Advocacy: Lift Every Voice
I was cleaning out my home office the other day and ran across a letter from the President of the United States. He was thanking me for sending him a letter. More recently I wrote my state governor about a topic important to and signed a Whitehouse.gov petition on a similar topic. On the day I wrote this blog I was staying off of social media for twenty-four hours as an attempt to raise awareness about a topic which I feel passionate about. I don’t tell you this to influence your feelings about any one topic or to campaign for any specific political point of view. The things I feel passionate about may not move you. I tell you these things in hopes that some topic in your life does move you to take action. I also tell you these things to present some ways in which you could become an advocate.
In rehabilitation we toss around the word “advocacy” but what exactly does it mean to be an advocate? The definition of advocacy is simply “the public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy”. Throughout time things have changed because of groups of liked minded people who demanded change. Our country was sort of founded on these principles. If you remember from history classes we, as a society decided Americans would only be taxed if we could be represented by the government decision makers, only if we had some hand in how decisions were made regarding us, “we the people”.
"NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION"
Civil rights for minorities, women voting rights and especially disability laws and rights were all brought about by people demanding a change. Disability legislation in the last several decades since the 70’s has been brought about by people with disabilities advocating for their rights to accessibility. To make their voices heard there were ‘sit-ins’ in federal buildings, people who blocked the routes of inaccessible buses, marches conducted to draw attention to injustices and even people with disabilities who have chained themselves and their wheelchairs to White House fence. More recently, but a few years back (2009) a group called ADAPT protested the lack of governmental movement on an act that would allow individuals to remain in their homes with assistance instead of having to move into a nursing home to receive care. To draw attention to their cause they chained themselves to the White House fence, blocked all entrances and generally made it impossible to come and go in and out of the White House. Many were arrested but the point was made, the people had spoken and they were not happy.
I am normally fairly active on social media and all too often I see the words “freedom of speech” tossed around. I have to admit it’s one of my pet peeves because people use the term to justify all kinds of negative and nasty discourse and disagreements. Yes, you are generally free to say awful things to other people but the term was actually coined to protect our rights to protest things we see as unjust or unfair. The ADAPT group, chanting during their protest were using their “freedom of speech” to ask congress and the President to move on an important legislation. Now before you go chain yourself to the White House fence and tell you friends and family I suggested it, there are many ways to voice your opinion or to be an advocate. Being arrested outside of the White House is only one way to advocate there are many other ways to lend your voice to a cause, and thankfully most won’t get you arrested.
Advocacy happens on three levels including self advocacy or fighting for your own rights, individual advocacy or fighting for an individual’s rights and systematic advocacy or fighting for a group of people or to change a system. The folks in ADAPT are systematic advocates for the most part. Self advocacy can be as simple as making sure your professor remembers to include your extra credit assignment in the grade book (does anyone use an actual book anymore?). Often students with disabilities are expected to be self advocates when it comes to obtaining accommodations in the classroom. I’m more than happy to accommodate a disability but I need to know what is needed and be assured that it solely meant to level the playing field. As an instructor I won’t think to look to see that there is an accessible restroom in the building near my classroom but if a student tells me it’s a problem I can look to change the classroom location. It’s a simple way of speaking up for what is needed.
Often I find myself being an Individual advocate as well. I have a best friend who uses a wheelchair. Often in the city we’ve encountered places where the only wheelchair accessible entrance is blocked, locked or generally inaccessible! In these cases not only do I speak with management about allowing us entrance for the day but I also suggest they take note and unblocking the entrance for future patrons as well. As pointed out at the beginning of this note, advocacy can be as easy as writing a letter to your congressman, talking to a store manager about accessibility, or signing a petition for change. Social media offers a great platform for advocacy and awareness as well. Instead of (or along with) your post of you #OOTD (outfit of the day) try announcing awareness months that are important to you or maybe post general facts about disability that you learned in class. Change happens when you lend your voice to a cause. Speak up about the things that move you. In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have”.
