Presenting with People You Idolize: a new blog
A few weeks ago, I was privileged to be part of a panel on speech impediment at the Society for Disability Studies annual conference out in
Neil Marcus, the renowned disability culture artist and writer was supposed to be there too, but he canceled his plans to present at the last minute in an effort to save his energy for an upcoming performance that night . I’m glad because I’ve had a huge crush on Neil forever and presenting with him, along with being in serious hero worship with most of the other panelists (especially Devva who I really admire because she’s where I want to be in 10 years already) wouldn’t have just made me a very ineffective presenter. Because he wasn’t there I was able to focus more on making myself understood by the audience which is always my biggest challenge in presenting.
I wonder if other people also have these sorts of challenges. Does your speech impediment get worse when you’re talking to people you seriously respect even if they understand and have had impediments similar to yours? I know mine does.
Martina Robinson, Leadership Coordinator
Leadership Resources
Judy Heumann Interview | Worldwide Leadership
Profiles of Leadership | First Steps to Leadership
Introduction:
The purpose of this page is to encourage women with speech impairments as well as physical disabilities (a particularly interesting combination, if you ask me as someone who has lived with both of these things her entire life, especially in terms of leadership opportunities). As a leader myself, both with and without the disability rights movement, I know it can be difficult, if not impossible to prove to new people that you know what you are doing. However, I assure you it can happen and has in my case. This is not just my section of this awesome, new, community endeavor; it’s yours as well and I look forward to posting your tips on leadership as well as my own. Network…enjoy…comment!
Mobility International USA:
http://www.miusa.org/
They do leadership training, exchanges, advocating for the inclusion of woman with disabilities in development initiatives and internships (small payment if you agree to intern for more than six months)
National Youth Leadership Network : http://www.nyln.org/
For men and women with disabilities between the ages of 15 and 28. Woman are highly represented and I was a member when I was young enough (I’m 31 now).
WILD: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/d-wild/
An electronic list for women with disabilities and their women allies. Good information and some fun too.
Girlshealth.gov: http://www.girlshealth.gov/disability/
A site for girls with disabilities featuring links to independent living support, advice, and leadership support
Feminist Response in Disability Rights Activism (FRIDA) http://fridanow.blogspot.com/
These women are strong, disabled feminists of the first order! The group began in Chicago and has advocated for such issues as the Ashley X case-a little girl in Seattle, Washington with “severe disabilities” whose last name isn’t public knowledge whose parents surgically altered her, in early 2007, so she wouldn’t go through puberty to the horror, and public outrage, of disability rights activists the world over. As well the campaign for adequate pads and tampons in nursing homes
A More Heumann World Bank Ability Magazine
February 28, 2003, Chet Cooper
This entire article is an interview and some background information on Judy Heumann, a famous American disability rights activist and head of the World Bank’s division on disability and development. She is the first disability and development advisor ever, male or female. The first part of her interview is “what is a tragedy is when people with disabilities are not welcomed into the economic mainstream of a community and not given the chance to work for their own hopes and dreams.” Careful to hold onto her activist roots, Ms. Heumann is not, in my opinion, likely to allow the powers that be at the World Bank to boss her around (and this is coming from someone who doesn’t like the Bank very much in general).
Even though Judy doesn’t have a speech impediment, she is a woman that all women and girls with disabilities can look up to. “What is a tragedy is when people with disabilities are not welcomed into the economic mainstream of a community and not given the chance to work for their own hopes and dreams,” stated Judith E. Heumann. “That’s a vision that
I want to be able to bring to the Bank.”
Heumann, an internationally recognized expert on disability and diversity issues, has been newly appointed as the World Bank’s first-ever Advisor on Disability and Development in the Human Development Network. As a result of having polio in 1949, Heumann, who now uses a motorized wheelchair, understands first-hand the obstacles people with disabilities encounter, not only in the United States, but around the globe. At times she has been her own best advocate, once suing a State Board of Education to obtain her teaching certificate, but she has also devoted the greater part of her life to betteringthe lives of others. Since the 1970s, Heumann has worked extensively with governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) contributing to the development of human rights legislation and policies benefiting children and adults with disabilities. From 1993 to 2001, she served as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services at the Department of Education, supervising a program that served almost six million people nationwide. Preparing her for the position she now holds within the World Bank, Heumann’s international activities have included co-chairing of the International Leadership Forum for Women with Disabilities and policy consultations with governmental and non-governmental agencies in Mexico, Brazil, Japan,China and throughout Europe. As co-founder of the World Institute on Disability, Heumann is credited with creating the first public policy research think tank devoted to disability issues. She has shaped and co-directed the nation’s first Center on Independent Living in Berkeley, California, and serves as a member of the board of directors on many public policy and service organizations. Today, Heumann is focused on her most difficult and wide-spread challenge to date. There are approximately 400 million people with disabilities in developing countries, many of whom are excluded from chool or the workplace and forced to depend on their family for lifetime support. “Bringing marginalized populations into the mainstream of developing countries is a vital step in reducing poverty and extending hope and a chance to thrive to people who may only have known discrimination and exclusion,” says James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank. “All people in developing countries should have equal opportunities, and I’m delighted that we have chosen such a prominent disability champion as Judy Heumann to carry this agenda forward.”
Heumann and ABILITY Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Chet Cooper, were first introduced during the 1996 conference of the World Congress. Their paths have continued to cross as they work to bring greater awareness to the issues surrounding people with disabilities. During the recent Conference on Disability and Development hosted by the World Bank, Cooper had the opportunity to sit with Heumann and talk about her new position and vision for the World Bank’sintegration of disabilities within their agenda.
Chet Cooper: It’s great to see you again Judy and congratulations on your new position with the World Bank. What’s in store for you as the first Advisor on Disability and Development?
Judy Heumann: Well, I was hired by the World Bank in June.
CC: (repeating and writing notes) “I was hired by the World Bank in June…” Okay, we’re done. Great! That should do it. Thank you so much for your time(laughs)
JH: (laughs) I was hired by the Bank in June as the Advisor on Disability and Development. The purpose of the position is to work on integrating disability related issues throughout the Bank. I work with various offices to help them have a better understanding of who comprises the vast population of people with disabilities. My attention is focused on what the specific needs of the population are and what the Bank could be doing to integrate those issues that affect people with disabilities into its work. This is a critical issue because employees at the Bank have heavy workloads. Everyone is trying to deal with a number of agendas so we must allow people to see we’re not setting up another area–we’re looking at the work that is already being done and trying to help them incorporate and integrate these issues into their existing agenda.
CC: How knowledgeable is the Bank on issues surrounding people with disabilities?
JH: It’s no surprise that the Bank, like most other countries, has very limited knowledge about the needs of this community. What is exciting about this position is that it is enabling me to find and recognize those people
and departments who have been doing some work in this area. They are now feeling empowered because the leadership of the Bank is supporting the agenda. I think there’s a level of humility because we haven’t done that much… and we need to do more. This conference is significant because we have a combination of leadership from the Bank talking about the importance of the issues surrounding people with disabilities around the world, and we have also brought in respected speakers to talk about the population’s needs from an economic development’s perspective. Today, Queen Noor of Jordan spoke about how critically important linking the issues of economic development and human rights is.
CC: Many of the changes that are happening at the World Bank are coming as the result of an evaluation completed by Canada. Was it Canada that initiated the survey?
JH: I believe people already doing work on disability issues at the Bank went to the Canadians and asked if we could apply money from the Canadian Trust Fund to do a baseline assessment.
CC: Can you elaborate on that process?
JH: In the World Bank, many of the countries have set aside trust fund money that may be applied for. The trust fund money, in this case, is given to help evaluation of what the Bank is doing in the area of disabilities. The work completed with trust fund money is by people who are from the country that has been given the money. In this instance, money was granted by the Canadian Trust Fund and therefor had to go to a Canadian company. There was competition and ultimately the Canadian Center for Disability Studies(CCDS) was awarded the grant. They talked with more than a hundred people in the Bank and met with NGOs at the country level before making a series of recommendations in reference to the Bank’s need to improve their work in the area of disabilities. One recommendation was to hold an event such as this conference. Naturally, there were a series of additional recommendations which we’ll be addressing over the coming years.
CC: Such as obtaining editorial coverage within ABILITY Magazine, of
course.
JH: Right! That was clearly a recommendation. (laughs)
CC: Was your current position then created out of a recommendation by the CCDS?
JH: The hiring of this position was really twofold. Mr. Wolfensohn commented in a speech that he gave in December of 2000 that the Bank would hire an advisor. This study reiterated the fact that a person should be hired.
CC: How do you propose to affect the changes necessary within the Bank?
JH: I gave a presentation recently, and one of the purposes was to help the senior leadership have a better idea of who the population is. I’ve also asked them to put together a working group in their particular areas of responsibility
that my office could now work with, in order to help them develop their own plan of action to integrate disability into their agenda; we’ve already been contacted by a number of the offices. Some of them, like the East Asia region are going to put together a team, the Latin American region will probably do the same and then we’ll work with them on putting together a plan. We have to look at this more on an annual basis, what can and will happen in a year, in
two years, in three years. It is my hope that in the next three to five years there will be measurable differences.
CC: You appear confident the Bank is moving in the right direction.
JH: Absolutely. Right now there is more engagement; we’re working withthe entry of other development agencies; we’re discussing the issues more andwe’re internally looking at what we need to be doing. But by next year if we’re still doing the same thing–then we won’t have accomplished anything. By 2004, I hope to be able to show a few more countries where governments and the Bank are working aggressively on integrating disability into their agenda. More loan packages provided by the Bank will be integrating disability along the lines of physical access, education–which I think is important–and employment to transport urban environments. There are 10,000 people who work in the Bank and the Bank is in over 150 countries.
CC: In one year?
JH: I have no expectations that we’ll be able to affect all of them in a year, but I’d like to be able to say that we have been able to work more deeply with three countries and that there will be greater interest in other countries. One of my other expectations is that at the country level the NGOs will see themselves beginning to do more work with the ministries of finance. It’s the ministries of finance that do the substantial amount of negotiating with the Bank; the ministers of finance–in conjunction with the leadership of the government-determine what their loan packages should look like.
CC: What type of internal communication will come from your office?
JH: First of all, an email was sent out from the vice president of human development to the other vice presidents, encouraging them to look further at this issue. There is also an internal publication called the Today. In yesterday’s Today…
CC: Yesterday or Today?
JH: It was in yesterday’s Today, today’s Today and hopefully tomorrow’s
Today. (laughs) They’ve made a number of announcements over the last couple of weeks informing staff this conference was going to happen and it was a banner headline in yesterday’s paper. I think we’ve been very lucky to have good people working to make this day a success.
CC: Do you believe there is a greater resolve to the issues now that you’re on board and the Bank is demonstrating a higher commitment to the issues surrounding disabilities?
JH: It is great because so many people in the Bank did so much work. I couldn’t… I have no illusions–this didn’t happen because of me. I do believe this did happen because of Mr. Wolfensohn’s commitment to the issue and people in the Bank believing that he wants something to happen. During the
first meeting I had with some of his staff in September we were visualizing a small meeting when Xavier Coll, Director, Office of the President said, “No, no, no… This has to be much bigger. We have to think much bigger.” I told the staff that if we go “much bigger” then they were going to have to help us-there’s no way “much bigger” is going to happen from Pamela and myself alone. (laughs) Pamela Dudzik is the Operations Analyst for Human Development Network, Social Protection. Anyhow, they stepped up and I think that’s what’s been very exciting about working here. People have really been willing to help and our focus in the last six months hasn’t just been on today, but it’s really been on building.
CC: Are you traveling much?
JH: Oh, yes. I did a month of traveling in Asia and I’ll be going to India and gypt. I enjoy traveling. It’s great because when I was in Vietnam, in particular, most people had never seen a motorized wheelchair. So many places were not ccessible but we brought our own ramps and in some places they built ramps. When we were first scheduling my trip, they were going to schedule most
of my meetings in a hotel. I told them I didn’t want my meetings in a hotel, I wanted to be out and about and we’d figure it out. The Bank’s office had steps and on the day I arrived the ramp hadn’t been built yet so they had to carry me up the stairs. Before we left, the ramp had been built. We went to NGOs and to government programs where we needed to use our own ramps. I think that was great and we got media coverage.
CC: That’s a great quote: “Out and about and we’d figure it out…”
JH: Absolutely. I’m a linguist!
CC: (laughs) How does the United States measure up to the work being
done by other, even less developed countries?
JH: The United States has not really been a heavy hitter in the international development arena in disability and that’s unfotunate. We’re in a unique position in the United States. We have many people with disabilities who are immigrants, who work in organizations around the United States, and we
are not effectively using their knowledge and skills. If you look at what is
going on with the disability community in Japan or all across Scandinavia… hope that in the next five to ten years, the U.S. can be an equal player, butright now it is definitely at the bottom. Scandinavian countries each have a coalition of national disability groups. They receive money from the federal governments in the area of international work and international coalition at the country level. Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark then distribute those dollars. Their projects have much more of an effect in the disability community because development is specifically given to disability related or run programs. It would be nice–in a year–to see the U.S. more engaged.
visit: and click on “disability”
Photograph (Queen Noor of Jordan speaking with Judy Heumann)
Indexing (document details)
Subjects:Civil rights, Disability, Handicapped people, Human
rights,
Legislation, Politics
Document types:Interview
Document features:Photograph
Publication title:Ability Magazine. Costa Mesa: Feb 28, 2003.
Vol. 2003
pg. 52
Source type:Periodical
ISSN:87568934
ProQuest document ID:495912621
Text Word Count2801
Document
URL:http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=495912621
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Disabled Women Organize Worldwide, Off Our Backs
January/February 2003, Laura Hershey
This article illustrates that while disabled women in particular have problems that vary from country to country, many are universal. By talking with activists from
But all around the world women with disabilities are fighting back against the dual discriminations of sexism and ableism. Some have started their own organizations or chose to act as leaders among the mostly male dominated disability rights movement within their own country.
I think that this article demonstrates the similarities and differences we as disabled women face across cultures. As it is only a few pages long, I think it’s a great beginning resource for women and girls who are looking to become leaders.
Learning from Our Neighbor: Women with Disabilities in Oaxaca Mexico
Journal of Rehabilitation, October/November/December 2003, Catherine Marshall
This is a comparison of programs in
The author outlines her research and methodology in detail. This article is not meant to be read by the average woman with a disability or even the average advocate for women with disabilities. Instead, it’s more designed for students, researchers (such as myself), and rehabilitation professionals.
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A Global Survey on HIV/AIDS and Disability
The Office of the Advisor on Disability and Development and The Global
HIV/AIDS (ANNOUNCEMENT)
Program of the World Bank are sponsoring a Global Survey on HIV/AIDS and Disability in conjunction with the Yale University School of Public Health. We are anxious to learn how the HIV/AIDS epidemic is affecting the global disabled population and we ask for help from you and your organizations to do this. Today, little is known about HIV/AIDS among people with disability. The general public often assumes that people with disability are not sexually active, unlikely to use drugs or alcohol and at less risk of violence or rape than their non-disabled peers. Yet those who live and work within the Disability community are keenly aware of the fact that those with disability are at increased risk of being exposed to all these known risk factors for HIV/AIDS. Moreover, most HIV/AIDS prevention efforts overlook those with disability and are unaware of the unique limitations often posed in providing them with information,(i.e. HIV/AIDS radio campaigns which are inaccessible to those with hearing impairments, newspaper ads which assume literacy in countries where fewdisabled children are allowed to go to school). Finally, if infected, those whoare disabled are less likely than their non-disabled peers to receive counseling, support, or medical care when they begin to show symptoms of thedisease.We are starting by undertaking a Global Survey on HIV/AIDS and Disability. Over the next few months, Dr. Nora Groce of the Yale School of Public Health will be looking for information about programs that provide HIV/AIDS education,interventions and services to Disability communities. We would also welcome accounts from Disability advocates about attempts to seek help for HIV/AIDS in one’s community, examples about not being able to get help for one’s community, stories about governments and HIV/AIDS voluntary organizations that have tried to reach disabled people and so forth.
A web site is being established where we will post examples of innovative programs that are shared with us by you and your organizations. We will also share information being collected, relevant papers, publications and notices of research, training sessions and conferences. If you already have information about HIV/AIDS and Disability from your own organization or if you know of a program or project that you think we should learn more about, please let us know. Finally, if you know of other Disability organizations or advocates who might have information about HIV/AIDS and Disability, we would appreciate it if you would forward this announcement on to them.
Full Text (2801 words)
Copyright Ability Magazine Feb 28, 2003
For more information on the Bank’s work in the area of disability please contact: Dr. Nora Groce Global Health Division, Yale Schol of Public Health, 60 College Street New Haven, Connecticut USA, 06520
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Profile of Leadership
Julie Redenbaugh-Aird doesn’t look like someone who would get arrested for civil disobedience and she certainly doesn’t look 51. But both are true. Julie has Cerebral Palsy, is primarily a wheeled walker user who uses a scooter for long distance travel at national disability actions, and has had full-time job for ten years. She also has speech impairment, but doesn’t let that stop her from being a leader in her community of Bolder, Colorado. In fact, she interrupted our interview for a few moments to ensure that she acquired two tickets to meet Hillary Clinton at a community event this last Tuesday, October 23.
Julie describes her life as “very productive and meaningful.” She works as a coordinator for older individuals who are blind and visually impaired at her local independent living center, the Center for People with Disabilities. She helps her consumers learn independent living skills and provides them with resources, as well as advocating for changes that will help them. She got a chance to manage the peer support program, as well the after school club at the Center for People with disabilities. “I developed those 2 programs” said Julie modestly.
Julie is also a leader in her local ADAPT chapter, which works to end institutional bias and on other local advocacy issues. She’s been a color leader at National ADAPT actions (one of the people who helps direct the action because 500 people, most of them in wheelchairs, can’t get themselves anywhere without a little direction). But, as is very Julie, she’s quick to underplay her role. “We {in Bolder ADAPT} all share leadership roles.”
Her passion for justice issues began when she was a twenty something college student, working mostly on issues of racism, sexism, and poverty. She marched in a Martin Luther King Day march, did the Crop Walk (a national walk-a-thon to end hunger), and protested Toys R Us for selling war toys. Her first national ADAPT action was in the Chinatown section of Washington, DC. Julie says, “I think my passion for justice started when I was a teenager and it has increased.”
But activism isn’t the only important thing in Julie’s life. She’s been married to her husband, Lowell, 16 years this past August. The pair has together 18. They have no children; accept for two dogs Julie refers to as her children. They met in apartment building in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he worked maintenance as a supervisor when she was tenant. They meant in the laundry room. “You know like you see in the movies,” she says. She also told that, “Establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships” is the most important thing in life.
Julie says her speech impairment influence her life more than her physical disability.She adds, “There’s a hierarchy in the disability community; those who can talk without speech impediments can go further. People sometimes question my intelligence and I think it has effected opportunities for employment.” But she encourages other disabled women with speech issues to be leaders, if they so desire. She says ” to focus on writing skills and communicate concisely. The first thing you say should make people listen, carefully select your words. If I’m rambling on people don’t like to listen. Laugh and roll with the punches. Choose what battles to fight, instead of taking on everything.”
Julie also advises that all activists, women or otherwise, should “take care of self.” That’s one lesson I need to learn myself.
November Update: First Steps to Leadership
Advice on Attaining Non-Disability Leadership Roles
You’ve decided to stop only being a follower and to spread your wings and attempt taking a leadership role. Good for you! My advice is too start small and work with people who know, respect, and understand both your speech and you. One of my first non-disability leadership role was in the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party. My role was that of timekeeper. A good choice for me as all I had to say was “one minute remaining,” “30 seconds remaining,”, and “Stop!” Most people can understand me when I say short phrases like that.
As time went on I gained confidence in myself and other people’s knowledge of my abilities increased. As time went on, my leadership role in the Green-Rainbow party has increased; I’ve been a candidate of various offices, served on committees, facilitated meetings, and two months ago, I was female co-chair of our State Convention! But my leadership building had to start somewhere and so does yours.
Lift Every Voice
(Dedicated to all the students who participated in the Deaf President Now Protest, held at Gallaudet University from March 6 to March 13, 1988 and to songwriter James W. Johnson, author of Lift Every Voice and Sing)
Surely an 11-year-old’s, wobbly, spastic vocal cords
can find no place in the struggle for anyone’s liberation
even, and especially, her own.
February 1, 1988-
How I envied Martin Luther King, Jr.
his perfect, preacher diction
after listening to his dream
thanks to my sixth grade history teacher’s tape deck.
March 8, 1988-
I watch the evening news transfixed.
Brown eyes enchanted by interpreter hands flying
translating for the handsome 21- year-old Deaf man
turned activist overnight, irate because a Hearing woman who could not even speak his language
was put in charge of his school.
Over the next few days,
The university students inspire me,
taking back their campus, teaching both America and one awestruck 11-year-old
that not every victorious voice
need be verbal or flawless.
December Update
As a woman with a speech impairment and a physical disability, I know it can be tempting only to speak to people who are used to the way you speak. As an activist and hopefully future leader of the disability rights movement, even I am tempted to fall into this trap. However, I know I can’t.
One of the best ways I’ve found to deal with this temptation is to simply put myself into situations where I have to talk to new people. This is why I present my self-published books at Artwalk (a local, juried artist exhibition) every month. Most of the people who walk by my booth don’t know me, and don’t usually talk to people in wheelchairs I assume, much less people with speech impediments. Undertaking this activity has according to people I see regularly, improved my speech noticeably, especially in terms of volume.
I must admit that it is hard to deal with people saying, “What?” all the time or just ignoring me and looking like they want to pat me on the head instead of talk to me. But I enjoy meeting new people and maybe altering someone’s impression of people with disabilities.
Another way I force myself to interact with people who don’t normally interact with me is by public speaking. I’m often asked to talk to certain groups about disability issues or health education. I am also on the speaker’s bureau for The Stonewall Center, a local LGBT resource. People are often surprised that someone in a wheelchair would be on that particular speaker’s bureau. It’s almost as if people think that those of us who have disabilities can only talk about disability issues, and if we have sex at all it must be heterosexual (but that’s another story). Sometimes I print out what I’m going to say and hand it out to my audience just to ensure that they get my message clearly in spite of my speech impediment.
My advice is whenever you feel like hiding from a world that doesn’t understand what you say and treats you like you’re stupid is simply don’t do that. Force yourself to go out, meet new people, and interact. I think you’ll be glad you did
.
January Update
Help, yes or no?
As much as I usually try to speak for myself, sometimes it is just easier to let someone else relay information for me rather than deal with people who are impatient with my speech impediment. My rule is that I usually try on my own first. Then, if there is still a problem and I don’t have time to wait for the person to comprehend me, I let someone else take over.
Today was one of those days. I needed to deal with the D.C. paratransit service, Greyhound bus lines, and Peter Pan bus lines. Transit providers are not known for their listening skills (although I have the ones at Umass transit trained pretty well). After about fifteen minutes of trying to get these people to understand what I was saying and I was using my best “talk to a strange able bodied person” voice which requires a lot of effort, I surrendered and handed the phone over to Leah my PCA. In about ten minutes the problem was solved. I am convinced that if I had continued to try to talk to this person it would have taken ten hours.
I’ve decided after 31 years on this Earth that there is no shame in asking for help if someone doesn’t understand you. As women with speech impediments, we must learn to walk the line between dependence and stubbornness. Think about it. Is it really worth two hours of your day when you can be doing other useful things to make your own paratransit arrangements or are you better off handing the phone over to a more normal speaker and getting on with your day? Sometimes I insist that the person talk to me, and sometimes I ask my normal speaking friends to assist me. The key here is that I make the choice between the two.
I’m not telling every woman to allow her husband, significant other, or PCA to make all of her travel arrangements. Please don’t be confused in this regard. What I am doing, I hope, is empowering women with speech impediments to both accept and refuse help as they deem necessary. Needing a little assistance every now and again does not make you less of a leader or an activist. In fact, it may make you more of one.
FEBRUARY UPDATE
As a person with a speech impediment, especially because I’m a woman, I frequently fall victim to suspecting that someone who doesn’t want to deal with me is just using, “I can’t understand you” as an excuse. Today I had proof of that for about the thousandth time in my life. I called my bank to complain that a withdraw was unauthorized. A non-profit I donate five dollars to every month accidentally withdrew too much money, and my account was overdrawn as a result. After I explained the problem to the non-profit, I called the bank. At first they said, “We’re sorry, but it’s not our fault. The non-profit will have to pay you back for the fee”.
I was unhappy about this outcome. I am quite certain that the non-profit did this accidentally, and I wouldn’t want them to lose thirty dollars because of some small accounting error which was probably caused by a computer anyway. I’m having a very anti-technology day. After speaking to the first person, I called my bank back and spoke to someone else. They told me the same thing. For a minute, I considered just forgetting about the thirty dollars because I didn’t think it was fair to the non-profit. However, I decided to call back a third time. After playing “I don’t understand you” for ten minutes, I said ”Fine. I’ll be moving my account tomorrow”. That she understood.
I had to smile, and stop myself from saying, “Gotcha”. Many women with speech impediments whom I know use their impairments as tools to propel their activism. For example, my friend Sasha and I once tricked Greyhound bus line security into showing us the layout of the whole bus station, including where the security gates were merely by asking where we were to go to meet someone. This person didn’t exist, but the security guard didn’t know that. He was mad the next day when he realized that we were part of a group who was there to blockade the buses from leaving for the day in honor of the “Ride the Dog” campaign that ADAPT put on in 1996 to call attention to Greyhound’s lack of accessibility (Greyhound used to say that they could carry anyone and their chair without having lift equipment merely by human power. This of course is untrue, and today you can get a lift equipped bus with 48 hours notice).
I’m sure the guard was nicer to us than he would have been to anyone else because we were women, we were both in wheelchairs, and we had noticeable speech impediments. Sometimes it’s fun to use someone’s perception of who is helpless to get what you want.
March Update:
Just some thoughts on being a business woman
I used to record my outgoing answering machine message myself and I used to leave messages for people who were not familiar with my speech pattern, however as I’ve gotten more involved in the business world over the last year I’ve decided that that’s maybe not such a good idea. People respond to me better when they’ve understood the message I was trying to leave them. It helps them think I’m more intelligent.
But is it okay for me, who is an advocate for people with disabilities to allow someone else to take over my phone duties for the most part with unfamiliar people? Shouldn’t I be challenging vocal stereotyping as a concept? I don’t know, but it’s something I’m struggling with.
Once people get to know me, they soon realize that while my body may not work in the expected format, my mind is just fine. Would they get this lesson sooner if I made the initial contact instead of my assistant, who is usually just repeating what I tell her from the same room? I don’t know but I don’t think it makes that much of a difference and I know for a fact that people have called me back to talk about business who would have been too busy to listen to my message repeatedly had I recorded it myself. You see the trick is to make them want to call you back and hear your proposal before they realize they’re dealing with someone who’s disabled. I know this sounds underhanded, but we all have ableist bigots in our lives and manipulating them to get them to do what we want is skill all disability rights activist need to acquire. I wish it wasn’t so but it is.
