A Grand Old Time -- by Alec Frazier

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Gives the Keynote Address at Justice for All

This past week was largely uneventful, except for one huge event! The AAPD's Justice for All 21st anniversary celebration of the ADA was a blast!

Minority Whip of the United States House of Representatives Steny Hoyer addresses Justice for All

One friend back home asked me what my day looked like, so I told her:

"Today I worked at the library, sorted through shelving, grabbed a hotdog, organized a list of links for a website, talked with Mom quick, rode across town in the subway, had group pictures taken, practiced intern graduation, attended a social mixer, listened to a number of influential speakers, and graduated."

Alec Frazier and His Mentor, Mat McCollough

There were too many important people at the event to count, and I made countless contacts for future business. Who knows? Maybe some will pay off...

Meetings -- by Alec Frazier

This week, I went to a lot of meetings.

Alec Frazier is Ready for His Business Week!

On Monday, I went to a Session of the US Access Board. My mentor, Mat McCollough, is a new Public Member of the Board appointed by the President. The US Access Board creates and rules on guidelines for the compliance of the ADA as it pertains to physical disability. When I went they were discussing "Transfer": when someone with physical accommodation i.e. wheelchair, canes, crutches moves to non-disabled placement, i.e. roller coaster, chair, medical table. The committee hearing was born of a study that was originally designed to help mainstream people with physical disabilities at theme parks. It is still preliminary, but so far it is the only in-depth study on the matter.

David Hale introduces Mark Perriello and Joyce Bender as the respective new President & CEO and Board Chair of AAPD

On Tuesday, I attended the opening of the 2011 Annual NCIL conference; more on that later. That evening, the AAPD Summer Interns were presented with two very special people. Mark Perriello is our new President and CEO, and it is really fun speaking with him! He and I had conversed before at an HSC function. Meeting Joyce Bender, AAPD's new Board Chair, was a wonderful experience. I would recommend that everyone join Bender Lead On Team, her effort against the bullying of people with disabilities. As a personal note, I wish that everyone also join It Gets Better, the internationally famous campaign against the bullying of people because of their gender identity and/or sexual orientation.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Gives the Keynote Speech before NCIL

It was great to hear about AAPD's efforts to save Medicaid. I might be dead without Medicaid, so this is personal for me. The Declaration boldly proclaims "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Constitution promises to "provide for the general welfare" and through the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees "equal protection under the law", and this pertains to healthcare as well. And although I don't follow a traditional religion, I know the Bible says, "blessed are the poor" and "blessed are the meek".

Alec Frazier with Congresswoman Kathy Hochul of Western New York’s 26th Congressional District

The NCIL Conference was great! The only problem I have is that the conference focused too much on the organization, that is the National Council on Independent Living, and not enough on the practice of independent living itself. But, we were there to do business, and I tagged along with my state's (New York's) delegation in putting our case to Congressmen, both Senators and Representatives. I even got to meet my University's Representative, Kathy Hochul of New York's 26th!

Looking Forward and Backward: The Future, The Past and Week one of my work

The first week of work is now officially over. I’m really enjoying my placement down at ODEP. My office environment is really friendly and easy to get to. Aside from the fun traffic back-up that happened today, it’s been a great first week. I still have to figure out the split platforms of the metro station, but DC ( so far) has proven to be less a challenge than I thought it would be. I’ve still got to figure out those dastardly split platforms, though. On a happier note, I had the pleasure of being invited to a meeting with Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, and major staff members at the Kennedy Center this week, along with several other AAPD interns, Center this week, along with several other AAPD interns, as well as my colleagues from the DOL and various DC artists with disabilities. It was a great conversation, not only because of the phenomenal woman heading up the conversation, but also for the fact that those of us in the room could connect with each other as artists and advocates. I was drawn to a lot of reminiscing at this meeting, because I owe so much to the arts. The work I did with the ACAP Players (Adaptive Community Approach Program), first exposed me to the disability community and gave me a sense of identity, and it was all through theater. I also found motivation in high school as a potter, and grew immensely with the Summit I was a part of in Syria, whose end result was the Silver Scorpion comic , and amazing new friends. All of us at the meeting had been influenced in a major way by the arts, but many of us (all of us, I think), had lost touch with them before, after or during college. I think one of the coolest and most important things articulated at the meeting was the need for a greater connectivity between artists with disabilities, and a mentoring network to bring many artists together and to ensure that all youth have access to these amazing opportunities. I sincerely hope to continue to be a part of the growth of access to the arts for persons with disabilities. On an officework note, I have one of my first big assignments due in two weeks, and I’m a little nervous. Also, it’s been a while since I’ve worked in an office, so I’m still adjusting to decorum at my placement. Thankfully, my colleagues and supervisors have helped me avoid any embarrassing situations, and I’m also learning pretty quickly. I’m looking forward to more challenges and successes over the course of this internship!

How I Got Here: The Road to the 2011 AAPD Summer Internship -- by Alec Frazier

2011 AAPD Summer Intern Alec Frazier in Front of the White House

My name is Alec Frazier, 24 at the moment, from Ithaca, New York. I am a person with disabilities and I am very proud of that, as I am proud of all facets of my character. On a day-to-day basis I live with Asperger's syndrome, a high functioning form of autism that comes coupled with, in my case, bipolar disorder, ADD, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), dysgraphia, digital atonia, and facial atonia among other disorders.

When I was young I spoke before politicians, to raise funding for children in special education. My first job however, was in a library. Throughout my career I have balanced interests in library sciences and politics. On a trip to the Massachusetts State House and the historic collections library it contained, I realized that I could mix the two and go for a dream job in archiving.

The next few years of my life were focused on improving my academic standing, which paid off when I was admitted to the State University of New York's University at Buffalo. I am currently obtaining my bachelor's degree in political science, and if all goes well I will pursue a Masters in Library science/archiving.

It was at the University at Buffalo that the assistant director of disability services informed me of this internship opportunity. I love Washington, DC architecturally, culturally, historically, and politically, so I jumped at the chance. There are an infinite number of positions at which the AAPD could have placed me, and none could have suited me better than the DC Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. I have already met my supervisor, as well as gotten a general overview of what I will be doing there. I shall go more into depth about that in next week's blog.

Well, I'm beat. I have had a long day of orientation and will now prepare myself some supper. Make haste to the pizza rolls!

Awesome week!

This week I was assigned a project to migrate a website from the old Stellent CMS to the Drupal CMS. Over that past couple weeks I have been learning the in’s and out’s of Drupal, now I get to use what I have learned in a real situation. So far everything has gone relatively smoothly, and I expect to have the project done before my internship reaches fruition. I look forward to the remainder of my internship.

This week I also attended the trip to the Microsoft Technology Center in Reston, VA. I was so excited to attend, as I am a big fan of Microsoft products. During my time there, they presented and demonstrated different technologies and talked in particular about the Enterprise side of Microsoft products; as opposed to the more commonly known consumer products such as Windows and Office. I got to see a few things that I have never seen before, and I also learned some new things about technology I had previously know about. What I found really awesome was their future prospects for consumer and enterprise technology. They had ideas for products that I would absolutely love to get my hands on.

I was a busy week and a good week.

Benjamin Tshudy

Good week!

This week went rather well. I am getting adjusted quite well and have a somewhat consistent routine down now. Currently, at work, I am learning about the in's and out's of Drupal, a content management systems, which is used by the many offices in the DoC to maintain their web sites. I am glad that it is something that I have not learned about before and it is also something that I could use for my own purposes. I have come to determine that my one co-worker reminds me of Ryan from the television series "The Office" and the web developer in the office reminds me of someone from back home who is a diesel mechanic; just thought I would add that for the humor of it.

I have also been running a lot, as I am currently registered to run the Marine Corps Marathon. I have been many places in DC and have got to explore the area on my runs; I have even been to Virginia! My runs are rather enjoyable given the wide array of monuments and places to go around here. I recently ran to the Air Force memorial, which is about a 7-mile run round trip.

The week ended very well with a tour of the Newseum, hosted by the very generous and delightful Cheryl Sensenbrenner, and her husband Congressman Sensenbrenner. That was such a great experience as the museum was just amazing. I enjoyed the interactive parts of the museum, as well as being able to see the most prestigious news staples throughout history. Also, the dinner that we were also graced with afterwards, at the Capital Grille, was awesome. I was fortunate to be able to sit with two interesting and funny gentlemen, David McKee and Nick Imparato. What a great day it was!

-Benjamin Tshudy

An exciting and busy week!

This week is started my internship at the Department of Commerce. I have a great supervisor and have also great co-workers. I enjoy working there and I look forward to everything I will get to do this summer and I expect to learn a lot. In addition, I got to meet the new CIO of the Department of Commerce, Simon Szykman, which I thought was pretty neat.

I also met with my mentor, Pablo Chavez of Google, for the first time this week. He is an awesome guy and I know that I will benefit greatly through my mentor-mentee relationship with him. I look forward to every opportunity I will get with him this summer, as I know it will be time well spent. I don’t think I could have gotten a better mentor.

I am still working on devising ways to advocate for persons with ASD’s and disabilities in general. I hope that I will greatly impact people’s perspectives for the better this summer. My current strategy is to get people to ask questions and that I can answer them, as I am not much of one to initiate social interaction; though I am working on that.

Some of the exciting things I did in my free time include visiting the National Air and Space Museum, the National Aquarium, and the National Zoo this week. They are all very neat places and I am already planning my visits to some of the other offerings such as the International Spy Museum and the National Museum of Crime and Punishment.


-Benjamin Tshudy

Revved up!

I have not started my internship yet but I am highly anticipating it. Even though I haven't started work per say, I have been keeping quite busy. This past week I met my supervisor, who is a very nice and accepting and person, and reviewed what I will be doing during my time at the Department of Commerce. He advised me of some things that I can do to start preparing myself. One thing in particular that I started working on is getting acquainted with the Ruby programming language. I am also did some refreshing of my web development skills. In addition to that, I am also taking two summer classes through Penn State World Campus, so they have also been keeping me busy. I look forward to this coming week and starting my internship.

I have also started collaborating with other IT interns on developing a website for Michael Castillo's DC Wakeboarding business; for those that don't remember, he spoke at orientation. Currently we are in the planning stages of the SDLC or Software Development Life Cycle. We are working to determine what the website needs and also buildilding a skills matrix to determine who will be doing what.

All in all my week has gone pretty well.

 -Benjamin Tshudy