Developing Chicago’s Next Generation of Leaders with Disabilities

Chad Turner, back row at far right, and the ADA 25 Advancing Leadership 2017 Fellowship class.

On October 13, 2017 Chad Turner was a featured speaker at the CBLN Disability Inclusion Opportunity Summit. Turner—vice-president, finance & business manager at JPMorgan Chase, and a member of the ADA 25 Advancing Leadership 2017 Fellowship class—shared how this program for emerging leaders with disabilities has positively impacted his civic engagement and leadership, excerpted here.

Article from The Chicago Community Trust blog with the author being Chad Turner            

The 2017 Leadership Institute consisted of 16 individuals, with a variety of personal and professional backgrounds, working together with one common goal: strengthen our skills to serve civic leadership roles in the Chicago region.

We trained on several topics including public speaking and identifying communication styles, the history of the disability movement and assessing our individual leadership traits. What I personally took away from the experience was the several friendships with individuals who can share a unique view into who I am.

I have worn hearing aids since I was in the second grade. But I don’t consider them my disability—I have found them to be a source of great strength. It taught me the value of hard work at a very young age, and more importantly how to listen.

As a result of Advancing Leadership, I have had the opportunity to take on public service roles at three well-known public entities in the Chicago area:

First, earlier this year I was named a governing member ambassador for the Chicago Zoological Society. The ambassadors serve as advocates for the Brookfield Zoo and advisors on the Zoo’s efforts to promote inclusion of the community through efforts to open exhibits to all citizens of Chicago. The Zoo received the 2016 Angela Peterson Excellence in Diversity Award Top Honors from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for its “A Zoo For All” suite of diversity and inclusion initiatives.

As the saying goes, one good opportunity leads to another. In May I attended an On The Table event at Microsoft where I shared the great work at the Zoo. This resulted in an invitation to join the Museum of Science and Industry’s Mission Accessible Task Force, that advises the Museum on its content and design to enhance accessibility and equity. Like the Zoo, MSI is taking a leadership role in its industry to promote greater inclusion, and I am proud to be a part of both of their efforts.

My third opportunity: I was recently invited to join the finance committee for Access Living starting in 2018.

I know these opportunities would not have been possible without the support of ADA 25 Advancing Leadership. And it all started because I applied to be part of the Leadership Institute last year.

I would like to challenge you to identify emerging leaders with disabilities that you know, to apply before the October 31 deadline. I can’t wait to be in your seats next year, watching someone you identified this year be next year’s speaker.

http://cct.org/2017/10/developing-chicagos-next-generation-of-leaders-with-disabilities/

For more information on ADA 25 CHICAGO, visit: http://www.ada25chicago.org/

Ed Roberts an advocate for inclusion and equality for people with disabilities: "Free Wheeling" video (cc)

Ed Roberts was both an advocate and an activist. He was a leader in the disability civil rights movement and championed the rights of people with disabilities. He was the founder of the first Center for Independent Living and the World Institute on Disability. Ed advocated for his right to attend a university and was a activist in the 504 sit-in held in San Francisco. He was known for a lot of things by a lot of people, but most importantly he believed in empowering others to become advocates and activists.

The video is very informative, and helps to understand Ed Roberts philosophy.

YouTube Uploaded by yodisabledproud on Jan 20, 2012

Disability Activist Ed Roberts on "60 Minutes" in 1989 with Harry Reasoner (cc)

Published on Jan 23, 2013

As Broadcast on CBS in 1989. More Information Available At: http://www.mnddc.org/ed-roberts/index...

Ed Roberts (January 23, 1939-March 14, 1995) was the first student with severe disabilities to attend the University of California, Berkeley. He was a pioneering leader of the disability rights movement. Roberts contracted polio at the age of fourteen in 1953, spending eighteen months in hospitals and returning home paralyzed from the neck down.

Determined to live with a positive personal sense of disability identity, his activism began when he returned to school and needed to fight to receive his high school diploma, continuing through his attendance at Berkeley where he paved the way for other students with severe disabilities, who joined him in his efforts to advocate for changes to their treatment and services.

He became the head of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living (CIL), the first independent living service and advocacy program run by and for people with disabilities. In 1976 California Governor Jerry Brown appointed him Director of the California Department of Rehabilitation, where he served until 1983. He returned to Berkeley and co-founded the World Institute on Disability.
# originally posted July 2013

Deplorable Treatment of People with Intellectual Disabilities at Henry's Turkey Farm in Iowa : Disability History

For decades dozen of men with developmental disabilities lived in a old school house and worked at a turkey plant. No one knew the conditions and abuse they endured.

Hopefully the actual story of the these men's life will raise awareness and help prevent similar situations from occurring ever in the future.

The ‘Boys’ in the Bunkhouse

          Toil, abuse and endurance in the heartland.

CLICK HERE for Very Detailed N.Y.  Times Article

For Previous Posts on  Henry's Turkey Farm CLICK HERE

# originally posted March 2014, in honor of the anniversary of ADA, as history of the disability community.

Ed Roberts and Judy Heumann 1984 Video Interview, Disability Rights Movement History

In a historic interview in Stockholm in January 1984 are Ed Roberts and Judy Heumann. Invited by Adolf Ratzka to participate in a three day conference on Independent Living in December 1983 their visit marks the beginning of the Independent Living Movement in Sweden. Ed and Judy had just co-founded the World Institute on Disability and were already prominent movement leaders in the US and internationally. For an account of their careers see the homepage of the World Institute on Disability.

In the interview the two leaders outline the Independent Living philosophy and its relevance for people with disabilities everywhere and show how our countries’ policies affect our ability as individuals with a disability to live and work in the community, have families of our own and take responsibility for our lives.

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Ed Roberts and Judy Heumann in 1984 interview from Independent Living Institute on Vimeo.
.The interview was produced by Marianne Gillgren.

# previously post.

Countdown to the ADA signing anniversary July 26th - AAPD Speaks to John Kemp - (video)

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) released video's leading up to July 26, (in 2010) the 20th anniversary of the ADA....


YouTube Uploaded by AAPD video on Jul 7, 2010

TRANSCRIPT:

What does the 20th anniversary of the ADA mean to you?
I can't believe it's been 20 years since the passage of the ADA. I came to Washington DC about 30 days before the passage of the ADA, though I was working on it from Chicago where I was working with Easter Seals. As the Executive Director of United Cerebral Palsy, I became very involved immediately on Hill visits with Justin Dart and other leaders, jumped right in. And when the ADA celebration happened, it was one of the most inspiring, emotional days of my life. I just cannot believe it's been 20 years. The ADA means to me, promise and opportunity, it doesn't mean we are guaranteed anything other than our fundamental civil rights. To achieve in this world, we have to prove to ourselves and prove it to others that we are capable and qualified to be able to be on the stage with everyone else, and I think that's the best part of the ADA. We are still responsible for ourselves, but it guarantees our civil rights.

What was it like for you living with a disability in the United States before the ADA?

Before the ADA, life was very much different. I attended a regular school, which was very unusual for kids with disabilities in the middle 50s. I was born in 1949 without arms and legs and lived a regular, integrated, inclusive life. And when I went to school, grade school for the first time, it was a choice that the school was making to allow me to attend. I had no civil rights what so ever to attend that school, they allowed me to attend. I had to figure out how to get along, how to pass, how to keep up with everything that was going on. And It was probably something that was good for me, but not necessarily one that assured me of my civil rights at all. I never really knew how precarious it was for me to be able to attend that school and possibly even be sent off to a different school until I got much older and realized how fortunate I was to be included in regular schools.

How were the passage of the ADA and the creation of AAPD related?

The ADA was passed in 1990, and shortly thereafter my good friend Paul Hearne and I spent a few evenings, okay we spent a lot of evenings, drinking beer and thinking about there ought to be an organization made up of individuals with disabilities, who can really promote the political and economic power of people with disabilities, all driven by the fact that we had the Americans with Disabilities Act. And Paul and I spent a lot of time we engaged a number of other people as co-founders we decided that it was time for an organization of individual members of primarily of people with disabilities to assert our political and economic power. And that's how the intertwining of the ADA and the AAPD really became about. It was the vision that was given to us by the passage of the ADA that allowed us to think that there could be an organization and should be an organization like AAPD. And all I can say is that AAPD has far exceeded my humblest expectations. It has done a fantastic job, I'm proud of Andy and the team, all the board members who have served in guiding and leading the organization to a wonderful place where it is today, the most respected cross-disability organization in the United States.

What changes do you think need to be made to the ADA?

There's still much more to be done with the ADA and with the amendments that was certainly empowering. I felt that we didn't clearly articulate that access to the Internet and the World Wide Web is a civil right. We could have done that and we didn't do it, for a number of political reasons. That still lies ahead of us. I also think that teaching individuals or helping individuals find themselves and find the dignity in having a disability is something that AAPD and all of us can help young people with, and certainly older people who have been living in denial as they age into disability are maybe afraid of the identity of disability, I would hope that they would find pride in being a person with a disability. AAPD can do that as well. There's much work and there will always be work to refine public policy, to make sure people with disabilities fully participate in the main stream of life, but for each of us we all have our own responsibilities of living up to our full potential and exercising all the freedoms that come with citizenship in America.

For The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD):
http://www.aapd.com/
#originally posted July 2012

Marca Bristo, President and CEO of Access Living Discusses the History of Disability in Civil Rights Movement

Marca Bristo, president and CEO of Access Living

Marca Bristo is a pioneer of Chicago's disability rights movement. Marca helped launch Access Living in Chicago, one of the country's first ten Centers for Independent Living.

During the 1980s, as a member of the congressionally appointed United States Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities, and President of the National Council on Independent Living, she helped draft and win passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Marca Bristo shares her perspective on the evolution of the civil rights movement of people with disabilities at a meeting of Illinois Disability Rights Consortium. The meeting was in July 2015, in celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Acts 25th Anniversary. I had the privilege of being a member of those attending, it's a unique opportunity to hear from one of the real pioneers in the disability rights movement. 

This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

The Illinois Disability Rights Consortium meetings are hosted by Equip for Equality.

Timeline of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) The First 25 Years

Wonderful timeline of disability history as posted by the ADA NATIONAL NETWORK, which has so much information posted on disability resources.

Timeline of the Americans with Disabilities Act

• 
  

  1986

  NCD: Toward Independence
• 
  

  1988

  NCD: On the Threshold of Independence Congressional Task Force ADA Introduced: 100th Congress
• 
  

  1989

  ADA Revised, Introduced: 101th Congress ADA Passed Senate
• 
  

  1990

  ADA Passed House July 26: ADA Signed
• 
  

  1991

  Regulations Issued: Title I - Employment Title II - State & Local Government Title III - Public Accommodations Title IV - Telecommunications
• 
  

  1992

  Effective: Title I of the ADA (25>employees), Title II, Title III of the ADA
• 
  

  1993

  Effective: Title IV of the ADA
• 
  

  1994

  Effective: Title I of the ADA (15>employees)
• 
  

  1999

  Supreme Court: Olmstead Supreme Court: Sutton Trllogy
• 
  

  2002

  Supreme Court: Toyota
• 
  

  2004

  NCD: Righting the ADA
• 
  

  2006

  Updated Transportation Regulations
• 
  

  2008

  ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) Signed
• 
  

  2009

  Effective: ADAAA
• 
  

  2010

  Updated Regulations: Title II, Title III More Updated Transportation Regulations
• 
  

  2011

  Still More Updated Transportation Regulations
• 
  

  2013

  Updated Regulations: Title I of the ADA
• 
  

  2014

  PLEDGE on to the ADA! and U.S. Access Board and DOJ Updating Guidelines and Rules
• 
  

  2015

  Celebrating 25 Years

https://adata.org/ada-timeline