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Hi,my name is Joseph Scamardo and I am an 
assistant professor of philosophy

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and associate Director of the 
Institute in Public Affairs

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at San Diego State University

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I specialized in philosophy of disability
and bioethics.

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I also identify as disabled.

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I have a spinal cord injury,

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as well as a rare kind of dwarfism, and so

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you get two for the price of one with me.

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So, my first memory of discrimination was,

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well, it's hard to say...

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I have lots of memories as far as

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the experience of stigma or bigotry,

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mostly around my dwarfism,

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and so, you know,

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I have lots of early memories around that

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with children staring and laughing

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and that sort of thing from a 
very young age.

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Then as far as, sort of

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a more systematic discrimination

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that sort of excluded me from something

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that I wanted to do.

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I had a pretty good experience as a child,

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mostly because my parents really did a lot

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to make sure that I was included.

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I can remember being in boy scouts

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and cub scouts when I was a kid

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and my father, really doing a lot with me

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to ensure that the inclusion
of my disability--

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You know going on camping trips with me

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and sort of acting as a personal attendant

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kind of thing to make sure that I was able

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to go and participate,

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and that sort of thing.

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And so the first real experience

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of exclusion that I can remember

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happened when it was time

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to go to high school.

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I had gone to the public schools

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in my town up until through the 8th grade

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and then when it came to high school,

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I was supposed to go to the same

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private religiously sort of oriented

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school that my older siblings went to

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and I took the entrance exam and even got

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a small scholarship to go and everything,

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but it didn't have an elevator,

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and so I used a motorized scooter

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to get around, and it was

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going to be impossible for me to

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attend that school, because there was no

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elevator. Now this was actually

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after the passage of the ADA,

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but because it was

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a religiously oriented school,

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it was exempt from the requirements

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of the ADA.

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And so, I didn't have any leverage with

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that law.

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To be able to get them

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to make accommodations for me

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so I ended up going to the public school

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in my town, which actually, personally,

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I was pretty happy about anyway,

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because that's where all my
friends were going.

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But it still sort of clued me in

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to the fact that...

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not everything is accessible,

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not everything is designed for me and that

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this was going to be something

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I was gonna have to figure out

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throughout my life.

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As far as remembering the ADA

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and sort of its passage

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and that sort of thing,

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I was pretty young when it was passed,

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I'm sometimes referred to as part of the

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ADA generation, which means that

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I sort of grew up with the ADA mostly,

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I was born in 1982,

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and so I was 8 or 9 years old when the ADA

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passed, and so I don't really have

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any kind of recollection of, "Aha!"

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That's the moment that it passed.

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And the recall of where I was at the time

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or anything like this,

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but I do remember my father explaining

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it to me, around the time of my

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start of high school.

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When I experienced this with that

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private catholic school, and you know

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having that sort of systematic

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discrimination experience it explained

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that public schools, and other kinds of

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public places were accessible to me

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because of the ADA and that there was

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this law that said that things had to be

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accessible to people

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who use wheelchairs, and

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motorized scooters like I did at the time.

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And so, that was my first sort of

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awareness of the ADA, as well as my first

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awareness of discrimination, which is

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kind of cool. I think?

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Because it was neat to have

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that experience of, "Okay, well,

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this is something that's
going to be a challenge for you,

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and here's how you're protected,
and here's how you can do something

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about it." 
And so in a way, it was this sort of,

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my awakening into advocacy as well.

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Now, as far as the difference that the 
ADA has made in my life,

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or the life of others, 
I think that it's been, of course

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an incredibly important law that has 
opened up all sorts of opportunities

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to people, everything from public 
transportation, to be able to move around

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your community, the homestead decision
is based on ADA, which says that people

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need to be--when they need any kind of 
long time care,

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they need to be served in the least 
restrictive environment, meaning that

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you can't just institutionalize or
warehouse somebody because it's more

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convenient for you, you need to make sure
that they're able to live in the community

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or somewhere that is going to be best 
for them.

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What else do the ADA do?
Just the ability to you know an education,

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the ability to get a job, all of these
things, for me and for others,

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were sort of caused by the ADA and I can't
really imagine what it was like

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prior to the ADA, honestly.

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I mean, I can imagine it I guess, but 
I'm sure glad that I didn't have to

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experience it.

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The ADA makes a difference in a wide range
of personal experiences

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and also a wide range of sort of 
disability politics issues. Right?

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So, my personal experience that I think 
most recently has been impacted by the ADA

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has been just my ability to live an 
independent life with my two kids.

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I think prior to the ADA, it would've 
been much harder to do that.

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You know raising kids means that I have to
into lots of different public spaces and

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do different things that I might not have
been 'required' to do, if you will,

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professionally, or just sort of
in everyday life, if I didn't have them.

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So going to the zoo, or going to the
grocery store, for that last minute item

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or you know, just whatever it might be, 
I think that, you know--

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opening up the daycare centers, and so on
and so forth.

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The ADA sort of opened all of that up to
me, as a wheelchair user

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and so, that's where it's made a big 
personal impact in my life recently.

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Now, I think that the one thing that 
I can sort of speak to, professionally,

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about the ADA and its impact or 
lack of impact is probably, two-fold:

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One, is the ways in which my privilege 
as a physically disabled--

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there's a disability hierarchy of course,
and so physical disability

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is usually at the top of that hierarchy, 
with psychiatric disabilities

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and intellectual developmental 
disabilities,

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are sort of lower down on the hierarchy.

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And so, as a physically disabled, 
cisgender, heterosexual white guy,

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I've benefited a lot more from the ADA 
than lots of other people

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that don't have those kinds of privileges.

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I think for instance about how the ADA 
is designed, really

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to promote what you'd think of 
as equality of opportunity,

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meaning that everybody has an equal 
opportunity to compete within sort of the

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economic life of the United States, and 
so, it allows you to enter into the

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workforce and enter into the educational 
system and so on and so forth

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then compete.

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But what it doesn't do is it doesn't
address any of the other advantages

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or disadvantages that intersect with 
ableism. So that's sort of something

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that is I think, a real problem, with 
the ADA.

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I'm a well-educated person, I have a 
master's degree and a Ph.D.

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and that, I don't think would've been 
available to me as easily as it was

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if I didn't have these other privileges 
that I do have,

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that the ADA doesn't do anything
to address, it just sort of treats

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all disabled people as if they were 
the same, and as if the only thing

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they have to deal with is structural 
ableism, and that's just not true, right?

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I think another thing about disability
that the ADA doesn't address

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is economics, in that, I think that 
despite the ability to compete,

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a lot of disabled people still live in
extreme poverty, because of other

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things that make it impossible for them 
to compete,

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other than just their disability.

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And so, the real sad part to me about that
is you look at other systems

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that are designed to help disabled people 
get out of poverty,

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and even they don't recognize the way that
privilege operates in these contexts.

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So, for instance, 
the vocational rehab system.

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I've benefited greatly from the vocational
rehab system so I don't want to just

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sit here and talk smack on it, right?

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The vocational rehab system has helped me 
get a van that I could drive,

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so I could get back and forth from

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my place of employment, from school,
which was huge, right?

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But the only reason why I had access
to that van was:

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A. Because I could afford the van itself,
which not a lot of disabled people can do,

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especially if they aren't
working yet and

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B. Because the VOC rehab counselor 
thought

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that I was worth the investment right?

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Someone who didn't have the advantages
that I had, as far as the kind of

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disability that I have, my family's 
resources and my skin color and gender and

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all those things, it's very likely that
rehab counselor would've said,

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"You cant take the bus," right?

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"We're not going to invest all of
this money into helping

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you learn how to drive."

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Because they wouldn't have believed that
they would get this return on their

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investment that the person would be able 
to get a well paying job,

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and so on and so forth, 
and so, I think that that's also

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a big issue that the ADA doesn't address,
is this kind of intersectionality

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that gives some disabled people 
advantages within even the system

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that is designed to help them, and other
people, of course, disadvantages, which is

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a real issue.

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Now, as far as my area of expertise, 
Bioethics, there's definitely been some

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ways in which the ADA has helped greatly,
and other ways

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in which it hasn't really done much.

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So I'll start with the positivity, right?
We'll start with the good news.

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One way in which I think, I can

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point to in a very concrete way in which

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the ADA has helped is

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when it comes to healthcare rationing so,

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The issue of healthcare in the United 
States of course is a very hot button

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topic and it's hot because there is sort 
of perceived lack of resources--

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There's more need

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than there is supply for healthcare.

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And so, when we talk about expanding 
healthcare to a larger number of people,

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without also expanding the resources that
are being devoted to healthcare,

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then that's gonna be a real problem, 
because some people aren't going to get

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as much as they need, right?

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You're going to have to sort of budget it,
if you will.

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Or in the terms of bioethics, 
ration healthcare.

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Now this proved to be an issue because

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when it was done on smaller scale, 
for instance the state of Oregon,

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after the passage of the ADA--
I'm not sure exactly on the timeline,

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I'm not a historian--but the state of
Oregon expanded their publicly provided

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healthcare to a larger number of people,
and as they did that, they needed to

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make sure that they had a way of
prioritizing what was covered

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and what was not covered.

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And so, as they did this,

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it became apparent that a lot of 
disabled people

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were being rationed out of 
the healthcare system.

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That a lot of things were not being 
covered for disabled folks

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that should be.

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And so, there was a series of lawsuits 
that were brought against

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the state of Oregon, that basically
said that, "You couldn't discriminate

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against disabled people and not 
provide them with healthcare,

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based on their disability."

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That you couldn't sort of say,

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"Well, this person isn't going to get 
very much bang for their buck,

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they're not gonna end up being healthy
anyway, 'cause they're still going

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to be disabled, so we're not going to give
them this treatment option."

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Right? And so that was a big win 
within bioethics

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that was a direct result of the ADA.

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More recently, 
we've had a similar thing pop up

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because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Specifically, there are what are called
"Emergency Healthcare Protocols"

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that are being developed for hospital 
systems and states that anticipate

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needing more intensive care unit beds,
ventilators and so on and so forth,

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that aren't actually available.

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And so we need some way of figuring out 
who gets the ventilator,

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who gets the Intensive Care Unit bed,

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and so on and so forth, 
as the pandemic increases and goes on.

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And so there was some 
protocols that were developed

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that were very discriminatory 
against disabled people.

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There was one in Alabama specifically,
that said that anybody

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with an intellectual disability 
or with dementia was going to be

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deprioritized from getting these life- 
saving resources if they got COVID-19.

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And there was one in Washington state, 
that was pretty discriminatory against

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disabled folks that said that 
if you had a disability

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that meant that even after treatment 
you are still going to be disabled,

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that you would be deprioritized from 
getting the life-saving, life support

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treatment for COVID-19.

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So there was a variety of these all over
the United States

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that were really problematic and 
that explicitly were discriminating

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against disabled people when it came to 
getting treatment for COVID

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and so in response, there were some folks
from protection and advocacy agencies,

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which are sort of these--
Disability Rights California is one,

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and each state has protection and advocacy
agencies that are federally funded,

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non-profit law firms that protect the 
rights of disabled people and so they

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sued these states and these hospital 
systems and got the federal government to

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provide guidelines for treatment ration 
protocols that basically say

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that you can't discriminate against 
disabled people in this way.

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That the only time that you can withhold
treatment for COVID-19 is if there is

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sort of a very clear way in which the 
disability means that person would not

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benefit from the treatment, that, you know
they have the kind of disability

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that would make it very, very unlikely
that they would survive the virus

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even with some kind of ventilator or
intensive care situation.

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And so, that's of course very different
because something like needing

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an assistive device like a wheelchair or
needing help dressing and bathing

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or having these things that would've
meant that people would be rationed out

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of these protocols...

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So of course this is a really good thing 
that these protocols were changed because

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there were a lot of them that would have
rationed people out

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for reasons that had nothing to do with 
whether or not they would survive the

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the virus with treatment, Right?

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So whether you use a wheelchair,
or need a personal attendant for things

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like dressing and bathing, whether or not

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you have an intellectual disability

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These are reasons that were being used to
deny people treatment for COVID-19 that

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have nothing to do with whether or not
they would survive the disease. So,

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This advocacy efforts that were based on
the American with Disabilities Act

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sort of made that illegal to do, which 
is of course a really important thing it's

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literally saved peoples lives presumably.

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So that the good news as far as my field
of work and the ways of which ADA has

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made an impact, but of course that isn't 
the only story.

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There are lots of ways in which

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bioethics can and has been discriminatory
towards disabled people in ways that isn't

290
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addressed by the ADA and that can't really
be addressed by the ADA because of the way

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it's written and the kinds of problems
it was designed to solve.

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For instance, there is a lot of
controversy over the development of

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different reproductive technologies

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that are designed to
prevent the birth of disabled children.

295
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
With intellectual disabilities, 
with down syndrome,

296
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with disabilities like mine, dwarfism.

297
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with disabilities like certain kinds of 
genetically linked deafness, and so on.

298
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And so we have an entire industry aimed

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at genetic testing for these kind of

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disabilities and the prevention of the

301
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
birth of children

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with these disabilities with

303
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
selective abortion or, now, 
selective implantation,

304
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which is when you test embryos

305
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and then pick the one that you want

306
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to give birth to.

307
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And then coming down the pipeline

308
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is CRISPR, which will be a technology

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that doesn't select a particular embryo

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but rather modifies the embryo itself.

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It sort of-- what's sometimes referred to

312
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
as gene editing or genetic engineering.

313
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And that isn't a reality yet, but

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scientists are certainly working toward

315
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the use of that technology to prevent

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disability.

317
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Now it's something that of course makes

318
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a lot of people with these disabilities

319
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
very uncomfortable because of

320
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the message that it might send, right?

321
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It might send the message that,

322
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"People like you aren't wanted

323
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in the world." Right? Meaning "we don't

324
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
need more like you."

325
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And so, it is sorta of based on, largely,

326
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stigma around disability, around ideas

327
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about quality of life with disabled people

328
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that, "if you have a disability, you must

329
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
be miserable, and so we must do everything

330
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we can to prevent more like you from

331
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
coming into existence," and so on and so

332
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
forth.

333
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Now, this is a real problem because,

334
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of course, it comes into conflict with

335
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
values a lot of people hold around

336
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
reproductive liberty, around women being

337
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
able to make choices for themselves

338
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about their own bodies, and about their

339
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
own lives, and so on and so forth.

340
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And so, this has created a tension between

341
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
disability bioethics and other kinds of

342
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
progressive groups that are wanting to

343
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promote freedom and justice for everybody.

344
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so the ADA, you know, isn't designed

345
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to handle something like this because

346
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it's not about overt discrimination

347
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
against people, but rather it's about

348
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
attitudes about beliefs, about disability,

349
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that drive personal decisions.

350
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so it's really really hard to address

351
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
this as a policy problem because you know

352
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
people aren't going to be very keen on

353
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
restricting the kind of decisions women

354
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and families can make about reproduction.

355
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But at the same time, we want to promote

356
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
good beliefs, and true beliefs, and good

357
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
attitudes about disability, and the ways

358
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in which it contributes to the world,

359
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in the ways in which disabilities form

360
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a diversity that's important that we

361
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
don't want to eliminate.

362
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so that's, I think, a task for folks

363
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
like myself and bioethics that are writing

364
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about these issues, that are trying to

365
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
make arguments that are able to walk this

366
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
very thin line between saying,

367
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"Okay, you know disability is the kind of

368
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
thing that is not a horrible life sentence

369
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of misery, and so we don't want to make

370
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that assumption and we don't want to base

371
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the technologies that we develop or the

372
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
decisions that we make on that assumption.

373
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But at the same time, we don't want to

374
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
tell people what they can or can't do

375
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
with their bodies."

376
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I think that, if I were to pick one thing

377
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to change, to try to give people with

378
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
disabilities more access, and to remove

379
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
remove barriers to a life of flourishing

380
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and opportunity for disabled people.

381
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I think I would go back to my birth story,

382
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
my origin story if you will.

383
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When I was born, the doctor that delivered

384
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
me looked at my body and he had never

385
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
seen somebody with my kind of Dwarfism

386
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
before, and didn't know much about it,

387
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and he told my parents,

388
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"he's not gonna do much, he's not gonna be

389
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
able to walk, he's not gonna be able

390
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to talk, he's not gonna be able to go to

391
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
school," and so on and so forth.

392
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"You should place him in a

393
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
state institution and

394
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
go about your lives, forget about him."

395
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And they didn't do that, obviously.

396
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They chose not to do that.

397
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They took me home, they raised me

398
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
like their kid because I was their kid.

399
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And so I think a lot about how different

400
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
my life would be if I had been

401
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
institutionalized from birth, as that

402
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
doctor recommended.

403
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And then I think about how these

404
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
institutions still exist.

405
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That when I was-- before I entered

406
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
academia full-time, I worked as an

407
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
advocate for a protection and advocacy

408
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
agency in the state of Texas, where they

409
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have what are called,

410
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"state supported living centers,"

411
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which are-- sort of a euphemism for

412
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
state institutions where they warehouse

413
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
people with intellectual disabilities and

414
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
psychiatric disabilities of various kinds.

415
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Basically the kind of place that the

416
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
doctor was recommending my parents

417
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to put me. They still exist, almost forty

418
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
year later. This is not okay.

419
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And it's not just these kind of places

420
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that are really problematic.

421
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Nursing homes, there's lots of disabled

422
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
people in nursing homes.

423
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Even some group home systems

424
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
that are corporate, that are designed to

425
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
make money, and not to make sure that

426
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
people living there are actually living

427
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
good lives, right?

428
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is a serious problem when you

429
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
take people and you put them in

430
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
a situation where they don't have control

431
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the basic decisions of their life:

432
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
what they eat for their meals, when they

433
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
wake up, when they go to bed,

434
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
how they spend their time, what they wear.

435
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
When I was working as an advocate going

436
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in to the state institutions in Texas,

437
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I remember sitting in a meeting where it

438
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
was discussed about my clients eating

439
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
habits. How apart of his behavioral

440
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
support plan was that they had his helper

441
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
try to get him to take a sip of water

442
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
between every bite of food that he took

443
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
during meal time. I thought to myself,

444
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"how absurd!" This is a grown adult

445
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
person that they are trying to micromanage

446
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
down to the very last detail of his life

447
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and trying to control everything about

448
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
what he does. That's horrific I can't

449
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
imagine living under that kind of

450
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
condition. Where not even being able to

451
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
eat my meals in peace without someone

452
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
telling me what to do and how to do it.

453
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Right? And so you know I think that this

454
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
lack of control over basic decisions of

455
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
your life is a real problem for a large

456
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
number of disabled people still even you

457
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
know 30 years after the passage of the

458
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
ADA. So if there is one thing that I

459
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
could sort of wave a magic wand and change

460
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
it would be that. It would be developing

461
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
systems where people are truly supported

462
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to be able to flourish as they are, but

463
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
not controlled. Right? Not told what to

464
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
do and when to do it every moment of their

465
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
lives. Where they can make their own

466
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
decisions and have agency over their own

467
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
life. I think that's what is missing for a

468
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
large number of disabled people still even

469
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
after the ADA. And that we need to do

470
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
something about that. I think that there

471
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is a few things that we can do.

472
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
First, educate your self on the issues.

473
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Right? Educate your self on the issues

474
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
beyond just how they effect you. Right?

475
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I think that within the disability

476
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
movements there is sort of pockets of

477
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
different people doing different things.

478
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And that's fine. But, I think we need to

479
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
talk to each other more. We need to

480
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
realize that disability issues go beyond

481
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
our limited experience. Right? So we need

482
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to be aware of the ways in which

483
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
disability disadvantages people

484
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
differently. That the experience of

485
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
disability is not an experience it's many

486
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
experiences. And so, we need to listen to

487
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
each other and hear from each other about

488
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
the ways in which we are suffering and

489
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
hurting. Because, of disability

490
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
discrimination because it looks very

491
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
different between different people. And so

492
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
having a richer fuller understanding

493
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of the problem I think is the first step.

494
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Then beyond that sort of talking to people

495
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about strategies they have and learn from

496
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
each other about you know maybe some

497
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
strategy that works for you know the deaf

498
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
community would work really well for the

499
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
dwarf community and maybe haven't talked

500
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
to each other very well about different

501
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
political strategies to try to get where

502
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we need in order to live well. And maybe

503
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
we should. Right? So, educate ourselves

504
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
about the struggle of others you know

505
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because it's important to know and then

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share information and share strategies on

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how to effectively advocate and come

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together and fight together. Right? If you

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show up for someone on issue A that they

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are having then their more likely to show

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up for you on issue B that your having.

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And, so building solidary across the

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movement more effectively recognizing

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the ways in which other oppressions

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intersect with disability and change the

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nature of disability oppression. These

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would be my recommendations of what to do.

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Just basically raising your awareness

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of discrimination beyond just your own

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experience.