Transcripts For CSPAN2 Forum Focuses On Opportunities For Pe

Transcripts For CSPAN2 Forum Focuses On Opportunities For People With Disabilities 20170829

Be a member of the ccd, a group of more than 110 National Disability organizations that want to Better Future for disabilities. As we have seen recently, overall the Disability Community is quite good at protecting lifesaving benefits in advancing civil rights. With so many great organizations already out there and so many fantastic leaders in the Disability Movement already why is there a need for yet another disability organization. What specifically is respectability trying to achieve . Respectability fundamentally is about the opportunity agenda. We know that people with disabilities in the people who love them once opportunities for skills, education, jobs and independence and a Better Future just like anyone else. We want to win win win bipartisan solution for people with disabilities and their loved ones, employers and taxpayers alike. Respectability is a nothing about us without Us Organization and we serve people with every kind of disability. I myself am dyslexic and i also know what it means to raise a talented and wonderful child with multiple disabilities. Members of our team have a wide variety of disabilities and or disability experience. Respectability has High Expectations and knows that every person with a disability whether their disability is physical, develop mental, mental health, social, sensory or otherwise, all have something great inside that they can contribute to this world. People with disabilities come from every race, age, ideology, sexual orientation, gender identity, region of the country and more. We are all better off when we work to reach our shared goals and dreams of a more welcoming respectful and inclusive world. Over the years the ada and other key policies have changed physical architecture and Educational Opportunities however, unfortunately, Employment Opportunities for people with disabilities also known as pwg for short may not have significantly improved in decades and the negative attitudes about people with disabilities remains and we stand and in some cases role at an important moment in history. In some states only one in for working age people with a disability has a job. Any job. Indeed, in the cases there may be a parttime job and moreover in some states it is still legal to pay people with disabilities sub minimum wage. The good news is, however, in other states the outcome is twice as good showing thats when there are High Expectations and best practices are used, well, success is possible. Studies show that most working age people with disabilities want jobs and in order for this to happen we need to close the skills gap in the fight stigmas and help employers understand the b b we have energy to bring straight to the station. In order for more people to be in the workforce we need more talented people with displays working in front of and behind the camera. We need to change the narrative of how people are seen with disabilities so employers can see the abilities and how that makes for a better bottom line and its amazing how a small change can have a big impact. Weve seen the reaction to the board this way. Never before has reality programs genuinely showed the lives and loves of talented, diverse, passionate young people with Developmental Disabilities like this. Its fantastic and works we are so proud that this emmywinning show was created by our board member, jonathan murray. Its starting to change the direction in hollywood. We are also thrilled with excessive abcs speechless which stars micah fowler who has a disability and has an accurate portrayal of what it takes to successfully raise a child with disabilities. We also look forward to new shows which are starting this fall. We want to see stories in hollywood about how people with disabilities can do. Think about it. Beautiful music by a deaf man. It happened, ludovic on beethoven. Freedom from someone with it desert disorder, harriet tubman. Music and civilrights leadership from someone with learning disabilities, its happening, harry belafonte. Recognize the disability, imagine the possibility, respect the ability. Respectability is currently celebrating our fourth birthday and we just expanded our board, elected great new leaders and want people like you, whether you are here in person or you are watching on cspan, to join our effort. I invite you to check us out online at respectability. Org and join us on facebook on twitter. We are currently looking for more Young Leaders to join our National Leadership program for talented and diverse leaders who want to fight stigmas in advance opportunities for people with disabilities. There are so many ways that you can get involved in our world along with local leaders in creating a demonstration project in Long Beach California i will be out there very soon with much of our team be there the week of august 14 and we need your support, involvement in your voice. We also want to thank the office of congressman, brad sherman and him making this event possible in the team here at respect ability for putting this Great Program together. I really especially want to thank mark summers, meg oconnell, along with our Board Members who traveled from out of town to join us today. We cant wait to hear from you and everyone else. Before we kick off with our first vip speaker, i invite our Board Members and staff and fellows to please rise, if you can, or raise your hand so that people can see who you are. Donna, ronald, vivian from our board of directors and other leaders from our team and fellows, i hope that the people here will meet members of our team and our board and i say thank you for your service. Thank you for the amazing for members who give so much of their hearts in time. This is a team thing. Respectability is a movement and we are new and we want new people to join us and those of you who are here in person or watching on cspan, i want to introduce our first speaker to leave us with two words from the founder of the Disability Rights Movement and that is lead on. Thank you. [applause] now i want to invite the next bigger to come to the front. As he comes to the front, i will start introducing him. He is a superstar and is a personal friend and mentor to me, blind since birth and active civil rights issues for more than 27 years. Presently serves as special assistant to the acting secretary for civil rights at the Us Department of education. Former positions include a staff attorney and director of outreach and education with the disability rights, legal center in los angeles. General counsel at the American Association of people with disabilities, special assistant and special counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Us Department of justice, vice chairman of the president s committee for people with intellectual disabilities and associate director for domestic policy under president george w. Bush. I will also say that in addition to his phenomenal, professional compliments that we want to grow up to be him when he grows up. He is also an adopted dad to three successful, blind triplet boys, leo, nick and steven each of who just graduated high school and each of whom were just elevated this past week to the rank of eagle scout the highest level of achievement for the boy scouts of america. We are delighted to have you. [applause] good morning everyone. I am so pleased to be with all of you today. Considering that this is the first time for me to address you from a podium setting in a number of years i have to say that i have missed you. It is really good to be back in a privilege to be here before you today. My personal thanks to jennifer for her leadership and her ongoing vision in building respectability as a cuttingedge organization that is dedicated to promoting equality, opportunity for persons with all types of disability. I stand before you today as special assistant to the acting assistant attorney general at the Us Department of education. Over the past several years, over the past 27 years of work in serving the Disability Community i cannot help but think back about all the many ways that life has improved for us since the signing of the landmark americans with disability act 27 years ago. When we think back of our life then as members of the Disability Community we remember when things were different then and in looking on all that has taken place since we also see there more accessible to us and telecommunications in areas that have significant improvements. Yet, here we are looking at a number of barriers that still remain to our full purchase vision as persons with disability. There still remains misconceptions about persons with physical, psychiatric, intellectual and learning disabilities. For all of us who have disabilities we work each day to eliminate the stigmas that still prevail. There are individuals who wonder about the extent to which we may be successful in the classroom, workplace, as Business Owners et cetera. There are those who wonder to this day about the extent to which you can be involved in our places of worship and community in general. Why . The big question that we must all ask ourselves is why. Why after all of these years do barriers still remain as they do and the answer is because as much as we each would want change to come immediately, as much as we see change in our daily lives and through our actions as much as we strive hard to transform attitudes about us, there are still other forces in the community that still have yet to learn about what we are truly capable of accomplishing what you and i know as members of the Disability Community and along with our allies that our lives are limitless in terms of the potential we may reach when we infuse our community on an ongoing basis with expanded mentorship opportunities in every setting including with an educational setting as well as with internships and Employment Opportunities and service in the Nonprofit Sector and serving in a leadership capacity within the private sector in working at every job, ranging from cleaning the office to running it there in lies our goal. When we look at this we think also within an educational context and we think about how to this day there are still students in communities of every size who are crying out for help and there are parents who wonder about the supports available to them and how their claims of discrimination may be addressed. There are families who are hurting, not because the disability itself is an issue but because of what people think about members of the Disability Community and that is why when i look at what we have yet to do i reflect on various victories that we have had within the office for civil rights at the Us Department of education within the past several months. Case in point, there was a situation in which students who were blind or visually impaired were to take the psat along with their peers and the school nurse had offered the pst for free for everyone within the district and yet in practice what ended up happening was that these students who are blind or visually impaired either did not have their accommodations met or were accommodated in a way that the accommodations themselves were not submitted to the College Board which would mean that the psats scores that were earned would ultimately be invalidated but because of the office for civil rights and our vigilance that whole situation has been addressed. The School District agreed to pay for remedial measures to ensure that they may prepare for future tests. The School District also agreed to make modifications to policies and practices so as to ensure accommodation or persons with disability. There are yet other instances with victory as well. In the past few months. As an additional example, there was a student who was denied the opportunity to live on campus using her Service Animal and to have her Service Animal with her. That situation was the state of affairs for two years but because of our officers involvement that situation is now being remedied and now that student is able further to live with her Service Animal on campus and there are so many other situations that i may describe here literally ranging from physical accessibility of schools and parking lots and bathrooms to web accessibility to ensure that persons with all types of disabilities may gain access to the same information in the same time as everyone else. There is so much left to do within the area of restraint and there was an instance with one School District in which there were hundreds of incidences of use of restraint and seclusion and doesnt dozens of students in which their various injuries reported again as a result of the involvement of the office for civil rights in those issues have been and are being addressed directly and because of that the School District is changing their practices and working to make sure to break from those practices of the past and to train people on appropriate measures and also it is working to make sure that those past instances dont happen again. The School District is also doing more but there are yet other instances that are important for us to lay out. Bullying continues to be a problem surrounding persons with different types of disability and one particular instance is a student who had been bullied and harassed by peers was not receiving the support from the school in response to that bullying. Again, because of ocrs involvement that has changed. Policies are being reformed so that bullying is further addressed in a proactive way. The student now or is getting access to a specific person to whom to go whenever there are further instances of bullying. There is a Climate Survey that is being issued and apart of which the School District will act so as to further work to eliminate issues surrounding an Unsafe School environment and there are still other issues relating to discipline and various instances in which students are not treated appropriately and when there are situations where students without appropriate safeguards are being disciplined in a manner that is not exactly fair. So, when we look at these various instances along with others these illustrations only serve to show that we each have a role in making things better. What if those individuals do not come forward to complain and tell us about those instances of discrimination in those individuals may still, who are students, may still be in dire straits to date within the situations i have described along with a number of others. That is why it is important to continue our work and the role of each of you. We must each continue to be vigilant in learning about rights and responsibilities of persons with disabilities and we must share the Information Available for government sources far and wide so that persons with disabilities will know to where they may turn whenever facing instances of discrimination where they are asking for help. Including perss with all types of disabilities. That means when a person who has a disability different from our own faces instances of discrimination or injustice, we must all be equally vigilant in standing up for their rights and responsibilities, standing up for our own. [applause] i conclude today, as a colleague of yours, never to rest on past victories and always and forever stand up for for equality and firstclass citizenship which includes knowing right and responsibilities of that citizenship. I also call upon all of you to join with me and everyone else speaking here today to redouble our efforts and expand our commitment to doing whatever we can to move forward in specific ways by harnessing our own talents and abilities, or the greater good to build the momentum further of voting this philosophy of quality because as we do, we will be able to look back at some point in the future and say with pride how much further we went because of our own efforts to make us better. You so much for the opportunity to be here. [applause] this is so fabulous. We dont have questions right now but for a little while longer or all day with us, you can ask questions personally. I will invite Stan Greenberg, Founding Partner of greenberg research, New York Times bestselling author and polling advisor, president s prime minister, ceos locally. Now he is currently conducting deep research in a dozen countries. Senior pollster for president bill clinton and Vice President al gore, tony blair and Nelson Mandela and his corporate clients are huge but also, i had the personal privilege of being able to work with Stan Greenberg for three decades in different capacities around the world and the work he did in south africa to enable a better life and equality for people of color in south africa and also other people in south africa just extraordinary work, and immense talent to looking at the questions of civility and quite fortunate to have his mind around some of our issues as we look forward to hearing from

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