vimeo.com/.../436888534

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 also 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 teach today

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

understand The association

where and how people live

and the contrast between nursing homes

and lacks of the community

Or congrigrt setting

and we're experiencing through Covid-19

The current crisis

a lot of death in nursing homes worldwide.

and we also have the cordescence at the

unites states fillm decades which Friday

The interpretations of it but

it will threat of the right of people

to live in the comunity

Guaranteed by the American with disabilities act

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

active of what the big thing is

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 is very important

not only in the Untied states

but also whereas well

England has noticed ruffly the same thing happing

That aboutbout half of the deaths

are people in nursing homes

they can tell that a bit of the isue

is that now were seeing a lot

of people who've had 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 that are 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

to people who are like me

is we can make the world a lot better

by acnoliging 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 see inside

and considering people of both

dimensions of disability

some with pride and positive atitudes

towards human differences continue

through the life spans and

at first, might find it difficult to

deal with disability threw politics

like the Americans with Disability Acts

and Vocabularies Right

but thats very necessary

and the colleges and universities

I know we have to graduate disabilities

to this program

but as a community I think everything affects the media

Sometimes we see things differently

But an increase in disability

of disability is importen

Fortunately we have projects like

the disability and visibility projects

a number of instenses

of involvement of the media

Foundations like the ruther foundation

but a number of indications that

in the future disability will be somthing

that people are likely to talk about

and deal with in a positive way