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Websites serve up disability pride, policy
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Sept. 16, 2003 -- Two new websites show the range of disability work today, from policy initiatives to a growing "disability pride" movement.
Sarah Triano hopes to "change the way people think about disability, break down the internalized shame among people with disabilities, and promote the belief in society that disability is a natural and beautiful part of human diversity that disabled people can take pride in." Her website -- http://www.disabledandproud.com/ -- is an effort to do that, with informational articles, thought-provoking questions and discussion groups. "What is Disablity Pride? What role has pride played in other movements for social change throughout history?" asks Triano. "What can the Disability Rights Movement and people with disabilities learn from Deaf Pride, Gay Pride, and Black Power?" The site offers visitors the option of joining a disability pride email discussion group through Yahoo (http://www.disabledandproud.com/outandproud.htm#listserv)
Triano, the site's creator, is a founder of the National Disabled Students Union and a 2002 Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award Recipients from the American Association of People with Disabilities. The creation of the website was supported by her award. She directs Y.I.E.L.D. the Power to the Youth, at Access Living in Chicago.
Similar pride work, but aimed at parents of children with disabilities, is being done by Kathie Snow iat her website "Disability is Natural," online at http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/
The website http://www.disabilitypolicycenter.org contains training materials, policy papers and policy briefs prepared by Robert "Bobby" Silverstein, Director of the DC-based Center for the Study and Advancement of Disability Policy and former staff director and chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy, chaired by Senator Tom Harkin. Visitors to the site can find advocacy training materials and policy background materials on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Olmstead Supreme Court case information, personal assistance services policy and information, the Rehabilitation Act, State Medicaid Buy-In programs and state work incentive initiatives, information on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (TWWIIA) and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) There are also links to other disability policy-related websites.
Information on the Paul G. Hearne/AAPD Leadership Award is online at http://www.aapd.com/docs/2003hearne.html
Information on the National Disabled Students Union can be found at http://www.disabledstudents.org/