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Judith Heumann’s Fight for Disability Rights (feat. Ali Stroker) - Drunk History

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Judith Heumann’s Fight for Disability Rights (feat. Ali Stroker) - Drunk History

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This episode of Drunk History talks about how Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act (which protects people with disabilities (PWD) against discrimiation) was signed. The episode follows Judith Heumann because she started the first protest for PWD in San Francisco and led a group of activists to Washington DC resulting in the signing of Section 504 and paved the way for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

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Judith Heumann’s Fight for Disability Rights (feat. Ali Stroker) - Drunk History

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This YouTube video is an interaction between two kids and a lady with Alzheimers. It depicts the innocent and curious nature of children and their innate acceptance of all people. The video used person-first language and provided accurate, raw responses to a woman sharing her experiences with the diagnosis.

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HiHo Kids Meet A Woman With Alzheimer's | Kids Meet | HiHo Kids

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This website has many poems written by people with aphasia.  One in particular struck me because it highlighted the feelings of isolation that many people with aphasia face, which is an acquired communication disorder. It is called "Glass Jar" and expresses how the individual feels stuck, like a bug in a glass jar. This poem spreads awareness of the hardships associated with an individual's inability to communicate fully.

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By Voices of Hope for Aphasia Poetry Bash

Trying to understand how it feels
Dr. Jackie Hinckley

Jackie Hinckley of Florida has remarkable empathy for people with aphasia. As a professor of speech-language pathology at the University of South Florida in 2011, she put together an online aphasia simulator to show people what it feels like to have aphasia. She continued this outreach through the nonprofit group Voices of Hope for Aphasia, where she was the executive director. VOHA sponsored a "poetry bash" in March 2018. The poems on these pages are from that event; the opening essay is by Dr. Hinckley.

I was standing in the hallway of the family who was hosting me in France. I was an exchange student and spoke only a few words of French, and they didn't speak any English. All I wanted to do was let them know that I would be going out for a couple of hours, and then would return.

But I couldn't do it. I couldn't think of a single word in French that could help me convey this message. I stood there feeling helpless and a little stupid. I couldn't imagine what they thought of this strange girl standing in the hallway. What was she trying to do? What did she want?

I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but I couldn't come up with any word that would help me express that message. I couldn't write it down either. Finally, I resorted to pointing out the door, and then showing with my finger that I would come back to the place I was standing in. They seemed to understand.

The shock of being totally unable to communicate such a simple message has stayed with me for decades. I'll never forget standing in that hallway, having no voice, no words.

I don't know how similar that experience is to having aphasia, but it's the best I can do to try to understand. I've carried that feeling with me as I've come to know hundreds, maybe thousands, of people with aphasia over the decades.

I've also tried to understand the experience of aphasia by reading books written by people who have lived with it. Living with aphasia has been variously described as "scaling a mountain," "a journey to stroke-land," and "chaos due to the conflict between how people with aphasia view themselves and how others view them." In his stroke memoir My Year Off, Robert McCrum wrote "Sometimes I feel like the pilot of an aeroplane who, on looking over his shoulder in the cockpit, sees his tail-plane and the end of his fuselage suddenly blown away, but who finds, amazingly, that although his plane has gone into a 'graveyard spin,' somehow it has not crashed." These personal descriptions help me get a glimpse of the experience of aphasia.

People with aphasia were given the opportunity to express their experience through poetry, thanks to the organization Voices of Hope for Aphasia. Some people think of poetry as a very difficult language task. But we found that some people with aphasia were very eager to try different forms of poetry. By being unable to select any possible word, the singular word that is most important is likely to come out.

Aphasia's Got Talent: Poetry Bash took place in March 2018 in St Petersburg, Florida. Here are some of the poems shared that day. They help us all understand what it might be like to have aphasia.

will have another poetry bash in fall 2019.
This information is provided as a resource to our readers. The tips, products or resources listed or linked to have not been reviewed or endorsed by the American Stroke Association.

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Poetic Expressions of Living with Aphasia

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People with aphasia were given the opportunity to express their experience through poetry, thanks to the organization Voices of Hope for Aphasia. Some people think of poetry as a very difficult language task. But we found that some people with aphasia were very eager to try different forms of poetry.

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I enjoyed the film and how it demonstrated the advancements that Stephen Hawking contributed to the community of PWD and how it brought awareness to ALS. However, I do think there were scenes that embraced the over-glorification, particular at the end of film when he shared inspirational quotes.

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As his esteem grows in the world of physics, Stephen Hawking's body is ravaged by ALS, forcing his increasing dependence on his devoted wife, Jane.

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Dis Ability On Screen Podcast The Theory of Everything

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Dis Ability On Screen Podcast The Theory of Everything

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This is an interesting podcast that made me think about The Theory of Everything and the film industry as a whole. The podcasts talks about issues regarding casting able bodies for disabled parts, "inspiration porn", and about how the film portrays his successes vs. his disability and what he is known for based on the focus.

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Dis Ability on Screen Podcast   The Theory of Everything

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This film is about two teenagers that have Cystic Fibrosis and fall in love. I have reservations about the premise of the film as I think that it over-romanticized CF. I would wonder if people with CF would consider the film disrespectful to their struggles.

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Five Feet Apart Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers

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This series on Netflix follows the life of various young adults with autism that are either in a relationship, dating, or looking for a partner. While the show does not always use people-first language, it does depict women with autism, which is underrepresented since autism is more frequent in males. It provided interesting insight into the lens of autism.

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Love on the Spectrum | Official Trailer | Netflix

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COVID-19 is a disaster for people with disabilities. Without 30-year -old law, it would be worse.

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COVID-19 is a disaster for people with disabilities. Without 30-year -old law, it would be worse.

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This is a very interesting article about discrimination towards PWD during the COVID-19 pandemic. It touches on stories of when the ADA has been invoked for legal protection recently. It also talked about the difficulties of children with disabilities during the pandemic as a result of school closures. Very good read.

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The isolation can be terrifying and tragic. The stress can exacerbate mental illness and other health problems. Add the loss of mobility and independence, the disruption of routines: the beloved caregiver who doesn't come, the day program that doesn't open, the concern that lack of support will give families no choice but to institutionalize.

In the hospital, people who can't speak are left with no one to communicate for them, vulnerable to the fear medical care will be rationed, given to someone deemed more worthy or valuable than themselves.

Though everyone has been suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic, people with disabilities have perhaps been the most disadvantaged, their lives the most disrupted.

Germán Parodi hasn't left the Philadelphia home he shares with his 76-year-old grandmother since March. Parodi, who uses a wheelchair, worries his loss of fitness opportunities will affect his cognitive abilities, so he's made sure to stay extra busy. He's on video chats and phone calls seven days a week, he said, working for a nonprofit group he co-runs to help others with disabilities.

The situation would be far worse, he and other advocates said, without a law that turned 30 Sunday.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, signed on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush, guarantees equal protection for people with a wide range of disabilities, from mental health issues to physical challenges. It was modeled after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, providing equal access to government services, schools, buildings, private employers and commercial facilities.

"We are in a much better place in 2020 than we were in 1990. Dramatically better," said Michael Ashley Stein, co-founder and executive director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School.

Although the ADA has made a profound difference, it hasn't removed all prejudice against people with disabilities - any more than the Civil Rights Act resolved all bias against Black people.

"Other than rare instances of overt animus, most of the discrimination we see towards people with disabilities in this country tends to be from what we call 'malign neglect,'" Stein said. "It's not that we're trying to exclude them from opportunity, it's that we didn't even bother to consider them eligible or worthy of opportunities."

The ADA, like other civil rights laws, Stein said, "puts the burden on the oppressed to make changes," requiring an endless fight to protect those rights.

Some of those fights have garnered headlines during the COVID-19 outbreak, such as when treatment was stopped for a Texan named Michael Hickson, who was paralyzed for three years before catching the virus. Others have happened more quietly - Parodi is helping one of his clients stay out of a nursing home.

More than 1 in 4 adult Americans have some kind of disability that limits their daily functioning. Whatever helps them will probably help many more people, said Dr. Oluwaferanmi Okanlami, an assistant professor of family medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Michigan. Curb cuts at street corners, for instance, allow wheelchair users easier access to sidewalks and also help parents with strollers and those using dollies to make deliveries.

There's a lot the "abled" community can learn from the disabled community during the pandemic, said Okanlami, who was an all-American varsity track athlete at Stanford University and an orthopedic resident at Yale before a diving accident seven years ago. People with disabilities are used to the uncertainty of medical challenges. They're used to having to ensure they'll be safe if they try a new restaurant or a new hotel. "We've had to do that," he said.

The pandemic might help give people with disabilities a more even playing field, he said. A disability may be less evident via Zoom; many more people order food and get groceries delivered. Like anyone else, Okanlami said, people with disabilities can contribute to society if given the right tools.

"We can do so much more to support people with disabilities than we are doing," he said.

Calling on legal protections

The ADA has been invoked repeatedly during the pandemic to protect people with disabilities. Early on, Alabama created a rationing system for ventilators used to treat people severely ill with COVID-19. Those with intellectual disabilities weren't eligible to be put on a ventilator, according to the state's rules. The federal Office of Civil Rights declared that a violation of the ADA, and the state revised its prioritization list.

"This is another example of a very powerful way that the ADA is an important tool to stop some of the most insidious discrimination - literally discrimination that will have an impact on 'will you live or will you die,' " said Alison Barkoff, director of advocacy for the Center for Public Representation, a public-interest law firm that focuses on the disabled community.

Barkoff said she's been working to change the no-visitors policy that many hospitals instituted in the early days of the U.S. outbreak. People who do not communicate through speaking, she said, need a caregiver in the hospital who can make sure they understand medical procedures and choices and help them make care decisions.

Barkoff's organization filed complaints against hospital visitor policies, citing the ADA. Connecticut agreed that to provide equal access to treatment, hospitals in the state must allow in-person support for people with communication challenges. Barkoff said other states are following Connecticut's lead.

"That's another place where we've been using the ADA to make sure people get what they need during the COVID crisis," she said.

The ADA and subsequent legislation guarantee people with a disability a spot in a nursing home if they need substantial care. It doesn't guarantee aides for people who would rather live on their own or with family or friends with some support.

Lack of funding for community services - paying for aides and proper masks and gloves, for instance - might deprive people of their rights under the ADA, Barkoff said.

"If people are losing services, if states are not thinking about 'how do we make sure we're keeping people in their own communities,' and people are being forced into institutional settings, that's absolutely a violation of the Olmstead Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act," Barkoff said, referring to a follow-up law in 1999 that prohibited segregating people with disabilities from the community. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently reminded states of their obligation under the two laws, she said.

Parodi, the Philadelphia advocate, said he counsels a California woman who moved out of a nursing home at the beginning of the pandemic, fearful of infection and the home's lack of protective gear. She hired workers and was living on her own but is losing access to them and may have to return to the nursing home.

She fears that's akin to a death sentence, said Shaylin Sluzalis, co-executive director with Parodi of the nonprofit Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, which counsels people with disabilities coping with disasters or emergencies.

More than 40% of the COVID-19-related deaths nationwide have occurred in nursing homes; Parodi said that in his home state of Pennsylvania, the figure is 77%.

"We need the right community services to be able to fully enjoy the rights of the ADA," he said.

Disability rights groups lobby Congress to include funding for community services in the next pandemic bill, which is slated to be made public Monday.

Julia Bascom, executive director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, hopes the public mood is shifting in favor of community support. "Institutions have always been a form of discrimination and have always been dangerous, but the pandemic has really brought this to the forefront of the general public's mind in a way we haven't seen for a long time," she said.

Law is to ensure access, education

The ADA guarantees people equal access to public spaces such as school buildings, restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, health facilities and stores. Building design has changed over the decades since the passage of the act to incorporate ramps, wider doorways and elevators.

Still, there are buildings where the only way in is up the stairs.

"That is the height of feeling like you're not wanted, you're not seen, you're not valued," said Okanlami, who serves as a spokesperson for the Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America in its Equal & Able partnership. "There are so many places where individuals with disabilities are disadvantaged."

Okanlami said that after his accident, when he started using a wheelchair, he felt unwanted and unseen. "I don't think that people are always intentionally putting up these barriers," he said. "Oftentimes, people just don't know that those barriers are there."

Such environmental limitations have become even more problematic during the pandemic, he and others said, when people need safe access to buildings and opportunities to exercise.

One of the transformative facets of the ADA was its requirement that children with disabilities be given an equal education. The pandemic has stretched every school in the country, and children miss out on academic progress and the social aspect of education. For children with disabilities, the problem is even more acute. Some depend on the consistency and schedule of the school day. Others need constant in-person attention to make progress.

Twins Aiden and Noa Fried of Deerfield, Illinois, will have missed six months of the therapies they need and be more than a year behind their peers by the time they start kindergarten this fall. They have the neurological disorder dyspraxia, which affects motor skills, memory, processing and other cognitive skills.

Their preschool social worker helped them play-act and memorize social situations, said their father, Warren Fried, who also has dyspraxia. That all stopped when schools shut down in March.

Aiden can no longer name the foods in the refrigerator or describe whether he is hungry as opposed to thirsty. He will have to learn them all again, when he goes back to school, said Fried, founder of the Dyspraxia Foundation USA.

There, each will have three therapists and one classmate "buddy" as part of individualized education plans. That's if the classrooms open and those specialists are willing to show up.

"My kids can't work on Zoom," Fried said. "Someone has to physically guide their movements. To praise and reward is great, but experiences and memorization to be a full-fledged member of society is vital."

People with the disorder, including Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, often have depression and anxiety. The twins' anxiety levels are "going through the roof," Fried said. They both think they did something wrong to cause the social isolation, and this is the way life will always be.

"One day, COVID is going to be over, and everyone is going to be struggling to catch up," Fried said. "Those in my community will have those struggles, but the lack of therapeutic supports (during the shutdowns) means we have to catch up even further."

Stressing services

COVID-19 put a tremendous strain on programs for people with disabilities.

Day programs, shuttered in New York City in March, reopened last week, but only for people living at home, not for those in group homes.

Shutting down completely wasn't an option for YAI, an organization that provides support for 20,000 people with intellectual or development disabilities in and around the city, including day programs and group homes.

It was very difficult at first, said Tiffany Goldson, YAI regional support supervisor for the Bronx. "There were so many things being thrown at us and not enough support," she said.

Goldson cited the lack of personal protective gear, the closure of employment and day programs, the end of family visits and big birthday celebrations, rescheduling mealtimes to allow for social distancing, citywide curfews and the need to teach residents to stand far apart, wear a mask and wash their hands for 20 seconds - even if their sensory issues made that uncomfortable.

Some residents and staff got sick; 20 YAI residents and two employees died.

Gary Milchman, regional director of programs and services for YAI Manhattan, said it's tough to fill those 20 open slots in his residences. This poses an emotional challenge - while residents and staff members grieve for their lost friends - as well as a financial one: The government pays by the person, so an empty bed means less funding, although the other residents still need the same services.

YAI is big enough and financially stable enough to weather such financial challenges, he said, but other social services agencies that cater to people with disabilities might not be.

For YAI, the main goal remains "making sure every one of our individuals is treated as an individual ... so they can live the most independent, enjoyable, productive life possible," Milchman said. "To me, that's living up to the true spirit of the ADA."

Contact Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com
Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: As ADA turns 30, COVID-19 hits those with disabilities especially hard

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COVID-19 is a disaster for people with disabilities. Without 30-year-old law, it would be worse

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The isolation can be terrifying and tragic. The stress can exacerbate mental illness and other health problems. Add the loss of mobility and independence, the disruption of routines: the beloved caregiver who doesn't come, the day program that doesn't open, the concern that lack of support will give families no choice but to institutionalize.

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People with disabilities protest police violence, COVID-19 discrimination

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People with disabilities protest police violence, COVID-19 discrimination

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I wanted to research more about COVID-19 and the issues of discrimination against PWD during the pandemic. This article talked about specifics regarding COVID-19 restriction of visitors for PWD being unjust, Michael Hickson's death involving racial and disability discrimination involving police brutality, and many other current cases of discrimination towards PWD. The article was very informative, accurately portraying PWD as worthy of equality and shed light on the current injustices involving POC, PWD, and the harsh realities they are facing, specifically with police brutality.

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July marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Disability Pride Month. But that's not why people are marching.

Disability rights advocates in Austin, Texas, protested the treatment of Michael Hickson, 46, a quadriplegic Black man who died of COVID-19, The Austin American-Statesman reported. Doctors determined Hickson could not be saved after his organs failed, but advocates argued that his life was devalued because of racism and ableism. The Texas Americans with Disabilities Action Planning Team (ADAPT) called for an investigation into Hickson's death.

Families protested in Rockland County, New York, against state coronavirus restrictions limiting visitations to their developmentally disabled relatives in group homes, a CBS affiliate reported. Most of the demonstrators were the parents of minor children.

Advocates in Tennessee lobbied the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights to force the state to change its COVID-19 response plan. Health care workers can no longer prioritize younger patients without disabilities over older, disabled patients, Bloomberg Law reported. Conditions that allowed for health workers to exclude people with disabilities from care based on their diagnosis were eliminated from the plan.

Last week, a disability rights group sued the New Hampshire State Department, claiming that its absentee ballot system could hurt voters who are blind.

Those disputes and protests followed demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of other Americans against police brutality and discrimination, an issue that greatly affects people with disabilities.

"Folks with nonapparent disabilities are especially vulnerable to police violence, especially if they're racially marginalized," said Reyma McDeid, co-chair of the National Council on Independent Living's Anti-Racism and Equity Task Force. "It impacts your ability to interact with a police officer."

In 2018, Marcus-David Peters was shot by a Richmond, Virginia, police officer during an apparent psychotic episode. In 2010, a Seattle police officer shot and killed a Native American man for not dropping his woodcarving knife - the man was partly deaf.

About one-third of people killed by police have a mental or physical disability, McDeid said. A Washington Post tally found nearly a quarter of those shot and killed by police had a mental illness.

Six years ago, Dontre Hamilton, who had schizophrenia, was shot 14 times by a Milwaukee police officer who had not received any specialized training on interacting with people with mental illness. After George Floyd's death, people of color with disabilities were inspired to march for Hamilton and others, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Atines Davis, who flew in from Maryland for the protest, taught the crowd how to sign "Black Lives Matter" in American Sign Language.

Chants of "Sign his name" instead of "Say his name" broke out at a Washington protest against police brutality organized by the National Alliance of Multicultural Disabled Advocates.

In Delaware, protesters marched in June for Jeremy "Bam" McDole, a Black man in a wheelchair who was killed by police in 2015, who shot him within two seconds of asking him to drop his gun.

Police are "deliberately obtuse in refusing to understand the danger that they place Black and brown and other multiply marginalized disabled people in," said Lydia X. Z. Brown, an adjunct lecturer in Disability Studies at Georgetown University. "Many of my friends and comrades in the Black disabled community, regardless of the type of disability, faced some of the most intense and horrific harassment from police."

Such experiences with police can foster distrust, which can lead to underreporting crimes against people with disabilities.

'That person is a target'

A study conducted in 2019 by the nonprofit Stop Street Harassment found that people with disabilities are more likely to experience sexual harassment and assault. People with disabilities were the victims of sexual or aggravated assault, robbery and rape at twice the rate of people without disabilities, according to a summary released in 2017 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

One in five surveyed said their disability made them a target.

"Clearly people can tell by interacting with me or observing me that I'm not ... normal by ableist definitions of normal, even if they wouldn't know the specific language to use. But many people would think, 'that person is a target,' " said Brown, who has autism and survived a near-sexual assault.

In a Washington survey of people with disabilities who said they experienced harassment, only 12% said they filed a police report. Distrust of police was one reason, according to a report by the D.C. Office of Human Rights. The office found that people with disabilities are publicly targeted for harassment more often than any other marginalized group aside from immigrants.

Noor Pervez, 24, who uses a wheelchair, said he has been physically harassed while waiting for the Metrobus in Washington.

"Out of nowhere, this lady comes up to me and starts hitting me with a pamphlet," he said. The woman seemed agitated and muttered the word "wheelchair" while hitting him, Pervez said. No bystanders intervened.

Pervez reached out to the anti-harassment nonprofit Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) instead of transit police.

Attorney Albert Elia, who is blind, said he was harassed and threatened by a man while boarding a crowded Metro subway car with his service dog in 2018.

"I would accidentally bump into somebody, and ... they would not just get offended, they would shove me back. I have been pushed, I've been [punched], particularly on the Metro," he said. "I would say that in the four years I lived in D.C., it happened half a dozen times."

A commuter for more than 20 years, Elia said his worst experiences with harassment occurred in D.C.

"Oftentimes, people with disabilities are harassed or mistreated, especially when trying to access transportation," said Stephanie Franklin, the Office of Human Rights communication director.

Some advocates were frustrated when Washington passed a landmark anti-street harassment bill in 2018 without naming people with disabilities.

"It has symbolic importance, to name a particular community explicitly," Brown said.

Though it's too late to amend the Street Harassment Prevention Act, an advisory committee seeks a nonvoting representative from the disabled community, Franklin said.

"It wouldn't surprise me if [City Council] and other people responsible for thinking through who is most vulnerable to street harassment aren't thinking about marginalized disabled people," Brown said. "They may associate disability only with white people who hold the most privilege and are not likely to be harassed."

Implementing the act is taking longer than planned. The deadline to establish a reporting process, public awareness training and other suggested policies for the 2-year-old law is Sept. 30, but the City Council reorganized its priorities because of COVID-19. A representative for the Office of the Budget Director said $500,000 was allotted for the act, but funding may be limited or delayed.

"We anticipate that, as the city continues to respond to the public health emergency, the implementation of the recommendations will be delayed until budgets for the rest of 2020 and fiscal year 2021 have been finalized and approved," said Maya Vizvary, a program analyst on the Street Harassment Prevention Act.

Je'Kendria Trahan, CASS executive director, represents the nonprofit group on the City Council advisory committee as a nonvoting member because she is not a D.C. resident.

Trahan, a Black person with a disability, said she prefers ride-sharing services to the Metro because of incidents of harassment and assault.

"We can pour resources into additional programming for communities. ... I think that's the way to decrease the incidents of harassment," Trahan said. "Or shift the culture around how we address harassment."

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People with disabilities protest police violence, COVID-19 discrimination

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July marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Disability Pride Month. But that's not why people are marching. Disability rights advocates in Austin, Texas, protested the treatment of Michael Hickson, 46, a quadriplegic Black man who died of COVID-19, The Austin American-Statesman reported.

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Functional Fashion, People With Disabilities and Love of Clothing

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Functional Fashion, People With Disabilities and Love of Clothing

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This article was written by a black disabled woman with cerebral palsy. She talks about the desire and importance of freedom of self-expression through fashion for the PWD community. She created the hashtag #disabledandcute to talk about self-worth for women with disabilities through social media. Lastly, I really enjoyed the conversation about inclusivity in the fashion world, making clothes functional AND cute for PWD.

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This article is part of a series exploring how the Americans With Disabilities Act has shaped modern life for people with disabilities.

I have always believed that fashion is the window to the soul. As a Black disabled woman with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects movement on the right side of my body, I have gone through what I call the stages of fashion grief.

First, there was denial, which led to pretending fashion did not matter to me. Anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance came when I realized that I was no longer going to deny myself the things that allowed me the opportunity to share myself with the world. Especially when I realized just how much fashion was a part of my story. In "The Pretty One," my collection of essays published last year, I talk about my journey to see my self-worth and how it led to my Twitter hashtag #disabledandcute, used by like-minded people to share pictures of ourselves and to declare that we are just as cute and worthy as anyone else.

I am not alone in my love for fashion. Disabled people, including the fashion plates among us, have always had to make wardrobe hacks to navigate features like zippers, buttons, shoes and irritable fabric tags. Stylish clothing for disabled people goes by many names: Accessible fashion, functional fashion, universal and inclusive fashion. I use accessible and inclusive fashion interchangeably and sometimes together because they best fit what I believe fashion should be after, not just function but style, too.

We have always known that clothes must function for our bodies. Increasingly, the fashion world is seeing this too. But it's only a start.

Three decades after the passage of the landmark Americans With Disabilities Act, disabled people want to be able to have freedom of self-expression through fashion rather than accepting scraps from an industry that has been very slow to embrace us and our needs.

The clothing brand Levi Strauss & Co. was one of the first major brands to design clothing for disabled people in the mid-1950s with the work of one of its designers, Helen Cookman. She created a pair of jeans with "stretch denim and full-length zippers in the side seams that opened from the top or bottom. Another useful design feature was a special inside half belt buttoning on either side to hold the jeans in place when the seat dropped," according to the company's archives.

It took years for other brands to follow suit, but today's accessible fashion lines include Target's Cat and Jack, to Zappos to Tommy Adaptive and Open Style Lab.

Christina Mallon-Michalove, who is head of inclusive design at the advertising agency, Wunderman Thompson, and chief brand officer at Open Style Lab, a design incubator for functional fashion, is a disabled woman herself, with a rare form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., that left her arms paralyzed. She sees accessible fashion for what it is: a requirement that will make the fashion industry even better.

"I know Levi's was the first to create the product and think about it, but when I think about the first that is creating end to end inclusive experiences, that was Tommy Adaptive" said Ms. Mallon-Michalove, referring to the preppy line by the designer Tommy Hilfiger. "When we talk about clothing and style, physically being able to buy the product is just one part of the style experience. We need functional clothing that is also fashionable."

I agree. For years, I have been wondering why there seems to be more enthusiasm for clothing lines for dogs than for disabled people.

Left with few clothing options, we have been altering our own clothes all of our lives. Jillian Mercado, an actress and model with spastic muscular dystrophy, has appeared in campaigns for Diesel and Nordstrom, among others. When she was a child, she said her mother and siblings helped her adapt outfits. As she grew older, she got creative in altering clothes on her own. She says that though there have been strides in accessible fashion, they don't go far enough in imaginatively addressing issues like style.

"For the longest time I've had to make time, maybe an hour, to complete an outfit by myself and with accessible clothing it's maybe 15 minutes," Ms. Mercado says. "With that said, something that I do not like about functional and accessible fashion has to be that the clothing that is available for people like myself, isn't really my style of clothing."

The key to satisfying disabled consumers is options, because fewer options mean more barriers.

As a disabled person, I long for the independence and the ability to choose how I express myself; the fashion industry should be a place where that is made possible. Insteadonly a handful of companies are willing to see us as desirable consumers.

One is headed by Lucy Jones, chief executive of FFORA, (a derivative of fora the plural for the word forum) who founded the company in 2017. The brand designs fashionable and accessible bags and purses, cup holders and tumblers, attachments and accessories. The products are designed to work in tandem with an attachment that FFORA designed for wheelchair users. However, the bags also come with a cross-body strap so that all body types are able to use them. In designing products, Ms. Jones says, it is essential to give accurate portrayals of lifestyles in the disability community.

"Missteps are as important as strides because it creates dialogue and criticism; therefore, we can move forward with better outcomes," she said. "But harmful missteps are when people with disabilities are not consulted or involved in decisions that directly affect them. So many opportunities can be lost by only skimming the surface and not actively engaging with disability culture."

In May, Jay Calderin, a designer and author based in Boston, donated an accessible party dress to the Fashion and Textiles Collection of the Peabody Essex Museum. The dress is gorgeous, fun and sexy and accessible for someone in a wheelchair. The dress is designed in two pieces so it's easier to put on unassisted. Though it was Mr. Calderin's first foray into accessible fashion design, he already saw what should be avoided.

"There are leaders in the industry that have acknowledged and responded to the need for accessibility and inclusivity," Mr. Calderin says. "Design that considers different bodies and different abilities from the very beginning of the design process shouldn't be the exception, it should be the rule."

Ms. Mallon-Michalove believes inclusive design is designing for disability, race, religion, gender and sexuality. The question is who will follow the example of the handful of designers now creating accessible fashion so that years from now they won't be the only brands doing this work?

"It's super important that someone is setting the example when it comes to things like equality," Ms. Mallon-Michalove said. "Given COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter, I think it's going to have brands and companies, specifically fashion, rethink about how they're designing. Or ask the question are our designs leaving people out? And, who is it excluding?"

Keah Brown is a journalist, author and screenwriter. Follow her work at keahbrown.com and on Twitter @Keah_Maria.

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Functional Fashion, People With Disabilities and Love of Clothing - News Flash

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This article is part of a series exploring how the Americans With Disabilities Act has shaped modern life for people with disabilities. I have always believed that fashion is the window to the soul. As a Black disabled woman with cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects movement on the right side of my body, [...]

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Ray Charles, a musician and songwriter, released a song called "I Don't Need No Doctor." Ray Charles was blind, so the song appears to be discussing his disability. He writes about how medical care isn't the cure to his illness, and writes "I don't need my doctor, only my baby's arms." I understood this to signify how PWD are too often considered disabled, when really, they are differently abled and their remedies are similar to everyone, such as being with loved ones, as opposed to needing a "cure."

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While this poem does not over-glorify or victimize PWD, it does indicate the harsh reality of many PWD. It particularly focuses on the medications that are prescribed for a chronic condition and what it is like to have that a part of your daily routine. It also touches on existence, mentioning life, death and God, which portrays the author's frequent thoughts about the progressive nature of her disease.

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There's just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.

No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
       It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.

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There's just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust at your feet having squandered a fortune far away. And how can you not forgive?

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Shawn Mendes writes this song about his struggles with an anxiety disorder and mentions some of the common symptoms of anxiety, which is relatable to many people with AD. I appreciated how the song had a heavy, honest premise, therefore, not undermine the struggle, yet also signified hope and persistance.

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About "In My Blood"

On "In My Blood," Shawn Mendes takes a heavier and more mature approach production-wise, while still sticking to his acoustic roots in the verses. The day before the release he tweeted a message to his fans saying:

This song is the closest song to my heart that I've ever written.

In an interview with , Mendes explained that the song is about his first experience with anxiety:

The concept of this song is about how it feels [when] you're about to give up, and then you don't. That's the whole payoff in the chorus section...It's not about when it happens. It's kind of about something that I think everybody goes through and it's something that I think people don't talk about often, especially in music.

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In My Blood Lyrics: Help me, it's like the walls are caving in / Sometimes I feel like giving up / But I just can't / It isn't in my blood / Laying on the bathroom floor, feeling nothing / I'm

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Cecilia Mcgough touched on the common misconceptions of people with Schizophrenia. She shared about her struggle with suicide, hallucinations, and hospital stays. Her story helped spread awareness and normalize the disorder and start an open conversation about negative mental illness stereotypes.

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I Am Not A Monster: Schizophrenia | Cecilia McGough | TEDxPSU

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Down Syndrome Couple's Emotional Reunion Brings Everyone To Tears

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Down Syndrome Couple's Emotional Reunion Brings Everyone To Tears

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This is a clip from The Kelly Clarkson Show that featured a couple with Down Syndrome. I had issues with the portrayal in terms of frequent over-glorification. It was tough to watch the frequent camera close-ups on audience members' crying and consistent mentions of the couple being an "inspiration." However, the parents did spread awareness of the disorder and abilities of people with DS.

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Down Syndrome Couple's Emotional Reunion Brings Everyone To Tears

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I enjoyed how this show on Netflix brought awareness to Social Anxiety Disorder, as well as Emotional Support Animals. They also included an actor in the show that has a disability. However, I feel the show over-dramatized, and portrayed negative stereotypes of people with mental illness or people that require an ESA. I only watched the first episode, so it may end up depicting mental illness differently as the show progresses.

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The Healing Powers of Dude | Netflix Official Site

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Noah's got social anxiety -- and middle school feels like a minefield. But a lovable pup's helping him face his fears. Watch trailers & learn more.