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vimeo.com/.../436580300

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    So,
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    My name is Michelle Nario - Redmond
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    I am a social psychologist and
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    teach at Hiram College
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    in psychology and biomedical
    humanities program
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    and I just wrote a book on Abilism
    the causes and consequences
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    of disability prejudice.
    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
    I was in graduate school,
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    in Kansas, and disability prejudice,
    the ADA or anything
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    related to disability issues
    were completely off my radar,
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    and I worked at a place
    where one of the pioneers
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    of disability studies worked,
    Beatrice Wright,
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    and I hadn't yet to have a class with her.
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    It really wasn't until 1995,
    which was five years later,
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    when my daughter was born,
    Sierra, with spina bifida,
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    that I became aware
    of disability and found the work
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    of Carol Gill and Simi Litton
    and began to educate myself
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    on disability studies and its scope,
    and the first memory I have of
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    confronting inaccessible spaces
    was a few years later, when we enrolled
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    my daughter Sierra in a preschool,
    at a catholic preschool,
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    right down the road; and it just didn't
    even dawn on me that we would have to
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    work so hard for her to be accommodated
    as a preschooler,
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    and it was really a function of
    the fact that the building was older,
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    there were steps, and they really didn't
    know, nor did they need to legally know,
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    about reasonable accommodations
    and civil rights of their students,
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    because they were a private facility and
    weren't subject to the ADA's rules.
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    So... it became clear to me that
    we needed to find a new preschool,
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    and luckily we found a private,
    another private place. It wasn't
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    a public school, but it
    was a music school settlement
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    and they had resources
    and they were already operating
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    under a sort of set of presumptions
    about the value of diversity
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    and diverse perspectives,
    and we didn't really have to ask for much,
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    because they bent over backwards
    to include my daughter
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    in a typical classroom, with her peers,
    her preschool peers, music classes,
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    there were so many eclectic
    movement classes,
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    and they even purchased
    equipment for their exercise room
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    and movement room
    that would be useful to her among others,
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    and she has since grown up to become
    this teacher and has applied
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    to work there as a preschool teacher.
    So, I think it would be really
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    amazing, if she came full circle.
    But, I guess, to stance the broader
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    question about being frustrated and aware
    of inaccessibility and lack of inclusion,
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    we were in a district that, when she then,
    was about to move to preschool, I
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    knew that she wouldn't probably be able to
    go to a private school, not only because
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    of the financial cost, but because
    they would not have to think about
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    best practices and the law when
    it came to accommodating
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    their students with disabilities,
    and so I knew we would be
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    looking at the public school,and the
    public school in our neighborhood
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    was not accessible. We went to visit it,
    the playground had a little house
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    that she wouldn't have been
    able to get into,
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    and it was really disheartening
    and so it came at a time
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    when we were already looking
    for other opportunities,
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    and my husband got an opportunity
    to move us as a family
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    to the West Coast
    of Portland of Oregon,
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    so the way I...we had to
    navigate her early educational experiences
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    was to only look at spaces and schools
    that were in districts that were new,
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    so that had buildings
    and had training in terms of
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    accommodating their diverse students
    and their disabled students,
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    because just having the brief experiences
    that I did with the preschool
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    and IEP meetings that were going to
    require me to fight at every juncture
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    for her basic rights
    to show what she knows
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    and participate and recognize herself
    as a valuable contributor
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    to the school community.
    We're not going to be forthcoming
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    without a fight,
    and so we narrowed our search
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    to a district,
    and thank God we had the opportunity
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    and the resources to do this,
    that was pretty known for their
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    inclusivity.
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    We did that also when we came back
    to the Cleveland, Ohio area.
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    We were able to avoid all districts
    that weren't at the cutting edge
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    of full inclusion and proof of excellence
    and had newer buildings
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    that could accommodate those
    with disabilities,
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    but I guess that that was my earliest
    memory of how, 'Oh, we have a road
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    ahead of us and we have to take it upon
    ourselves to either continue to fight
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    battles that had already been won,
    legislatively or find spaces, places
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    and organizations that were ahead
    of the curve
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    in terms of implementing, monitoring and
    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
    is to just be able to communicate
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    with other parents and students
    with disabilities
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    about not only knowing their rights but
    knowing how to get those rights
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    how to advocate for ensuring that those
    rights are addressed, are met.
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    I think the ADA has made
    a huge difference
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    and the aha moment was even when I was
    collating information for this book
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    on disability prejudice. I realised that
    when I was a kid,
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    when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s,
    people with disabilities weren't able to
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    do any of the things that we took for
    granted as kids: go to the movies
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    go to restaurants, go to visit a friend,
    at a friend's house, or invite
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    others to your birthday parties.
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    And, since the ADA passed in 1990,
    it wasn't an immediate set of changes,
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    as, you know, there has been significant
    progress made, particularly in public
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    spaces and in employment settings,
    where there are even employers
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    who are part of an organization
    of inclusive excellence, who
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    recognize that disabled employees are
    actually more reliable and
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    have less turnover and are worth
    investing in and promoting.
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    But, there are still so many places,
    small businesses, educational institutions
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    that are not carrying out the basic,
    sort of gains and practices that the ADA
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    has made possible .There's just way too
    much variation, and I think part of that
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    is just a lack of education in
    terms of 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. And, and 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 than the bare minimum
    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,
    during 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 thinks 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.
    And the solution
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    was to have her move to a
    new dorm.
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    You can't just do that over night.
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    You can't just move all your bedding
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    and all your bathroom supplies
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    and your whole... you know at the moment's
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    notice, when the weather changes
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    and so it has been my experience that
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    still a lot of places have done
    the bare minimum approach
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    and think that that's all they need to do
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    when instead, they could be following more
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    of the latest practices and
    implementation's science
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    and making it easier for people to
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    register concerns or complaints. And
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    they often don't even need to file a
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    formal complaint issue, if you
    approach a business or
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    your educational institution
    with an issue.
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    Often times, progressive thinkers that
    recognize the value of
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    customers with disabilities frequenting
    their businesses or
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    diversifying their faculty or their
    student body
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    will simply not be aware that they have
    failed to accommodate or
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    make accessible various programs
    and spaces.
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    And that can be as simple as asking.
    But a lot of times a lot more
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    has to be done, you have to document
    you have
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    to make sure your emails go to
    multiple people
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    and make the business case of why
    surveying your policies
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    to see whether they are biases or whether
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    there is discrimination in filing of
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    complaints or even you have a title
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    of, you know, a (...) officer on campus
    or (...) cooridnator
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    so that you can let students
    with disabilities know
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    who may have not proper documentation
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    how they can go about making sure that
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    they get what they need to show
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    what they know, before they fail classes
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    because they haven't knocked at the door
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    of disability services and provided proof
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    that they have a particular condition
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    So I know, I am sort of rambling a bit,
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    but I just, just wasn't aware of how much
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    further we need to go when it comes to
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    surveying and making sure that the ADA
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    is being implemented and just because
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    a law passes doesn't mean again
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    that it is just going to happen
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    you have to have allies and acitivists
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    and insiders working very hard
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    to make sure that people are recognizing
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    the value of legislation
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    which I think, still people are under
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    the assumption that it applies to
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    people who identify with disabilities but
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    I don't think that was even neccesserely
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    even the intent of the ADA
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    I think it recognizes that people flow
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    in and out of abilities and the extent to
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    which they are excluded or discriminated
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    against, because of their abilities is
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    really what this legislation was about
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    even having a record of having a
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    condition that maybe you no longer have
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    or you had it temporarily can mean that
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    you might be excluded. If you applied for
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    jobs recently, you know, many places
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    require a statement. You have to indicate
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    based of strict definitions whether you
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    have limitations in these major life
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    activities that will qualify you as a
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    disabled person and I want to believe that
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    they are asking these questions, so that
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    they can mindfully recruit people with
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    disabilities joining their ranks, their
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    staffing, but sometimes I think what
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    prevents people from using that
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    information to disqualify candidates
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    so there has to be checks and balances
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    and accountabilities when it comes to
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    making sure your civil rights legislation
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    doesn't put all of the owners on the
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    group itself to file and follow through
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    and figure out which parts of the ADA are
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    being violated. You know that can be
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    really discouraging when all you want to
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    do is go out and you know, go to the beach
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    and find out which beaches are accessible
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    or whether there is, you know, a mobility
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    devices that are availible via the sand or
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    you just want to go camping or you just
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    want to go frequent people who are
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    minorities on businesses or disabilities
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    on businesses and some of this is out
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    there and I tried to promote it through
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    books and activists pages, but there is so
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    much that we can do to leverage more of
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    these ways of monitoring and implementing
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    taking access to the next level whether
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    for the disabled community pro forma or
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    proper or for anyone who uses strollers
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    who might carry a lot of materials in
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    their hands could benefit from a push
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    button. I think we need all to make a
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    better job at making the business and the
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    other benefit cases for improving our ADA
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    access
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Title:
vimeo.com/.../436580300
Video Language:
English
Team:
ABILITY Magazine
Duration:
28:40
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