ADAPT: Effective Activism takes Practice

I interviewed Anita Cameron for Pacific Standard about the WORK that goes into ADAPT actions.

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So you stage mock actions to practice? What are those like?

It can be anything! It's usually taking over something: An office, a bathroom, whatever, to simulate, as close as possible, what you do [in a real protest]—the adrenaline, the chaos, to give people a feel what to expect.

On Sundays [before actions] we have our legal meeting; it goes into into the history of ADAPT, civil disobedience, and why we use that. And we have published an activist guide. I wrote the part about intersectionality. I'm black. I'm disabled. I'm a lesbian. And I worked in the LGBT community before I joined ADAPT. Once I joined ADAPT, I spoke out pretty much about disability discrimination for 25 years. But when Michael Brown got killed, I really decided that, look, I can't separate my identities and my intersections of oppression from disability.

Also, we [must] pay attention to our walking folks who may be helping to open doors. The police sometimes will grab the folks who are walking. Just because you're walking doesn't mean you're non-disabled, but they'll assume the walking folks are non-disabled. They assume that if they grab the walking people, the folks in wheelchairs or mobility devices will somehow run away.

That has never happened.

No! Not in the 35 years of ADAPT has that ever happened.

We know what we're getting into. Especially us veterans who've been around a few years, a few decades.

The Bipartisan History of Disability Rights

Yesterday I wrote on the Endrew F. v Douglas County decision from the Supreme Court. It's powerful and could make a real difference in special education in this country. In the meantime, though, even as the decision was being handed down, ADAPT (a direct action disability rights group) was occupying the Capitol Rotunda, chanting, and eventually being arrested. I wrote a piece about SCOTUS, Gorsuch, and ADAPT, while remembering all the ways that disability rights can and should be bipartisan.

For decades, Democrats and Republicans have come together to pass legislation and support regulations to make America more inclusive for people with disabilities. Not only did a Republican president (George H.W. Bush) sign the ADA in 1990 after it passed with overwhelming majorities, but the same congress and president easily reauthorized the Education for the Handicapped Act and renamed it IDEA. A Republican congress reauthorized the same bill under President Bill Clinton, in 1997. In 2008, President George W. Bush signed the ADA Amendments Act, passed by a Democratic congress, which explicitly expanded ADA protections to people with mental disabilities. President Barack Obama signed a law permitting some disabled people to work and save money without jeopardizing access to benefits, and another encouraging integrated work opportunities for disabled people. These were both passed by huge margins in the otherwise highly partisan 113th and 114th congresses.

Read the whole piece here.

ADAPT: Photos and Videos from Kenosha and Racine

One day last February, I embedded with an ADAPT protest - a decentralized nationwide direct action disability rights group - in Kenosha and Racine Wisconsin. PLEASE READ THE ARTICLE. Here are some images.

An African-American man in a wheelchair. Blue ADAPT sweatshirt: Our homes, not nursing homes. LOGO: Figure in a wheelchair breaking chains. https://t.co/11pNOgttEZ

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) March 13, 2017

Image: A temporary ramp up two flights of stairs. The path then veers left, and inside veers back right. Oy! At @SpeakerRyan Kenosha office. https://t.co/ukEqkBkA9C

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) March 13, 2017

Image: A panorama shot of a group of people, some in wheelchairs, at the Marina Garden Family Restaurant parking lot. https://t.co/3ycVSv3ZCC

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) March 13, 2017

Images: Gloria Nichols, an older woman in a wheelchair, wrapped up, thumbs up! And a crowd of protesters outside the Racine office. https://t.co/5uzDq23Mlt

— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) March 13, 2017

VIDEO: Adapters chant, "Up with attendant care, down with the nursing homes."



More Video: Ain't no power like the power of ADAPT and the power of ADAPT don't stop.

Kasich, ADAPT, and the Disability Integration Act

The Disability Integration Act was introduced by Senator Schumer to, in the words of the important disability rights group ADAPT, "address the fundamental issue that people who need Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) are forced into institutions and losing their basic civil rights. The legislation (S.2427) builds on the 25 years of work that ADAPT has done to end the institutional bias and provide seniors and people with disabilities home and community-based services (HCBS) as an alternative to institutionalization. It is the next step in our national advocacy after securing the Community First Choice (CFC) option."

Recently, the DIA has gotten into the presidential campaign, thanks to direction action by ADAPT and the work of many other disability rights advocates. Clinton came out in favor of it, affirming her full support. Then Sanders added himself as a co-sponsor of the legislation (details from The RespectAbility Report). Next, ADAPT in Rochester, NY, went to a Kasich rally to try to get him on record.

Here's what happened:

Although ADAPT was first in line, waiting out in the cold for good seats, they were forced to the back of the auditorium (and from there protested their position). After, Kasich did not go on record about the DIA, but he smiled and kept saying he'd take pictures with them and got their numbers for his staff. So far, I haven't heard about any follow up. We'll see.

Kasich was quoted as saying:

Here's what I'm going to tell you," Kasich continued. "When everybody was like, they wanted to start saying, chanting my name and quieting you, I'm not going for that. Because I'll tell you, the developmentally disabled have lived in the shadows for 100 years. Okay, I know that. I don't want that to happen to anybody. And I'm not saying that because I'm a politician or I want your vote. I'm a human being just like you are."
Kasich took pictures with the group and got their contact information so his staff could get in further touch.
"Do you know why I want to do this?" Kasich told them, after the pictures. "Because Jesus wants me to."