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My name is Lydia X. Z. Brown,

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and I'm an attorney, advocate, [br]community organizer, educator, strategist,

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and thinker and writer on[br]disability rights and disability justice.

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For over 10 years, my work has focused[br]on interpersonal and state violence

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targeting disabled people[br]at the margins of the margins,

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especially disabled people living[br]at the intersections of disability, race,

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class, gender, sexuality,[br]language, and nation.

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Like all disabled people, it's impossible[br]to say that there was one instance

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in which I suddenly became aware of

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inaccessibility or exclusionary practices[br]in social life,

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because my entire life has been shaped[br]by the forces of ableism.

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Like most other autistic people,[br]I experienced bullying

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throughout my childhood and in schools,

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and I experienced a disconnect between[br]the ways that I moved through the world,

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and the ways that people around me,

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who were largely not autistic,[br]moved through the world.

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But I will say that one of the times[br]that I became most aware

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of grave injustices targeting[br]other disabled people

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were a series of incidents[br]that were widely publicized

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when I was in high school.

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And, in all of those instances,[br]young autistic people were criminalized,

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taken out of their schools,[br]often charged in adult criminal court

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for simply existing while autistic.

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In many of those cases,[br]the autistic students in question

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had been subjected to prolonged restraint[br]and seclusion, sometimes for hours,

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before they were the ones who were charged

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with assaulting the teachers[br]in the schools in the first place.

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Some of those students were white.

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Others were Black, brown,[br]or other people of color.

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And, in all of those cases,[br]the sentiment that came most strongly

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and clearly through public reporting[br]on the incidents,

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was that these were kids[br]who had to be managed or controlled,

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instead of, here are kids who have [br]been targeted on the basis

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of disability discrimination.

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That, to me, was a very clear indicator[br]of just the beginning

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of how pervasive and how awful[br]violence against disabled people is,

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especially those who are[br]multiply marginalized.

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In the cases of many of the white [br]students, if they were unlucky,

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they might have been forced[br]out of their school.

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But in the cases of the Black and brown[br]disabled students,

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some of them were sentenced[br]to prison terms of years.

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Others were killed outright.

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Although the ADA was passed[br]and signed into law three decades ago,

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government agencies, individual[br]organizations, and even and especially

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disability advocacy organizations,[br]flagrantly and violate-

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flagrantly and blatantly violate[br]the ADA's most basic provisions.

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Government agencies that are required[br]to support disabled people

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and provide and enable access[br]for disabled people

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routinely disregard those obligations.

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Private corporations and nonprofit[br]organizations do much the same.

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Colleges and universities do not[br]respect their disabled students.

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Corporations do not respect[br]their disabled employees.

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Writ large, in society,[br]although the law has changed,

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the values that we hold[br]and the beliefs that we have

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as an entire society[br]have not changed at all,

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because you can't legislate morality.

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You could pass the best laws on the books,

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and even if you somehow monitor[br]and enforce them,

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it doesn't mean that you've actually[br]changed the ways that people think

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and talk about and understand [br]and react toward and act

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about disabled people[br]and disability in society.

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So, when I think about ways[br]that the ADA has fallen short,

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it's not necessarily just[br]what is the language of the ADA,

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but it is how individual advocates,[br]it is how courts,

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and it is how those with positions[br]of power and access to privilege

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and resources choose to act[br]or not act upon the ADA.

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And you see that everywhere.

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The disability organizations[br]that have the most access

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to power, privilege, and resources

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generally advocate only for the interests[br]and the issues that affect those

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who already hold the most privilege[br]in disabled communities.

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That is, they care deeply about issues[br]that primarily, or only,

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affect disabled people who are white,[br]who are monied, who are degreed,

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who are otherwise considered palatable.[br]But for disabled people who are

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at the margins of the margins,[br]for disabled people of color,

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for disabled people that are[br]generationally low income,

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for disabled people who are undocumented

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or have other immigration status[br]other than citizenship,

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for disabled people who belong [br]to minority religions,

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for disabled people who are [br]queer or trans,

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for disabled people who cannot work

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in the ways that are[br]expected under capitalism,

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those issue areas of inclusion[br]in the corporate workplace

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or the ability to access [br]swimming pools in a hotel

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or the ability to bring[br]your service animal on a plane

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can be important,[br]but are often not affecting our lives

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in the same daily ways as they do[br]those who have infinitely more privilege.

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And so, where I see the gaps are[br]where are the folks

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who have power, privilege, and resources[br]in talking about the right

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to Black and brown[br]disabled students to AAC?

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Where are those folks in thinking about[br]the horrific violence inflicted

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on largely Black and Native disabled[br]people in carceral systems?

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Where are those same people[br]in looking at the ways in which police

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destroy the lives of sex workers and[br]people who are using criminalized drugs

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who are not white, who do not come[br]from upper middle class

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or upper class families and neighborhoods[br]and communities?

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Where are those folks when thinking about[br]the ways in which universities

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not only prevent disabled students[br]in general from accessing supports

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and accommodations,[br]but put the brunt of that violence

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most predominantly on queer and trans[br]disabled people of color and even

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force disabled students, especially[br]those that are multiply marginalized,

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out of the university altogether,

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or prevent them from ever getting to ask[br]the university in the first place?

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Where are those same advocates[br]when thinking about not just,

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how are disabled people in the U.S.[br]represented or not represented in media

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or in electoral politics,[br]but what about the ways in which

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the United States inflicts[br]and causes disability globally

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through our wars, through our imperialism,[br]through our colonization?

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We need to be pushing as hard[br]as we possibly can for money to go

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directly back into the hands[br]of directly impacted community members

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and out of harmful systems[br]like the foster system, police, prisons,

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coercive mental health care.

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We need to be demanding[br]a return of resources

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and a return of power,[br]and that is a ceding of power

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by nondisabled people, by white people,[br]by those who have hoarded and controlled

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the most amount of power[br]and privilege and resources,

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and done so at the direct expense[br]of disabled people

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at the margins of the margins,

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and that has to start[br]within our own organizations.

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Disability nonprofits are notorious[br]for being so often white-led

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or predominantly white-led,[br]and sometimes only white-led,

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for being male-led,[br]for being led by people who are either

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not disabled at all or have what[br]are considered palatable disabilities,

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and that needs to change.

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And the only way that will change[br]is if those people

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who occupy those positions of power[br]agree to give up that power.

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Not to be told, "You don't have a voice,"[br]to be very clear.

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To be told, "Your voice doesn't have to[br]be the one that's in charge

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and holds all the power."