So, My name is Michelle Nario - Redmond I am a social psychologist and I teach at Hiram College in psychology and biomedical humanities program and I just wrote a book on ableism the causes and consequences of disability prejudice. My first memory and I'll just back up and say in 1990, when the ADA passed I was in graduate school, in Kansas, and disability prejudice, the ADA or anything related to disability issues were completely off my radar, and I worked at a place where one of the pioneers of disability studies worked, Beatrice Wright, and I hadn't yet to have a class with her. It really wasn't until 1995, which was five years later, when my daughter was born, Sierra, with spina bifida, that I became aware of disability and found the work of Carol Gill and Simi Linton and began to educate myself on disability studies and its scope, and the first memory I have of confronting inaccessible spaces was a few years later, when we enrolled my daughter Sierra in a preschool, at a catholic preschool, right down the road; and it just didn't even dawn on me that we would have to work so hard for her to be accommodated as a preschooler, and it was really a function of the fact that the building was older, there were steps, and they really didn't know, nor did they need to legally know, about reasonable accommodations and civil rights of their students, because they were a private facility and weren't subject to the ADA's rules. So... it became clear to me that we needed to find a new preschool, and luckily we found a private, another private place. It wasn't a public school, but it was a music school settlement and they had resources and they were already operating under a sort of set of presumptions about the value of diversity and diverse perspectives, and we didn't really have to ask for much, because they bent over backwards to include my daughter in a typical classroom, with her peers, her preschool peers, music classes, there were so many eclectic movement classes, and they even purchased equipment for their exercise room and movement room that would be useful to her among others, and she has since grown up to become this teacher and has applied to work there as a preschool teacher. So, I think it would be really amazing, if she came full circle. But, I guess, to stance the broader question about being frustrated and aware of inaccessibility and lack of inclusion, we were in a district that, when she then, was about to move to preschool, I knew that she wouldn't probably be able to go to a private school, not only because of the financial cost, but because they would not have to think about best practices and the law when it came to accommodating their students with disabilities, and so I knew we would be looking at the public school, and the public school in our neighborhood was not accessible. We went to visit it, the playground had a little house that she wouldn't have been able to get into, and it was really disheartening and so it came at a time when we were already looking for other opportunities, and my husband got an opportunity to move us as a family to the West Coast of Portland of Oregon, and so the way I...we had to navigate her early educational experiences was to only look at spaces and schools that were in districts that were new, so that had buildings and had training in terms of accommodating their diverse students and their disabled students, because just having the brief experiences that I did with the preschool and IEP meetings that were going to require me to fight at every juncture for her basic rights to show what she knows and participate and recognize herself as a valuable contributor to the school community. We're not going to be forthcoming without a fight, and so we narrowed our search to a district, and thank God we had the opportunity and the resources to do this, that was pretty known for their inclusivity. We did that also when we came back to the Cleveland, Ohio area. We were able to avoid all districts that weren't at the cutting edge of full inclusion and proof of excellence and had newer buildings that could accommodate those with disabilities, but I guess that that was my earliest memory of how, 'Oh, we have a road ahead of us and we have to take it upon ourselves to either continue to fight battles that had already been won, legislatively or find spaces, places and organizations that were ahead of the curve in terms of implementing, monitoring and just execute the basic civil rights of their various constituents The impact that all of that has had on me is to just be able to communicate with other parents and students with disabilities about not only knowing their rights but knowing how to get those rights how to advocate for ensuring that those rights are addressed, are met. I think the ADA has made a huge difference and the aha moment was even when I was collating information for this book on disability prejudice. I realised that when I was a kid, when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, people with disabilities weren't able to do any of the things that we took for granted as kids: go to the movies go to restaurants, go to visit a friend, at a friend's house, or invite others to your birthday parties. And, since the ADA passed in 1990, it wasn't an immediate set of changes, as, you know, there has been significant progress made, particularly in public spaces and in employment settings, where there are even employers who are part of an organization of inclusive excellence, who recognize that disabled employees are actually more reliable and have less turnover and are worth investing in and promoting. But, there are still so many places, small businesses, educational institutions that are not carrying out the basic, sort of gains and practices that the ADA has made possible .There's just way too much variation, and I think part of that is just a lack of education in terms of what is reasonable and what is necessary in terms of accommodating your citizenry and lack of resources in some cases but also a lot of misinformation about whether or not it's worth it. The ADA is going to be 30 here in July. We're celebrating all over the country and we are still fighting for businesses to do what they should have done 30 years ago, those that have been around this long. They have not, they have have waited for complaints or they have failed to do but the bare minimum in terms of recruiting the largest minority I work in the education sphere and to me, we could be doing so much more with advertising and recruiting for those kinds of students that we tend to really, at least my institution, do well to retain because we're a small, intimate college, Hiram College. And, and for years I've tried to encourage us to consider more universally designed approaches, but also approaches that do more than the bare minimum when it comes to housing and extracurricular accommodations for students to who use mobility devices. For example, my daughter ended up having to be carried in her chair, to various club meetings while she was on the Hiram College campus. She was told that, during the winter, when the ice storms came, that they couldn't transport her up the long hill, while they were telling everyone else to walk like a penguin, and we had vans to do this. We had to file with the Ohio Disability Rights Commission and request that the school thinks about other ways of accommodating her, should there be a storm, an ice storm, and she can't get up to campus. And the solution was to have her move to a new dorm. You can't just do that over night. You can't just move all your bedding and all your bathroom supplies and your whole... you know at the moment's notice, when the weather changes and so it has been my experience that still a lot of places have done the bare minimum approach and think that that's all they need to do when instead, they could be following more of the latest practices and implementation's science and making it easier for people to register concerns or complaints. And they often don't even need to file a formal complaint issue, if you approach a business or your educational institution with an issue. Often times, progressive thinkers that recognize the value of customers with disabilities frequenting their businesses or diversifying their faculty or their student body will simply not be aware that they have failed to accommodate or make accessible various programs and spaces. And that can be as simple as asking. But a lot of times a lot more has to be done, you have to document you have to make sure your emails go to multiple people and make the business case of why surveying your policies to see whether they are biases or whether there is discrimination in filing of complaints or even you have a title of, you know, a (...) officer on campus or (...) cooridnator so that you can let students with disabilities know who may have not proper documentation how they can go about making sure that they get what they need to show what they know, before they fail classes because they haven't knocked at the door of disability services and provided proof that they have a particular condition So I know, I am sort of rambling a bit, but I just, just wasn't aware of how much further we need to go when it comes to surveying and making sure that the ADA is being implemented and just because a law passes doesn't mean again that it is just going to happen you have to have allies and acitivists and insiders working very hard to make sure that people are recognizing the value of legislation which I think, still people are under the assumption that it applies to people who identify with disabilities but I don't think that was even neccesserely even the intent of the ADA I think it recognizes that people flow in and out of abilities and the extent to which they are excluded or discriminated against, because of their abilities is really what this legislation was about even having a record of having a condition that maybe you no longer have or you had it temporarily can mean that you might be excluded. If you applied for jobs recently, you know, many places require a statement. You have to indicate based of strict definitions whether you have limitations in these major life activities that will qualify you as a disabled person and I want to believe that they are asking these questions, so that they can mindfully recruit people with disabilities joining their ranks, their staffing, but sometimes I think what prevents people from using that information to disqualify candidates so there has to be checks and balances and accountabilities when it comes to making sure your civil rights legislation doesn't put all of the owners on the group itself to file and follow through and figure out which parts of the ADA are being violated. You know that can be really discouraging when all you want to do is go out and you know, go to the beach and find out which beaches are accessible or whether there is, you know, a mobility devices that are availible via the sand or you just want to go camping or you just want to go frequent people who are minorities on businesses or disabilities on businesses and some of this is out there and I tried to promote it through books and activists pages, but there is so much that we can do to leverage more of these ways of monitoring and implementing taking access to the next level whether for the disabled community pro forma or proper or for anyone who uses strollers who might carry a lot of materials in their hands could benefit from a push button. I think we need all to make a better job at making the business and the other benefit cases for improving our ADA access. Where my passions lie of late is in getting out the votes because we know that disabled people have been disenfranchised from the vote and from parenting and from all kind sorts of other basic human rights but this being an election year there is all kinds of folks working to crip the vote, #cripthevote Alice Wong and others who have been trying to make sure that candidates for president and for congressional offices and even local campaigns are expressing what their stance is on the ADA and on disability rights and human rights and hold, for the first time we've seen some traction on that. But what people don't realize is how many places are not accessible to voters with disabilities either because they use assisted technologies that don't interphase with the electronic equipement or they can't get accessible transportation or the place itself is simply inaccessible or they are institutionalized and barred from voting because of that and so the center fro American progress has been publishing some of the numbers, like over 60% of polling places are considered inaccessible. That's a problem. So voting by mail may benefit a lot of groups if you think of some of that in the future. And then the second big issue we should follow up on that not many people know about and that I am not even so clear of how is the ADA serves the population of people who are incarcerated in jails and in prisons and in institutions. I know the ADA amendments have been 2009 done a better job of successfully helping folks litigate when they are isolated and there for not included because of their institutionalized placements, but also I am aware that not many people know about the number, the sheer number of people with disabilities visible and a lot of invisible who are incarcerated and who are caught up in that system of jailing and aren't getting what they need inside or should have never been incarcerated to begin with bacause mayve they experience a condition that was misunderstood from the outset and so instead of deescalating a situation. Police need more training, we need to make the public more aware of how many people are languishing in the institutions where they are not only not productive, but you know what a waste of human capital. So, as we think about the black lives matter movement and the opportunities for intersectionality, I think the opportunities for allies of all kinds of civil rights groups need to come together and really leverage their powers to begin to think about not necessarily about defunding police or the incarcerating institutions but recognizing how many people of color have disabilities, how many women are how many are incarcerated with disabilities that may not even belong there so there is so much to be done on those two funds alone. And, clearly employment people are still way under employed but I know there are folks working to improve that and I am trying to work with those organizations to araise awareness about how they can do better in terms of their work force and retaining and retaining and recruiting actively professionals who, you know, they may not consider as a valuable resource but gosh people with disabilities are so of the most creative folks because they have to figure out how navigate and they do have persepctives that are normally based on maybe their particular impairment experinces but having to navigate the world that isn't accessible, how to find the backdoor how to find the policies and so there is a lot of resilience to be found there, too. We need to be asking community members to confront ableism when they see it and part of that is educating people on the various forms that disability prejudice and discrimination can take. There is an interesting moment right now with regard to anti-racism frameworks that are getting a lot of traction and people are beginning to, at least educational institutions, start teaching circles where many of us are reading Ibram Kenids book how to be an anit-racist, how to first recognize when prejudice and discrimination exist on the bases of race, that we could also be doing with books related to disability prejudice and abilism but I really think the moment is now to consider some of the things at the same time because I think we may loose nuances of people who are confronting multiple oppressions. Though, I am just bringing that up because I know there is a lot of folks at my school now thinking about that we review policies to find out (...) discriminatory our policies for recruitment may have things embedded or cooked into the algorithms that are unintentionally excluding or failing to retain or promote those with disabilities at our institutions and so, when I think about the next steps what people can do I come back to, you know when people say something and they may just not know, they are not familiar perhaps with folks with various disabilities and we know that contact with people who experienced disabilities and differences is what makes people less prejudice because they come much more aware of the whole person and our stereotypes are not generalize-able and how if they listened to the voices of disabled people they can hear first hand what is problematic and we need to be doing by allowing folks with disabilities to speak, to be heard and then to support their agendas and not necessarily just take over. So, the confrontation literature is all about not necessarily saying: "Hey, you are a jerk. You just said something racist or ableist" and putting people on their defensive heels. That we can do this in ways that actually open up dialogues and that we should be encouraging difficult dialogues and brave conversations around what we can do locally in our houses, in our communities in our schools and organizations to make one change, to make one difference: to ask what is our policy, do we know whether all of our employees know what their rights are, should we be scheduling regular meetings with the ADA coordinator, do folks know how to find information and how to request a accommodation. Would it be great if parents went into an IEP Meeting at their schools, knowing what their kids got as accommodations. I think people are so non forthcoming at organizations with the things that they view as special privileges that are only for those who, quote on quote, need it or deserve it. And when we look at disability rights as special privileges, we don't see them as civil rights that are 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 but to make explicit what the policy is for requesting a accommodations, how you not be fired for disclosing for example how we can confront things in non-aggressive way. To ask people when they say something pejorative or maybe just outdated, you know, the word "handicap" is still out there i call it "handicrap", the word "special"' and we can just ask " what do you mean by that, what do you mean that they can't do that or that you curious about that they have sex, can you tell me more about why you think that and it can start a dialogue and that is something we can all do. I am still working hard to make my own home accessible to my 24 year old. We did construction to modify the house when we first bought it is a single level so that she feel like she was a part of the family and be able to get to all parts of the kitchen and her bathroom but there you know the laundry room has one step that we are still negotiating how to make sure that she can get into garage but things like where we put things in the refrigerator. You know if you have a wheelchair user in your family or someone who is a little person who may have a congenital or an otherwise amputated limb and we put things on shelves without even thinking about who can access the shelf and my other child who happens to be abled bodied would before dinner, you know, 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 and say can I , can you get something of the top shelf from me and then we would say, you know, why don't you wait until dinner time and we have to be mindful about which drawers we want to put her things into. She can't feel like a second class citizen in her own family space and those are some things that we can remind our peers who have kids with disabilities as we try to go on and educated another parents in our parenting roles and our roles as educators and who are diversity committees. Our diversity committee now is taking on accessibility as part of our mental 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 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, you know, made it through preschool and 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 now 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 preschools when they get someone like her on their staff so many students gravited toward her because she has this visible signs of her disability, her wheelchair and if you can educate the youngs, the preschoolers and show them people of all abilities can be teachers and parents and ongoing learners, you know they tend to even those kids with behavior problems com to her. They see as this beacon of hope, I think, that is a real cue for employers who ever gets my daughter as a teacher is going to be lucky.