#ada26

U.S. Congress is trying to pass a law that would significantly weaken civil rights protections for Americans with disabilities. Please sign the petition at the link to stop it! The proposed "Opposition to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Education and Reform Act" (H.R. 620) introduces new rules that would make it much harder for people with disabilities to protect themselves against violations of their civil rights under the ADA. Even in cases where a person with disabilities might eventually succeed in enforcing their rights, H.R. 620 would make them have to wait much longer before achieving that success, meaning their rights to an accessible environment would continue to be violated during that time. Please follow the link to read more details about why H.R. 620 would be harmful, then sign the petition there, thanks.

“Our country does best when everyone gets their fair shot” —President Obama on National Disability Employment Awareness Month. In 2010, the President challenged the federal government to hire 100,000 people with disabilities within 5 years. By 2015, we reached that goal, hiring over 109,000 people with disabilities—and leading to the highest percentage of people with disabilities in federal service in the last 35 years.

(Video description: West Wing Receptionist Leah Katz-Hernandez narrates a tour of the West Wing in American Sign Language, visiting the West Wing Lobby, the West Colonnade, the Rose Garden, the White House Press Briefing Room, the Cabinet Room, the Roosevelt Room, and the Oval Office. Watch here for a full audio description!)

Please check out fellow disabled YouTuber Jody's video/channel, I met her at VidCon this year and she was so lovely and has such cool things to say :)

(Image description: Three photos show James standing on the steps outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.; sitting in the Office of Public Engagement using his feet to file papers; and writing with his feet on a folder marked "LGBT + Disability" to file papers about his work with this community.)

Disability is met with ignorance, mostly, low expectations, and failure to make even inexpensive modifications and accommodations that just plain make sense, but hate is out there, too. Even in stable, wealthy, democratic societies, there are those who wish we would just “disappear.” Every so often, one of those people feels the need to issue us a reminder. That hatred, and the indifference that allows it to fester and sometimes explode, are American problems, too. If you’re not convinced, read the comments on any English-language news source with a primarily U.S. audience that covered the massacre. See the serious bigots and trolls. See, almost worse, the armchair philosophers discussing the value of certain kinds of people and whether it was really so wrong.