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bjbjm Well I had the great honor this year to be asked to be the grand marshal, of the
second annual Chicago disability pride parade, which actually is where this t-shirt comes
from, I don t know if you can see it. It was called unity builds community and um it was
very interesting for me in a lot of ways as somebody who has promoted disability culture
for the past 15 years or so now it was really interesting cause this is actually one of
the things I wrote about after I got back from the parade which is that I tend to be
a talking head about disability pride and I've marched in protests buts I've never marched
in a parade that was specifically just to show people that you had pride in your disability,
being a person with a disability and the disability movement and wasn t protesting something.
So I got there about an hour early and I found a chair and I just sat and watched and it
was really fascinating cause there were people with all kinds of disabilities who were gathering
and there were a lot of different kinds of wheelchairs there, there were vans, there
were more placards and signs on the back of chairs then you can imagine, t-shirts, people
had this t-shirt on but there were a lot of other t-shirts. The theme from the year before
was disabled and proud so a lot of people had that t-shirt and then we gathered and
we marched for about a mile and we ended up in a park and there were a kind of a U around
the stage with vendors and then there were some musicians and speakers so I actually
had the opportunity to speak for about 5 or 10 minutes. As is my wont these days, I tend
not to prepare heavily before I talk so I wasn t sure what I wasn t sure what I was
gonna talk about until that morning actually. As this parade happened to be on July 23rd
and I said I think before we were taping that this is actually around the anniversary of
the ADA, the 15th anniversary of the ADA was July 26th, but the parade was on a Saturday
and that was July 23rd. And the reason I know that date really well is because 27 years
ago my daughter was born on that day. So as I was getting ready that morning to go to
the parade I was thinking about all the changes id seen in the last 27 years, both in Amy
s life and the disability rights movement. And the first thing I have to say is 27 years
ago, 1978, when Amy was born I d never heard of disabilities rights movement. I was at
that point, getting my doctorate in history and I knew a lot of other human rights movements,
but I didn t know about the disabilities rights movement. What I did know as Amy was born
and as she became a young child, was that because of my own disability I was having
a hard time keeping up with her in certain things. Like if we go to the zoo or we go
to the mall, it was painful literally for me to be able to stand or walk for as long
as we would be at some place. So that was one of my motivations for beginning to use
a wheelchair, at that point in time was that I wanted to be around her as much as I could.
And even though I could walk, it exhausted me and hurt, both so being able to use that
chair was a way not only to be with her but to be with her and in a good space, to have
fun with her. So now, in 1975 the education of the handicapped act passed, which we now
know of as IDEA, the individual disability education act. And in 1977, the 504 protests
happened and where people over the federal building in San Francisco and advocated for
the implementation of the 504 regulations. In 1978 when she was born, the rehabilitation
act was reauthorized and the money for independent living centers was in there. But a lot of
things happened in disabilities rights movement since 1978. Of course independent living centers
grew from about a dozen around the country and a few more around the world to somewhere
in the neighborhood of about 400 today in the united states and many in probably in
most countries around the world. The education of the handicapped act of course became more
and more implemented and so people went from being segregated or not going to school at
all to getting to be mainstreamed in school. And of course, the main one, the big one that
most people know about is the Americans with disabilities act that passed in 1990. So there
is some of the things that have happened in Amy s lifetime. Another thing that happened
in Amy s lifetime is the technological revolution that we know today. For example, when I first
got involved in the independent living movement in the early 1980s I wanted to read about
disability rights and what did I do? I went to the library and looked in the card catalog.
Well there is a lot of people today who have never even heard of a card catalog, they don
t even exist anymore because you don t need them, its all on computer. The other thing
is that I found a couple books in the library that were about the disabilities rights movement.
From the perspective that there were a lot of things about disability but I was looking
for the rights perspective and there were only a couple of things. The disability rags
started in 1980 and our center had that. So that was one of the things, there was a book
by the guy by the name of Frank Bowe, recapping America, which was an excellent description
of what was going on with people who where then called handicapped, we now call them
people with disabilities in this country. And there wasn t a lot else out there, a few
things, but not a lot. And you know I couldn t go on Internet and look for other things
because there was no Internet, and even though inter-library loans existed, it wasn t as
easy to use as it is today. So that kind of technological revolution has happened in her
lifetime, but another thing that s really important happened and that is email. Email
and the Internet both, you know kind of put it together. So one of the things that has
happened with email, that I met people like you, but I ve also met or communicated with
people all over the world. Some of whom I ve then met and become friends and some of
whom have become email friends and vie never even met them. So this technological revolution
has been huge for people with disabilities, especially people with disabilities who have
a difficult time leaving their house or their apartment or their nursing home, for whatever
reason, because now all of the sudden you a way to communicate with people. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
City urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags place well I first saw ED, I think, I knew
about him but I first saw him at this actually wonderful conference called beyond survival
that was held in Denver in 19 Owner Normal Owner Microsoft Office Word Microsoft, Inc
well I first saw ED, I think, I knew about him but I first saw him at this actually wonderful
conference called beyond survival that was held in Denver in 19 Title Microsoft Office
Word Document MSWordDoc Word.Document.8