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    Hi, I'm Beth Haller.
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    I'm a professor of Mass Communication
    at Towsen University in Maryland.
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    I also teach Disability Studies there
    and at several other campuses.
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    I teach at City University of New York
    and their Disability Studies programme;
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    I teach at York University in Toronto
    and their Disability Studies programme;
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    I teach at University of Texas, Arlington
    and their Disability Studies minor.
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    So I've been doing research since
    the early 90's
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    about media representations of people
    with disabilities.
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    So I have a kind of unique
    relationship to the ADA
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    because I did my dissertation on
    how the news media covered it.
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    So before I went to Temple University
    in Philadelphia to get my PhD,
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    I was at University of Maryland College
    Park getting my Masters.
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    I started that in 1989,
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    and there's a reason for all these numbers
    (laughs) these dates,
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    and in 1988 is when the Deaf President
    Now movement happened
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    that gathered at university in DC, and I
    think somewhere in the back of my mind
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    I knew about what was happening because I
    was a journalist before I became academic.
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    So when I started at College Park in 1989
    I ended up doing an article for a class
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    about a deaf student at Gallaudet and I
    got very interested in the deaf community,
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    there's a huge deaf community
    in the DC area.
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    Doing my Masters thesis on how the
    deaf community was represented
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    before, during and after
    Deaf President Now
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    in the New York Times and the
    Washington Post,
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    that was a jumping-off point.
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    When I left College Park it was 1991
    and so the ADA had just been passed
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    and when I got to Temple to start
    working on my PhD
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    I knew that I wanted to still work in
    the area of disability
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    and we just had this major disability
    rights law passed.
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    I remember it more as a focus
    of my research
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    cause I don't necessarily remember seeing
    the actual coverage on the day it happened
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    in 1990, but I do remember looking at all
    the coverage cause that was the subject
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    of my dissertation.
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    So it was really interesting to look
    at it as an academic
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    and to kind of watch it happen and
    then not happen (laughs)
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    as it moved into the future.
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    So my dissertation looked at how the
    mainstream news media,
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    you know, all the big news magazines
    and the major newspapers back then.
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    So I finished my dissertation in '94,
    graduated in '95
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    so it was very early days of the ADA so it
    wasn't really being implemented yet
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    because they gave several years for
    people to get into compliance
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    but as the years have passed it's been
    very interesting to watch how things
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    weren't happening.
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    And I think what we all thought was
    going to happen was:
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    Congress was going to pass this major
    disability rights law
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    and people would then follow it
    because it's now federal law
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    not to discriminate based on disability
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    but that isn't what happened (laughs).
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    And from a media standpoint, that really
    kind of hurt ADA because-
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    and I've even had this conversation with
    disability rights scholars and
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    disability rights activists-
    because they I think thought
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    in that same way that it's now law
    and everything will be fine,
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    and there was such a history of being
    covered in the media so badly
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    that the activists thought they could get
    this past and everything would be fine
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    and they didn't need the
    media for anything.
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    So I come onto the scene, I start going
    to Society for Disability studies,
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    meetings in the early 90's,
    started presenting my research
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    and even the disability community in those
    first early years right after the ADA
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    didn't understand why the
    media was important.
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    Because I remember presenting
    at a conference,
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    at a Disability Studies conference,
    and people coming up to me and saying
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    "That's really nice that you do work on
    media, but we have bigger things we
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    need to be dealing with: getting people
    jobs, getting people proper education
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    getting people out of nursing homes."
    My response to everybody was
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    "How do you think you're going to do that
    if you're not getting out information
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    into public opinion, so if you're not
    able to change public opinion
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    how can you get these
    things accomplished?
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    And how do you get public opinion
    changed? You get a proper narrative
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    going in the media." And now there's
    actual disability studies, research
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    and disability activists who've talked
    about this in the early 2000's
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    about how they took the wrong tactic
    after the ADA was passed
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    and decided that when it was passed
    it would get enforced.
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    "Yay we can move on."
    Unfortunately the business narrative
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    came into the mix and they controlled
    the message that was in the media.
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    And so from quite a number of
    years after the ADA was passed,
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    it wasn't being enforced because there
    was this narrative in the news media
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    that it was an unfunded mandate and
    "Well, we never saw a person with a
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    disability in our store, why do
    we have to do all this stuff?"
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    Well of course, the reason they didn't see
    a person with a dis- as a wheelchair user
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    in their store is because it wasn't
    accessible, or nobody came to their
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    website because it was inaccessible
    (laughs) but they didn't get that.
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    A lot of the journalists didn't know
    people in the disability community
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    and the disability community was
    very wary of the news media
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    because they'd done such a bad job, but
    any news coverage in my opinion is better
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    than no news coverage usually (laughs).
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    And so the business community really took
    over the narrative and had this really
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    negative perception of the ADA
    that was funnelling into the media,
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    and then people just didn't know about it
    cause it wasn't getting covered that much.
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    There was a national poll done, I believe
    in, like, 1995, of Americans
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    about what they knew about the ADA
    and other disability rights issues.
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    Only 18% of Americans in 1995 had even
    heard of the American Disabilities Act
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    if I'm remembering the stats right.
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    To me, that is the fault of not engaging
    with media to do stories about that,
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    and I know it's very difficult.
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    Even today I know it's difficult to get
    the media to do a more complex, policy,
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    legal, government related
    story about disability
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    and not one of those
    inspiration narrative stories,
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    but it's still worth fighting to try to
    get those stories into the media.
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    And the other data point I would say,
    what I always tell my students when we're
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    talking about the ADA: the ADA's
    enforcement depends on who's
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    in the White House.
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    So we had quite a number of
    Republican Presidents
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    who did not care about the ADA being
    enforced for, like, 8 years,
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    so that is why it really only got more
    enforced when Obama became President.
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    There's a lot of external factors
    that meant that the ADA
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    was not going to be changing things
    as radically as we would have hoped,
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    or what we were thinking back in 1990.
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    The ADA has had impact in more recent
    years since President Obama
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    came into office and it was
    just getting enforced.
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    I use a lot of these example in my class,
    of news stories about the ADA
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    finally being implemented.
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    A couple that I use, one is about a
    little city in Pennsylvania.
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    The headlines of a lot of ADA stories,
    still, I say they have this blaming tone.
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    "Things are expensive because of the ADA;
    things are closing because of the ADA."
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    I always tell my students that
    narrative should be flipped.
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    The story really is, "Why didn't this town
    in Pennsylvania comply with the ADA
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    for however many years, 20 years."
    So that, to me is the real story.
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    This one headline was about this town, I
    believe was Logansport, Pennsylvania,
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    the headline was, "They must pay $8
    million" for some kind of ADA compliance
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    that they were finally going to do, I
    think in, like, 2008 or something.
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    And I'm like, okay that $8 million
    would have been a lot less
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    if they'd just been compliant back in 1992
    like they were supposed to be compliant,
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    but they're still blaming the ADA.
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    But now I think people, the general
    public now knows a lot more
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    and I actually chalk a lot of it
    up to social media,
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    because now people are getting, not a
    mediated story through the news media
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    and some journalist or some newscaster.
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    They're actually on social media
    with people with disabilities
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    and see what their life is like.
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    And I know in the last couple of years
    when there was an assault on the ADA
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    and people in Congress were thinking about
    and the President was thinking about
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    figuring out a way to knock it out.
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    I saw lots of allies on social media
    because they were finally aware that there
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    was a disability rights law and they said
    it should stay, it should not be repealed,
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    and so I think the media
    have a lot of power,
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    and now that we have this very
    personal media of social media,
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    people get to know actual people with
    disabilities in their community
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    and they see the benefits of having
    things in braille or having captioning
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    or having wheelchair ramps, or just
    thinking about asking somebody before
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    you barrel ahead and create something
    that may be inaccessible.
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    So I think the general public is a lot
    more aware than they were in 1995
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    when only 18% of people had
    even heard of the ADA.
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    And even if they haven't heard of the ADA,
    they're in favour of disability rights,
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    and I think that one thing that came out
    of that survey, even back in 1995,
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    is that, they might have never heard of
    the ADA, but if you pose to Americans
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    the concept of disability rights
    then they agree with that.
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    They don't think people should be
    discriminated against just because they
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    need a ramp to get into a building or
    need a sign language interpreter
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    to apply for a job.
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    So I think there's a better feeling among
    the American public in terms of
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    understanding disability rights and making
    sure that everybody has equal access.
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    And also I think people now understand
    people with disabilities are them,
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    are their friends, are their family
    members, and so a lot of the hidden stuff
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    that was happening before the ADA where
    people with disabilities were being
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    hidden in their families, where
    nobody talked about it,
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    I even noticed that, in my teaching at
    Temple when I was a grad student,
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    that the younger generation, because
    a lot of them had grown up
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    in inclusive education, there was no shame
    they were proud to talk about their own
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    disability, their parent's disability,
    their sibling's disability.
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    I still remember a student, we had a
    discussion, actually one of my journalism
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    classes, and one student, she was talking
    about, her mother was fluent in sign
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    language cause both of her grandparents
    were deaf, so her mother's first language
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    was sign language even
    though she was hearing.
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    Another kid was like, "My brother
    has Down's Syndrome"
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    and he said it with pride.
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    So I think the cultural change that the
    ADA brought was really powerful too,
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    cause that is what gets you to the
    place, if you're a business person,
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    "Oh okay, maybe I should be more open to
    hiring somebody with Down's Syndrome
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    to work in my grocery store, or whatever."
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    So I think having that cultural change
    where people are now including
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    the disability community as
    part of the American citizenry,
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    then that is a very powerful thing, I
    think that the ADA did.
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    Yeah. If the ADA stays around, I think
    that's a really good part of our future
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    because it's a really good law.
    It was written really well,
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    and it just needs to be
    enforced at all times.
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    We learned about how it could be enforced
    in those 8 years that President Obama
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    was in office, and I think we
    can continue to learn that.
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    And the Justice Department and Department
    of Ed. and all the other federal agencies
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    that enforce it, I think the
    community knows how to reach them
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    and tell them to enforce things,
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    and people are even getting a little bit
    better, even the business community
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    understands now that people with
    disabilities are a major part of our
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    consumer culture, and now with the
    pandemic and everybody working online,
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    people with disabilities have
    been, can be the leaders.
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    They're the ones that have been doing the
    workaround to try to make a living
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    when they've not been able to go
    to an inaccessible building.
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    So I think the future is bright if we
    will listen to disabled people about
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    what the world needs to basically embrace
    everyone and accommodate everyone,
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    and it'll be a better future for everyone
    because we talk about the hidden benefits
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    of access for everyone, so think about
    all the people that use curb cuts
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    for their wheelie luggage and
    all the UPS guys that use curb cuts
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    for rolling their hand carts. All the bars
    that use closed caption cause they're loud
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    So everybody gets benefits from disability
    related access and I think it can only get
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    better, if people learn to trust that the
    disability community can lead us,
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    because they're the ones who are most
    innovative and entrepreneurial
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    about making sure that they can move
    forward in the most access-friendly ways.
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    I think there should be a lot more
    listening to people with disabilities
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    in the future cause they've
    already worked out the problems
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    that we're now dealing with in a pandemic.
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    I think they can help us build a
    future that's better for everyone,
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    whether you have a disability or not.
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    What steps can we take right now?
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    I think if you're not a person with
    a disability, being a good ally.
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    If you're a family member, being-
    helping to make sure that the person
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    in your family with a disability is
    empowered to be independent,
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    and giving them all the support they need.
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    If you're a person with a disability,
    making sure that the world
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    is accommodating to you.
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    And everybody needs to focus on making
    the world completely accessible.
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    A lot of people live in houses that
    cannot be made accessible,
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    and a lot of things were grandfathered
    into the ADA because they were built long
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    before the ADA existed,
    but there's other locations.
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    There's online, there's video chatting,
    there's all kinds of workarounds
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    that I think we can all embrace, and we
    got to quit whining about this stuff
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    because, I'm talking to you in the
    middle of a pandemic (laughs).
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    But I hear so many people complaining
    about things that I'm like, you know,
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    this is all good, we can all
    still be connected, it's fine,
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    and things are going to change,
    we need to learn to adapt.
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    People with disabilities can teach us how
    to adapt, and they have a major disability
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    rights organisation called
    Adapt as well (laughs).
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    So I think that's the key for all of us,
    is to start learning to roll with it,
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    learning to adapt and make sure
    that we're bringing everyone along
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    into this new world that we're going to
    have to fashion post-pandemic,
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    and that it's accessible to
    everyone, that we're all equal,
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    that we're making sure that supports
    and what people need are in place,
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    and then we can be a better community.
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    It's kind of a weird time to be
    talking about all this (laughs).
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    I mean, I know it's the ADA's 30th
    anniversary, I'm very glad that it's here
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    and still exists, but I really feel like
    we can use the model of the ADA
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    from 30 years ago as we move forward.
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    We're going to have to
    restructure so much of our world,
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    why not do it accessibly this time?
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    And I think the ADA can still give us
    guidance even though it's 30 years old,
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    I think it can, it was built to lead us
    into the future just like a lot of our
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    founding documents were, and I think if
    we look at the spirit of everything that's
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    been passed in the good way of
    giving people rights in this country
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    and we follow them, we will fashion the
    future of a place that's hopefully very
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    accessible and make sure that everybody
    has equal access to our world.
Title:
vimeo.com/.../436622395
Video Language:
English
Team:
ABILITY Magazine
Duration:
18:05

English subtitles

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