The Voiceless Minority

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.". People with disabilities now share Rosa Park’s seat at the back of the bus It is no longer just Rosa Parks fighting for African American rights; now, the fight includes people like Justin Dart, Jr., the founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities. It takes hubris to equate the struggles undertaken by the African American community in the early 60s with the challenges facing people with disabilities today. The disability rights movement is one of the last significant Civil Rights movement in America that has not gotten mainstream attention. While people with disabilities have the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is only a single piece of legislation. It by itself is only a Band-Aid and does not improve the lives of people with disabilities. It has been nearly thirty years since this ground-breaking piece of legislation, but has muc...

I recently celebrated my 34 th  birthday 34 is not a significant    number, but it means you're closer to midlife crisis mode, just kidding, at least I hope so. My birthday got me thinking over the last month, or so I've had a new zest for life. I'm more focused on bettering myself and life. I currently serve as a communications team member for Access the vote Florida, which I helped found along with my work for ATVFL. I've been blogging more, and I'm trying to increase my internet presence. All that said, I had a conversation recently with a friend and caregiver about what life was like before I moved to Florida. My friend and I randomly got on the topic of what he's doing with his life; he is currently going to school to become an EMT. As the conversation progressed, we fell on the topic of my AID care. Before moving to Florida, I lived in north western Pennsylvania. I have a love hate relationship with Pennsylvania. I loved it because it gave me freedom f...

     Birthday ADA Thirty Years Of Advocacy & Activism, Where Are We Now? I have not written for this blog in nearly three years. But in three years, it's funny how things come full circle. As many of you know, I started this blog as a sounding board for the struggles I was encountering during grad school; however, I quickly realized this blog was turning into something more significant and more critical. It was turning into my commentary on disability issues and living with a disability in general. I have covered everything from how people with disabilities are viewed as infantile by individual members of the able body community to the funny side of being disabled. As the ADA turned 30 Sunday, I felt it was time to reflect on my life and the world as a whole. In the 30 years since its passage, my life had changed a great deal when it was first signed. I was four years old, but now I am a college graduate with a dark sense of humor who advocates for people with...

So, on Monday, I started writing again for this blog. I’m trying to get my shit together. One would think by the time someone is 31; they would have figured things out. I have a great support system and parents who love me beyond measure, yet something is still lacking in my life. I did not know what this was until this morning. As I’ve stated in the other blogs, I attempt to replay conversations in my head after the fact. I was replaying one such conversation from a few months ago this morning when I realized it fit into exactly what’s going on in my life right now. On the surface, it seems as if everything is going perfectly for me. I am being considered for my first job, and from what I’m told, I’m high on the list of potential candidates. I didn’t mess up the actual interview even though I was nervous as all get out. I just had a visit with one of my best friends. Life couldn’t be sweeter, right? Well, I am sad to report that this is not the case. I never thought I’d use this blog...

My Random Rantings for the Night I haven't written in a while on the Voiceless minority. I've been busy dealing with some medical issues and capturing and taking advantage of several opportunities that have come my way. More on that later – However, the point of this blog is to get on my soapbox. Before I do so, I must say that this blog is a straight opinion piece, and it comes from the point of me being extra picky when it comes to semantics. The other night I was watching one of my TV shows – the WWE- when they announced a partnership with the "Special" Olympics. When I first heard this, I went all noble, and my mind took over. I said, "Oh, here we go again, the mainstream media and the able-bodied community using the disabled as 'inspiration porn.'" For those who don't know what that is, the term inspiration porn was coined by disabled activists and comedienne Stella Young. It is the idea that the able-bodied community uses their...

     This past year I turned 30. They say, whoever they are, that 30 is supposed to be a significant turning point in life.        Up until recently, I found this statement hard to believe, but events have occurred in the past couple of weeks that have changed my mind. For anyone who has been following my blog lately, they've noticed a couple of things; I've increased the number of posts I've written. Hopefully, you also saw a renewed passion regarding issues within the disability community.  It has taken some time to realize the origin of the change in my motivation, but now I think I have figured it out.        During a recent conversation with my friend Eliza, she put things into perspective. Our conversation occurred weeks ago, and I thought nothing of it at the time. However, I tend to replay conversations in my head rather than finding their significance later. I was replaying t...

        So, a conversation came up this weekend with a friend who is also my PCA, which made me think of a complex problem facing the disability community. The following sentence was spoken: "I don't understand why it's a problem when people protect you when you are in a wheelchair." Upon hearing this, I lost my mind. After I was done screaming incoherently in rage, I got to thinking about the statement, and I realized that the problem was not my PCA's problem; it is a societal problem.       In this writer's opinion, if you have any disability, most of society sees you as a fragile doll that needs protection. I'm here to say this: WE ARE NOT SOME FRAGILE DOLL THAT YOU CAN COLLECT AND BUY ON QVC; WE ARE PEOPLE! Some of us are motivational speakers, some of us are doctors, some of us have Master's degrees, and we are not happy being put in a box. This is very true for me personally. Recently, I had a conversation with my dad, who is going ...