My illness may be chronic, but this body? Iconic.
C is for chronic as in chronic illness.
As in forever.
As in please stop asking when/if I’m better. I’m not getting better.
C is for Capitol Crawl.
In 1990, to show the inaccessibility of our Nation’s Capitol and to drive support for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), disability rights activists put faces and names to the exclusion they and disabled people before them felt when trying to access their basic human rights.
The youngest person to climb the steps in 1990 was Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins. She was eight years old and already two years a protestor for disability rights. When a public or commercial space is inaccessible, it is purposeful exclusion. No matter the intent, inaccessible spaces are a human rights violation and leave people with disabilities out of the conversation. Heck, they physically leave us out of the room!
Did you get a chance to catch Crip Camp on Netflix this weekend? What thoughts did it bring to mind? If you didn’t have time to watch it, check it out tonight. The Capitol Crawl is covered within the documentary in greater detail. If you’re not ready to commit 90 minutes, check out this article from History.com on the Capitol Crawl.
Have you ever been purposefully excluded from a place? How did that make you feel? What impact did it have on your outlook?
Here are some additional laws and amendments that start with C for you to Google for more information:
**Civil Rights Act of 1964
**Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act
**California Governor’s Committee for Employment of Disabled Persons holds the first Youth Leadership Forum for youths with disabilities. This program is later funded by the U.S. Department of Labor to mirror in other states with the goal of delivering the message of the importance of youth leadership. By 2007, 23 states had this committee. In 2021, the department of labor has a National Association of Governor’s Committees on People with Disabilities but the reports have not been updated since 2009
**Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act in 2009