Disability Awareness Day
As you know VCDR (Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights) is organizing its annual Disability Awareness Day at the Vermont State House on March 21, 2012. Action will be happening 8:00 am through 7:00 pm. Join Us!
A more detailed agenda is being finalized but here are a few details:
· The theme is We Are ALL Vermont Strong
· There will be a guest speaker from FEMA who is responsible for emergency management for people with disabilities.
· Policy updates and workshops from leading Disability Rights organizations (including VFN)
· Opportunities to testify (you need to set this up ahead of time)
Please fill out the registration form that includes reasons why people with disabilities, their families and allies should participate. Although it is not absolutely necessary that people sign up… it helps keep us organized since close to 400 people participated last year.
Thanks
Karen Topper
A member of the organizing committee for Disability Awareness Day
Disability Awareness Day, March 23, 2011
Once again, hundreds of people with disabilities and their allies from all over the state collected at the Statehouse to share their stories with policy makers - and with each other! In workshops that highlighted VCDR legislative priorities ranging from respectful language in Vermont Statutes to respect for the right of self-determination for people with mental health issues, many folks eloquently expressed the particular character of lives shaped by disability. And for those of us who could use MORE eloquence, there were all sorts of resources shared to help us hone our advocacy skills. Of course, many individuals took the opportunity to make the abstract real for their legislators by directly describing the effects that state policies have on their own lives. They testified in committees and spoke personally to legislators, throughout the day and with the many who graciously joined us for dinner and discussion during our evening program.
This has been a very serious year, with budget challenges making our community feel as though we were right back at the beginning of the “great recession” - which has really not released its grip on our minds and our wallets. But with Disability Awareness Day coming right on the heels of a tense budget process in the Vermont House, we felt that a positive tone should be struck to show appreciation for the work done by our legislators and to show the good that can be achieved when policy reflects our philosophy of inclusion, shaped by our motto of “nothing about us without us.”
So with the support of the Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council (VTDDC), VCDR joyfully sponsored a Statehouse showing of the landmark film “WRETCHES & JABBERERS,” the story of the global quest of two men with autism to change attitudes about disability and intelligence. All who saw the film were amused by the humor of its stars, Vermonters Tracy Thresher and Larry Bissonnette, and moved by the message of the primacy of communication in breaking down the walls between cultures and between people with and without disabilities.
A special privilege was shared by all who got to meet Tracy and Larry. They answered questions and elaborated on their experiences as world travelers and movie stars, but also as people liberated by the use of alternative means to communicate with a world of “jabberers” who all too often have underestimated their intelligence!
The Coalition would like to thank everyone who helped make this a successful day! In addition to our legislators and the staff of the Statehouse and Sergeant-at-Arms office, we thank the VTDDC for their moral and financial support. We thank the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living for help arranging the “W & J” logistics. Karen Topper merits kudos for her central role in organizing a million details and in bringing others together for success. We are really grateful for the efforts of the Green Mountain Self Advocates and the Vermont Center for Independent Living for staffing the Day, for our legislative advocate, Karen Lafayette, for the VSILC and…well, the list could go on and this author is sure to leave many contributors out. So let me just say that once again we have seen what our combined efforts can do, and we should look to our left and look to our right to appreciate all of our compatriots who contribute to making an event like this a meaningful one!
Sincerely,
Ed Paquin