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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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I 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 ableism
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 Linton
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, and
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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 realized that
when I was a kid,
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when I was growing up in the 60's and
70's, people with disabilities weren't
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able to 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. You know,
the ADA is going to
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be 30 here in July. We're
celebrating around
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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 sort of
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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, an officer on campus
or ADA - 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 on 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 those questions, so that
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they can mindfully recruit people with
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disabilities to join 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 just 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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and 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 do a better
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job at making the business and the
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other benefit cases for improving our ADA
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access. Where my passions lie of late is
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in getting out the votes because we know
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that disabled people have been
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disenfranchised from the vote and from
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parenting and from all kinds of other
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basic human rights but
this being an election
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year there is all kinds of folks working
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to crip the vote, #cripthevote Alice Wong
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and others who have been trying to make
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sure that candidates for president and for
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congressional offices and even local
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campaigns are expressing what their stance
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is on the ADA and on disability rights and
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human rights and hold, for the first
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time we've seen some traction on that.
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But what people don't realize is how many
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places are not accessible to voters with
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disabilities either
because they use
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assisted technologies that don't
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inter-phase with the electronic equipment
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or they can't get accessible
transportation
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or the place itself is simply inaccessible
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or they are institutionalized and barred
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from voting because of that and so the
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center for American progress has been
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publishing some of the numbers, like over
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60% of polling places are considered
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inaccessible. That's a problem. So voting
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by mail may benefit a lot of groups if
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you think of some of that in the future.
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And then the second big issue we should
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follow up on that not many people know
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about and that I am not even so clear as
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how is the ADA serves the population of
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people who are incarcerated in jails and
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in prisons and in institutions. I know the
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ADA amendments have been 2009 done a
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better job of successfully helping folks
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litigate when they are isolated and there
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for not included because of their
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institutionalized placements, but I also
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I am aware that not many people know about
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the number, the sheer numbers of people
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with disabilities visible and a lot of
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invisible who are incarcerated
and who have been
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caught up in that system of jailing and
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aren't getting what they need inside or
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should have never been incarcerated to
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begin with because maybe they experience
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a condition that was misunderstood from
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the outset and so instead of deescalating
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a situation. Police need more training, we
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need to make the public more aware of how
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many people are languishing in the
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institutions where they are not only not
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productive, but you know what a waste of
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human capital. So, as we think about
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the black lives matter movement and the
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opportunities for intersectionality, I
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think the opportunities for allies of all
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kinds of civil rights groups need to come
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together and really leverage their powers
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to begin to think about not necessarily
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just defunding police or the decarcerating
-
institutions but recognizing how many
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people of color have disabilities,
how many
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women, and how many are incarcerated with
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disabilities that may not
even belong there
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so there is so much to be done on those
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two funds alone. And, clearly employment,
you know that
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people are still way under employed but I
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know there are folks working to improve
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that and I am trying to work with those
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organizations to araise awareness about
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how they can do better in terms of
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their work force and retaining
and recruiting actively
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professionals who, you know, they may not
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consider as a valuable resource but gosh
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people with disabilities
are some of the
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most creative folks because they have to
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figure out how navigate and they do have
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persepctives that are normally based on
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maybe their particular
impairment experinces
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but having to navigate the world that
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isn't accessible, how to find the backdoor
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how to find the policies and so there is a
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lot of resilience to be found there, too.
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We need to be asking community members to
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confront ableism when they see it and part
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of that is educating people on the various
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forms that disability prejudice
and discrimination can take.
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There is an interesting moment right now
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with regard to anti-racism frameworks
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that are getting a lot of traction and
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people are beginning to, at least
educational institutions,
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start teaching circles where many of us
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are reading Ibram Kendis book how to be an
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anit-racist, how to first recognize when
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prejudice and discrimination exist on the
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bases of race, that we could also be doing
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with books related to disability prejudice
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and ableism but I really think the moment
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is now to consider some of the things at
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the same time because I think we may loose
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nuances of people who are confronting
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multiple oppressions. Though, I am just
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bringing that up because I know there is a
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lot of folks at my school now thinking
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about that we review policies to find out
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whether our syllabi are discriminatory
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whether our policies
for recruitment may have
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things embedded or cooked into the
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algorithms that are unintentionally
-
excluding or failing to retain or promote
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those with disabilities
at our institutions
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and so, when I think about the next steps
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what people can do I come
back to, you know
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when people say something and they may
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just not know, they are not familiar
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perhaps with folks with
various disabilities
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and we know that contact with people who
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experienced disabilities and differences
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is what makes people less prejudice
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they become much more aware of the
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whole person and our stereotypes are not
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generalize-able and how if they listened
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to the voices of disabled people they can
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hear first hand what is problematic and
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we need to be doing by allowing folks with
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disabilities to speak, to be heard and
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then to support their agendas and not
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necessarily just take over.
So, the confrontation
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literature is all about not necessarily
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saying: "Hey, you are a jerk.
You just said
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something racist or ableist" and putting
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people on their defensive heels. That we
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can do this in ways that actually open up
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dialogues and that we should be
-
encouraging difficult dialogues and brave
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conversations around what we can do
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locally in our houses, in our communities
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in our schools and organizations to make
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one change, to make one difference: to ask
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what is our policy, do we know whether all
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of our employees know what their rights
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are, should we be scheduling regular
-
meetings with the ADA coordinator, so that
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folks know how to find information and how
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to request a accommodation. Would it be
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great if parents went into an IEP Meeting
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at their schools, knowing what their kids
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got as accommodations. I think people are
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so non forthcoming at organizations with
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the things that they view as
special privileges that are
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only for those who, quote on quote, need
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it or deserve it. And when we look at
-
disability rights as special privileges,
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we don't see them as civil rights that are
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required to be met and so we could be much
-
more transparent about making sure our
-
websites are not only
accessible to navigate
-
if you have a sensory or other impairments
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but to make explicit what the policy is
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for requesting a accommodations, how you
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not be fired for disclosing for example
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how we can confront things in
non-aggressive way.
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To ask people when they say something
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pejorative or maybe just outdated, you
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know, the word "handicap" is still out
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there i call it "handicrap", the word
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"special"' and we can just ask " what do
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you mean by that, what do you mean that
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they can't do that or that you curious
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about how they have sex, can you tell me
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more about why you think that and it can
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start a dialogue and that is something we
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can all do. I am still working hard to
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make my own home accessible to my 24 year
-
old. We did construction to modify the
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house when we first bought it is a single
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level so that she feel like she was a part
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of the family and
be able to get to all
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parts of the kitchen and her bathroom but
-
there you know the laundry room has one
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step that we are still negotiating how to
-
make sure that she can get into garage but
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things like where we put things in the
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refrigerator. You know if you have a
-
wheelchair user in your
family or someone
-
who is a little person who may have a
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congenital or an otherwise amputated limb
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and we put things on shelves without even
-
thinking about who can access the shelf
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and my other child who happens to be abled
-
bodied would, you know, before dinner try
-
to get a snack and before we could even
-
say "no" he was out the door with the
-
snack. My daughter would have to come in
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and say "Can I, can you get something of
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the top shelf from me and then we would
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say, you know, why don't you wait until
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dinner time and we have to be mindful
-
about which drawers we want to put her
-
things into. She can not
feel like a second
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class citizen in her own family space and
-
those are some things that we can remind
-
our peers who have kids with disabilities
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as we try to go on and educated another
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parents in our parenting roles and our
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roles as educators and who are diversity
-
committees. Our diversity committee now is
-
taking on accessibility as part of our
-
mental and trying to
convince others that we
-
need to be doing ongoing data collection
-
to benchmark, I think a lot of people are
-
afraid of data that might say "your campus
-
climate isn't the most accessible" but
-
unless you name the thing,
unless you document the thing
-
that is perhaps of concern of a less then
-
fully inclusive or accessible, you can't
-
make progress. And, I think people
-
appreciate, you know, the one in four
-
or five people with disabilities and
-
their families appreciate when people say
-
"we are not there yet, but this is what we
-
are doing and in a short term we will have
-
reviewed our handbooks so that at least
-
this is done by this year and next year we
-
are going to advertise for positions in
-
places to increase the number of disabled
-
people on our staff, because students need
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mentors. They need to see people that look
-
like them and then have similar challenges
-
so that they know what is possible, so I
-
just sort of conclude by
saying my daughter,
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you know, made it through preschool and
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has been in several different kinds of
-
spaces on college campuses that aren't so
-
accessilble and that are. She is working
-
in the education as a preschool teacher
-
herself. But since
the covid-19 outbreak
-
she was laid off, she was furloughed from
-
her brand new job. And, of late she is
-
putting resumes back out and there must be
-
something about the pandemic now where not
-
many people are wanting to go back to work
-
in close encounters with kids. She is
-
getting one interview after another and so
-
she may end up with multiple offers now
-
and I remind her to tell the folks that
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preschools when they get someone like her
-
on their staff so many students gravitate
-
towards her because
she has these visible signs
-
of her disability, her wheelchair and if
-
you can educate the youngs,
the preschoolers and show them
-
that people of all
abilities can be teachers
-
and parents and ongoing
learners and you know
-
they tend to even those kids with behavior
-
problems, they want to come
to her. They see as this
-
beacon of hope, I think, that is a real
-
cue for these employers who ever gets my
-
daughter as a teacher
is going to be lucky.