Enabling Self-Advocates in Face-to-Face Policy

There's a town hall meeting in my city tonight to discuss state legislative priorities in the new session. Oregon is considering budget cuts and bill proposals which could have significant impact on the quality of life for individuals with developmental disabilities, including me. Of priority concern is amending the state ADA to reflect the national amendment, preventing budget cuts to vision and dental care, supporting bills to help protect people from caregiver abuse, and more affordable, accessible, and safe housing. I'll be typing up a statement to read and attending the meeting to deliver it.

While all that is well and good and even relevant to the topic of this blog, the real point of this post is not about the content of the meeting. It's that I'm able to participate in the meeting at all.

See, I'm totally able to sit behind my keyboard in the comfort of my dark, quiet, familiar home and blah blah into the computer all sorts of advocacy work. But when I have leave my home, go some place new, interact with people face-to-face, things change. I get confused. I dash after shiny things. People talk and I can't keep up or respond. Things can get dangerous. By the time I actually make it to where I'm going (if I make it to where I'm going) I'm often too exhausted to actually do what I traveled there for. Transportation, navigation, new location, attempts by others at conversation--these are just some of the barriers against my participation.

So why am I able to attend the town hall meeting tonight? Because of the support of others who enable people like me be involved in the sorts of policy actions that require in-person contact, the sorts of actions that can't be done from behind a keyboard.

While it's important to have and support organizations that consist entirely of self advocates, it's also important to recognize the value of organizations that provide direct support to self advocates, like Self Advocates As Leaders, the group I'm working with to attend the town hall meeting. Commonly "accommodations" are considered physical things like wheel chair ramps or large print. But accommodations can also come in the form of a person. Not a "proxy" who will speak for me or about me (never that, never!). But a person who will enable me to speak for myself. Self advocates and others can work together to remove barriers to participation in community actions. That is the beauty of both appropriate accommodations and the natural interdependence of human beings.