Last week I was able to attend a congressional hearing for technological and communications accessibility with the interns here in the office. It was my first hearing, and it was by far the best experience I have had so far working DC. It was like watching C-span, but less mundane and boring. It was more interesting because I was there in person and was able to see the reactions of the crowd when they heard something they did not agree with. I can definitely say that it was not what I expected at all, you can feel the tension in the air between the opposing sides and there were a lot more emotions that I had expected. I hope that I can attend more of these hearings while I am here for the summer, and for those of you who have not been to one, just try to sneak into one when you can!
I also spoke with Jenifer Simpson, AAPD's Senior Director of Government Affairs, whom I interviewed for the ADA video countdown project. Being a mother of someone with disabilities, she offered a different perspective of what the ADA meant for son Joshua, and how it has affected her. It was great to see a different aspect of the disability community. The video can be seen here! http://bit.ly/aj9nA1
I also attended a meeting for It's Our Story, a documentary in the making by Victor Pineda and Scott Cooper. They gave a presentation on what the documentary meant for them and how they need everyone’s support from the disability community. I was amazed to see how much work they put in the past five years, traveling to over 100 cities and conducting more than 1000 interviews! This is definitely something that everyone should be on the lookout for and should help support!
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