Pioneers In Disability Rights And Community Organizing
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Fourteen interviews with nationally recognized leaders of community organizing in Independent Living. $10 US each DVD (1 Interview per DVD) plus $5 s/h Set of All 14 Interviews is $100 US plus $20 s/h MORE ABOUT THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS INTERVIEWED IN THIS PROGRAM The individuals interviewed for Community Organizing: Ground Rules for Grass Roots Organizers are nationally recognized leaders in the disability advocacy community. These individuals have years of knowledge and experience in strategies and techniques that community organizers use to successfully create change for people with disabilities on the local, regional, state, and national levels. To learn more about these leaders click on their name: LINDA ANTHONYAfter experiencing a life changing car accident in 1983 Linda Anthony become involved in the Disability Rights Movement. Anthony has been a member of Pennsylvania.s Keystone ADAPT for ten years and is currently serving as a subcommittee chair. She has been active at both the national and state levels in conducting community organizing activities with ADAPT.Anthony is also employed as Team Leader for Protection & Advocacy for Individual Rights (PAIR) under the Pennsylvania Protection & Advocacy Inc., and serves as the Outreach Coordinator for Pennsylvania.s Protection & Advocacy.s Protection & Advocacy for Vocational and Employment Services (PAVES) project under the Ticket-to-Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act. Other activities that she is involved in include: serving as Co-Chair for the Department of Public Welfare.s (DPW) Home and Community-Based Stakeholder Planning Team (SPT); Department of Public Works Secretary appointee to the Grants Coordinating Committee under the Pennsylvania Office of Health Care Reform; active membership in the Community Living Advisory Committee (CLAC); appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania to the Inter-Governmental Long Term Care Council; facilitator for the Disability Budget Coalition; and member of the Self-Determination Housing Board. Additional experiences that have shaped Anthony.s knowledge of community organizations includes: her former position as an independent living specialist for the Anthracite Region Center for Independent Living in Hazleton, Pennsylvania; her former position as the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities; her participation in ADAPT.s 144 mile Freedom March Organizing Committee and March in September 2003; her organization of a two week .tent city. in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to end the personal assistance services waiting list, which has been sufficiently funded and has had no waiting list since the two week sleep-in of 1999; her previous membership on the Board of the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) and Chair of NCIL.s Personal Assistance Services Sub-Committee; her design, implementation and execution for 7 years of a grassroots advocacy organizing project that was duplicated in several other states through Centers for Independent Living; and her staring role in a documentary on her life and work with ADAPT that was produced by Public Broadcasting System and that won an Emmy for best Mid-Atlantic Documentary. Back to top DIANE COLEMANIn April 1996 Diane Coleman founded Not Dead Yet, a national grassroots disability rights organization opposing the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. She presented testimony on the topic of assisted suicide at the national and state level and before the Constitution Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives as well as the Illinois State Legislature. She is known for her writing on assisted suicide and euthanasia and has appeared on Nightline, McLaughlin, The Rolanda Show, The Charles Grodin Show, CBS Up To The Minute, ABC World News Tonight, CNN and Court TV. Coleman co-authored the Amicus Brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Not Dead Yet and ADAPT in the matter of Vacco vs. Quill; and has numerous publications such as: Euthanasia and People With Disabilities: Considerations under the Equal Protection Clause and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Presentation at Valuing Life, Valuing Autonomy: Living,, and Dying with a Disability (April 13, 1994, and ethics conference co-sponsored by the Hastings Center, University of Chicago Center for Clinical-Medical Ethics, Northwestern University Ethics and Human Values Program, Access Living of Chicago, and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL); The Problem of Euthanasia: A Disability Perspective. Presentation to The Fund For Southern Communities, Atlanta, Georgia (June 19, 1993); Withdrawing Life-Sustaining Treatment from People With Severe Disabilities Who Request It: Equal Protection Considerations, Issues in Law & Medicine, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Summer, 1992); and Growing Support of the Right To Die: A Worrisome Trend, Community Voices, Nashville Banner (May 10, 1990).Coleman is a member of the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago, co-teaching courses in disability and medical ethics. She is currently serving as a member of the Illinois State Medicaid Advisory Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois Campaign for Better Health Care. At this time Ms. Coleman is the Executive Director of the Progress Center for Independent Living in Forest Park, Illinois. Since 1987, she has volunteered as both a state and national organizer of the Americans Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), and had been arrested over 30 times in connection with peaceful disability rights protests. Ms. Coleman obtained her law degree and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles. She has previously served: as an attorney for the State of California for seven years; on the California Attorney General's Commission on Disability; on the Board of Directors of the Westside Center for Independent Living; as the Client Assistance Program Coordinator for Tennessee Protection and Advocacy; as Co-Director of the Technology Access Center; as Policy and Funding Analyst for the Tennessee Technology Access Project; as a State Advisory Committee member to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission; as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Tennessee Human Rights Commission, as a member of the Tennessee Statewide Independent Living Council, and as a member of the Boards of Directors of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign and the Center for Independent Living in Nashville. Back to top JUSTIN DARTIn 1930, Justin Dart, Jr., was born into a wealthy, prominent family. Justin contracted polio in 1948. He attended the University of Houston in the early 1950.s and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science and history. He wanted to be a teacher, but the university withheld his teaching certificate because he was a wheelchair user. Dart undertook several successful international business ventures during the mid-twentieth century, but returned to the U.S. with his wife and partner Yoshiko in 1974.The Darts worked tirelessly on the state and national level to advance the disability rights movement. From 1980 to 1985, Dart was a member and chair of the Texas Governor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities. In 1981, President Reagan appointed Dart to be the Vice Chair of the National Council on Disability. Dart, and others on the Council, drafted a national policy that called for national civil rights legislation to end centuries of discrimination. This work would lead to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. In 1986, Dart was appointed to head the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). During his tenure, Justin sought radical changes in the administration of the agency. He sought inclusion of people with disabilities in the design, implementation, and monitoring of rehabilitation programs. When his proposed changes met with resistance at the agency, Justin testified before Congress that the RSA was "a vast, inflexible federal system which, like the society it represents, still contains a significant portion of individuals who have not yet overcome obsolete, paternalistic attitudes about disability." Mr. Dart was asked to resign his position. In 1989, Dart was appointed Chair of the President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities, shifting its focus from the traditional stance of urging business to "hire the handicapped" to advocating for full civil rights for people with disabilities. Dart is best known for his work in passing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 1988, he was appointed (along with Elizabeth Boggs) to chair the Congressional Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities. Justin and Yoshiko Dart toured the country at their own expense, visiting every state, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the District of Columbia. They held public forums attended by more than 30,000 people. Justin also met extensively with members of Congress and their staffs, as well as President George H.W. Bush, Vice President Quayle and members of the Cabinet. Dart never wavered in his commitment to disability solidarity. He insisted that all people with disabilities, including medical, physical, and intellectual, be protected by the ADA and included in the coalition to pass it. After the ADA was passed, Dart continued to support the rights of people with disabilities in the fight for universal health care. He campaigned for universal coverage across the country and often spoke from the same podium as President and Mrs. Clinton. In 1995, Just and disability rights advocates Becky Ogle, Mark Smith, and Frederick Fay founded Justice for All to promote the political and economic empowerment of people with disabilities. In the mid-1990.s, recognizing that society was becoming less supportive of the rights of people with disabilities, Justin and Yoshiko toured the United States, telling people to "get into politics as if your life depended on it. It does." During the final years of his life, Justin began work on a political manifesto that would outline his vision of "the revolution of empowerment." In its conclusion, he urged .Beloved colleagues in struggle, listen to the heart of this old soldier. Our lives, our children's lives, the quality of the lives of billions in future generations, hangs in the balance. I cry out to you from the depths of my being. Humanity needs you! Lead! Lead! Lead the revolution of empowerment!" Links to Justin.s work can be found on the American Association of People with Disabilities website http://www.aapd-dc.org/JFA/JFAmemoriam.html. Justin passed away in June, 2002, shortly after he was interviewed for this DVD. He was seventy-one years old. [Note: this biography is adapted from Justin.s obituary which was written at Justin.s request by Fred Fay and Fred Pelka. The full obituary can be found at the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill - Santa Cruz County website: http://www.namiscc.org/Experiences/2002/JustinDart.htm Back to top MARILYN GOLDENMarilyn Golden is a Policy Analyst at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), our nation's foremost national law and policy center on disability civil rights, with offices in Berkeley, California and Washington, D.C. She has been closely involved with the Americans with Disabilities Act throughout all the stages of its proposal and passage and now during its implementation. A highly lauded ADA trainer, she has directed and led numerous in-depth programs on the ADA which have given thousands of people comprehensive knowledge on how to make this law a reality. She is the principal author of the DREDF publication The ADA, an Implementation Guide (the "Bluebook"), DREDF's highly-respected ADA curriculum.Since the ADA's passage, Ms. Golden has continued to play a key role in policy development on a federal level in the areas of transportation and architectural barriers. She was appointed by the President to the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (also known as the Access Board) in 1996 and has served on the Access Board since that time as a very strong and effective advocate for the interests of people with disabilities. She has also played a key role as a national transportation advocate, and has led the struggle for many of the policy victories during and since the ADA to provide better public transportation for people with disabilities. Ms. Golden attended Brandeis University, from which she graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Soon thereafter she acquired a disability and became deeply involved in the disability rights movement. She served for nine years as Director of Access California, a resource center on architectural accessibility for people with disabilities, and also as Co-Coordinator of the Disabled International Support Effort, which provided material aid and technical assistance to disability organizations in developing countries. Her involvement in international disability rights has continued since the ADA's passage; she has been called upon to share her knowledge with audiences in South Africa, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, and at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. Ms. Golden has authored many articles and received a number of awards for her efforts on behalf of the integration of people with disabilities into all aspects of society. Back to top TARI SUSAN HARTMANTari Susan Hartman-Squire.s EIN SOF Communications is a strategic marketing and PR firm specializing in disability, diversity and public policy. Clients include: Bank of America, Cingular Wireless, Universal Studios, AOL, Macy.s West, PAX-TV, Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities, Freedom Machines; Nickelodeon (John Callahan.s Pelswick); Disability Funders Network, Mattel/Toys .R. Us launch of Becky (Barbie.s friend who uses a wheelchair) and The (former) Dole Foundation. As National Spinal Cord Injury Association.s Development VP, she spearheads their Business Advisory Committee. Her 1990 award-winning My Left Foot campaign launched the genre of disability community niche marketing campaigns.Nielsen NRGi and EIN SOF are creating .Disability Community Market Research Initiatives. to help build the business case for marketing with and employment of people with disabilities. She consults with AP Stylebook on disability semantics, chaired the Communications Subcommittee of the former President.s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, is fluent in ASL and works with national disability organizations. As a result of employment discrimination during a temporary disability, she spearheaded Screen Actors Guild committee of performers with disabilities, and Media Access Office programs. Back to top CYNDI JONESCyndi Jones is President of Exploding Myths, Inc. and Director and Principal Investigator of The Center for an Accessible Society. The Center, funded by the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), is a communications clearinghouse dedicated to increasing and expanding media coverage of crucial disability issues. Among these are long term personal assistance services, competitive employment, accessible voting, education, housing, transportation, aging and universal design.From 1982 to 1999, Cyndi was editor and publisher of MAINSTREAM, a national magazine for people with disabilities. In 1992, MAINSTREAM received recognition from the American Library Association for making a substantial contribution to the promotion and empowerment to individuals with disabilities. http://www.mainstream-mag.com Ms. Jones is a nationally recognized presenter on Strategies for Using the Media to raise awareness of disability issues and community change. Back to top BOB KAFKAGraduated with a BBA in Economics in 1974 from the University of Houston, and also received an M.Ed. in Special Education in 1977. He was Director of Handicapped Student Services at the University of Houston. Bob was active with Houston's Coalition for Barrier Free Living, serving as its President in 1979, when it received one of the first Independent Living Center grants to start the Houston Center for Independent Living.He served in the US Army in the mid 1960.s. He was Executive Director of Texas Paralyzed Veterans Association and then served as its President from 1987 to 1991. Bob was active with the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities from 1984 to 1987 and organized and chaired its Personal Assistance Services Task Force. In the mid 80s, he was elected to the Board of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities and co-founded ADAPT of Texas. As an Organizer for ADAPT he advocated for lifts on buses, the passage of the ADA, and community attendant services for people with disabilities. Bob continues as a National Organizer for ADAPT and Co-Director of the Institute for Disability Access (IDA). Back to top KATHLEEN KLEINMANNFor the past fifteen years Ms. Kleinmann has been the Executive Director of Tri-County Patriots Independent Living in Washington, Pennsylvania. Her extensive history serving as an organizer and trainer for the National Council on Independent Living, the Statewide Independent Living Council, the Pennsylvania Council on Independent Living, and ADAPT has given her a unique perspective on the benefits of and challenges to community organizing in the disability community. Kleinmann was one of the major organizers of Pennsylvania.s first statewide independent living conference and the first national conference held by the National Council on Independent Living. She pioneered the use of computers and the internet for disability advocacy and programming through work with DIMENET. Her work also includes providing training as a consultant on advocacy and the philosophy of independent living.In recognition of her work she has been the recipient of the Pennsylvania Independent Living 1995 Wade Blank Award and 1999 Hall of Fame Award for outstanding dedication and contribution to the disability community. Ms. Kleinmann holds a Master degree in Public Health, a Master degree in Social Work, in addition to a Bachelor degree in Rehabilitation Education and Social Welfare. Her experience prior to joining the staff of the Tri-County Patriots Independent Living includes serving as staff for: the New Jersey Medical Assistance (Medicaid) Long Term Care Unit; the Three Rivers Center for Independent Living; and the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Pittsburgh. Back to top GINA MCDONALDA graduate of Mary mount College she obtained a Master's degree in Rehabilitation Administration from the University of San Francisco was president of NICL Board of Directors from 1995 -1999 ( NCIL promotes advocacy and organizational development. Still presiding as CEO of the Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living (KACIL); she has lent herself to disability rights and organizing the disabled community.Commitments range from Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Re-authorization, The Olmstead Act, the Strategic Planning Committee and organizer and consultant for ADAPT. Gina McDonald has served as consultant for the Independent Living Resource Utilization (ILRU), chairperson for the State Independent Living Council (SILC) and chairperson for Health Reform Committee, and assisted the Governor.s Commission on Housing and Homelessness. She received the ADA Award from the Task Force on the Rights and Empowerment of Americans with Disabilities and the President's Award from NCIL prior her appointment to the (NCD) National Organization on Disabilities. Back to top LILLIBETH NAVARROLillibeth Navarro is the founding Executive Director of CALIF. She is from Philippines where as the eldest of seven children and the only one to contract polio as a baby. Lillibeth is a graduate of the College of the Holy Spirit, about an hour and a half north of Manila and holds a degree in Business Administration.It was very difficult growing up disabled In the Philippines with no role models to learn from or a disability community to run to. The experience made her a fighter from the very start, having to compete for just about everything. As a child, she thought that because disability prejudice was so rampant, it was somehow justified. She believed she was a .distorted. copy of the image of God, but the nuns kept saying she was special ad herb family made her feel so. At age 15, she joined Youth for a United World, an international youth movement that showed her radical way to view disability. She learned that her disability was a source of dignity and nothing to be ashamed of. She stopped apologizing for being disabled and, feeling respected, she began to gain the confidence. In 1981, Lillibeth received a Rotary Foundation Fellowship to study journalism in the United States at the School of Journalism at USC and was accepted as a international transfer student in 1982. In 1984, she graduated with a bachelor.s degree in Print Journalism and a masters degree in Public Relations in 1986. In 1985, Lillibeth got involved with ADAPT when they first came to LA for a mass protest against the American Public Transit Association. This was her introduction to the wonderful Disability Rights Movement. Before long she was being hauled away in an LAPD paddy wagon for blocking the police from arresting other activist friends. She went to jail singing and celebrating her freedom. To date, she has been arrested 25 times and refers to them as her battle scars in the struggle for disability rights. As director of CALIF, she works to achieve no less than the vision of full inclusion, equality and the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people with disabilities, especially in the underserved and unserved ethnic communities of Los Angeles. Her goal is to create communities of people with disabilities who are leaders with a lot of caring and integrity, who are servants and hard workers; who are excellent team members who appreciate the disability story; who know their civil rights and who are creative and resourceful about everything; who know their communities like the palm of their hand and who would not take no for an answer. Back to top MIKE OXFORDMike Oxford is the Executive Director of Topeka Independent Living Resource Center and is an organizer with ADAPT. He has been an activist in the disability rights movement for 20 years. Oxford was instrumental in researching, drafting and passing the historic legislation that gives people with disabilities in Kansas the right to self-direct their personal assistance services. He and his staff have been helping, and will continue to assist, other groups with information, organizing and advocacy to achieve similar rights in their home states.Back to top BILL STOTHERSWilliam G. (Bill) Stothers graduated with honors from the University of Western Ontario in 1963, with a BA in journalism, before embarking on his professional career at The Globe and Mail, "Canada's National Newspaper." His extensive experience in journalism at The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and The San Diego Union helped prepare him for his most challenging job to date. Since 1984, William Stothers has held the position of Corporate Secretary of Exploding Myths, Inc., a media company, which owns and publishes MAINSTREAM, a national news, advocacy and lifestyle magazine for persons with disabilities.Beginning in 1992, Bill has served as editor of the magazine. Through his work with the magazine and media company, he is redefining the significance of the disability rights movement. A five year grant, awarded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), has enabled Exploding Myths, Inc., to bring attention to research information on independent living for individuals with disabilities as well as the resources which could assist those individuals in attaining equal opportunities in society. Back to top SARAH TRIANOSarah Triano has dedicated her life to promoting a culture that teaches new values and beliefs and acknowledges the dignity and worth of all people, and to mentoring children with disabilities in order to ensure they do not grow up feeling ashamed of their disabilities. Sarah is one of the dynamos behind the "Disabled and Proud" movement and message. She speaks powerfully and with intense energy about the need to preserve disability rights. She is one of the founders of the National Disabled Students Union (NDSU).She received her BA in History of Public Policy from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), graduating valedictorian, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Next, she assisted the National Council of Disability (NCD) in the creation of the National Youth Leadership Development Conference in Washington, DC. Currently, Sarah is the Director of the nation's first locally-based leadership and organizing training program for disabled youth, Y.I.E.L.D. the Power to the Youth, at Access Living in Chicago, Illinois. In the summer of 2004, Sarah became the Associate Director of Programs at Access Living in Chicago, Illinois. She has published articles and given speeches that directly attack existing definitions of disability in the dominant culture and attempt to awaken the consciousness of disabled people (who have traditionally been excluded from the disability movement). Back to top JUDY HEUMANNJudy Heumann is an internationally recognized leader in independent living and disability rights, Judy answers questions about the past, present and future of independent living and her personal experiences as a participant and leader in the movement. The interview took place in Judy's Washington, DC apartment soon after she left her position as the Assistant Secretary at the Office of Special Education and Research Services at the United States Department of Education.Back to top |
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