I'm Victoria Rodríguez-Roldán.
I am, my day job is the Senior Policy Manager at AIDS United.
We work to end the HIV epidemic.
And I would say I am a disability advocate at heart
because of my own mental health disabilities,
and I bring that throughout my entire life
to try to push disability world into one that is inclusive
of all mental health and developmental disabilities,
not just the photogenic disabilities.
I was a year old when the ADA passed.
I am 31 years old, and we're celebrating the 30th anniversary.
So I have no memory, I grew up with it.
My first memory of the ADA was my mother, who was diabetic,
getting, talking about accommodations at her work to store insulin
in the work fridge, along those lines.
And I remember her talking about this new thing called the ADA.
You know how people talk about work at home.
But the ADA, I would say, I had my own mental conception
of what is a disabled person
until I myself was dealing with the, "I feel different,"
both because of my being trans, because of my mental health,
and eventually dealing with it and getting treatment when I was in law school,
which I don't- Law school is always an interesting experience in and of itself.
It's a three-year hazing ritual.
But I would say one of the things that motivate me in disability
is seeing just how much-
In disability, we often treat people as either poor things of pity
or as scary and need to be locked away, basically.
Often, with physical disabilities, it's the object of pity.
With mental health disabilities, it's the scary, let's lock them away,
why are they allowing those people out in the community?
And, having seen that, having been scared of it,
having been worried about my career if I were out,
which says a lot as a trans person being worried about being out
as someone with a mental health disability,
I don't think, I mean, I think we need to fundamentally alter
how society sees what is normal and not normal,
and how that works as far as being inclusive of all disabilities.
I would say that one of the things that impact me the most
was, for example, when I got out of law school.
In law school, I received accommodations right as I was about to graduate
and help from the Assistant Dean of Students, Sherry Abbott, at the time,
because I was pretty much experiencing a lot of problems
that were related to my disability.
And that probably wouldn't have been possible without the ADA,
without the spirit of it.
And later, when I started my career, a few months later, actually,
I joined as a Schedule A hire in the US Department of Labor.
If it weren't for the initiative at the federal government
that was partially inspired by the ADA
to make sure that people with disabilities
are hired by the federal government,
then maybe I wouldn't have started in civil rights in DC when I did.
So it has made a difference for me
in receiving accommodations at the jobs I've had and so forth.
So it is a question of how do we-
We already have a whole generation like myself,
who are in our early 30s and our 20s,
all the millennials and zoomers,
that don't remember the dark days before the ADA.
But we can't just coast on the,
"Yay, we did the ADA, now let's all go home and party,"
because there is so much more work to be done, basically.
People with disabilities are still routinely having to fight for their rights
under the ADA to be solved.
If we went around DC spotting architectural barriers,
we could spot a dozen in a single mile radius.
And that is a problem,
and this is especially true,
I like to talk about the sexy versus the non-sexy disabilities,
when we talk about disability, people often get this
inspiration porn mental image of the photogenic person in a wheelchair,
extra bonus points if they're straight and white,
but don't want to talk, and exclude from the picture,
from that pretty group picture,
the person who stutters, the person who has chronic pain
and can't work because of it, the person with mental health disabilities
who has had psychosis or other experiences like that.
I mean, when we talk about mental health,
we try and end the stigma and other such calls for action,
we often focus on the idea of,
let's talk about the people who were depressed
and took some Prozac and got better,
but don't want to talk about people who are in long-term institutions,
about people who experience psychosis,
about people who experience bipolar disorder, and so forth.
And we need to be clear that it's all disabled people that matter, basically,
at the risk of sounding All Lives Matter-ish,
not just those we like the most.
I would say, fundamentally, there needs to be a change
in how federal law treats people with mental health disabilities.
We need to fundamentally end institutionalization.
We need to include universal health coverage,
because people shouldn't be relying on having a job
to have access to affordable healthcare.
And I am also thinking, as a major change,
the fundamental idea that people
with mental health and developmental disabilities
have rights in general.
Fundamentally change the culture and also call in people.
I like to tell people, "Use your privilege."
Kind of like how they put the signs on the metro and the New York subway
that say, "If you see something, say something."
It applies here.
If you see something ableist, say it.
Don't wait till someone with a disability,
who's exhausted of having to fight for themselves, has to say it.
When people bring it up, evaluate and help them. Be an ally.