Happy Birthday, ADA!

Today the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) turns 28! This day is always a big celebration for me because it serves as a reminder of the incredible accomplishments of the disability rights movement, and although we are frequently ignored and left out of wider discussions of civil rights, the ADA validates our identity as a minority group. And, coincidentally, this day doubles as my anniversary with my partner who also has a disability, the significance of which is not lost on me. For on one hand, our lives, our successes, even our relationship owes gratitude to the civil rights the ADA has granted us, while on the other, our inability to get married without losing vital services reflects how much work still lies ahead of us as a social movement. And really, the penalties endured by people with disabilities who seek marriage are just one of the many social challenges we face – any person with a disability can tell you of struggles with healthcare, low caregiver wages, housing, and even areas the ADA was passed to address, like employment and accessibility.

Iconic image of activists crawling up the steps of the U.S. Capitol building in support of the ADA
(Photo courtesy of Tom Olin/Disability History Museum)

For many, the ADA conjures the image of disabled activists ditching their wheelchairs to crawl up the Capitol steps or George Bush, Sr. signing the bill into law while surrounded by the parents of the ADA on the White House lawn. For me, it brings to mind the songs, the slogans, the battle cries, the poems, the stories. So perhaps it is fitting I find myself working in the arts wing of the movement where we fight to ensure everyone has the right and the opportunity to express themselves creatively, to tell their stories in whatever medium serves them best. And art is one of the most effective ways to break down social stigmas and bridge connections with those who see only a wall of difference, to move hearts when minds have closed. The disability rights movement calls for action of all kinds, and art is one of them.

President George H.W. Bush signing the ADA into law on the White House lawn. Surrounding him are disability advocates Rev. Harold Wilke, Evan Kemp, Sandra Parrino, and Justin Dart Jr.
(Photo courtesy of George Bush Presidential Library and Museum)

So if you are still seeking your role in the movement, maybe give the arts a try. Or even if you find direct action like the Capitol Crawl or civil disobedience to be most rewarding, you can view the arts as another set of tools to add to your activist toolkit. Whatever path you choose, we hope you have a lovely ADA Anniversary! Be proud of the hard-fought accomplishments of the disability rights movement and keep up the great work our previous generations began. And if you live in Austin, we hope you can join us as we celebrate the ADA at our Opening Minds, Opening Doors Speaking Advocates group this Saturday, July 28th, 1-3 PM and continue the tradition of storytelling to effect change. Happy ADA!

Eric Clow
OMOD Project Coordinator
VSA Texas

OMOD Conference Season & Other Happenings – Part 1

Greetings devoted blog readers! It's Eric here, and I'd like to share some recent happenings in my life as OMOD project coordinator and self-taught, DIY musician/songwriter:

At the start of each summer, while many Austinites prepare themselves for three months of near-suffocating heat with a full Netflix instant watch list and prayers that the A/C doesn't break, we here at OMOD ready ourselves for a jam-packed conference season. We call it “conference season” because many of the conferences where we regularly present occur within a month-long period of time, starting in the second half of July and ending in the middle of August. During this time, we literally organize one conference session after another. Before we have a chance to breathe and reflect on the success of one conference session, we are all ready preparing for the next one.

This is also an exciting time when we begin to see our speakers' hard work and training truly pay off. New speakers, who were painfully shy only months earlier, find themselves commanding attention from audiences of between 40 and 60 total strangers while older speakers, who have been with OMOD for over a year, assume greater responsibilities as session emcees and mentors to newer, less experienced speakers.

 OMOD speaker Renee kicks off our session,
"Getting Real about Getting Out," at the
Texas Advocates Conference in Dallas.

At San Japan, OMOD speaker Jessica facilitated her own panel without any assistance from OMOD staff for an audience of almost 50 conference attendees. She navigated the entire process from drafting a panel proposal through the actual conference session independently.

In addition to San Japan, OMOD speakers also presented at the Texas Advocates Conference in Dallas, the Texas Association of Vocational Adjustment Coordinators (TAVAC) Conference in Houston, the Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS) Conference in San Antonio, and an artists’ panel at DARS’ Celebration for the 25th Anniversary of the ADA here in Austin.

Of course, OMOD conference season is not completely chaos-free. The occasional snafu does occur, as when we plan a session for 30 people and then more than 60 people show up or when we plan to break a session up into multiple groups in the same room and it gets far noisier than expected, but each mistake gives us the opportunity to learn, improve, and make our future sessions stronger. Perhaps the most important lesson we have learned is to be flexible and to think on our feet when our best-laid plans are not working. In the end, seeing our speakers' personal growth and increased independence is what makes this one of the more rewarding seasons of my job.

Stay tuned for Part 2 with recent happenings in my music life!

Arts and Special Education

Hello Friends,

I am writing from the Dog Days of summer – (why do dogs get blamed for the heat, I wonder). Anyway, I just returned from DC where I attended the VSA Intersections conference on Arts and Special Education. I saw a lot of friends there and took some opportunities to get caught up on what is happening in the VSA Network. I am happy to report that things are really percolating along as we celebrate our 40^th anniversary. Yes, 40 years of challenging stereotypes and breaking barriers. And we do this with paintbrushes, dancing shoes, poetry, soliloquies and more!

Emma Goldman, 1869-1940

We presented a track on UDL – Universal Design for Learning – and helped teaching artists, researchers, and arts administrators gain new insights into the flexible curricular options available through the principles of UDL. It is always nice when you see people’s faces light up when they make the connection between what they are doing in the classroom and how these principles support their efforts to engage all students in meaningful learning experiences. Jeannine from VSA arts Rhode Island and I had fun introducing folks to Symbaloo and Voki, two online resources that can help teachers utilize digital formats to engage their media-savvy students in academic lessons.

I learned some wonderfully creative adaptive tool-making strategies to include all students in music and visual art classes from Elena Carnevali and Irene Savage, teachers at Henry Viscardi School in NY. I especially loved the “switch generated” concert, which enables students who use electronic switches to communicate to play music and the lazy Susan that gives students in visual art classes more independence in selecting their own materials.

Examples of adaptive tools

Art@Work, a collaboration between Michigan State University and Peckham (a vocational rehab center in Lansing), reminded me of the video “For Once in My Life” about the music program and Miami Dade Goodwill. However, Art@Work brings students at MSU and workers at Peckham together to make art and share stories. And then there was the Sounds of Intent presentation, where I learned that in Haiti they still have abandonment wards in their hospitals where children born with disabilities are left to die. But, there are advocates who rescue these children, and through music exploration and other education and life supports, help them to survive and thrive. We Skype'd with the children (see the video below), and that was fun!

Thanks for reading! There are people all around the world who are catching the wave of inclusion and the arts for all learners, and people with disabilities are helping to lead the charge.

Until next time, happy 25^th anniversary ADA and happy 40^th anniversary VSA!

Celia