WEBVTT 00:00:01.400 --> 00:00:02.650 So, 00:00:02.760 --> 00:00:04.560 My name is Michelle ..... 00:00:04.680 --> 00:00:06.320 I am a social psychologist and 00:00:06.370 --> 00:00:08.380 teach at .......... College 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:11.404 in psychology and biomedical humanities program 00:00:11.437 --> 00:00:15.727 and I just wrote a book on Abilism the causes and consequences 00:00:15.727 --> 00:00:18.967 of disability prejudice. My first memory 00:00:18.967 --> 00:00:21.267 and I'll just back up and say in 1990, 00:00:21.267 --> 00:00:23.730 when the ADA passed I was in graduate school, 00:00:23.769 --> 00:00:33.134 in Kansas, and disability prejudice, the ADA or anything 00:00:33.134 --> 00:00:38.954 related to disability issues were completely off my radar, 00:00:38.954 --> 00:00:43.578 and I worked at a place where one of the pioneers 00:00:43.578 --> 00:00:46.756 of disability studies worked, Beatrice Wright, 00:00:46.756 --> 00:00:50.396 and I had yet to have a class with her. 00:00:50.396 --> 00:00:53.876 It really wasn't until 1995, which was five years later, 00:00:53.876 --> 00:00:58.566 when my daughter was born, Sierra, with spina bifoda, 00:00:58.566 --> 00:01:03.394 that I became aware of disability and found the work 00:01:03.394 --> 00:01:08.862 of Carol Gill and Simi Litton and began to educate myself 00:01:08.862 --> 00:01:15.348 on disability studies and its scope, and the first memory I have of 00:01:15.348 --> 00:01:22.571 confronting inaccessible spaces was a few years later, when we enrolled 00:01:22.571 --> 00:01:26.520 my daughter Sierra in a preschool, at a Catholic preschool, 00:01:26.520 --> 00:01:31.915 right down the road; and it just didn't even dawn on me that we would have to 00:01:31.915 --> 00:01:36.388 work so hard for her to be accommodated as a preschooler, 00:01:36.472 --> 00:01:41.209 and it was really a function of the fact that the building was older, 00:01:41.252 --> 00:01:47.109 there were steps, and they really didn't know, nor did they need to legally know, 00:01:47.142 --> 00:01:52.554 about reasonable accommodations and civil rights of their students, 00:01:52.554 --> 00:01:59.595 because they were a private facility and weren't subject to the ADA's rules. 00:01:59.622 --> 00:02:05.803 So it became clear to me that we needed to find a new preschool, and luckily 00:02:05.851 --> 00:02:10.461 we found another private place - it wasn't a public school - 00:02:10.512 --> 00:02:14.346 but it was a music school settlement and they had resources 00:02:14.369 --> 00:02:18.947 and they were already operating under a sort of set of presumptions 00:02:18.989 --> 00:02:23.216 about the value of diversity and diverse perspectives, 00:02:23.263 --> 00:02:28.998 and we didn't really have to ask for much, because they bent over backwards 00:02:29.030 --> 00:02:34.284 to include my daughter in a typical classroom, with her peers, 00:02:34.324 --> 00:02:38.987 her preschool peers, music classes, there were so many eclectic-- 00:02:39.023 --> 00:02:44.557 movement classes, and they even purchased equipment 00:02:44.599 --> 00:02:52.269 for their exercise room and movement room that would be useful to her among others, 00:02:52.335 --> 00:02:59.368 and she has since grown up to become this teacher and has applied to work there 00:02:59.437 --> 00:03:02.457 as a preschool teacher, so I think it would be really amazing 00:03:02.457 --> 00:03:08.531 if she came full circle, but I guess to answer the broader question 00:03:08.531 --> 00:03:14.820 about being frustrated and aware of inaccessibility and lack of inclusion, 00:03:15.538 --> 00:03:20.904 we were in a district that, when she then was about to move to preschool, 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:25.272 I knew that she probably wouldn't be able to go to a private school, 00:03:25.337 --> 00:03:30.479 not only because of the financial cost but also because they would not have to 00:03:30.524 --> 00:03:34.471 think about best practices and the law when it came to 00:03:34.568 --> 00:03:37.441 accommodating their students with disabilities, 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:41.293 and so I knew we would be looking at the public school, 00:03:41.323 --> 00:03:45.201 and the public school in our neigbourhood was not accessible. 00:03:45.401 --> 00:03:49.384 We went to visit it, the playground had a little house 00:03:49.694 --> 00:03:52.046 that she wouldn't have been able to get into, 00:03:52.254 --> 00:03:55.876 and it was really disheartening and so it came at a time 00:03:55.876 --> 00:03:58.340 when we were already looking for other opportunities, 00:03:58.393 --> 00:04:01.573 and my husband got an opportunity to move us as a family 00:04:01.660 --> 00:04:04.079 to the West Coast of Portland of Oregon, 00:04:04.162 --> 00:04:10.507 so the way I-- so the way we had to navigate her early educational experiences 00:04:10.574 --> 00:04:17.591 was to only look at spaces and schools that were in districts that were new, 00:04:17.647 --> 00:04:23.109 so that had buildings and had training in terms of 00:04:23.178 --> 00:04:26.311 accommodating their diverse students and their disabled students, 00:04:26.369 --> 00:04:31.262 because just having the brief experiences that I did with the preschool 00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:38.810 and IEP meetings that were going to require me to fight at every juncture 00:04:38.868 --> 00:04:42.941 for her basic rights to show what she knows 00:04:42.976 --> 00:04:47.312 and participate and recognize herself as a valuable contributor 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:50.910 to the school community. We're not going to be forthcoming 00:04:50.943 --> 00:04:54.411 without a fight, and so we narrowed our search 00:04:54.454 --> 00:04:57.194 to a district, and thank God we had the opportunity 00:04:57.221 --> 00:05:02.445 and the resources to do this, that was pretty known for their 00:05:02.513 --> 00:05:04.012 inclusivity. 00:05:04.095 --> 00:05:07.731 We did that also when we came back to the Cleveland, Ohio area. 00:05:07.806 --> 00:05:12.346 We were able to avoid all districts that weren't at the cutting edge 00:05:12.412 --> 00:05:16.514 of full inclusion and proof of excellence and had newer buildings 00:05:16.583 --> 00:05:19.333 that could accommodate those with disabilities, 00:05:19.373 --> 00:05:25.867 but I guess that that was my earliest memory of how, 'Oh, we have a road 00:05:25.918 --> 00:05:32.402 ahead of us and we have to take it upon ourselves to either continue to fight 00:05:32.468 --> 00:05:40.316 battles that had already been won, legislatively, or, finds spaces, places 00:05:40.379 --> 00:05:42.932 and organizations that were ahead of the curve 00:05:42.982 --> 00:05:50.434 in terms of implementing, monitoring and just execute the basic civil rights 00:05:50.484 --> 00:05:52.938 of their various constituents 00:05:53.016 --> 00:05:58.568 The impact that all of that has had on me is to just be able to communicate 00:05:58.640 --> 00:06:02.284 with other parents and students with disabilities 00:06:02.334 --> 00:06:09.035 about not only knowing their rights but knowing how to get those rights 00:06:09.086 --> 00:06:17.342 how to advocate for ensuring that those rights are addressed, are met. 00:06:17.408 --> 00:06:21.139 I think the ADA has made a huge difference 00:06:21.202 --> 00:06:24.755 and the 'ah ha' moment was even when I was collating information for this book 00:06:24.807 --> 00:06:28.922 on disability prejudice, I realised that when I was a kid, 00:06:28.956 --> 00:06:33.641 when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, people with disabilities weren't able to 00:06:33.693 --> 00:06:39.357 do any of the things that we took for granted as kids- go to the movies 00:06:39.432 --> 00:06:44.474 go to restaurants, go to visit a friend, at a friend's house, or invite 00:06:44.546 --> 00:06:46.725 others to your birthday parties. 00:06:46.779 --> 00:06:54.992 Since the ADA passed in 1990, it wasn't an immediate set of changes, 00:06:55.011 --> 00:07:01.842 as, there has been significant progress made, particularly in public spaces 00:07:01.927 --> 00:07:07.910 and in employment settings, where there are even employers 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:13.827 who are part of an organization of inclusive excellence, who 00:07:13.876 --> 00:07:18.677 recognize that disabled employees are actually more reliable and 00:07:18.724 --> 00:07:23.145 have less turnover and are worth investing in and promoting. 00:07:23.229 --> 00:07:28.810 But, there are still so many places, small businesses, educational institutions 00:07:28.937 --> 00:07:41.383 that are not carrying out basic gains and practices that the ADA has made possible 00:07:41.458 --> 00:07:45.131 there's just way too much variation, and I think part of that 00:07:45.232 --> 00:07:48.983 is just a lack of education in terms what 00:07:49.135 --> 00:07:54.635 is reasonable and what is necessary 00:07:54.711 --> 00:07:56.933 in terms of accommodating your citizenry 00:07:57.008 --> 00:08:01.185 and lack of resources in some cases but 00:08:01.260 --> 00:08:03.633 also a lot of misinformation about whether 00:08:03.734 --> 00:08:08.236 or not it's worth it. The ADA is going to 00:08:08.293 --> 00:08:12.462 be 30 here in July. We're celebrating all 00:08:12.544 --> 00:08:15.543 over the country and we are still fighting 00:08:15.638 --> 00:08:19.813 for businesses to do what they should have 00:08:19.914 --> 00:08:22.316 done 30 years ago, those that have been 00:08:22.392 --> 00:08:25.493 around this long. They have not, they have 00:08:25.563 --> 00:08:27.769 have waited for complaints or they have 00:08:27.846 --> 00:08:31.416 failed to do but the bare minimum in 00:08:31.466 --> 00:08:34.871 terms of recruiting the largest minority 00:08:34.922 --> 00:08:37.693 I work in the education sphere and to me, 00:08:37.792 --> 00:08:40.220 we could be doing so much more with 00:08:40.318 --> 00:08:42.820 advertising and recruiting for those kinds 00:08:42.943 --> 00:08:45.621 of students that we tend to really, at 00:08:45.697 --> 00:08:49.244 least my institution, do well to retain 00:08:49.395 --> 00:08:52.944 because we're a small, intimate college 00:08:53.019 --> 00:08:55.847 Hiram College. For years I've tried to 00:08:55.922 --> 00:08:59.624 encourage us to consider more universally 00:08:59.723 --> 00:09:02.348 designed approaches but also approaches 00:09:02.451 --> 00:09:06.949 that do more when it comes to housing and 00:09:07.022 --> 00:09:09.600 extracurricular accommodations for 00:09:09.678 --> 00:09:12.398 students to who use mobility devices. For 00:09:12.525 --> 00:09:15.424 example, my daughter ended up having to be 00:09:15.577 --> 00:09:18.251 carried in her chair, to various club 00:09:18.449 --> 00:09:20.556 meetings while she was on the Hiram 00:09:20.653 --> 00:09:24.503 College campus. She was told that, during the 00:09:24.554 --> 00:09:28.102 winter, when the ice storms came, that 00:09:28.141 --> 00:09:30.561 they couldn't transport her up the long 00:09:30.561 --> 00:09:33.172 hill, while they were telling everyone 00:09:33.192 --> 00:09:37.324 else to walk like a penguin, and we had 00:09:37.324 --> 00:09:41.271 vans to do this. We had to file with the 00:09:41.271 --> 00:09:45.332 Ohio Disability Rights Commission and 00:09:45.408 --> 00:09:48.242 request that the school thinks about other 00:09:48.242 --> 00:09:50.506 ways of accommodating her should there 00:09:50.506 --> 00:09:52.558 be a storm, an ice storm, and she can't 00:09:52.633 --> 00:09:55.177 get up to campus. And the solution 00:09:55.177 --> 00:09:57.787 was to have her move to a new dorm. 00:09:57.787 --> 00:10:00.012 You can't just do that over night. 00:10:00.012 --> 00:10:01.862 You can't just move all your bedding 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and all your bathroom supplies 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and your whole... you know at the moment's 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 notice, when the weather changes 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and so it has been my experience that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 still a lot of places have done the bare minimum approach 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and think that that's all they need to do 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 when instead, they could be following more 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of the latest practices and implementation's science 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and making it easier for people to 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 register concerns or complaints.