October 6 Disability Awareness Item

Hi Friends

Sometimes when one deals with leadings to do something NOW, one overlooks elements that it would be nice to have. For instance, it would have been nice to include in yesterday’s post, some kind of query about Friends’ reactions to the Dining in the Dark items. I mentioned that I had a bunch of different reactions, which Friends are welcome to ask about; that topic though seems contained enough that Friends also might have comments or observations. Do you?

Today’s topics are way more expansive, an event called Accessibility Camp, my experiences in various kinds of meetings, and as an aside, a link to a blog that looks really interesting about autism.

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2011/06/say-word-accessibility.html

An item about a public participation meeting I attend regularly. A couple points stick out about my experience:

--I go there basically to get in people’s faces so I always have something to say.

--I am really not very good at visual cues about whether I have been
recognized and sometimes I just jump in without being recognized. To me it is interesting that the chair, a very bright manager of some kind from Vulcan who I would never otherwise expect to meet, ALWAYS says Thank you to members of the public who comment. He thanks me. He thanks people who make very passionate wandering contributions. Hethanks EVERYONE.

A link for volunteers at Accessibility Camp, the event referred to in
the post above.

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2011/05/accessibility-camp-volunteers.html

The item interests me because of the roles listed and the services and
traits needed in each. The “must be comfortable being touched” item
stood out, especially after everyone introduced themselves at the
event. One of the blind people there asked everyone in their
introductions to please also identify their disability; as with many
gatherings of computer people, people with Asperger’s syndrome were
heavily represented. I myself was a greeter which meant meeting people
in front of the elevators in the downtown library and helping them
find the conference room on The Red Floor, the fourth floor where the
floor, walls, and ceilings of the hallways are ALL the same color of
red. A white cane is SO helpful there in places. It is amusing to
qualify as (comparatively) sighted guide.

A description of the Accessibility Camp “un-conference” format.
http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2011/03/accessibility-camp-may-20-21.html

I find the un-conference concept really Quakerly in terms of getting people together to talk and listen and letting the content of the schedule take shape as those assembled are led. Well, that’s what I would call it anyway.

Two things stood out from this event that I do not think have gotten into any blog posts yet:

--A woman who introduced herself by saying “I’m from the IRS and I want a revolution!” Somehow that is just not something I expect to hear from the IRS.

--I threw a number of topics onto the wall. Several of them became the nuclei for different time slots on the grid including two scheduled at the same time, multilingual / multicultural and something else. The something else got grouped with a bunch of other items so I figured people would attend. Since I put the topic up I decided I should show up at the multilingual / multicultural slot. A number of people showed up and people mostly wanted to talk about people with different disabilities talking to each other across disabilities and the different service delivery silos that evolve for different populations.


On a completely different topic, this autism blog looks really
interesting with a whole range of links.
http://autistscorner.blogspot.com/


I think I was seasoning some additional comments but perhaps they can wait.

In the Light.
(RantWoman)