Commemorating 31st Anniversary of ADA

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hey everyone, welcome to the kickoff of ADA Month, 18 years. We've been having ADA Month in July. And you know what? I look forward to it every single year. I just love this month. I love this month. If you don't know, this year is the 31st anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, July 26th. So it is a time for all of us to celebrate. It certainly is a time for people with disabilities. And if you don't have a disability, I just hope you know it is a time for you also. But we got to start this show before I thank my friends around the world for listening with Yoshiko. Yoshiko Dart, you know, I have a shout out on every single show, and that's because I want everyone to remember what you and Justin did. We've to keep Justin Dart's memory alive. So I know Yoshiko, you're really going to love this month because we've got Senator Harkin, Tony, and many people coming up this month on the show who were involved with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But I can't forget my friends around the world, Richard Roberts, in Okinawa. I love you, Richard. Gang Young in Seoul, South Korea. You know, I think about you all the time. Love you. Venyamin in Kazakhstan. Venyamin, it's so great that you're joining the show, listening to the show, because I talk about you frequently. I think so highly of you, Venyamin. And then Cheryl Harris from Tunisia, Ambassador Norland from Libya, all of you. All of you. I don't care if it's one person in a country that listens. That one person can make the difference. And of course, I wouldn't be able to do any of this if it weren't for my long-term sponsor, Highmark, who is just— what can I say? They set the high mark for other companies to follow. But as I said, hey, this is ADA Month, and I wanted to start out with two powerhouse And that's why I have Maria Towne, the President and CEO of the American Association for People with Disabilities, and Kelly Buckland from the National Council on Independent Living. And Kelly, although I know you're going to be retiring, you're never going to get away from me. So I want to have you ongoing as a guest. So thank you both for being with me today. Maria, we're going to start with you. Wow, what a way to celebrate this month with the executive order signed by President Biden on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. This is really big. This is huge. And first of all, welcome to the show, Maria.

Hi Joyce, thank you for having me. So happy to be here with you to kick off ADA Month or Disability Pride Month as we're calling it now.

Disability Pride Month. Oh, that's great. I love that even more. Okay, I got it now. Even though I'm old, you see, I can learn from a young person. Disability Pride Month it is. And by the way, Maria, I am so proud of you. If you don't know, Maria is the CEO of AAPD. And here's a little trivia for you. She was on my show, and I think she'd only been in her position like 2 days or something. Remember that?

Yes, I think it was more like 10, but still not a very long time.

But I want you to know that Maria has done a phenomenal job. At AAPD. I mean, we are rocking, we are successful, we are moving, and I attribute so much of this to Maria Town. So if you don't know her, you need to get to know her. So Maria, as I was saying, what a big kickoff with President Biden signing this. Would you share with our leaders— our listeners, I'm sorry— some details of this and then the impact you think it's going to have.

Certainly. So, at the end of June, President Biden issued an executive order focused on advancing— or focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the federal workforce. Now, the federal workforce— the federal government is the largest employer employer in the United States. And so executive orders that apply to the federal government have big ripple effects across private industry, across, you know, corporations. And there's a lot of discussion about the federal government as a model employer because often the standards that are set there become standards in other arenas of life. And what I think is so important about this executive order is that it brings disability into a larger conversation connected to equity and inclusion and diversity. And we know that so often disability is left out of conversations related to diversity. And we have to really insist that disability is an identity. It is a civil rights and human rights community. And when you talk about diversity, you have to include disability. And that's what this executive order does. So the first thing that it does is when talking about underserved communities, they specifically highlight that this includes people with disabilities in addition to racial ethnic communities, LGBTQ people, people who face discrimination based on pregnancy or because of their status as parents. So it's this really, really broad definition of underserved communities that includes people with disabilities. Diversity, I'm going to read the direct quote. Diversity means the practice of including the many communities, identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, cultures, and beliefs of the American people, including underserved communities. So there's a real push to make these terms as broad and inclusive as possible and to include disability. They also define accessibility, which is— this is important— the design, construction, and development, maintenance of facilities, information, communication technology, and programs and services that all people, including people with disabilities, can fully and independently use them. The thing that I like about that is that it stresses independently engaging in a program, entering a building, accessing information, because so often People will think that, you know, as long as there's a means where someone with a disability can access information with assistance, that means it's accessible enough. And this executive order defines accessibility as being able to interact with the federal government independently, you know, on your own or in the ways that you prefer. So getting more into kind of what this— what this executive order does, it does a ton of things. And to start out, it requires that every agency ensure that all interns, fellows, apprentices, and applicants with disabilities have a process for requesting and obtaining— reasonable accommodations to support their work in the federal government, whether or not these individuals are covered by the Rehab Act. And that's really important. You know, it also has a whole section focused on advancing equity for employees with disabilities that starts out with the mandate that the government should become a model employer for individuals with disabilities because a workforce that includes includes disabled people is stronger and more effective. And so agencies are now, you know, required to provide an equitable and accessible and inclusive work environment for people with disabilities, for applicants with disabilities, and for there to be this whole examination of procurement accessibility, assessing the Schedule A hiring authority, which I can get into and explain, and making sure that every aspect of the, recruitment, hiring, onboarding, retention, and advancement process is accessible to people with disabilities, whether they are people thinking about applying for a job, applicants, or folks who are already in a career position and seeking to advance in their jobs.

So, Maria— and I am going to have you explain Schedule A. My question is, as you know, there's been this target, you know, of hiring people with disabilities and people with targeted disabilities. Do you feel— is this going to impact employment directly in the federal government?

It should. I mean, and that's the hope, right? And we've seen, you know, in the Obama administration, how the Obama administration took the executive order on hiring and really put resources behind it and, you know, made agencies comply with those goals. And that executive order was then translated into regulations, which are permanent and don't change from administration to administration. You know, the thing with executive orders is that there's a deadline attached to them. And this executive order, at its best, will end during— in what, 2024, when this Biden administration ends. And so, I think if the Biden administration really puts the resources, and that means staff time, financial resources, information about best practices, makes that available to agencies and really follows through on what they've said in this executive order, it could absolutely impact employment. You know, one of the key things that it says in this executive order is that accommodations be provided in a timely fashion. You know, so often, even though there are legal requirements around this, employees may request accommodations, but they don't get it for months and months and months, and their performance is impacted. You know, if federal agencies can show that people can request and be determined eligible for reasonable accommodations that they then receive, in a matter of days, that really does set a standard for the rest of the country, and I think that could have huge implications for employment of people with disabilities.

What about Schedule A? Explain to our listeners what you meant when you talked about Schedule A.

Schedule A is what we call an exempted hiring authority in the federal government. If you apply For a job with the federal government, you typically have to apply through a website called USAJOBS. Applying alone is sort of a big process. You have to, you know, answer all these questions and hit all these buttons, and your responses and your resume go into a giant pool of applicants. Of applicants for a particular position, and that pool is then assessed by a hiring manager within kind of the HR arm of a federal agency. That hiring manager then sends a list of candidates to a particular agency and says, "Here's who you can pick from." Schedule A allows the agency that's making the hire to interact directly with a preferred candidate, and they can then take that preferred candidate with a disability, I should say, to the hiring managers and say, "We want to interview this person." So, I'll use myself as an example. I would not have gotten hired in my first job at the Office of Disability Employment Policy if it were not for Schedule A. I was a very young person with a disability. I had very little experience. I had little experience, but I was able to talk with the person who was managing the youth policy team at the Department of Labor, and she was able to tell the Department of Labor's Human Resources office that they wanted to interview me and talk with me. Had I gone through the standard process, my résumé would not have risen to the top of the candidate pool. And that's true for many people with disabilities for a variety of reasons. One reason being that we so often don't have the same access and experience to employment as people without disabilities. So when you look at, you know, our résumés in a giant pool of applicants, they're not going to stand out. But if we have an opportunity to engage with the hiring agency directly to say, "Here's what my experience is. Here's why I'm passionate about this role," we actually might have a shot. And so, this exempted hiring authority gives agencies more control over who they hire, and it is applied to people with disabilities and attorneys and other folks with very specialized skill sets. So many of the people with disabilities working in the federal government today got in through this Schedule A hiring authority. And that's, you know, again, true for me. The one caveat with Schedule A is that you have a 2-year probationary period instead of a 1-year probationary period. So, there is a longer time during which you can be fired at will. That is the one major downside of Schedule A.

Oh, that's not good. Oh, that's not good at all. But what is good, what overshadows that is the getting hired, getting in the door. Exactly. Thank God you did that, Maria, or who knows, you maybe wouldn't be in this position today. So, because you had that great mentor, Kathy Martinez. So, there you go. Look how it changed Maria's life. Well, Kelly, speaking of changing a life, How do you feel about retiring as the executive director of NICL?

Uh, it seems very weird. Um, I was vice president of the board for 4 years and then president for 4 and then director for 12. So wow, after, after 20 years in leadership, it feels very bizarre, but Actually, my last day was Friday, so I am retired now from NICL, and it seems kind of weird not reporting to work. But I had a really great run. I feel really good about the accomplishments, and I'm excited about Rima McCoy-McDade taking over. And so looking forward to what NICL does in the future.

Well, I just want to— on behalf of all people with disabilities, I want to thank you, Kelly. You are a warrior. You are a national champion in the disability rights community. You did so much at NICL, and I cannot wait to see what you're going to do next.

Well, thanks, Joyce. That's a real compliment coming from you. And yeah, believe me, I'm going to do a little bit of enjoying myself at the present.

So are you going to be back in Idaho? What— are you going to stay in D.C.?

No, I'm staying in Virginia. Yeah, I'll be in the D.C. area.

Oh, that's good. That's good. We don't want to let you get too far away from us. So Kelly, as we're talking about all of this, you know, when we were talking about accessibility I do have a question. Do you think that that ultimately will impact federal contractors where they have to be accessible? I mean, when is that day going to come that you can't say— it's as Jenny Lay-Flurry said to me one day, if a company says to you, I'm pretty sure we're accessible, then you can be sure they're not accessible. And, you know, these companies, they don't— view it as a law. I mean, they do not— like, I heard Tony speak about this recent survey where 90% of websites are not accessible. I think that's because people think it's for people who are blind and/or deaf, but they leave out everything else, like intellectual disability or being colorblind. When do you think accessibility will fall, you know, will follow with federal contractors?

Well, I think there's a lot of problems with accessibility. It's really kind of sad after 31 years of the Americans with Disabilities Act that we still have these problems. I think that's primarily due to is unfortunately the lack of enforcement. I mean, we saw some good enforcement under the Obama administration, and then we saw basically a void of any enforcement for the last 4 years. And I'm really hoping that this new administration, the Biden administration, really picks up the mantle and goes with it and really starts to enforce the parts of the ADA. 'Cause there's all these misconceptions about out there about grandfathering clauses and all that kind of stuff, which don't exist. There is no grandfathering clause in the ADA. You are subject to it under law and can be sued, and that includes websites. Unfortunately, we've gotten some bad court decisions too, but I think that's going to have to rely on some appeals. But anyway, I think— I think the new administration can make a big difference in that. And what I would say is right now, with all of the discussion and the bipartisan support for money going into infrastructure, I mean, this is the time to build stuff accessible, right? I mean, if we're going to rebuild better, to me, that motto really should apply to build back accessible too. So I really do think that We have a great opportunity to put billions and billions of money into operation to make things more accessible.

And what about accessibility with digital? You know, websites being accessible. What about that?

Yeah, it's unfortunate that people don't think about that as part of the infrastructure because it obviously is.— I mean, people, that's the first place they go anymore is the internet to do stuff, to look stuff up or to purchase things. I mean, so it definitely is part of the infrastructure and does need to be accessible, and that's the bad court decision I was talking about. We just recently got a bad court decision on that, so websites really do have to be accessible, and you're right, Joyce Bender, it's not— just one disability group that's affected by that. There's— the lack of accessibility in websites affects a whole bunch of people with all kinds of different disabilities.

Well, you know, I'm on the board of the Bazelon Center, and Eve Hill, my friend Eve Hill, is the chair. I remember her. During the Obama administration, Maria, you were probably there because it was at the White House, and she, and she was speaking, and she said, "How can you hire me if I can't get in the door?" Meaning the website, you know what I mean? So I don't know, how about you? What do you think about this?

So I think a couple of things. I think, you know, the ADA has been around now for 31 years, and it is, to Callie's point, just appalling that so many people, organizations, companies, governments think about accessibility as either optional or as this, like, bonus feature. Accessibility is not a bonus. It is a requirement. It is a right. With that being said, there are still kind of gaps in what's covered by the ADA. And one of my examples of this is doctors' offices. For doctors' offices, it's the waiting rooms. It's all of the areas that are accessible to the public that have to comply with the ADA. When you get into the actual exam rooms, the ADA does not apply in the same ways. So you may have exam rooms that a chair user can't turn around in, or many, many, many exam rooms where the exam table or the actual diagnostic equipment is not accessible. Makes sense, right? So you can have a doctor's office where a person with a disability can get in the door but not get an accessible examination. And what results is huge gaps in treatment for people with disabilities. You know, women with mobility disabilities are 3 times more likely to die of breast cancer, not because— and I say our because I'm a woman with a mobility disability— our disabilities predispose us to breast cancer, but because mammography is not accessible, so we can't get diagnosed early enough to catch it and get the early intervention and healthcare that we need to prevent it. And so we really do— there is, there's a lot for the Biden administration and advocates to do to continue advancing the promise of the ADA. The other thing that I want to highlight is that the ADA works— or I should say, works in conjunction with other civil rights laws to foster greater accessibility. So the ADA works with the Fair Housing Act or the Civil Rights Act or the Affordable Care Act to advance accessibility in a variety of settings across American life. There are so many tools that we can use to continue pushing for things like web accessibility. When we talk about web accessibility, I think we are talking about the accessibility of the site itself, but I want to point out that many people with disabilities do not have adequate connection to the internet. We experience a huge digital divide that relates to where people with disabilities live and how much money we make. Many people with disabilities live in poverty and may not be able to afford adequate connection to the internet. And so one of the things that AAPD has really been pushing for, especially since the pandemic started, is to make broadband a public utility and for the creation of a permanent broadband benefit so that people receive some kind of subsidies that they can at least be connected so that they can get access to services, apply for jobs, you know, take care of their household needs because that's where everything is happening now.

Yeah, you know what, when you said that, Maria, all I could think of was Marca Bristow because in 1998, I think it was, whenever she was the head of NCD and I heard her speak and it really me. She said, "Remember, disability and poverty go hand in hand." And that's what I thought when you said that. I also want to say we've got to get Maria on— anyone listening in the media, we got to get Maria on CNN or New York Times or somewhere to talk about this healthcare disparity because that is terrible when you think about that. And I know there are other devices that are not accessible. But just that one thing with mammograms, just that one thing is a reason people get breast cancer or could get breast cancer. That is horrific. That should be a story. That is a story. And so, you know, Maria Town, AAPD CEO, but I'm really glad you brought that up, Maria, because that Here we are, as you said, you and Kelly, 31 years later, and here we are talking about that. It's not right. And hey, it is time for our news break. Uh, every half hour we have our— we have on our break, uh, Perry Jude Radesik for Advocacy Matters. Boy, she's been doing this for years and she does a great job every single time. Perry, are you with us?

Uh, Joyce, I am, and we're happy to be here.

Well, we're happy to have you. Uh, Perry's the CEO of Disability Rights PA, which I'm so honored to be on that board, and she is a great disability rights leader, and she is also our newscaster. So take it away, Perry.

Hey, thanks, Joyce. Uh, today we want to talk about the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. We've mentioned it before in other Advocacy Matters segments, but tomorrow, Wednesday, July 7th, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission is going to hold a public roundtable on voter turnout and accessibility issues and trends for people with disabilities during the 2020 general election. Now, the great news is the roundtable is going to be livestreamed and open to the public, and the meeting starts at 10:00 a.m. There's a public notice in the Federal Register, and we have a link to that Federal Register notice on our Advocacy Matters segment for today, which you can find at disabilityrights.gov. Spa.org. According to that notice, the virtual roundtable is going to discuss a new report that analyzes voter turnout among people with disabilities during the 2020 general election. So who wrote this report? It was Rutgers University Program for Disability Research. So they're going to talk about the new report. They're going to talk about voting accessibility and what Rutgers found was that voting accessibility improved in 2020 as compared to a similar survey conducted in 2012. But I want to caution us because one in, one in nine people with disabilities still face barriers to voting. So even though the report will show some improvements, there are still a lot of barriers out there for people with disabilities. You'll find a copy of the Federal Register notice. You'll find a copy of the Rutgers University Disability and Voting Access Report. All of that at disabilityrightspa.org if you find our Advocacy Matters segment for today. I've also included, if you want to know specifically about Pennsylvania, our voting barriers report for the 2020 election for people with disabilities. Find it today and then tune in for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission meeting on the 7th of July, which is tomorrow. So thank you, Joyce.

Oh, thank you. Thank you so much, Perry. Thank you for that great report. So important. And have a great day, Perry.

You too.

Take care.

Bye. Boy, this really reminded me of Rev Up, Maria.

Yes, this is Maria. It did. And, you know, Perry is doing— and Disability Rights Pennsylvania are doing such great work protecting and advancing the disability vote in PA. And just so everyone knows, Joyce mentioned REV UP. That is AAPD's voting initiative. REV UP stands for Register, Educate, Vote. Use your power. There are Rev Up disability voting coalitions across the country. And if you are interested in being a part of a coalition or starting one in your state, you can go to AAPD.com/revup.

AAPD.com/revup. Make sure you should go to that website no matter what. It is an Awesome website. So, Maria and Kelly, I'm gonna ask both of you, and you know why I love that Disability Pride? If I hear one more time about these groups at companies being called able, differently abled, handicappable, all these things, that's not what we are. We're people with disabilities. It's not differently abled pride. It's Disability Pride. I love that so much. So, Maria, we'll start with you. Would you share with our listeners, what does this day mean to you? July 26th, what does it mean to you?

July 26th means— it means possibility. When the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed It opened up a world of possibilities for people with disabilities. And not possibilities that we didn't already understand and know were there, but it created a legal mandate and backup for all of us to pursue possibilities that otherwise would have been out of reach because of systemic physical and social barriers. So when I think of July 26th, I think of possibility.

And Kelly, I think you think of two things, right? July 26th, wasn't that day important to you, uh, and significant to you?

Yep, yep, you remember it's a personal day for me as well as I remember. Anniversary of the ADA, it's also when I received my disability. I broke my neck on July 26th, 1970, so 20 years before the ADA. So what Maria just said is really important because those 20 years before that, I mean, you could be discriminated against in all kinds of settings and you had no recourse. Whatsoever. You just basically had to just accept it and move on. Um, got kicked out of lots of, lots of great places to eat and drink and watch movies and never really got— had any alternative to enforce any rights because they weren't in place.

So denying freedom I don't think people realize what that's like. I mean, if they were not post-ADA. I mean, that is terrible. I remember Judy Heumann telling these stories and Marca. But thank God that changed with the signing of the ADA. And before I go to talk about Nicol, and AAPD and the celebration that we're both having. I wanted to ask you, Maria, how is it different being a post-ADA leader? How is that different?

Well, you know, I have had the real privilege of growing up in a world where I knew that I should not be discriminated against on the basis of my disability. And I say knew that I shouldn't be. It doesn't mean that I wasn't discriminated against. But I knew that not only it was wrong, but that it was illegal. And for me, I got to grow up with the expectation that places of public accommodation would be accessible. They would have a ramp, they would have elevators, there would be captions on audiovisual materials. And I think for me, there was not— there was never an expectation that I would need to be restricted in my worldview of where I could go and what I could do, in part because I grew up after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And I also think that I have had the honor of growing up just very grateful to the advocates, you know, like Kelly Buckland, like Yoshiko Dart, like Justin Dart, who made that possible for me. You know, sometimes I'll talk with Judy Heumann and I'll say, "Yeah, you know, I— my college wouldn't let me study abroad in the place that I wanted to because they were afraid it wouldn't be accessible enough for me. And, you know, when talking with Judy, Judy's like, "Maria, I wasn't even allowed to, like, consider going to first grade in an integrated setting." And it's a real privilege to just be able to— yeah, to have all this gratitude for everybody that came before me who made my life and the lives of so many others possible.

And I also think that, um, and I know you're very grateful, you have such a great attitude, Maria, but I also know, I believe even though like that example you gave, you know, uh, at the mammography and the high unemployment we have and the fact that everything is not accessible yet Nonetheless, I have noticed that the post-ADA young people are more emboldened about disability rights. That's how it seems, more confident. Maybe it's because, as you said, that they know, hey, this is the law. Do you know what I mean by that?

Yeah. I think that that is— I hope that that's the case. I think that there's still probably a lot of people who become disabled today who don't know about the ADA, who feel a lot of shame connected to their disability, who feel very isolated. And, you know, one of the things about me is, you know, I've had a disability since since the day that I was born, and so I have understood it as a part of who I am and as a part of what gives me a sort of unique perspective on the world. And so I do think that there's a difference between how people like me experience disability and experience the disability community and disability rights and folks who might acquire their disability later in life who haven't had the chance to connect to disability community yet. You know, unfortunately, I didn't meet another person like me until I was about 23. Wow. So I didn't understand.

Holy cow.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

And I didn't understand that there was a disability community, that disability wasn't like an individual sort of problem that you had to manage on your own. And the ADA doesn't fix that. That really takes us advancing a kind of social conversation and movement. And that's happening right now. And it's happening, you know, a lot of people. Young and old, ADA generation and, you know, elders together are working to change that and have been for years.

Yeah. Well, you know what? In 1997, I think it was, or '96, Tony was the first person I met that in the business world that had epilepsy. So that's amazing how that is. But you know what? There are far more people than that with epilepsy. It's just the stigma. They don't want anyone to know they have epilepsy. But on to a great topic. Maria, what do you have planned at AAPD to celebrate the 31st anniversary? And Kelly at NICL? Maria?

I think Kelly should talk first because I just talked a whole lot.

Well, obviously the NCCOL conference is going on during that week, and so NCCOL is going to be involved in the conference. Celebrating the ADA as we do each year at the conference. But there, if I could, there's a couple other things I'd like to bring up that came up during the conversation. Uh, one was the executive order that you talked about. I just would point out, because of the voting thing that we just talked about, there's also an executive order out there right now they're asking for input on because the executive order requires them to take, the government to take a look at voting for people with disabilities and how accessible it is. So that's an important thing and they're taking feedback until I think the 15th. And it's an organization called NIST, N-I-S-T, and I don't remember I can't remember what that stands for. It's National Institute on Standards and Technology, I think, but anyway, don't take that.

That's right.

That's right. Oh, good. I got it right. Good. Well, anyway, that executive order is out there as well, so I think it's really important people know that. And then just some things around the ADA, Joyce. I think, you know, there's been a lot of progress, but there are still so many areas that are not accessible., and we don't really have, uh, still don't really have recourse around, uh, air travel is one of them, right? Like, we can complain, but whether or not anything gets done with our complaint, um, is up to the Department of Transportation. So I mean, that still is a big void, in my opinion, is around air travel. And then, uh, the other part I think that's really unprotected at this point as well, even though there's some protection out there, but well not enough, and that is around child custody and people with disabilities having their own families. There's still, I think, 37 states that just having a disability is reason enough to take people's children away from them. There doesn't even have to be any abuse or neglect present. Just the presence of a disability allows the government to do that. So, and then, but most people still lose custody of their children in divorce court because of all the biases and stuff that remain. And then I just really kind of also want to highlight what Maria talked about earlier, and that's the medical equipment stuff. I mean, doctors' offices and hospitals, unfortunately, you'd think they'd be more aware, but, there's still some of the places that are the least accessible, like doctor's offices are notorious for not having accessible scales or accessible exam tables. So you go in for an annual exam with your primary care physician and you don't get the same exam that everybody else does. You don't get weighed, you don't get the same kind of exam on a table that usually they do the exams while you're in your chair. There's— most people with disabilities who use wheelchairs don't even know what their weight is, and that's such a basic kind of medical thing that your doctor gets in your annual exam is your weight. Anyway, so I just kind of want to highlight that. It's really widespread in the medical field.

It is. Yeah, it is. And that's, again, that healthcare disparity that we were talking about earlier. But yeah, you're right. You know what, Kelly, do you think— this is virtual, right? Is your conference virtual?

Yes.

Okay.

One more year.

Yep. Well, next year we'll be at that march. I love that march. Love that march. And how about AAPD, Maria? What's going on there?

Sure. So we've got a couple things planned. One, we— a few months ago, we launched our inaugural ADA Roundtable. And so the Roundtable is comprised of companies and other organizations who are looking to really stay abreast of the latest sort of trends and issues in the disability community. So we will have our first ADA roundtable meeting on the ADA anniversary. And then following that, we will have a virtual ADA celebration event with the president of the Ford Foundation, Darren Walker, and he will have a fireside chat with some of the emerging leaders that AAPD works with in our program. So, the fireside chat will be with some emerging leaders from our summer internship program, one of our Hearn awardees, some emerging leaders from our Rev Up Network, as well as others. And there may, I don't wanna say anything, but there may be some surprise guests as well. And that will be virtual in the evening. And Joyce Bender, I will make sure that you have the link that so you can send it out to all of your listeners today.

Oh yes, that would be great. Yes, we want everyone, everyone. Well, that's great. That's so exciting, Maria. Yeah, go ahead.

Oh, I— one more thing that we're going to be doing, um, this relates to voting that Kelly just talked about. One of the pieces of legislation that AAPD is supporting is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. A few years ago, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, and one of the things that's happened since then is that states have been allowed to create all of this legislation that severely reduces people's access to the ballot and access to the polls. And the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would help prevent this from happening. And so, on July 17th, which is the anniversary of Representative Lewis's death, we will join our brothers and sisters in the civil rights community in hosting a vigil for democracy. And so, stay tuned for some details because there's going to be vigils across the U.S. Some of which will have a disability community presence at them, and AAPD will be involved. Wow.

Now, that AAPD roundtable is also virtual, Maria?

Yes.

Yes. Well, once again, it's not long into the future, we'll be in person, and what a great day that will be. Well, thank you. I know we're at the end of the show, but I want to thank you. Maria Towne, President and CEO of AAPD, and Kelly Buckland, formerly National Council on Independent Living at NCLIL, presently Fireball, that's going to be making a difference. Thank you both so much for being with me today.

Thank you, Joyce Bender. Always a pleasure.

Well, we—

Thank you, Joyce.

You're welcome. And we end every quote, every show with a quote. And I must say that I know a new quote that will be used by Maria Town, who said, "Accessibility is not a bonus. It's a right." This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice. Where Disability Matters at voiceamerica.com. See you next week as we continue to celebrate Disability Pride Month. Talk to you then.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM Eastern time for another installment of Disability Matters, right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.