A Collection of Disability, Arts, Journals, Tips…

Since I started writing here, I’m sure that most of you heard me complain vehemently that no one disabled people in my area get together and do things. Today, Amherst had its second annual ADA celebration. You would have thought I would have been there. You would have been wrong. I wanted to go, but you see, I got pink eye which is contagious for the next 24 hours according to my pharmacist.

It wouldn’t have been very communal of me to go to the party, make all the people ill (some of them who have weak immune systems), and then they would have given it to their PCA’s, their spouses, etc. Those people would have given it back to them. It would have just been one vicious circle that I didn’t want to be responsible for.

Funny thing is I missed last year’s party too. I got a very severe case of diarrhea on the day the party was supposed to happen. Of course, I couldn’t go out like that. I was running to the bathroom every half an hour and eventually ended up in the ER.

I’m beginning to think it’s just not my destiny to ever attend this event.

It’s the 19th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act today. I go out every year on this day, even if I’m horribly ill. I think it’s important to go out and celebrate our freedom and civil rights legislation. The world over disabled people fight for legislation like the ADA and they’re winning. Going to the movies and restaurants, school, jobs, politics, what have you is not such a big deal anymore, but before the law passed it used to be. For myself, today, I went to lunch with Robyn (my assistant). It wasn’t the bravest action, but at least I was piblicly visible. I smiled at people, was cordial, and brought stuff that I paid for with my own money. I tend to spend money on this day just to prove that disabled people are in control of at least a bit of our own funds, however small.