really didn't[br]know, nor did they need to legally know,

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about reasonable accommodations [br]and civil rights of their students,

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because they were a private facility and[br]weren't subject to the ADA's rules.

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So it became clear to me that we needed [br]to find a new preschool, and luckily

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we found another private place - [br]it wasn't a public school -

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but it was a music school settlement[br]and they had resources

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and they were already operating [br]under a sort of set of presumptions

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about the value of diversity[br]and diverse perspectives,

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and we didn't really have to ask for much,[br]because they bent over backwards

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to include my daughter[br]in a typical classroom, with her peers,

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her preschool peers, music classes,[br]there were so many eclectic--

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movement classes, and they even[br]purchased equipment

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for their exercise room and movement room[br]that would be useful to her among others,

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and she has since grown up to become this teacher [br]and has applied to work there

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as a preschool teacher, so I think[br]it would be really amazing

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if she came full circle, but I guess[br]to answer the broader question

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about being frustrated and aware of[br]inaccessibility and lack of inclusion,

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we were in a district that, when she then[br]was about to move to preschool,

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I knew that she probably wouldn't be [br]able to go to a private school,

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not only because of the financial cost[br]but also because they would not have to

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think about best practices[br]and the law when it came to

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accommodating their [br]students with disabilities,

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and so I knew we would be[br]looking at the public school,

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and the public school in our neigbourhood[br]was not accessible.

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We went to visit it,[br]the playground had a little house

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that she wouldn't have been [br]able to get into,

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and it was really disheartening[br]and so it came at a time

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when we were already [br]looking for other opportunities,

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and my husband got an opportunity[br]to move us as a family

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to the West Coast[br]of Portland of Oregon,

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so the way I-- so the way we had to[br]navigate her early educational experiences

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was to only look at spaces and schools[br]that were in districts that were new,

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so that had buildings [br]and had training in terms of

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accommodating their diverse students[br]and their disabled students,

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because just having the brief experiences[br]that I did with the preschool

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and IEP meetings that were going to[br]require me to fight at every juncture

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for her basic rights [br]to show what she knows

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and participate and recognize herself[br]as a valuable contributor

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to the school community.[br]We're not going to be forthcoming

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without a fight, [br]and so we narrowed our search

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to a district,[br]and thank God we had the opportunity

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and the resources to do this,[br]that was pretty known for their

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inclusivity.

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We did that also when we came back [br]to the Cleveland, Ohio area.

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We were able to avoid all districts[br]that weren't at the cutting edge

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of full inclusion and proof of excellence[br]and had newer buildings

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that could accommodate those [br]with disabilities,

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but I guess that that was my earliest[br]memory of how, 'Oh, we have a road

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ahead of us and we have to take it upon[br]ourselves to either continue to fight

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battles that had already been won, [br]legislatively, or, finds spaces, places

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and organizations that were ahead[br]of the curve

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in terms of implementing, monitoring and [br]just execute the basic civil rights

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of their various constituents

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The impact that all of that has had on me [br]is to just be able to communicate

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with other parents and students [br]with disabilities

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about not only knowing their rights but[br]knowing how to get those rights

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how to advocate for ensuring that those [br]rights are addressed, are met.

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I think the ADA has made [br]a huge difference

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and the 'ah ha' moment was even when I was[br]collating information for this book

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on disability prejudice, I realised that [br]when I was a kid,

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when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, [br]people with disabilities weren't able to

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do any of the things that we took for [br]granted as kids- go to the movies

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go to restaurants, go to visit a friend,[br]at a friend's house, or invite

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others to your birthday parties.

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Since the ADA passed in 1990, it wasn't [br]an immediate set of changes,

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as, there has been significant progress[br]made, particularly in public spaces

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and in employment settings, where there[br]are even employers

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who are part of an organization [br]of inclusive excellence, who

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recognize that disabled employees are [br]actually more reliable and

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have less turnover and are worth[br]investing in and promoting.

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But, there are still so many places, [br]small businesses, educational institutions

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that are not carrying out basic gains and[br]practices that the ADA has made possible

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there's just way too much variation,[br]and I think part of that

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is just a lack of education in terms what

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is reasonable and what is necessary

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in terms of accommodating your citizenry

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and lack of resources in some cases but

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also a lot of misinformation about whether

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or not it's worth it. The ADA is going to

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be 30 here in July. We're celebrating all

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over the country and we are still fighting

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for businesses to do what they should have

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done 30 years ago, those that have been

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around this long. They have not, they have

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have waited for complaints or they have

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failed to do but the bare minimum in

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terms of recruiting the largest minority

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I work in the education sphere and to me,

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we could be doing so much more with

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advertising and recruiting for those kinds

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of students that we tend to really, at

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least my institution, do well to retain

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because we're a small, intimate college

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Hiram College. For years I've tried to

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encourage us to consider more universally

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designed approaches but also approaches

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that do more when it comes to housing and

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extracurricular accommodations for

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students to who use mobility devices. For

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example, my daughter ended up having to be

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carried in her chair, to various club

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meetings while she was on the Hiram

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College campus. She was told that, in the

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winter, when the ice storms came, that

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they couldn't transport her up the long

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hill, while they were telling everyone

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else to walk like a penguin, and we had

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vans to do this. We had to file with the

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Ohio Disability Rights Commission and

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request that the school think about other

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ways of accommodating her should there

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be a storm, an ice storm, and she can't

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get up to campus.