Much Better is Possible
37% employment gap (US overall). Years behind in school (at least here in California). Devastating poverty rates (50%! in Puerto Rico). Subminimum wage (basically NO minimum in the US). Will my son get a real high school diploma? Be able to live on his own?
Both personally and at the national or global level and everything in between.
Much Better HAS to be Possible.
Welcome to Disability Drumbeat from Steve (Davis at Disability Almanac)
Thank you for your patience with my terribly inconsistent schedule. This issue is an early project to create a “Power Tool for Disability Change Makers” which definitely sounds pretentious for one guy doing this part-time.
My bottom line is that “Much Better is Possible” for children with disabilities and the disabled adults that they will become… and I hope you want to help make that change happen.
Weekly Coffee #61 – Shounak Dharap, Palo Alto School Board Member, was be our guest at 930 on Wednesday. I’ll be at Ada’s Cafe at 830 in a big hat as usual.
Coming Up – We’ll be brainstorming Disability Financial Planning in 2 weeks. Guest and Topic suggestions welcome!
Much Better Is Possible
The challenges are daunting.
How do we close all of these gaps?
How doing we help create a world / nation / locality that provides Pride, Respect, Opportunity and Community?
I don’t know for sure. But, I’m going to assume it IS possible… but it isn’t inevitable and it is up to us to take the work of disability advocates, allies, and most importantly disabled people themselves and move what we can move forward.
LIke an elephant, we’ll eat it one bite at a time.
I think we can divide our “disability elephant” into three types of pieces:
- Things we can do personally today – “Do Different”
- Changes we can make or help make to existing systems – “Think Different”
- Changes to our systems, laws, and culture – “Be Different”
One in five people are disabled. Unless you are alone on an island – disability touches everyone. Whether it is our elderly parents, our children or ourselves. But, this also means that disability pretty much touches everything. Schools. Healthcare. Jobs. Housing. Appliances. Apps. Attitudes… the list goes on and on.
Getting started
I got serious researching first autism, then disability, then system change starting in early 2017.
What was wonderful was how much information was out there when I started meeting other parents and disabled adults both face-to-face and online.
… what was terrible was how it seemed I had to ask people individually.
… and then there was all the data that is out there that no one seems to know about.
… and all the data that isn’t out there that everyone needs.
This was the spark for Disability Almanac.
Making actionable information easily available – free.
I’ve been doing a lot of research since 2017. But I’ve been terrible about sharing it effectively.
I’d like your help:
☺️HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT 1☺️ OPTIONAL☺️
(no grade, due date as soon as you can manage it):
Where do you want to start (what are you struggling with today)?
What have you learned along the way that other folks may not know?
Your questions will give me ideas for areas to research and I’ll share your answers… we are all in this together.
Email me at: moc.canamlaytilibasid@evets
BONUS – if you’d like to write something up, do some research, or just help – let me know!
PS – I’m a (mediocre) mathematician by training, so I’m always happy to know that a “solution exists”, so any resources or organizations that you would like to share are welcome as well.
