(light music)
- Good evening, everyone,
and thank you so much for joining us.
My name is Vanessa Ruget,
I am a professor in the politics department
at Salem State University
and I am also the faculty fellow for research.
And it is my pleasure to introduce
and moderate today's webinar
on Implementing Disability Justice
Using Intersectional and Anti-oppressive Approaches
for Helping Professionals.
This panel is the third and the last one
in our series on disability justice.
It was a series organized
by the Center for Research and Creative Activities
as well as the Berry Library.
And we are so excited
that so many of you are able to join us tonight.
Please know that this webinar is recorded
and you will be able to watch this webinar
and the previous two webinars
by visiting the Library Digital Repository.
We invite you to ask your questions in the Q&A box.
And because of the time constraint,
we will try to end at around 7:00 PM.
I apologize in advances
if I am unable to get to your question,
but we'll do our best to get to most of them.
And finally, close captioning is available
by clicking on the live transcript button
at the bottom of your screen.
So we have two fantastic speakers tonight,
and I will briefly introduce them
and pass over the microphone to them.
So Dr. Lisa Johnson is an associate professor of social work
here at Salem State University.
Lisa has practiced
in both the child welfare and healthcare fields
and worked with systems
for nonprofit development and community organizing.
Her interests and area of personal and professional inquiry
include child welfare,
disability, equity and social justice,
social work education,
workforce development and leadership
and social work and a natural environment.
Rose Singh is a PhD candidate
at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador
and a sessional lecturer at Dalhousie University.
Rose is also a practicing social worker
and she brings over two decades of experience
working in the social service sector
with a focus on supporting youth
and adults living with disabilities,
mental health concerns and substance use.
Rose teaches courses on direct practice theory,
social justice,
and critical approaches to social work practice and policy
in the areas of disability, mental health and addictions.
Rose's research and scholarship
interests center on critical social work,
education, social justice,
disability justice, mental health,
online learning and teaching and emerging technologies.
Thank you so much to both of you for being here tonight.
And I will pass on the floor.
- Thank you, Vanessa. And good evening, everyone.
I am Lisa Johnson, and it is a pleasure to be with you
and be presenting to you tonight.
In way of a physical description of myself.
I am a Black woman with deep brown skin,
I am wearing eyeglasses this evening
and a light pink turtleneck sweater.
I have my hair pulled back in a bun
and I am wearing white earbuds, and I use she/her pronouns.
- I'm Rose Singh, and I'm honored to be here as well.
A physical description of myself for those joining.
I've got brown hair, white skin, wearing glasses,
and a purple sweater and also use she/her pronouns.
- So tonight we're going to be speaking with you
about implementing disability justice
and using intersectional and anti-oppressive approaches
for helping professionals.
In terms of our presentation this evening,
we will be touching on a very brief introduction
to disability and disability justice.
We will also talk about several theoretical
and practice frameworks,
and employ a case example
as a way to apply disability justice principles
and the practice frameworks to practice.
And we hope to leave a few moments at the end for questions.
- I'll begin by giving an overview of disability.
Prevalence in the United States
is 27% of the US adult population, whereas in Canada,
22% of Canadians aged 15 and older live with disabilities.
We also wanna make a note about language.
There's identity-first language,
which includes using the term disabled person
or person-first language.
An example of this is person with a disability.
With language,
it's really important to follow the lead
of the disabled person.
Note the language and terms they are using
and respectfully ask if you're unsure or unclear.
And in this presentation and generally in our work,
we tend to use identity-first language,
such as disabled person.
We'd also like to highlight the models of disability.
Models of disability offer explanations
on the individual experiences and sociopolitical context
of disabled people in disability communities.
The most common and influential
are the medical and social models of disability.
The medical model views disability
as an individual problem and deficit
and is rooted in the notion
that there is an ideal or normal body in mind
that is welcome and preferred in society.
Disabled activists and theorists such as Mike Oliver,
named and developed a social model of disability
in resistance to the medical model.
And within the social model of disability,
as Cameron writes,
impairment is a condition or attribute,
whereas disability is how society responded to
or failed to respond to the needs of people with impairment.
And on this slide,
there's an image of a person who is a wheelchair user
who's at the bottom of a set of stairs
and there is a sign on the stairs
that states "Way in. Everyone welcome."
On the left side of the image is a word bubble
with the statement stating "Her impairment is the problem,
they should cure her or give her prosthetics."
And on the right side of the image
there is a word bubble with the statement
"The stairs are the problem, they should build a ramp."
And this image is attributed to the cripping social work,
a hashtag, as adapted from Bluestocking Magazine.
And the medical model understanding of their experiences
states that they are the problem,
and the person should be rehabilitated or cured or treated.
Whereas, the social model highlights
the barriers the person experiences
and that a ramp should be built
rather than leaving the environment inaccessible
for disabled people.
The impacts of living with an impairment
are acknowledged in the social model,
while highlighting the many systemic and structural factors
that disregard and exclude disabled people
in disability communities.
And Mike Oliver himself
noted that the social model of disability
was not intended to be the only theorizing
or model of disability,
and encouraged an evolution of the social model
as well as building new models and theorizing of disability.
We'd also like to highlight other aspects of disability
that are really important to situate disability
within this conversation in the community.
Throughout history and in modern day,
disabled people and disability communities
have experienced oppression and marginalization.
And the specific term
used to describe this oppression and marginalization
towards disabled people and disability communities
is ableism.
Disability identity
encompasses how a disabled person views themselves,
their self-identification as a disabled person,
their connections to disability culture
and disability communities,
their ways of interacting
within navigating the ableist context
and society around them.
Through the use of the term disability communities,
there is acknowledgement of the diversity
among disabled people and disability communities locally,
nationally, and globally.
It's also a distinct recognition of disability history
and the resistance through disability movements
is also an important part of disability identity
and disability culture.
Disability resistance and movements
are a result of the past,
a present day treatment of disabled people,
which is included institutionalization,
eugenics, incarceration, and broad exclusion from society.
There was this disability civil rights movement
in the 1960s onwards,
which also led to the 1990 Americans with Disability Act,
or ADA, which protects disabled people from discrimination.
There's also the independent living movement
that led to de-institutionalization
and more community inclusion.
The disability justice movement began in 2005
and was led by a group of disabled, queer,
and racialized activists who included Patty Berne,
Mia Minguez, Leroy Moore, Stacey Milbern,
Eli Clare and Sebastian Margaret.
And together they formed a framework in principles
to guide their collective advocacy.
From the Sins Invalid 2019 book
"Skin, Tooth, and Bone:
The Basis of Movement is Our People."
On page 11, they describe their disability framework
as understanding all bodies are unique and essential,
all bodies have strengths and needs that must be met,
we are powerful not despite the complexities of our bodies
but because of them,
and all bodies are combined by ability, race, gender,
sexuality class, nation state, religion and more,
and we cannot separate them.
And there's 10 disability justice principles
that were created by these disabled activists
who formed Sins Invalid,
and these include intersectionality.
Quoting Audre Lorde, "We do not live single issue lives."
Ableism is coupled with white supremacy,
supported by capitalism
and underscored by heteropatriarchy
and has rendered the vast majority of the world invalid.
There's also the principle of the leadership
of the most impacted.
And to quote Morales,
"We are led by those who know most of these systems."
And there's anti-capitalist politics.
And in an economy that sees land in humans
as components of profits,
disability justice is anti-capitalist
by the nature of having non-conforming bodies and minds.
There's also commitment to cross movement, organizing,
shifting how social justice movements
understand disability and contextualizes ableism.
That disability justice
lends itself to the politics of alliance.
There's also recognizing wholeness
that people have inherent worth
outside of commodity relations
and capitalist notions of productivity and worth.
And each person is full of history and life experience.
The disability justice principle of sustainability,
which means pacing ourselves individually and collectively
to be sustained over the long term,
and that our embodied experiences
guide us toward ongoing justice and liberation.
There's a commitment to cross disability solidarity,
honoring the insights and participation
of all community members,
knowing that isolation undermines collective liberation
and the principle of interdependence
that meeting each other's needs is crucial
as we build towards liberation.
Also, collective access, which centers Black,
indigenous and queer disabled people's experiences
and access needs.
And collective liberation
that no body or mind can be left behind
in only moving together
that we can accomplish the revolution we require.
And to summarize, drawing on the work of Sami Schalk,
disability justice centers the insights, knowledges,
voices and experiences of the disabled people
and communities most oppressed past, present.
- Now, we'll briefly go over theory and practice frameworks
that can support implementing disability justice principles
in our practice as helping professionals,
they are critical cultural competence,
intersectionality and anti-oppressive practice.
The concept of cultural competence
is familiar to practitioners
in a variety of helping disciplines.
Cultural competence supports our focus
on working effectively across cultures.
Critical cultural competence is an enhancement of this
and that it focuses on knowledge and behaviors
that support effective cross-cultural engagement
as well as the harnessing of these knowledge and behaviors
for policy and social change.
Critical cultural competence
also highlights the dynamic nature of culture,
the fact that culture in and of itself is changeable
and that individuals experiences of culture,
personal experiences can be fluid.
Critical cultural competence
also helps us recognize the need
for an ongoing commitment to self-evaluation,
as well as an ongoing commitment
to knowledge and skill development.
It promotes attention to power imbalances and relationships
and in the environment.
And most importantly for our conversation tonight,
we can think of it as being useful
in supporting acknowledgement
of positive elements of disability and disability culture,
and in helping us to critique
ableist systems and structures.
Intersectionality is another concept that is likely familiar
and has been utilized more and more in many academic
and professional settings,
especially within the last few years.
It is an idea that has been around
for a much longer time though,
and it's rooted primarily in the writing
and thinking of women of color such as Anna Julia Cooper,
Bell Hooks, the Combahee River Collective,
Gloria Anzaldúa, and Kimberlé Crenshaw.
Intersectionality or an intersectional perspective
view social identities
and the experiences of privilege and oppression
based on these identities
as interlocking and interdependent.
It's a way of understanding
and examining the complexities of human interactions
with one another, with institutions,
and with a larger society.
An intersectional perspective
looks at each person's particular social location
as a combination of their personal identity
and their social identities.
It allows for a more comprehensive appreciation
and understanding of individual and community experiences
because it helps us take into account
multiple interdependent identities,
and avoid seeing people as one-dimensional.
Finally, anti-oppressive practice.
With a more recent introduction in the US,
anti-oppressive practice traces its development
from radical and structural social work
and other helping professions in Canada.
Critical social work in Australia, and anti-racism,
and anti-discriminatory care work in Britain.
By building on numerous progressive frameworks,
anti-oppressive practice is positioned
as a transformative approach
to helping professions and care work.
Anti-oppressive practice centers
on recognizing and challenging power and depression.
It helps us move beyond,
only focusing on individual level problems
of people accessing services,
to consider personal, cultural,
and structural levels of oppression
such as ableism, racism, ageism and sexism.
Anti-oppressive practice
promotes us raising our consciousness
and doing so in a critical way,
which is the ongoing process of critically reflecting
and analyzing one's values, biases, worldview,
as well as the shifting of power dynamics
to support empowerment of communities,
especially historically marginalized communities
that we may be engaging with as helping professionals.
We can use anti-oppressive practice framework
as a way to deconstruct dominant notions of disability
as a way to push back against stereotypes
of disabled people.
And we can target barriers to inclusion of disabled people.
And we can also affirm
disability identities and experiences.
- So keep in mind the disability justice principles
in these practice frameworks
as we discuss our case example next.
The image on this slide
is of circles overlapping and forming a Venn diagram.
The three larger circles
contain the theory and practice frameworks
of critical cultural confidence,
intersectionality and anti-oppressive practice,
and the smaller inner circle contains disability justice.
And we'll be using a more social work focused case example
in which a clinical social worker
is working with a client over a period of weeks.
But we encourage you to think about how this might apply
to your own context with the people you work with,
whether they be students, patients, service users,
groups or communities.
- So in this case example,
we're going to be needing Josie and Regina.
Josie is a licensed clinical social worker,
and she receives a referral
to work with a new client, Regina.
Josie's based in an outpatient mental health center
and is tasked with providing Regina with counseling
and support to address challenges she is facing
with family members and work colleagues.
Given that some of the agencies work with clients
has shifted to remote since the pandemic,
Josie is primarily using a telehealth platform
to connect with Regina.
The case file Josie reviews includes an intake form
filled out by Regina,
and records from the agency agency's previous involvement
in Regina's life.
Josie notes that Regina identifies as a Black woman
and that she grew up in a rural area
in Western Massachusetts
where her family has lived for generations.
Josie reads that Regina is a high school graduate
who tries to maintain a balance
between being able to engage in meaningful work,
that does not put receipt of her healthcare benefits at risk
in order to manage the care she needs for her disability,
which is identified as autism.
Josie herself identifies as a white cisgender woman
who is non-disabled.
As we move through this case
and talk about things we will consider,
we'll discuss several steps or phases
and considerations at each of these steps or phases.
And we'll think about how we might actually apply
the theory and practice frameworks
as well as disability justice principles at each phase.
So prior to meeting for the first time,
we have the opportunity to engage
in both reflective and reflective practices.
Essentially, what this means is that we can keep in mind
our theories and practice frameworks
as well as the disability justice principles,
and use those to prompt us
to reflect on our own social identities,
our own positions within the social order,
our own worldviews and our knowledge.
We can then think about how we might apply
these understandings to our practice decisions
and our behaviors.
We can also recognize
that there are likely limits to our current knowledge,
whether they be about the particular person or group
that will be working with
or about the case situation or the broader context,
and we can use this time and opportunity
to seek out additional information.
We can think of this as a pre-engagement phase,
pre-engagement reflection and action.
And this helps us think about what we may need to consider
or do prior to engaging in work with our clients,
our students, our patients, et cetera.
And this might be done, for example,
during the days before the first office meeting
after a case is assigned,
or in the summer before starting a new school year,
or in the break before a new semester,
or whenever there's an opportunity to think specifically
or more generally
about how one can practice intersectionally,
competently and justly,
either with a specific client
or with our clients or students or patients in general.
And so in this case situation,
Josie takes the opportunity
before she meets with Regina to reflect,
and she asked herself
about her understanding of disability,
of autism, of broader disability culture.
She uses this opportunity if there's something
that she feels she needs to explore further
to access information through books,
videos, other resources.
She may use colleagues at work as resources.
- So when beginning this work,
there's also some additional considerations to keep in mind.
So this would be the point
where Josie and Regina would be meeting each other.
And so if you were to consider this more broadly
for the context that you may be working in,
this would include an opportunity to learn from the client
or the patient or the student or the service user
that you're working with.
Specifically, for example,
about their cultures, their identities.
Think about how you might connect across cultures
and the different roles that you have.
And really important is how can you develop goals together.
So when doing this work, in starting this work,
Josie acknowledges the differences and the commonalities
that may influence how she works with Regina.
Josie respectfully asks Regina
what is important to her and for her around identity culture
and what is it that Regina would like to work on?
And as they continue this work together,
there's the phase of exploring strengths and needs.
So in your context, again,
considering the many different contexts
you might be working in,
this can include centering the client's narrative
about what's going on,
what they think needs to be changed,
what tools or resources are available to help.
Also to go back to the frameworks that we've included
and draw on specific skills
related to critical cultural competence,
anti-oppressive practice,
self-reflection to inform how you'll work together.
Be aware of how social norms,
agency policies or laws may influence understandings
of the problems presented and potential solutions posed,
and identifying circles of support
and the potential for respecting the dignity of risk.
So this is the right to take risks
when going through life and its various experiences.
And dignity of risk is fundamental for disabled people,
as many do not have a voice
in regards to their life circumstances,
and were and still often are reviewed
as unable to make decisions for themselves.
And the specific application of these considerations
for Josie and Regina,
is Josie is mindful of the level of cultural sensitivity,
of the agency mandated clinical assessment tools
she's required to use,
and make sure to integrate critical perspectives
with the information gained
from these clinical tools she uses.
Josie also invites Regina
to explain the situation in her own words
and encourages her to connect with friends
that she has to the autistic self-advocacy network.
- So after thinking
about what strengths and needs are present,
essentially an assessment type of phase,
you might enter a phase
where you're actually doing the work together,
engaging in the intervention or engaging in the treatment
or actually making or implementing the change
that you're working on together as a client
or student or patient and helping professional.
And in this phase, it's important to think about how,
as you move through the work together,
you're continuing to support the concept of dignity of risk
and self-determination to the extent possible,
as well as supporting the use of circles of support
such as Regina's friends
in the autistic self-advocacy network.
We might also be thinking
about how we might foster inclusion, community inclusion,
both through integrating the disabled person
into the larger society,
and thinking about how society in microform, right?
So perhaps the family context, the work context,
and the neighborhood context itself can be changed.
And another consideration during this phase
is remembering nothing about us without us.
And this is important to the disability rights
and disability justice movements
as it's a call from disabled people for radical inclusion,
for a place at the table, for a voice,
and oftentimes a lead voice in the conversation
about what is to happen.
In Josie and Regina's work together,
Josie checks in with Regina
even as they are starting their work
to determine how they will know
when their goals have been met
and services are no longer needed.
So they're looking toward independence,
they're looking toward allowance for risk.
Josie also makes sure
to weave in the intervention approaches
that recognize both Regina's desire to more fully integrate
into her work and family environments,
as well as the ways that these environments
may need to be adjusted,
changed to be more inclusive
and more affirming of Regina and other disabled people.
So she works one-on-one with Regina
to support this inclusion, but as they work together,
Josie can also be a part of supporting Regina
in her own advocacy efforts,
perhaps such that she feels increasingly more comfortable
to advocate to her family and her manager at work
around neurodiversity acceptance.
And how might the workplace itself make changes
such that they are thinking structurally
about how they could promote more inclusive
and affirming practices.
Next, we'll think about
starting to bring the working relationship
to some sort of close.
We might think about this as concluding
or terminating the working relationship.
And it's important here to keep in mind
that there may be issues of power dynamics
that may arise about how and when services are ended.
And this can, especially be the the case
when services are involuntary.
We also, once again, need to continue to affirm connections
with circles of support and honor the dignity of risk.
In our example,
Josie and Regina take this opportunity
to be collaborative and collaborate together.
Josie ensures that Regina's voice is heard
around the process of ending the working relationship,
and agreeing on follow up as needed and as appropriate,
keeping the dignity of risk
and connection with circles of support in mind.
And as the working relationship concludes and as,
or even after, it's important to think about evaluation,
it's important to think about how did it go.
And keeping in mind a centering of the client's
or the students or the patient's narrative or story
of their own experience with the process and the outcome.
And keeping in mind an intersectional lens while doing this,
how did their various identities
and perspectives come into play?
How were they honored or not honored?
It's also important to think about
how can we share some of this information,
this story, this narrative,
with perhaps the larger organization or agency
to think about how we might improve practice
with disability communities.
And so in our example,
Josie and Regina work together
as they bring their relationship to a close,
to refer back to what they talked together
about how they would identify success,
and to determine was it successful.
And Josie listens to Regina's perspective on this.
Josie might also invite Regina to share her perspective
or receive approval from Regina
to share findings with the agency or even beyond
about the insights that she gained
to inform disability affirming changes.
- So let's revisit our image of the four circles
encompassing the frameworks we've discussed
and with disability justice in the center.
And let's also reconnect our case example
to disability justice, critical cultural competence,
intersectionality and anti-oppressive practice.
Specifically, coming back
to the disability justice principles
and the practice frameworks
to reiterate how they have guided
Josie's micro and meso level,
so whether individual or family and group practice,
and how they might also guide her at the macro level,
whether that be community,
organizationally, or socially-based, and that engagement.
So let's consider Josie's work around implementing
these practice frameworks we've discussed
and disability justice at the individual or group level.
So intersectionality, remembering intersectionality,
as its own theoretical lens and practice,
and as one of the 10 disability justice principles
with a specific recognition of how ableism,
racism, sexism, and heterosexism
interact to marginalize oppress and exclude Black,
indigenous and racialize disabled people and communities.
And recognizing wholeness.
This disability justice principle
asks Josie to challenge capitalist ideas
around worth and productivity that she may carry.
And instead consider how and the many ways
that disabled people contribute to communities and society.
And to think about how this relates to Regina,
and Regina's hopes and dreams.
And also the disability justice principle
of collective access which centers Black,
indigenous, and queer disabled people's experiences
and access needs,
and being flexible and creative
to make this happen in practice
and in the places Regina goes.
Josie can help implement this
by viewing requests for access as a strength
and as crucial to creating and building community.
And let's connect this to the organizational
or community or society levels as well.
So the principle of leadership of the most impacted,
this disability justice principle
asks us to elevate, listen to, read, follow,
and highlight the perspectives of those
who are most impacted by harmful systems.
For example, in Josie's workplace
or other organizations she may be affiliated with,
how are Black, indigenous, racialized,
or queer disabled people represented
in decision making and leadership?
And if not, what actions will Josie take
to ensure this is brought to the team and made a priority?
Sustainability.
This disability justice principle
reminds us to pace and sustain ourselves
through this activist work.
How does Josie ensure she does not act too much of,
and overextend or exploit the disabled people most impacted.
What learning and work can she do
that does not involve drawing time and energy
from the disabled people most impacted.
And interdependence.
This disability justice principle reminds Josie
that she can help to ensure needs
as defined by disabled people are met,
and recognize that this does not need to occur
only through state run solutions
as these can limit and control.
This disability justice principle
also extends to her interconnectedness
as living beings on this planet
and the liberation of the Earth from human harms.
Josie can consider how she can practice in a way
that honors the requests of disabled people
and their identified needs.
Josie can also think about how her social work practice
can become more respectful of the environment
and of the planet.
- So as we move toward wrapping up our talk this evening,
we invite you to consider checking out some further reading
in works by leading disabled activists and authors.
And some are websites and one is a book.
So from Alice Wong, we have disabilityvisibilityproject.com.
From Eli Claire, we have eliclare.com.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha,
you can check out brownstargirl.org.
Sami Schalk's book,
"Black Disability Politics" is also worth a read.
And you can learn more
about the disability justice principles
from Sins Invalid at sinsinvalid.org.
So that concludes our prepared materials
and we would be happy to hear from you
regarding questions or comments you may have.
- Thank you so much, Rose and Lisa,
for a wonderful presentation.
There already is actually a question in the Q&A box
which I am going to read.
"I have never heard about the dignity of risk.
Can you explain that concept a bit more,
and do you have any specific resources
to recommend to learn more?"
- Rose, I'll defer to you if that's okay?
And then I'll follow up, yeah. - Sure,
I think we can probably both add to this.
- Yeah.
- So as I shared, and it did come up a couple times
or a few times in our presentation,
it's particularly important for disabled people
because of the lack of voice,
and input, and control a lot of disabled people
have had in their lives and continue.
So when you think about institutionalization,
no input on your life, right?
So when we talk about the history of disability
and disability communities,
how people have been impacted in a way to not have a voice,
not have a say in their decisions and in their lives.
So an example that I think of
from practice around dignity of risk,
and you will see literature on this as well,
is around say, someone's decision to use substances.
So this also relates to harm reduction, right?
So if you're...
I realize I might be speaking
to a slightly different practice context in my,
coming from Canada, but you know,
if for example if someone decides to use substances
that it links to both dignity of risk
and also potentially harm reduction, right?
So how might you work with someone
depending on your practice role
around respecting their decision to use substances
and also to do so in a way that potentially reduces harm?
- Great. Thank you so much.
So another encouragement
to ask your questions in the Q&A box,
and I will be reading them to our panelists.
Another question is,
"How do you use disability justice
personally in your practice?"
- I can start with this one,
and I also want to quickly follow up
on Rosa's very good response regarding dignity of risk.
And again, highlighting, I think the issue
that oftentimes disabled folks are infantalized,
and so in similar situations
where someone who is non-disabled may be expected
or allowed to make self-determining choices,
it may be that a person with disability is not given
the same dignity of allowance
to make that choice simply based on their disability, right?
And not necessarily because of other factors at play.
And so that dignity of risk really helps us
think about how we are not being ableist
in treating disabled people differently,
or discriminating against disabled people
just by virtue of their disability.
I think in terms of how I've tried to think about
employing disability justice in my practice,
for me, these principles feel like a touchstone,
almost, right?
Something that I need to continue, to go back to,
and to remind myself about and be reminded of.
I think it also helps me think about how I create space,
so my current practice is as an educator, right?
A social work educator.
And so a lot of the thinking I do
is about how I set up my classes,
about how I set up my content,
about how I may think about things intersectionally.
And so I find myself employing these principles
in a prospective way,
but also as I'm in conversation
and collaboration with other people,
thinking about am I promoting collective
sort of access and action,
or am I falling back onto the ableist socialization
that I've experienced?
Rose, I don't know if you also have a response to this one.
- Yeah, I can add.
I think what's really important with disability justice
and disability justice principles is we don't lose sight
of what Sins Invalid intended as well.
And this often comes with different frameworks
and theoretical perspectives including intersectionality,
you know, closely linked to disability justice,
that as much as possible really staying true
to what was intended
and what continues to evolve from the leaders,
the disability activists
who formed and created Sins Invalid
and also others that we have mentioned too,
that we don't lose those original meanings
and intentions in that work is really important to me.
I think also recognizing
that I often work in contradictory spaces.
So as much as I wanna hold true
to maybe anti-capitalist politics,
if I'm working in an organization
that is very informed by neoliberal policies, (chuckles)
there's going to be a contradiction
as much as I might want to be anti-capitalist,
that if I'm working in a setting
and I'm getting a wage from working there,
there going to be a contradiction as well.
So I have to as much stay true to these principles
and practices and frameworks
while also being very upfront and aware
of where do I have these contradictions.
- Great. Thank you so much.
- I think that's an excellent point.
And I also wanted to say that I think that prompts me
to also help us keep in mind, you know,
there's no such thing as perfection in that.
Even in our case example,
sort of a lot of the things we talked about,
we also have to keep in mind
the potential that we're often working
in these contradictory spaces
or that our efforts may be barriers
may be placed in front of our efforts
by potential lack of resources
or sometimes our own challenges
in being able to keep these standards
and these ideals in front of us.
And so really it's mostly about
trying to hold ourselves accountable,
hold each other accountable,
do the very best we can to continue to strive toward, right?
Using an intersectional lens
and using anti-oppressive practices as much as possible,
knowing that there will be days where we make mistakes,
where we can't always reach there fully,
but I think it's in the striving
and in continuing to strive that some good work can be done.
- And to add on that, Lisa, like I really think,
and this probably comes back to conversations we've had
around there's a lot that you can do, right?
So when you think about the disability justice principles
that speak to about cross movement organizing and support.
Yeah, right?
There's, we can acknowledge the contradictions,
but we also want to acknowledge what we can do.
- Excellent. Thank you so much.
Another great question in the chat.
"Do you see a difference in the public
or political perception of disability rights
when comparing the United States and Canada?"
- That's a really great question.
I think we've talked a bit about it.
I think it's certainly informed
sort of in terms of some different policies.
I sort of go back to our conversation about,
for instance, the anti-oppressive practice perspective,
which is a perspective
that we don't learn about as much here in the US
and that hasn't come to the core as much,
where I see and have heard from Rose and others
that much more embedded in education and in practice
in the Canadian context.
And we also know
that in thinking about the social model of disability,
a lot of that work came out from outside of the US context.
And so, I think that there are some ways in which the,
in terms of civil rights and in terms of action,
that we as sort of a US system
have a lot to learn from other systems
by virtue of policy and theory.
But Rose, I think from your perspective,
I wonder too, if you have some thoughts on this.
- If I had to speak generally
about what's going on in Canada,
which I'm not a huge fan of generalizing. (chuckles)
We'll make a bit of a generalization here,
is that there has been some promising legislation
coming through in different provinces.
However, even with that legislation in place,
that fundamentally there needs to be a shift societally
around disability and specifically ableism.
That even with some, like I said,
some promising legislation coming into place,
it's not in all provinces, but different provinces,
that there's still a lot of ableism embedded
in so many ways, whether it's personal interactions,
whether it's more systemically
or structurally environmental setups,
accessibility that we have a lot of work to do.
- Great. Thank you.
So you shared this amazing list of resources
at the end of your presentation, but other...
In addition, disability advocates,
especially those working in human services,
you might recommend others learning more about.
- Yeah, absolutely.
Person who I think of is Vilissa Thompson,
and Vilissa Thompson's a clinical social worker,
a disability rights consultant, activist writer.
She founded Ramp Your Voice,
which is an organization focused on promoting self-advocacy
and empowerment among disabled people.
I also think of Leroy Moore
who is author of a book called "Black Disabled Ancestors."
And that I think is really important as well
in thinking about sort of the history
of disability communities and activism and empowerment.
And Leroy Moore founded Krip-Hop Nation.
And so it's using hip hop
as a way of self-expression for people with disabilities.
And so those are a couple of of folks that come to mind,
I think who are engaged in disability justice work.
And I would put before you to consider checking out more.
Rose, I don't know if you have others you might add.
- I was just also thinking here in Ontario
to check out the work
of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario
and some incredible activists here as well.
And the lead organizer, Sarah Jama,
just recently got elected into the Ontario legislature,
so it's very exciting.
- That seems to be all the questions that we have received.
So unless there's a last minute question in the chat
and it doesn't seem to be so.
I just wanna thank you so much, our presenter,
for really this terrific introduction to the topic.
There is so much more to learn,
but you've shared some resources with us.
And again, this webinar was recorded,
so you will be able to see a recording in a few days
by visiting the The Salem State Library Digital Repository.
So thank you again to all of you who attended.
Have a good night, and again, thanks.
This was wonderful. This was terrific.
Thank you.
- Thank you, everyone.
- [Rose] Thank you very much.