The Blurred Line Between Advocacy and Legislation

I’m an advocate. It’s as simple as that. I am an outspoken, opinionated advocate dedicating a good portion of my life to fighting for the rights of disabled people. I have made calls into legislative offices pushing for the Community Choice Act, I have bombarded Governor Patterson’s office and through much chanting I have learned how to spell “Power” (A!D!A!P!T!).

All this time I have been fighting the system, and now I’m working for it? WHAT!? Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely used to sitting in the offices of Congressmen, but usually I’m in their waiting room refusing to leave until we get a meeting, not sitting cozy at the computer writing up reports! What a huge role change for me!

Coming into this internship, I thought I would be able to handle this role change pretty easily. I figured I would just leave my advocate hat back in New York and wear my new legislative hat in D.C. My plan seemed pretty solid and I never expected any challenges.

To my surprise, within my first two weeks of working in Senator Harkin’s office my allegiance was tested. My New York boss from the Center for Disability Rights and my D.C. boss from Senator Harkin’s office came together to have a meeting. There I was, sitting in this meeting watching each side give their points. My New York boss was passionate in his talking points. My D.C. boss was calm and collective. And me? I was the nervous wreck in the middle praying to God neither of them would ask me my opinion! The only thing that I could take solace in was knowing that of all the legislators in the United States, Senator Harkin is by far the favorite among disability advocates as he is the champion on disability rights issues. So, knowing that at least the Center for Disability Rights would never protest Senator Harkin’s office made the meeting slightly less nerve-wracking for me.

After this meeting, I ran into another predicament involving N.Y. job vs. D.C. job at the NCIL rally in from of the Capital building on Monday, June 8th. I went to the rally with two motives: to support Senator Harkin who was speaking at the rally and to support my co-workers from CDR and the rest of the disability community in their efforts to push for the Community Choice Act.

As soon as I arrived, I saw all of my CDR co-workers wearing their bright orange “Community Choice Act Now!” t-shirts and I told them that I had left my t-shirt back in New York. Within seconds, one of my co-workers pulled out a spare bright orange t-shirt for me to wear. At that moment I had to make a choice: Do I stay professionally dressed representing Senator Harkin or do I put on the t-shirt to show my sincere support for the CCA? Unable to let go of the advocate inside of me, I put on the shirt. I began chanting with the masses, “What do we want? FREEDOM! When do we want it? NOW!”

Soon our chanting died down as our champion (and my boss), Senator Harkin, took the stage to give an enthusiastic speech about his dedication to our cause, the Community Choice Act. Hearing Senator Harkin speak so genuinely about the CCA and the efforts he has contributed towards it made me very proud to be his intern. I was even more proud when Senator Harkin finished his speech, stepped off the stage and saw me in my bright orange t-shirt.

“So you’re an ADAPTer?” Senator Harkin smiled, “Good.”

That was all I needed. I suddenly felt very comfortable wearing both hats and realized that I can be effective with either of them on.

It is an invigorating feeling to know that I can make a difference in the disability community, whether I’m quietly working in a legislative office or I’m being an outspoken, opinionated advocate bombarding a legislative office.

To me, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how things get done, only that they get done and that people with disabilities are one step closer to true equality.

Stephanie Woodward

Why not make it the norm? by Leah

I was finding this week as “the week that settled me down.” Last week, everything was new! I tried my best to avoid being the stereotypical intern around the Hill. This week, I really put in the effort to familiarize myself around the hill and with the tasks assigned to me.

One event this week had a particular impact on me. I'll talk about the event for Senator Patrick Leahy that I went to on Wednesday evening.

Because I was invited to the event by my mentor, Yoshiko Dart, I was greatly appreciative and I felt that it would be inconvenient for me to request an interpreter. Hence, out of politeness, I tried to look for a volunteer interpreter. That didn't exactly work out and I was fine with paper/pen communications. But what really impacted me was that AAPD put emphasis on being a "self-advocate" and standing up to ask for accessibility whenever necessary. The rationale is that if we do not request accessibility, then people will have less understanding of people with disabilities. Thus, requesting accessibility is one way of educating others that PWD (People with Disabilities) are able to be on equal footing, given the chance.

Normally, I would be casual about the whole thing. But AAPD made me think. The reason why I was reluctant to request interpreters in the first place was because of cost associated with it. It is true that interpreters ARE costly and the ADA mandates the providers to pay for interpreters. Understanding this, it might be easier to see the reason why I sometimes feel cautious about requesting interpreters - because they might look at the cost as a big inconvenience and possibly look at deaf people as a “financial burden." That is not my objective - I wanted to show that I am perfectly fine as a human being, deaf or not.

After the event for Sen. Patrick Leahy, I started to understand better the sheer importance of requesting interpreters versus self-consciousness. I started to think - why do the citizens of America have to deal with providing for each other's accessibility on individual/event basis? Shouldn't accessibility be the NORM and the "inconvenience" removed?

The current concept and reality of accessibility in America is “given the chance or option.” Why does it have to be an option? Why not make it mandatory in the most literal way?

I know some countries in Europe have a sort of interpreter fund made available by the government. In America, we subsidize farms, transportation, and many other things. Why not create federal subsidization specifically for accessibility for the disabled, too? That way, accessibility would become widespread, the costs could go down, and it would become the NORM.

Just a thought... By the way, I had a GREAT time at the event!! Smile!

- Leah Katz-Hernandez

Week 2 by Bob

So far it has been two weeks and I haven't started working yet. But yesterday (Thursday) I finally started some training for my job position. I have been assigned 4 training courses yesterday and completed 2 of them as soon as I received the assignment. That's how much free time I had on my hands, so I thought its better off completing the courses as soon as possible.

Before I started the training, I started to run out of ideas of what to do in DC. I've already visited all of the museums in DC. Speaking of museums, I was surprised to hear about the Holocaust museum shooting after I was just there last week! It's sad that people still do things like that today. Anyways, I decided to go to the bookstore and buy a book. As I went to the bookstore, I couldn't decide on what book to buy! There were so many good books that I wanted to read. After spending a good 30 minutes in the bookstore trying to decide, I finally decided on one book to purchase. As I purchased the book, I went to the National Mall park and just found a bench and started reading until it got dark.

I went to explore Crystal City because I heard there was a farmers market going on in Crystal City, so I decided to hop on the Metro and head over to Crystal City. As I got there, it wasn't hard to find the farmers market. They provided many different foods and organic drinks. They even had homemade pie, I couldn't resist so I bought some. I took a little stroll on Mt. Vernon trail and ended up stopping in the park where the planes fly so low as they're landing at the Reagan airport. I thought that was the coolest thing I've ever seen! Every 5 minutes or so, you would have a commercial airliner flying so low over your head! I ended up staying there reading my book and eating my homemade pie as the planes fly overhead. Couple of hours later, a thunderstorm came by and decided to ruin my day so I was forced to get back on the Metro back to GW University.

This pretty much sums up my week, yeah I know its boring. Back home, I have many friends that I can hang out with but for me I don't know many people here in the DC area. Most of them are over 1000 miles away from me.

-Bob

Working Girl

So it's only my second week on the job, and I'm happy to report that I've been meshing well with my boss and co-workers. They're all ecstatic to see me every day and eager to learn signs to better communicate with me. They're always asking me, "Are you having fun?" I love meeting new people, and my boss has been keen on making sure she introduces me to each and every one.

Just two days ago, I even bumped into the Secretary of DOT: Ray LaHood. He just came right up to me and shook my hand. I was quite honored to meet him and astounded by his presence. He's so much taller than I imagined.

Well, anyways, I've been working on a webpage for the Secretary's office. Really I'm just giving them a head start, and his office will monitor and tweak it. That's been fun and quite the learning experience. I feel like I spend so much time on the little details, but that's how you learn... attention to detail!

I forgot to mention it last week, but I've been quite inspired by the quantity of female presence in our office and even the building. Being the only girl in my classes back in college at times, I thought I'd be in the minority again in my field of work. But instead, I've been surrounded by many strong female individuals in my workplace and it really motivates me. I definitely look up to my boss as a role model as well; she's very hands-on with endless energy.

Another thing I've been picking up on... everyone seems to have ended up in their jobs by their experiences. They didnt necessarily plan on being where they're at now, but their past job experiences influenced their roles now. And when I think about it, I never imagined working for DOT before and yet here I am. So it has me wondering where it'll take me...

Sheiba!

Work Starting (finally), by Mitch Paschen

This is my second blog post for AAPD.

One week ago, David and I took the Metro to the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center to meet a shuttle that was going to take us out to CBP’s Boston facility (not actually in the city of Boston!). On the way, I noticed the most peculiar thing: traffic into the city was jammed bumper to bumper and traffic going out of the city was sparse. Being from a small town in Wisconsin, I have never quite seen traffic behave like that before.

After obtaining our ID badges, (which were mistakenly colored tan instead of yellow, but that didn’t matter) David and I hopped onto another shuttle to Kingstowne where we would actually be working. CBP’s Kingstowne facility is located on the top two floors of an office building in the Kingstowne shopping center out in Springfield, VA. It is a strip-mall type layout typically found in the suburbs. I can see this becoming a nice place to commute to each day outside of the crowded city, even though the Metro ride is 40 minutes. Another advantage of working at a strip mall in the suburbs is that food for lunch is cheap and plentiful.

Our first day on the job, David and I met a former AAPD intern who had been rehired by CBP to work for the summer. He helped show us around the office and told us about the best places to eat lunch. Most of the first day consisted of introducing ourselves to staff and obtaining access to the network. As a nice treat, some of the staff took David and me out to lunch. They even paid for it. At the end of that first day, David and I boarded the Kingstowne shuttle to the Franconia-Springfield Metro station and slowly made our way back to GW.

The next Monday, a shipment of 152 new computers came in and I was put in charge of making sure every computer got delivered. I then had the daunting task of unpacking each one, which took three days. Starting either tomorrow or next week, reimaging will begin and the real work of my internship will ensue.

I have never worked in a corporate office environment, but it was similar to what I imagined it would be. People were always cheerful and friendly. Everyone has a cubicle and there is a dedicated copy room with supplies and a kitchen on each floor. The one thing I found peculiar is that you need your ID to use the restroom. I just started imagining some poor soul who might forget his/her ID at their desk and wouldn’t be able to get in the restroom.

Overall, I have enjoyed my first week of work. There hasn’t been too much to do, but I am still getting acclimated to the environment.

P.S. I have also discovered that reading The Express on the Metro makes the ride go much faster.

As It Turns Out, Transportation is Not the Only Issue

For the past year I have been the Transportation Systems Advocate at The Center for Disability Rights focusing all of my energy on fighting the shamelessly discriminatory bus company in Rochester, NY. My world outside of school consisted of conducting meetings about the ridiculous troubles that disabled people go through trying to get transportation, filing FTA complaints, protesting at board meetings, and surveying disabled fixed route and paratransit riders about thier experiences. Fighting the bus company is a never ending job and I needed a break.

This, of course, is where AAPD came in. When a co-worker emailed me the information about the internship my initial thoughts were, "Wow! A summer working in D.C. would be a vacation compared to this job!"

Let me tell you, it only one week of working with Lee Perselay in Senator Harkin’s office for me to realize that my initial thoughts completely wrong.

My life now, as an AAPD intern in Senator Harkin’s office, consists of much less sleep and a much larger intake of coffee. Additionally, my life consists of much less transportation issues, and a much larger array of disability related issues across the board. I love it!

In my first week, I learned more about the financial aspects of the Community Choice Act, I sat in a meeting with nominated assistant secretary for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), Kathy Martinez, I researched affordable, accessible housing and I even presented a workshop on sexuality and disability at the National Council on Independent Living 2009 Conference.

Although this internship is a much heavier workload than I first imagined, I am beyond excited to have my hands in all of these different issues. I love expanding my knowledge across the disability spectrum so that I can continue to be a better advocate everyday.

I am confident that after working on The Hill for the next two months, I will go back to Rochester with more knowledge and revitalized stamina that will help me to continue fighting for the rights of the disability community in public transportation and beyond!

Stephanie Woodward

My First Week

Well this pretty much sums up my first week here in the District of Columbia. I'm supposed to be working this week but I couldn't because I am still waiting on my security clearance for the Department of Homeland Security. So while I'm waiting for the clearance, I took advantage of the time to walk around and explore DC. I got the opportunity to explore many museums that the District has to offer. I think I pretty much visited all of the museums here, that's how much free time I had on my hands! I also took some time to visit some friends of mine from college who lives in Fairfax, Virginia and Greenbelt, Maryland.

I'll explain my experience at the museums. First I went to the Museum of American History, it was very interesting after I got to see many artifacts that are so old! For example, I got to see the hat that Lincoln was wearing when he got shot. I also got to see the clothes that he wears back then. I think that was the most interesting thing in that museum. Then I went to the Museum of Natural History, there were so many animals in that museum! It actually teaches the people who visit about the evolution stages and how animals have evolved up to now. They have so many movies explaining the different aspects of evolution and I was very surprised that all of them were closed captioned. All of the museums that I went to are very accessible, but there were some that weren't accessible as the others.

I went to the Museum of Space and Aviation, that museum was amazing! I never realized how many planes they have in one building! What really shocked me was that how they have so many planes hanging from the ceiling looking like they're toy planes. It makes me wonder don't they ever fall off the ceiling? I mean, they're not toy planes at all! I went to the National Archives where the Deceleration of Independence, US Constitution, and Bill of Rights can be seen. The last time I went to the National Archives was when I was in middle school! That time when I was younger, I didn't really care about what was going on in that museum and I didn't have a full understanding of the documents I was looking at. But this time when I went, I have full understanding of how important these documents are to the United States history.

Later, I went to Ford's Theatre where Lincoln got shot and got to see the balcony where he was shot. After Ford's Theatre, I went across the street to the house where Lincoln died. I got to see the bed and the room where Lincoln spent his last minutes of life. I thought it was pretty creepy because in that room, everything was left where it was since the day he died. The chairs that are right next to the bed have never been moved since Lincoln died. After visiting those sites, I decided to check out the Spy Museum which is not far from Ford's Theatre. I thought that museum was pretty cool how they show you some of the devices that spies uses. At first after watching so many movies about spies and stuff like those James Bond movies, I thought those cool gadgets were completely fake but I'm surprised to find out that I'm mistaken. There ARE gadgets that is somewhat similar to what you see in Bond movies. I was just amazed on how there are actually spies out there among us and we will never know. I suggest you to go check out that museum! This is one of the museums that's not very accessible to deaf folks.

There's SO MANY museums that I've gone to but I'm sure you would be tired of reading this by now, but if you're interested in knowing more about museums, just come and find me and ask! 

So far, I'm enjoying my time here in DC but DO NOT enjoy the weather here! I do not enjoy the humidity and annoying bugs that DC has. I live in Colorado and there is no such thing as humidity and annoying bugs in Colorado due to the altitude.

-Bob