Maria Town: 32nd Anniversary of the Signing of the 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.

Hi everyone, welcome to Disability Pride Month. What a kickoff! We're starting this month with a real rock star. But first, I have to say hello to all my listeners from China to Australia. Thank you so much for listening to the show. This is the 19th year the show has been on and it keeps getting bigger and bigger. Thank you so much, all of you. And Richard Roberts, hey, you're in Brazil now. My good friend from the U.S. State Department, who's a real disability rights leader, Gangyong Cho in South Korea. Gangyong, I miss you so much. Cheryl Harris, who is at the State Department now in the United States, but was with Tunisia. That's when I first met her. And Vinya Min in Kazakhstan. I love every one of you. I'm so thrilled to have you as my friends around the world. And here we go. Oh, especially this month. Hello, Yoshiko. Yoshiko Dart, this is our month. And Yoshiko, of course, is the wife of the late, great Justin Dart. So, Yoshiko, I know you are somewhere right now saying, "Hello Joyce, lead on." Same to you. And to my sponsor, hi Mark, thank you for sponsoring the show for so many years as our lead sponsor. Well, as you recall at the beginning, and I can't tell you how excited I am to start the show with Maria Towne. Oh my God, I'm so excited because she truly is a rock star, and to have her with us today, the CEO of AAPD, kicking off Disability Pride Month. Maria, welcome to the show.

Hi Joyce, uh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so thrilled to be on and kick off Disability Pride Month with you.

Me too. So, Maria, you know, now that we keep expanding around the world to even some new countries, uh, let's start with you and your story so they'll know how wonderful you are. Maria, where did you first grow up? And I've always wondered this, what was it like for you where you lived for a youngster living with a disability or in the schools, and what happened that caused you to decide, you know what, I'm going to live a life of advocacy. So, Maria, let's hear your story.

Well, Joyce Bender, that's such a big question. So for all of your listeners around the world, my name is Maria Towne, and I have— I was born in the United States. I've lived my whole life in the United States, and I was born in the southern United States in a state called Louisiana. I have had a disability my whole life. I was born with a disability called cerebral palsy. And in the U.S., it's— that's a developmental disability. And for me, it affects my legs. And like so many children in the U.S. who are born disabled, some of my earliest memories are of doctor's appointments and physical therapy. And I am a part of what we call the ADA generation. The ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act because I am the first generation of disabled people to have grown up with the protections of the ADA in place. So I was 3 years old when the ADA was passed. And that is very significant because my parents, my mother especially, you know, was becoming a mother and raising a disabled child as civil rights for people with disabilities were being established. And, you know, she went through a program which is still present across the United States called Partners in Policymaking that taught her about inclusion and integrated education as well as things like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and things like that. So she learned about advocacy in the disability community. And when I was growing up, I was always included. I was mainstreamed. And I attended a regular school. I received accommodations. And really for my whole life I was one of, if not the only visibly disabled person in my whole school. And I say visibly disabled because there were definitely many, many, many, many students who had non-apparent disabilities. And when I got to larger schools, there were sometimes other students who had like physical disabilities or intellectual disabilities that were apparent, but they were often segregated into segregated classrooms. And so I was one of, if not the only student with disabilities who spent all of my time in integrated mainstream classrooms. And that's honestly not okay, right? I didn't grow up around, like, seeing other people like me. And I think that this is still true for many, many disabled children. Joyce Bender, to answer your question about when I decided to live a life of advocacy, I was always included in what they call the IEP meeting. IEP stands for Individualized Education Program, and it's a document that's created when a student with disabilities receives services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. And so every year there is a meeting with teachers, administrators, the student, and student's family to say, "What does the student need to be successful in school?" And oftentimes the actual disabled student isn't included in those conversations, but I was from a very early age. And I didn't realize that what I was doing was advocating for myself. When I was on the playground or when I was in PE, physical education classes, I would always find ways to be included. So when people had to jump rope, I could not jump rope, but I could hold on to my walker and I could turn. I could turn the rope for other people. And so you better bet I turned so much rope when I was in elementary school because it was a way for me to be involved. And That was the expectation that my family, you know, had of me. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was never that child who had a plan from a very early age. And where I was growing up in Louisiana, you didn't see people who were advocates. My mom was a nurse. My dad was a lawyer. And it wasn't until I got to high school and began competing in public speaking competitions that I realized that I had a gift. And this is a much longer story than we have time for today, but one day when I was at a speech competition I gave a speech about disability. And I realized then and there that not only did I have a gift, but that my disability gave me a unique and valuable perspective on the world. And I could use my gift to advocate for myself and other people like me. And that's what I decided to do from that day forward.

Wow, that is amazing. Oh, well, I can see hands down how you would knock out that competition in those, uh, public speaking competition that you were in. But you knew then after that, that like, I'm, I'm going to do something, I'm going to be an advocate, I, I want to really work to help people in disability rights. You started to know that in high school, even before college.

Yes, I had no idea how to go about doing that, and, and in fact, I had like some really misguided ideas about how you go about doing that. And it was really interesting because even though I wanted to be involved in disability advocacy, when I was in high school, I didn't have a really proud disability identity. And I mention that because we're in Disability Pride Month. One of the reasons that the speech was so important for me— when I started taking speech and debate in high school and participating in speech competitions, I never, ever, ever, ever, ever wanted to give a speech about disability because, you know, you knew from the moment that I got up to go give my speech that I was disabled, and I didn't want people to sort of put me in a box and assume that that's what I was going to talk about. And so I never gave a speech about disability, and I was asked to compete in this very prestigious competition on behalf of my high school, and I wrote this speech about educational inequities in the state of Louisiana, and it's probably a speech I could still give today because we've made so little progress. But my teacher said, "Maria, we want you to give a speech about your disability because we know if you do that, you'll win." Joyce Bender, I was so angry. I felt like they were really pushing past a boundary that I had set, and I felt like, I felt used because I knew what they wanted was inspiration porn. And I didn't have that phrase when I was in high school, but I knew what they wanted me to do. They wanted me to give this inspirational speech that would make people feel good. Or move people. And I, at the time, I remember thinking, well, you know, what am I going to do? Am I going to, you know, kind of not compete, or am I going to do what they've asked and write a speech that I don't want to write or give, but I'll be able to compete? And as you know, Joyce Bender, like, I'm pretty competitive, so I I did the competition and I wrote the speech that I knew they wanted and they were right. I won at regional, I won at state, and I won at nationals and I spoke in front of thousands of people. But it is not a speech that I would ever give today and it's not a speech that I'm proud of. But when I was speaking in the state competition, after one of the semifinal rounds, I got off the stage and, you know, my speech made people tear up. But there was one woman who was full-out, like, ugly crying. I mean, her face was red. She had snot coming out of her nose. She did not seem okay. And I went up to her and I asked, I said, you know, excuse me, Miss, are you all right? And she said, you know, my sister has cerebral palsy. She cannot talk. She cannot walk. But I know that she has something to contribute to this world. And when I saw you on that stage, I knew that you were speaking for her. And I realize now, after being an advocate for, you know, a professional advocate for more than a decade that my role is not to speak for other people. It's to make sure that everyone has a chance to speak for themselves no matter how they communicate. But it was in that moment that I truly realized, like, I have a responsibility here. And it took me a while to figure out exactly how to do it and how to be proud of my disability identity, but I knew at that moment that I had to I wanted to use this gift that I had been given to improve the status of disabled people in the United States.

Yeah, you know, that is a great story. I will say this. When you said, "I don't want to be the voice. I want to be the voice for other people." So that one part, that one part was good. The other part, I know exactly what you mean. The almost like a token, almost like, you know, here is this little person with a disability. And I know that when I speak, people are always surprised when I get into the why aren't you hiring people part where I'm not speaking angrily at them. But I'm surely not, oh, and then, you know, with epilepsy, whatever. And you're not like that either. And, uh, you're definitely not like that, Maria. I can tell you and all my listeners, she is definitely not like that. She is a force to be reckoned with. But I understand when people are, you know, there's still people I know that think that was a good decision. I'm sure there are, but I understand what you mean. But now here you are in this very prestigious role. So let's talk about that first. How about if you tell everyone about AAPD?

Um, so there you go. AAPD is a national cross-disability civil rights organization focused on increasing the political and economic power of the more than 61 million disabled people in the United States. We engage in significant advocacy at the federal level, and we put on programs that build the next generation of disability rights movement leadership as well as improve the employment outcomes of people with disabilities. I have been the president and CEO now for almost 3 years, which is an amazing thing, and I, I couldn't be prouder of AAPD.

Yeah, and you are— didn't you tell me that the White House or, you know, the government decided that AAPD would be the convener?

So frequently AAPD is called upon by the White House and other government entities as well as non-governmental entities to convene the disability community on key issues. So for example, we brought together a roundtable on COVID and disability for the White House and for the Centers for Disease Control. We were also instrumental in bringing together a roundtable on Reproductive Rights and Health Care for the White House just a few weeks ago. Because we are a cross-disability organization, meaning that we think about disability very broadly, everything from mobility disabilities to intellectual disabilities to mental health disabilities and more, we are often tasked with kind of pulling together perspectives from across the disability community and presenting recommendations on key policy issues from those perspectives.

So we, we are the— to me, we are the grassroots policymaking organization disability rights and still coupled with the business community. That's what makes AAPD so really unique. And I know, Maria, that before, years and years ago, before I got on the board, when Andy Upparato was the CEO, I was so, ah, when I got on that board, I was so excited, which I still am today, because when I think of justice, I think of AA— disability rights and justice, I think of AAPD, still to this day. I remember that, as I said, when Andy was the CEO, they had just a small, very small get-together in the office over the holidays. And I'm meaning just like some hors d'oeuvres and snacks and things of that nature. And yet, Senator Harkin, Congressman Coelho, you know, all of these— Senator Dole— all of these people stopped in. It was sort of like, you know, I stop in, hello, greet everyone. Some people stayed longer than others. And then, of course, people like Pat Wright and Judy Heumann and, you know, everyone, Marca, all the people you would think of. And I just thought, wow, this is so great how AAPD is thought of. And it is still like that today, if even stronger. And the Americans with disabilities really look up to you, Maria. As their voice and as the leader in the United States, you know, speaking for them and fighting the fight for them. And I'll bet you never thought that would happen.

I personally, uh, no, no, I didn't. And, you know, I really think that part of what we do at AAPD in a lot of our programming is actually work to make sure that disability advocates have what they need to fight for themselves and for the issues that they care about. And, you know, I'm thinking of one of our program alums who, while she interned with AAPD, she learned about the intersection of disability and voting rights. And she met with her congressman, Chris Van Hollen, and asked him to sponsor— be a co-sponsor of the Accessible Voting Act. Well, after their meeting, he became a co-sponsor of the bill, and then she wrote her thesis, her undergraduate thesis, on disability and voting issues. And now, a year later, she's closing out the summit that we hosted on the disability vote, and she is editing a blog for another disability rights organization. And I am so glad that AAPD has been a part of her journey and a part of the journeys of so many other really incredible disability advocates, because I think a key part of what we do in our goal to build the disability community's political and economic power is make sure that, again, advocates can be supported in their goals and their skills. And I just hope that we can keep growing the disability rights and justice movement.

Yes, and I'm sure that I'm sure that that will happen. You know what it reminds me of, Maria? When I was the national chair of the Epilepsy Foundation, and I'm at a board meeting and someone said to me, "You know, you're the top person in the country for epilepsy." And surely there are other people that, you know, are leaders or will be soon with disability organizations, but when it comes to disability policy, and disability rights. That's you. And I know that when someone said that to me, I felt like, wow, yeah, I never thought of that, uh, because, you know, that's quite a responsibility. But I will tell everyone listening to the show that Maria is so passionate about disability rights, and she is brilliant. I mean, she writes these press releases, briefs, everything you can think of so quickly, and they are all so powerful. And she, as you can see, is also a powerful speaker. As a matter of fact, Maria worked at the Department of Labor and at the White House during the Obama administration for Valerie Jarrett, which means She was interfacing with the, with the president, and she represented the disability community. So, I mean, she has quite the background. And you, you mentioned, Maria, that how you're the ADA generation. What does that mean for you being after the ADA? And I'll tell you, sometimes people will say to me, oh, what's going to happen? You know, we have all Judy Heumann and Senator Harkin and Tony and all of us that will be, you know, moving on, so to speak. And what do you think is the backfill of young disability rights leaders?

Oh, I mean, I learn from young disability rights and justice leaders constantly. And just to name a few, Elijah Armstrong— sorry, I have a tickle in my throat— Leslie Templeton. Sabrina Epstein. They're just such— they are such incredible young advocates in this community. And I really am— given the state of the world right now, there are more times than not where I am sad or I am mad or discouraged. Discouraged. But when I think about the leadership that exists in young people with disabilities and what they're bringing to the table, I get really hopeful. And I think one of the things that's important to know, Joyce Bender, is that to be a sort of next-generation leader in the disability community or an emerging leader in the disability community, you do not have to be young because disability is an identity that anyone can come to at any point in their life. And I think especially with COVID now that Long COVID is, you know, disabling millions of people, the disability community is growing in new ways. And I think that we will see significant leadership, not only from the kind of young people with disabilities who are working in the community now, but also from people who are older, who are long COVID survivors, or who are survivors of gun violence. You know, gun violence creates disability. And so I am really excited about the future of our movement even though the conditions of today's world often make me very sad.

And what do you think we can do, Maria, to unite that group? You know, a lot of people have said to me, wow, the only person that was able to really unite all of these groups— epilepsy, diabetes, mental health disabilities, everything— was Justin, Justin Dart. But, you know, it's very hard because everything is much larger now. But, yeah, what can we do? Like, there are many things wrong, just as you alluded to, and employment's one of them. Changes that just happened in our government are one of them. COVID is one of them. Post-COVID disabilities, long-term COVID disabilities. You know, we could go on and on. Do you think we still will have that fire that Judy Heumann and everyone had? I mean, do you feel that— because you're the rallier, you're the one who will be rallying everyone. What do you think about that?

So, I do think that that fire is is still there, and I think it might look a little different. So, one, you know, Justin Dart was really able to unite all these groups, and there are— I think that there are two reasons for that. One is that, you know, there was this big transformational piece of civil rights legislation that I think everybody could get behind generally. And I think different groups may have had different opinions on the details, but generally, you know, all of these groups wanted to get behind the ADA and make sure that it passed. And it was not an easy or a short battle. I don't think many people know, you know, that there were multiple versions of the Americans with Disabilities Act that were introduced, and it wasn't until 1990 that it got passed. And so that's one. I think there was this— the ADA was a unifying force for many groups. And, you know, Justin was a key part of making that happen. The other reasons, reason number 2 that I think Justin did such a good job of uniting the community was that he really led from a place of love. And if you read Justin's writings, I never had the privilege of meeting him, he talks about love all of the time, and he talks about love in such powerful ways. I think that today is different. I think that today, one, we, the disability community, was incredibly united in pushing for more funding for home and community-based services these past, you know, 2+ years during COVID And we, you know, Joyce, I don't know if you remember, but when we were working on getting these COVID funding bills passed, AAPD would work and get pen-on letters with hundreds, hundreds of disability organizations from across the country. And now that Congress doesn't seem to want to do all that much, even in the face of dire need, there are fewer things for the whole of the community to get behind at the federal level. But I think that there is so much happening at the state and local level especially, so much happening sort of outside of the traditional federal policy arena. And to your point, I think that can make it harder to unify the community because every— it's so much bigger. I also think that the disability community is reckoning with the ways in which racism, white supremacy, misogyny, and homophobia have kept a lot of voices out of our kind of institutional advocacy spaces. And I think that's one of the biggest differences between what maybe the fight for the ADA looked like in 1990 and what the fight for a similar transformational bill might look like today. And so working to sort of unify a more A very necessarily more diverse group looks very different. I'm not sure if I'm making sense right now.

No, no, yeah, you are. Yes, I understand exactly what you're saying. And that's true. I mean, just how you described it is true. But I like something else you said. I had someone say to me one day, and this person, we'll say, was 50 years old, and they said, You know, Joyce, I just wish that I had started earlier because, you know, I think that's so great to be a disability advocate. And I said, well, what makes you think you can't do that right now? I mean, there's not like an age limit that people set for people that can be advocates. If so, we wouldn't have many people that are advocates for us right now. And I am so thankful for all of them. But I was glad you said that. I really was, because that is so true. But anyway, it's on the half hour. Time for our news break with Perry Jude Radesik, another national disability rights advocate. Perry, how are you today?

Joyce, I'm fine, and, and thanks for having Marie on the show. It's great to hear her, and, uh, It's a wonderful show today.

Thank you, thank you. So, Perri, what news do you have for us today?

Yeah, this is really important, so all the education advocates need to, need to hear this. The U.S. Department of Education is soliciting public comments to determine how to improve regulations that protect the rights of students with disabilities. So we're talking about the U.S. Department of Education focusing on a review of the regulations that implement Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. Section 504 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability for really any public or private program that receives federal funding. So this includes schools and colleges, universities, all the post-secondary institutions. Institution. That law was landmark civil rights legislation for people with disabilities. Now, Section 504 regulations require a school district to provide a free and appropriate public education to each qualified student with a disability. When we think about the regulations that are implementing 504 now, there are 45 5 years old this year. The regulations were issued 4 years after the passage of Section 504 from the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. So the U.S. Department of Education is now, really for the first time, updating the regulations, and they haven't been updated since 1977. Now, the Department of Education has not yet drafted new regulations, so we don't have a set of regulations for you to comment on. They also don't have a timeline available for when the Education Department will make these regulatory changes. What we do know is that the U.S. Department of Education is seeking written comment on Section 504 to see how they can better protect the rights of students with disabilities, and they're gonna be holding listening sessions over the summer to get our public feedback. Advocacy matters. It's important for us to provide comment and attend the listening sessions with the Department of Education on 504. Community voices and protests were really critical to getting that landmark law and regulations passed 45 years ago. So our voices are just as important now as they were 45 years ago. If you go to disabilityrightspa.org, you'll get more information from the U.S. Department of Education about this effort to amend 504 and instructions on submitting public comment. So go to disabilityrightspa.org for all of that information today.

Thank you. And Perry, that, that is so very Important. Maria, did you want to comment on that?

Hi Joyce, this is Maria. I'm so glad Perry talked about this. It is such a significant opportunity. As Perry mentioned, these regulations have not been updated for almost 50 years, and think about how much the education landscape has changed during that time. I will say personally one of the things that I am excited to comment on is the need to end seclusion and restraint of disabled students in schools. I really hope that every disability organization across the country and every person with a disability takes the time to submit comments, especially once the regulation is drafted and made public. And I'm, again, very glad that Terri mentioned this because it is such a big opportunity for our community. To put something else on your radar, Health and Human Services will be doing a similar process with their— with the parts of Section 504 that they are responsible for. So, also be on the lookout for that.

Uh, thank you, uh, uh, Perry. So we need to go to disabilityrightspa.org, then go to Advocacy Matters, and our listeners can get all that information, correct?

Absolutely.

Today's segment is already up on our website. Just go to our website, click on Advocacy Matters for today, and you can find links to more information from the Department of Education and instructions on submitting public comment.

Awesome. Thank you, Perry. You keep us up to date on that.

I will. Thank you, Joyce Bender.

All these things are so important. Well, there you go. There's your example right there, uh, Maria, of people getting together across the United States, people with disabilities, to comment on this. There's an opportunity right there, which is sort of what you were alluding to before. So hey everyone, don't just talk about it, take action. Go today, disabilityrightspa.org, to Advocacy Matters, and you can read all about this. Hey Maria, there are so many initiatives I love at AAPD. Uh, one is— there's so many, I'll never get to talk about— Leadership Roundtable. Share with our listeners what that is.

The Leadership Roundtable is an initiative that companies and other entities can be a part of. The Roundtable has an opportunity or has opportunities to meet with AAPD staff, board members, and other partners to learn about key issues in the disability community or to get guidance or advice on disability initiatives that they may be pursuing. We, you know, members of the Roundtable, I think right now we have close to 50 Roundtable members and we hope to work with the Roundtable to improve the hiring and employment of people with disabilities to improve inclusion in the private sector and in the corporate sector and to advance disability issues across the civil rights space more broadly.

Yes, and it, it is a wonderful opportunity. You need to get in touch with Maria. And Maria, what is your email for our listeners?

My email is mtown, that's M-T-O-W-N, at AAPD.com. Again, that is mtown@aapd.com.

And, um, you know, this is a great opportunity for you. You can sponsor, you can make a donation, and you can get involved today. I know the companies I know that are on that roundtable are so excited about the opportunity to know what's happening in the disability community as it impacts them. You need to get involved. Leadership Roundtable. And then, Maria, one I love that I know you really love is Rev Up. Tell our listeners about Rev Up.

I do. REV UP stands for Register, Educate, Vote, Use Your Power. And REV UP is AAPD's disability voting rights initiative. So through REV UP, we've organized 32 different disability voting coalitions across the United States. We focus on building the power of the disability vote by increasing voter registration of people with disabilities, removing barriers to the polls and to ballots, and ensuring that candidates running for office, whether that's dog catcher or President of the United States, understand important issues facing people with disabilities and speak to those issues in their campaigns.

So important. I just want to tell you, at the Bender Leadership Academy, which is benderleadership.org, not the same as my company Bender Consulting Services, because this is a not-for-profit that we started in 2018 focused on providing work preparation, fighting bullying, and now mental health for high school students with disabilities. But in addition, Maria worked very closely with, with someone I adore, Valerie Jarrett, who I know loves Maria. We started, with her permission, Jarrett Community Engagement at Joyce Bender Leadership Academy, where everyone is going to know about Rev Up, because what we're doing is teaching high school students with disabilities how to vote. What does it mean to vote? How do you vote? What do you do if you need an accommodation? Which Valerie's so excited because, of course, she's the chair of Michelle Obama's When We All Vote. —But it's funny you said that about the dog catcher. You know, when you said that, Valerie said, please, please teach those students it isn't just voting for the president, it's voting state and it's voting who is your marshal, who— you know what I mean? It's also at the local level. And you've got to vote. You know, you want to change things, you You must vote. You've got a big election coming up. If you want your voice heard, you've got to vote. That's so important. I know in the last— we all know there was a contention, contentious presidential election the last time. And really, though, so many times over the past several presidents, it has been a small number of votes that made a difference, and yet people think my vote won't count. What do you want to say about that, Maria?

I— so, Justin Dart had a quote. He said, "Vote like your life depends on it because it does." And what I want to say is that while voting will not solve everything, voting will not necessarily save us, elections really can change lives. And we all need to vote like our lives depend on it because it does. I also want to note that voting is one part of civic engagement. And so, if you're already voting, you can be engaged in other ways too that can make a huge difference. You can attend a public session at your local city council and raise issues that are shaping your community. You can help other people register to vote or learn, or learn to understand what's on the ballot. You might even want to pursue a ballot measure of your own to get more funding for things like accessible sidewalks or public transportation. There are so many ways to be involved in your community. And I think, you know, people with disabilities, we are still fighting for community integration. And it's the races at the local level that decide things like how your sidewalks get fixed. Or if you have accessible public transportation, or if you have services for people with disabilities and older adults to get their homes modified to become accessible. So, I will— that's what I have to say on voting, Joyce. I think that right now we are seeing a lot of people sort of doubt the importance of voting, and that is very understandable. It is still critically important. Elections still matter a lot, especially ones at the local level.

Yes, and also encouraging, you know, this registering to vote. Think of all the people— remember you talked about COVID Think of all the people in assisted living or wherever that were impacted by COVID that would love to register to vote. People don't even understand absentee ballots. So, you know, I'm just telling you, you've got to vote, but you've got to also encourage other people to register to vote and know where the polls are. I tell people, go to the polls ahead of time to find out, is it, is it really accessible? You know, no, one step is not accessible. I mean, go check all this out. Ahead of time, and if you can't get to voting, you've got to let— you've got to look into the absentee ballot. Don't you think, Maria?

I do. So, I— one, I look into the absentee ballot, but for me, I never think that it should be an assumption that people with disabilities will vote absentee. And like you were saying, Joyce, We have fought for the right to be able to vote on Election Day or during early voting in person. And I think it is so important that we have multiple options for how to cast your ballot and that all of those options be accessible. So if someone wants to vote in person because that is the most accessible option for them, they should be able to do so. And I think it is critically important that disabled people are seen publicly voting because the right to vote is one of the ways that we in the United States understand citizenship and understand personhood. I also think that absentee ballots need to be easy to access and fully accessible. So, for example, one of the biggest things that can create major issues for people with disabilities is our signature verification. So you might have an absentee ballot, and you're required to sign it in order to verify that you are the person who actually filled out the form. Well, for someone like myself with cerebral palsy, my signature doesn't always match. For someone who is blind or low vision, their signature may not always match, and so their ballots might get thrown out because the secretary— the local Secretary of State or the county official doesn't deem them to be valid. And it's a huge accessibility issue. During our Disability Vote Summit that we hosted, Last week we actually did a session on voting from a congregate setting. So individuals who are in nursing homes or group homes, so that people could learn how to make sure that these groups can vote. And sometimes it means actually putting a polling place inside a nursing home. It means working with a county to make sure that a voter registrar can go to a nursing home and make sure everyone there is registered to vote and knows how they are going to vote on or before Election Day. I just— there's so much work that we have to do. One of the major issues in the disability community is that, again, paper ballots, whether they're cast in person or absentee, are not accessible to a whole lot of people. And there is a desire to expand expand electronic ballot delivery and electronic ballot return so that it is more accessible to people with print disabilities, which can include blindness, disabilities like dyslexia, or things like cerebral palsy. But there's some significant resistance to expanding these technologies because of fear of election tampering. And so I think we have to figure out how to make sure that our, our elections are safe and secure and also accessible.

Yeah, that is— wow, that is great information, Maria. Well, Maria, this show is coming to an end much faster than I thought, so I just want to mention one of the key programs at AAPD is the internship program, uh, where we're sending young people with disabilities to the Hill, the companies, Some remote this year, some in person, but if you need to know more about that, once again, AAPD.com, or to Maria one more time, what is your email?

mtown@aapd.com.

So, Maria, before we end in the next minute, contributions. How does someone contribute to AAPD?

You can donate online. You can donate on our website, again, AAPD.com, and on our home page there's a big red button that says— I think it says "Support AAPD's Work" or "Donate." So you can donate on our website. You can also mail a check to our mailing address, or, you know, if you use something like Facebook or Instagram, you can donate through Facebook or Instagram causes. You can also donate when you use Amazon Smile so that, you know, a portion of your Amazon purchases goes to AAPD.

Okay, AAPD.com, go to donate, and I just want to say, I don't care what it is, hopefully it's big, but even if it's $5, everything counts. Accounts. Donate today, AAPD.com. Maria, thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you so much, Joyce, and happy Disability Pride Month.

Happy Disability Pride Month to you also. Oh, what a great way to start. So we end every show with a quote, and here it is: The ADA is more than a law as well, it is a testament.— to our character as Americans. It's a triumph of American values, said President Biden. This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, where disability matters, at voiceamerica.com. Celebrate Disability Pride Month, and in the words of Mary Brooker, Choose joy.

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.