Posts Tagged ‘civil rights’

‘I don’t see problems… I see problem-solvers’

Jul 25th, 2010

by Mark Willis.

4 comments

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Twenty years is significant, not because it’s a round number, but rather, because it represents a generation of experience gained since the law was passed. Many of us who lobbied for the ADA believed at the time that it could take a generation or more, as it had with the Civil Rights Act before it, to fulfill the ADA’s promise of equal opportunity for Americans with disabilities.

DOJ Program Celebrates ADA Anniversary

Jul 22nd, 2010

by Mark Willis.

1 comment

The U. S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act will be held Friday, July 23, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (eastern daylight time).
Shown live from The Great Hall in the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, the event will be shown in accessible [...]

A PR Toolkit for the ADA Anniversary

Jun 23rd, 2009

by Mark Willis.

No comments yet

The DBTAC-Southeast ADA Center announced the availability of a PR toolkit to celebrate the upcoming anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26. What struck me was the disclaimer, which is longer than the announcement itself. It’s a discouraging reflection on the legal minefields that continue to surround the ADA 19 years after [...]

Subscribe to Feed

Shape-Shifters

Re-imagining accessibility through the transformations of culture -- particularly the transformative promise of accessible technology for people with disabilities -- is the work of the Fair Use Lab. What does Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster have to do with accessibility? Read more: Shape-Shifters in the Fair Use Lab [MiT6 2009]
Blind Photographers

In the moment when Paul Strand photographed her surreptitiously on the street in New York, the social engineers who created a system for licensing beggars never imagined that a blind woman had culture or could make culture. She herself may not have imagined it. Paul Strand probably didn’t give her much credit for making culture, either. Read more: Curiosity & The Blind Photographer [MiT5 2007] See more on blind photographers.
Remix: Danger Mouse

Will DJ Danger Mouse become the Che Guevara of digital sampling? Consider the case for fair use made by The Grey Album.
Archives
Categories
Subscribe to Podcast

ADA 20th Anniversary

On its 20th anniversary, pundits will debate what the Americans with Disabilities Act has accomplished. I still believe what I said in a TV interview after the ADA signing ceremony in 1990. “The ADA will not end disability discrimination overnight. But in a nation governed by the rule of law, getting it in writing is the place to start.” So what is the ADA's legacy? A Generation of Problem-Solvers.
Disability As Praxis

I am a parent, homeowner, knowledge worker, and person with disabilities. Oppression is not my true word, but praxis is. In Paulo Freire’s transformative work, I find an affirmation deeper than ideology or political activism -- an affirmation of the dynamic role of disability in culture. I believe the daily praxis of making adaptations and negotiating accommodations represents a significant form of cultural production. Read Disability As Praxis.
a blind flaneur