Local Special Education Committee - My Disability History Presentation

This is a speech I gave to a local Special Education Committee
(I also mailed a copy to all the area High School Assistant Principal and/or History Department Heads)


Virginia has a resolution designating the month of October as Disability History and Awareness Month. 
I’m here to seek your help in gathering all students for my Disability History presentation. It’s about 30 minutes long. It’s a powerpoint. I also have on DVD.


I know this need to be an inclusive event. I have a few suggestions on how to do this:

- Work with history teachers to make coming to the presentation extra credit.

- Have a $20 gift card raffle, Best Buy OR movies. I will provide the gift card.

- Investigate how the ****** SEAC can advertise it to all students.
Maybe in morning PA announcement? 

Disability awareness is important but I feel that you can't necessarily teach someone how to feel towards one another. Though by teaching about the history of a group it will lead to respect, compassion, understanding and breaking stereotypes about people with disabilities.
Teaching Disability History to all students will promote inclusion and improve disability employment rates.

Thank you for your time.



UPDATE:  10/3/14 
I did receive a tiny bit of interest from the SE Committee in the form of emails, but I was not invited to give my presentation. I heard from a source they did recommend it to the school board without the gift card suggestion.
Thanks to a Partners in Policymaking connection, I'll be presenting to two classes at a local elementary. Click here to read how it went.


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Ask Not What Your Country Can Do To Include You, Ask What You Can Do To Include Yourself In Your Country

I got nearly 100 likes on Facebook when I posted this, so I decided to Blog It!



I heard behind me at my local Recreation Center (pool) today,
“She can’t talk.” in a young sweet voice.

I turned my wheelchair around and in a kind cheerful tone said, 
“Yes I can. How are you doing today?”

A few seconds went by, The four young girls started smiling. The staff person with them said they had went into the deep end of the pool.

“Was it fun?” I said with a smile.

They nodded and one of them said yes.
I love kids, they say what is on their mind. so simple and without malice.

All you have do is show up regularly. The general population will get used to you. 
it’s no big deal.
Relationships and even friendships might form. Wow, what a concept.


ALSO this makes me ponder and remember.
- This young girl couldn't have been more than 6 and already the "can't" stereotype had set in. I can't wait for a couple of more weeks until Youth Leadership Forum ... a whole 5 days of telling them "You Can".

- Today I’m reminded of the reverse lie I told myself in tough situations when I was young. 
I told myself, “Ivy, you do belong." 
I really did belong that's why I’m calling it reverse. Fake it until you make it. Shame on whatever people or situations that made me reassure / lie to myself.



In the Facebook comments I said:

I hope parents don't 'unteach' my example. lol! It's the adults you have to worry about you know.
&
As I think back on this moment today, it was so awesome the staff person helped the convo along. She KNEW what I was up to. Major kudos to her.
Either I got there a minute too late or I wasn't listening until I heard CAN'T but I’m curious why the young girl said that in the first place? So cute! I’m very tickled by this little moment in time.

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Rustin Cohle Quotes - HBO True Detective

Hats off to HBO, fine job!

The one-liners (or a few) in this show were fantastic. Not to say I subscribe to what was flying out of Rust’s mouth, but maybe I do in some strange way. It intrigued me enough to blog about it. 
By the third episode I knew I wanted to make a list of my favorite Rust quotes, here they are:



“It's thursday and it's past noon. Thursday is one of my days off. On Thursdays I start drinking at noon. You don't get to interrupt that.”

“I see a propensity for obesity. Poverty. A yen for fairy tales. Folks puttin' what few bucks they do have into a little wicker basket being passed around. I think it's safe to say nobody here's gonna be splitting the atom, Marty.”

“Certain linguistic anthropologists think that religion is a language virus that rewrites pathways in the brain. Dulls critical thinking.” 
Marty: Well, I don’t use ten dollar words as much as you, but for a guy who sees no point in existence, you sure fret about it an awful lot; and you still sound panicked. 
“At least I’m not racing to a red light.”

"People out here, it's like they don't even know the outside world exists. Might as well be living on the fucking Moon. It's all one ghetto, man. A giant gutter in outer space."

"I think human consciousness, is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware, nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself, we are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self; an accretion of sensory, experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody is nobody. Maybe the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight - brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal."

"If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward then, brother, that person is a piece of shit. And I’d like to get as many of them out in the open as possible. ....
You gotta get together and tell yourself stories that violate every law of the universe just to get through the goddamn day? What’s that say about your reality?"

"The world needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door."

"Death created time to grow the things that it would kill."

“There is no such thing as forgiveness. People just have short memories."

“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey, 'He said for you to give me your fucking share.' People… so god damn frail they’d rather put a coin in the wishing well than buy dinner.
….Yeah, well if the common good’s gotta make up fairy tales then it’s not good for anybody.”

“People incapable of guilt, usually do have a good time.”

“All your life, all your love, all your hate, all your memory, all your pain... is all the same dream: The dream about being a person.”

“Men, women... it's not supposed to work except to make kids.”

“Look, as sentient meat, however illusory our identities are, we craft those identities by making value judgements.
Everybody judges, all the time. Now, you got a problem with that, you’re living wrong.”

“Life’s barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.”

“This is a bar, not a fucking bedside. And being stupid’s not the same thing as catching sick.”

"Well, once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light's winning."

Vanguard Landing, a choice or same pattern of segregation in Virginia?

I spoke a city council meeting 10.8.13

As a person with a disability and was once employed Moms in Motion, a waiver facilitator that assist many Virginians with disabilities live in their community, I'm confused and angry over the the expense and the intent the City has shown for Vanguard Landing.

While I realize people deserve home care options, I believe seclusion and segregation is never the answer. Those two factors are dangerous. If you were to look at the history of people with disabilities, you will find, again and again, a pattern of segregation and abuse. I'm not only referring to physical abuse but corruption of the internal care system that will surely happen in the future.

Why are we continuing to make the same mistakes of the past? Why do the founders of Vanguard Landing think this is best option, when the US Department of Justice came into Virginia and said the (secluded) Training Centers had to be closed immediately? Isn't that a heads up that these type of places are dangerous?

The answer to caring for people with disabilities can be found by studying Disability History.

I invite everybody listening right now to my Disability History presentation on October 21st at 6:30 in Norfolk at Hope House hosted by The Arc of South Hampton Roads. If you study Disability History you will see segregation leads to abuse. Stop profiteering from caring of people with disabilities. There are current practices being used now to care for people with disabilities in their homes. It cost less to serve an individual in their home. Viruses such as COVID-19 kills at an increased rate in segregated settings such as Vanguard Landing.

I believe in small group homes sprinkled throughout our community.

I believe in strengthening home care support so anybody with a disability can live at home.

I believe everybody should live in their community, near or with their loved ones.

Segregation is not the answer. It never was and never will be.

 

Segregation is not the answer. It never was and never will be. Do not fund Vanguard Landing.

Please look at the Facebook page that I and another advocate made:
https://www.facebook.com/advocatesagainstvanguard


A conversation on my Facebook

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Released March 9, 2014
New York Times Documentary: The Men of Atalissa

Produced by Kassie Bracken, John Woo and Dan Barry, "The Men of Atalissa" is the evocative, haunting story of a few dozen men with intellectual disability who lived in an old schoolhouse on top of a hill. For more than three decades, they were an integral part of an Iowa farming community, worshipping at the local churches, dancing at the local bars, working at a nearby turkey-processing plant; they were affectionately known as "the boys." But none of their neighbors knew of the day-to-day abuse the men endured in that schoolhouse on the hill.

The Iowa community had no idea of the abuse going on inside the bunkhouse.
“I’ve been in the building back when it was nice.”
“Never heard them complain.”

Video  |   Article   |    A conversation on my Facebook

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To explain or not to explain: That is the question

When talking to the public don't explain your disability at great length and then turn around and ask them to treat you like everybody else.
It's a very contradicting message and I would love to see people with disabilities (and parents) stop using this way of introducing themselves.

Your disability is a part of you, but it does not define you. It's not the most important thing about you.

If you start a conversation off with your medical diagnosis and rattle off how or why a disability effects you, I feel strangers will just compile the information into a large pile of CAN'T. You are building your own mountain that you will have to scale. People with disabilities have enough barriers, why create them with words?

A person is much more than their disability. Choosing how you communicate with the public that will convey that. Stop explaining yourself away. Stop self-identifying as a label. 

When meeting a person for the first time, find common ground with them. Friends heighten quality of life. Friendship can form under any shared interest. If the first thing out of your mouth is 'disability', however honest and clear you describe it it will create divide between you and the potential new friend.

Do you hear people say, "Hello. My name is Bob. I have high blood pressure."? No, you don't. Leave the medical labels in the doctors office. Even then doctors can be wrong, or medical diagnoses are always changing, or medical discoveries are made, so why bother trying to stuff yourself into a pre-labeled box?

I used to tell anybody and everybody about disability, in hopes of if people understood then then they would accept. Explaining yourself into oblivion does no good. It takes and leaves you with nothing. It dehumanizes you. There is a time and place to explain your disability.

I do believe in teaching awareness in a careful all encompassing way. 
This disability month, that disability month…. It's starting to really get on my nerves. How much awareness does a person need to be beat over the head with? I'm sure by now, the bombardment of awareness has turned into a dull mind-numbing roar that the public has tuned out. 
Instead of a particular disability awareness plug/PSA, advocate how people with disabilities should be treated. BUT then when doing that, you'll see the disabled community run into this paradox:

"Just like you." 
OR 
"Different. It's ok to be different." 
If it's confusing to me, our children must be baffled!

I'm sure we all want to be accepted. We want a space at the family table, so to speak. In that aspect everybody on earth is the same. The truth is we  each have our differences and as humans we are intelligent enough to include everybody.

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"As we think so shall we speak, as we speak, so shall it be.”

People First Language is a way of speaking about people with disabilities in a positive manor that does not put disability in the spotlight. Too often the disability takes over conversations when the true focus should be on the person's likes, needs, wants and life goals. The way we choose to speak is so important, because it forms the world around us.
People First Language also changes how we describe assistive devices.
For example: She's in a wheelchair Changes to: She uses a wheelchair.
People First Language may seem like a small thing, but if more people used it attitudes towards disabilities will change for the better. So be sure to try and use it and maybe just by listening, somebody near you will start using it too.

Here's a fabulous webpage that gives more detail about People First Language:
http://www.gcdd.org/news-a-media/people-first-language.html


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When reaching out for support or advocating for your child, at what point can it be damaging to social perception of disability?

A Facebook chat about two articles:
Paying For My Special-Needs Child
&
Why We Published A Photo Of A 16-Year-Old In A Diaper

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“I stopped explaining myself when I realized people only understand from their level of perception.” 

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Stop blaming the disability. Take it off your list as the #1 go to reason when there is a problem.
Facebook chat
 


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Coalition Rally and Advocacy Day in Richmond - 1.21.13

Coalition Rally and Advocacy Day

at the

Bell Tower on Capitol Square in Richmond

I have known about the Coalition Rally and Advocacy Day for many years now, but this was the first time I was able to attend thanks to The Arc of South Hampton Roads. I was so excited to be there amongst my peers in the disabled community!

It was beautiful weather, which is rare for Richmond in January. The sunlight lifted up our spirits even further. Luckily there wasn't a harsh wind either. We were blessed to have such a fine day, because the next day the temperature dropped.

I arrived on a tour sized bus along with my fellow local advocates, as we were pulling up the bell on the Bell Tower was already ringing. For some reason that gave me a joyful feeling for the day ahead.

A small band was playing happy rallying tunes to further pump the spirits of the crowd up. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face when watching all different types of people with disabilities dancing and laughing to the music.

It was exhilarating to see so many long time friends gathered in one place. It was also a wonderful opportunity to make some new friends too! I'm a big believer in, “It's not what you know, it's who you know.” So hopefully my Social Network grew a little bit larger because of the rally yesterday.

There were so many fabulous speakers. Some delegates, people representing mental health services, advocacy organizations and self-advocates were there. I was honored to speak on behalf of VAULT. I'm a board member of the first cross-disability advocacy group in the state, Virginia Advocates United Leading Together. There were so many voices that wanted to speak but there was not enough time. I'm so glad that so many people wanted to speak out. So many strong self-advocates is a sign of a bright future for all.

After the rally, the energetic crowd headed up the hill to do what they traveled all that way for; to advocate for themselves and loved ones, so the delegates knew for sure to listen to our voice!

Highlights of the day:

Telling a legislator about a fact he did not know:

People on medicaid can't get married.

The look on his face was interesting. I knew my point dug in deep.
(I mean they can, but they'll loose Medicaid)

Embarrassed by tracking mud into the Senators and delegate's offices. Doing my spiel and when apologizing for the mud and hearing all sweet like in a southern accent, "It's alright, Don't you worry about it." I mean they have maids at night, right? lol!

Being at the General Assembly for an outside rally that is mainly about mental health services THEN discovering gun rights advocates are there too, in the building. I doubt the two groups co-mingled. Sad. Missed opportunity.
…Maybe?

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State Budget Hearing - 1.4.13 - Medicaid Waiver

Here's the speech I gave:

It's a pleasure to be here today. My name is Ivy. I've been using the Medicaid Consumer Directed Waiver for over a decade to live in the community. Medicaid pays my Personal Care Assistants. The Waiver assists me to give back to my community by volunteering, going to school, and getting a job. I make a positive difference in my community thanks to my PCA.

For a true blue inclusive community, to see people with disabilities living independently and to see more of those individuals in the workplace, personal care assistants need to be paid more and given quality health benefits. This will secure PCAs as a serious career field and increase the quality of care, which will eliminate a huge barrier to me and many others.

Please add 7,500 Waivers slots to help the those on the wait list. People with disabilities should not have to wait to have a Personal Care Assistant. PCAs are essential to countless people with disabilities living in the community. Families that want their loved ones at home, they need support in the way of 400 ID Waivers and 200 DD Waivers. By supporting this, you will be enabling Virginia to complying with the Olmstead Decision of 1999, which states people with disabilities have the right to live in their community.

With the state wide closure of institutions you must require budget transparency and use the money saved by the closings to help families on the Waiver waiting list. Restructure the Waiver to promote smaller group homes which would allow for inclusive communities. Smaller group homes would be also safer for people with disabilities, because a smaller operation would squeeze out corruption, abuse and murder.

This state is currently ranked 45th in the country for its community-based residential services for people with disabilities. I hope you act now to make Virginia a state we all can be proud of. I urge you, Virginia policy creators, to take this historic opportunity to reform community-based services for people with disabilities! 

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