vimeo.com/.../436631998
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0:00 - 0:02I'm Dr Karen Sacs, I'm a professor
-
0:02 - 0:07and Chair of the Department
of Administration, Rehabilitation -
0:07 - 0:11and Post Secondary Education
at San Diego State University. -
0:11 - 0:17I've been here for almost 30 years
now, but I started my career -
0:17 - 0:20as Special Education Teacher.
-
0:20 - 0:22And, the first year that I taught,
-
0:22 - 0:25was the first year that my students
were ever allowed -
0:25 - 0:26into public school,
-
0:26 - 0:29because of the severity of
their disabilities. -
0:29 - 0:32A law was passed in 1975, that
allowed students -
0:32 - 0:36with very significant disabilities,
for everybody to be able -
0:36 - 0:38to come to public school.
-
0:38 - 0:40And that was the first year
that I started teaching. -
0:40 - 0:45And we were in a small building,
with about 40 students, -
0:45 - 0:48and a bunch of us, new teachers
-
0:48 - 0:51trying to figure out what to do
with all these kids -
0:51 - 0:55from ages 5 to 22, who first
stepped foot into public school. -
0:56 - 1:01So when I was teaching, this was
far before the ADA was passed, -
1:01 - 1:04I learned a lot about
the lack of accessiblity. -
1:05 - 1:07In fact, with the students
I was teaching, -
1:07 - 1:11I started teaching the older
students, the teenagers, -
1:11 - 1:14and I didn't have a whole lot
of time with them in school -
1:14 - 1:16because they've just started.
-
1:16 - 1:18And I realized that they needed
-
1:18 - 1:21to learn how to access their
community, -
1:21 - 1:23They needed to learn how to
get jobs, -
1:23 - 1:26they needed to learn all
those life skills -
1:26 - 1:30because you had so short time
with them. -
1:30 - 1:32And in my school district
-
1:32 - 1:38they had people whose job was
to look for jobs for students, -
1:38 - 1:43so they were 'job developers'
of sorts, and when I asked -
1:43 - 1:45for a job developer for our school,
-
1:45 - 1:48I was told that we wouldn't
be getting one, -
1:48 - 1:50because our students
couldn't work. -
1:50 - 1:52And, as you can imagine,
-
1:52 - 1:55that just motivated me to
figure it out. -
1:55 - 1:57Because I knew that my students
could work. -
1:57 - 2:00And so I started going out
and meeting -
2:00 - 2:03some of the business people
in the neighborhood, -
2:03 - 2:05and they introduced me
to other business people, -
2:05 - 2:08I started learning how to talk
to employers, -
2:08 - 2:10which was nice, something
I learned -
2:10 - 2:13in my Special Education Program,
learning to be a teacher. -
2:13 - 2:18And I found that,
my students of course, could work. -
2:18 - 2:22and I appealed directly to
employers, -
2:22 - 2:25and they helped me learn
the ropes of how to do all of this -
2:25 - 2:28and I started teaching my students
-
2:28 - 2:30how to ride the bus,
-
2:30 - 2:33and how to figure out some kinds
of accommodations for them -
2:33 - 2:36to do jobs, and it was so exciting
-
2:36 - 2:38when a student got a job
-
2:38 - 2:40and found something that
they liked to do -
2:40 - 2:42and that they were good at.
-
2:42 - 2:46And we had parents who never
in a million years had thought -
2:46 - 2:51that their sons and daughters
could work, and yet -
2:51 - 2:53they saw them being successful
-
2:53 - 2:55and parents who were very
nervous about -
2:55 - 2:58having them involved in the community
-
2:58 - 3:01were so excited, they became
of course our biggest advocates -
3:01 - 3:03for expanding this
educational program. -
3:04 - 3:08And so I found that no matter
where I went -
3:08 - 3:10I was trying to raise awareness
and more importantly, -
3:10 - 3:12raise expectations
-
3:12 - 3:16about the students I was
working for -
3:16 - 3:19and well, working with.
-
3:19 - 3:22When I came to San Diego State,
-
3:22 - 3:27it was to really look at how we
could use assisted technology -
3:27 - 3:30to connect people with disabilities
-
3:30 - 3:33whether they were going to school,
getting jobs, -
3:33 - 3:35accessing their community in
any way. -
3:35 - 3:40So assisted technology really
became an area I was focused on -
3:40 - 3:42and we had a couple of
federal grants -
3:42 - 3:46that funded me, funded me and
other colleagues -
3:46 - 3:49to develop some community
partnerships -
3:49 - 3:52to support the development
of assisted technology -
3:52 - 3:56so this was in the earlier days,
I think the ADA had just passed, -
3:56 - 3:59the communities were opening up,
-
3:59 - 4:01employers were becoming
more aware, -
4:01 - 4:05and we started getting people from
the community -
4:05 - 4:08really interested in helping us
to make modifications, -
4:08 - 4:13to help individual access the work
that they wanted to access. -
4:13 - 4:17And so I started teaching a course
around the applications -
4:17 - 4:20of assisted technology,
-
4:20 - 4:22I co-taught it with an engineering
faculty member -
4:22 - 4:27and we had students from Special
Education, from Rehabilitation, -
4:27 - 4:28from Englineering...
-
4:28 - 4:31we also had people from
the community, -
4:31 - 4:35we had occupational and physical
therapists, speech therapists, -
4:35 - 4:37we had people who sold equipment,
-
4:37 - 4:40we had different kinds of engineers
who took the class, -
4:40 - 4:43and we all sort of long together
-
4:43 - 4:46what the possibilities were when
we made a good match -
4:46 - 4:48with people with disabilities
-
4:48 - 4:51and an assisted technology that
connected them -
4:51 - 4:53to the activities that they
wanted to do. -
4:53 - 4:57And we found out that made
such a huge difference -
4:57 - 5:00and it gave people control over
their lives. -
5:00 - 5:03And one of the activities we did
in the class -
5:03 - 5:06was to do the ADA Accessibility Survey
-
5:06 - 5:10and this was so eye opening for
me and for my students -
5:10 - 5:14and for people who were in
our community, -
5:14 - 5:16who were working with us.
-
5:16 - 5:20So we would have students
go out and conduct the survey -
5:20 - 5:22and find out how accessible
-or not- -
5:22 - 5:24their local neighborhoods were.
-
5:24 - 5:27They went to retail places,
-
5:27 - 5:28they went to restaurants,
-
5:28 - 5:31and hotels, and any kind of places
-
5:31 - 5:34that they might want to access
in their neighborhoods -
5:34 - 5:37and what we found is, for all of us,
-
5:37 - 5:40we just never looked at a place
the same way. -
5:40 - 5:44And having that ADA Accessibility
Survey as a context, -
5:44 - 5:48and as a guide to help us look at
where we could make changes -
5:48 - 5:50because part of the assignment
-
5:50 - 5:55was not only taking the survey and
finding out what was good -
5:55 - 5:58and where people could make
improvements, -
5:58 - 6:01but also to do the advocacy,
-
6:01 - 6:05to bring that awareness, and to
make sure that people realize -
6:05 - 6:08that they have a whole market
out there -
6:08 - 6:10that they hadn't thought about.
-
6:10 - 6:12And in order for that market to
access their businesses, -
6:12 - 6:15they needed to make it more accessible.
-
6:15 - 6:18So it was a really exciting and,
to this day, I still teach the class, -
6:18 - 6:23and I still do the ADA Accessibility
Survey, and luckily -
6:23 - 6:27things have gotten better and
we've seen a lot of improvements, -
6:27 - 6:30but we always find things that
can be improved. -
6:30 - 6:33So I have seen many
positive changes, -
6:33 - 6:36both in physical access
to buildings, -
6:36 - 6:41but also access to electronic
and digital communication -
6:41 - 6:44and that's a big one that has made
a huge difference. -
6:44 - 6:48I think that what happens often is,
-
6:48 - 6:51we don't think about these
considerations up front. -
6:51 - 6:55That all too often is after
the fact. -
6:55 - 6:57even at the university, whenever
-
6:57 - 7:02they're introducing new software,
new technologies, new platforms, -
7:02 - 7:04that we're using,
-
7:04 - 7:06I always ask upfront
-
7:06 - 7:08what about the accessibility?
-
7:08 - 7:13and it used to be that the answer
was always, inevitably... -
7:13 - 7:14"we'll get to that."
-
7:14 - 7:15"We'll get to that later"
-
7:15 - 7:19I've seen that change and people
are really looking -
7:19 - 7:21at the accessibility issues upfront.
-
7:21 - 7:24But I think that really happens...
needs to happen more. -
7:24 - 7:31And the idea of universal design
has to be thought of upfront, -
7:31 - 7:32And it's much more inclusive
-
7:32 - 7:34it's also much more cost effective.
-
7:34 - 7:39And so I think getting into
the mindset of people upfront -
7:39 - 7:41and I've had the chance to work
-
7:41 - 7:44with architecture students,
for example, and being able to -
7:44 - 7:50introduce them to individuals
with disabilities has given them -
7:50 - 7:54insight that it's not about
compliance -
7:54 - 7:56it's not just about compliance
and going with the codes. -
7:56 - 7:59But once they've met people
-
7:59 - 8:02who were accessing the
community in different ways, -
8:02 - 8:04it helped them think about
design in a new way. -
8:04 - 8:08And it encouraged them to
consider their creativity -
8:08 - 8:10in how to make their designs,
-
8:10 - 8:13whether these were buildings, or
outside landscapes, -
8:13 - 8:18whatever it was, that they
should make those -
8:18 - 8:21more accessible
for a wider range of people. -
8:21 - 8:25What I'd like to see, is
disability -
8:25 - 8:29firmly planted in the diversity
discussions. -
8:29 - 8:30I think, all too often
-
8:30 - 8:33the diversity discussions,
-
8:33 - 8:37particularly that are happening
now, often leave disability -
8:37 - 8:39out of the equation.
-
8:39 - 8:45And disability crossings over
intersects with every other identity -
8:45 - 8:50whether it's gender, age,
ethnicity....every aspect -
8:50 - 8:53you'll find people with disabilities.
-
8:53 - 8:56And in fact, any of us can join
-
8:56 - 9:02the disable group, at any time
and most of us will at some point -
9:02 - 9:03in our lives. So I think
-
9:03 - 9:09being able to think proactively and
holistically about disability... -
9:09 - 9:13is really critical and it has to be
forming part of those conversations -
9:13 - 9:16that we're having about diversity.
- Title:
- vimeo.com/.../436631998
- Description:
-
Description not available.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- ABILITY Magazine
- Duration:
- 09:17
Adriana Uribe edited English subtitles for vimeo.com/.../436631998 |