Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability - San Francisco

Six Reasons to Take the SF Disability Community Cultural Center Survey

Emily Beitiks — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 19:57:54 +0000

By: Catherine Kudlick

We all know the feeling: after years of being grumpy because nobody wanted my opinion as a person with a disability, it seems like everyone now wants it through an inbox bursting with surveys and polls. It's easy to be cynical. Do this many groups really care or is this some new fad? We’re busy. We delete. (If you're already feeling guilty, take the survey here: www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFDisabilityCenter)

Here’s the thing: we really need your feedback! Read on if you’re willing to let us make our best pitch for why this is worth your time.

Because surveys need to be straightforward while acknowledging messiness and complexity, we had to put tons of work into it. We poured our hearts and souls into everything from words to commas – if computers didn’t automatically dot “I’s” and cross “t’s” we might have debated that too! Despite all the feedback we got from our team of advisors, we didn’t always get it right, but we tried. For example, we inspired a heated debate on Facebook about the best words when it came to transgender folks. (Convinced? Take the survey!)

Surveys are actually conversations. Not just with strangers but with yourself. You get to ask yourself: What do I think? Why do I think it? Do the questions speak to me and what I believe needs to be said?(Discover if this is true by taking the survey!)

There’s something powerful about embracing the idea that your perspective and voice matters. (To feel that power, go here.)

Unlike mandatory trainings and reviews of your experiences after five seconds on the phone with a company rep, this survey really wants to know what you think. We’re working hard to get feedback from as wide a variety of people as possible because that’s what will make a future center vibrant. Because we believe in disability justice, we need to know what a broad spectrum of people with disabilities want and need, not just the privileged and the loud. (Yeah, I do care about disability culture and disability justice, so maybe I should weigh in.)

Surveys are used to justify decisions. If the response numbers are low, people with power say people don't care. (Come on, you’ll feel terrible if they build whatever they want because too few people mentioned something you care about.)

Here’s the airy-fairy meta one: surveys are one of those cool places where the past and the future touch. Your experiences (the past) meet your expectations (the future). (Never thought of this? Check it out!)

So, if you’ve gotten this far and still aren’t sure, it means you really do care. Take the survey already, and not only that: share it with three other people! We've extended the deadline until December 31, 2018 so now you have even more time to take it. But why wait...

And THANK YOU!

Tags:

Disability community cultural center

San Francisco

Catherine Kudlick

An Ode to the Service Dog: A Talk with Sonja Ohldag

Visitor — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 22:33:07 +0000

Leading up to Superfest 2017, Superfest intern Celina Gomez spoke with Sonja Ohldag about her film Chief. To follow the film on Facebook, visit: https://www.facebook.com/sohldag/posts/355631324847145

Celina Garcia: Chief is comprised of both still imagery and home-video style footage. At what point did you decide you wanted to fashion them into a documentary, and how did this dictate the type of footage you then captured?

Sonja Ohldag: I’ve captured most his training moments on camera. Taping and photographing for me is training diary, progress reports, it gives me feedback on things I could do better in order to improve chief’s progress and mine. The videos help me to determine how well we’re doing in our training schedule. People often times don’t know that legit Owner/Trainers follow individualized task schedules and have a system, which is geared toward their teaching pace and skills, and the dogs’ learning and progressing pace and skill levels. Service dog training for different kinds of disabilities require different types of training. As an Owner/Trainer, we have to discipline ourselves every single day to stay on track. That’s not always easy, but the picture material helps me to stay on track and provide consistency for Chief and myself. I like to have a journal, for mainly me, but also for others to see and experience what goes into service dog training.

Lots of Owner/Trainers have benefitted from the videos and wonderful conversations have come out of it. Those videos and photo material have helped me to resolve access challenges, too. Chief’s movie only shows fragments of it and I wish we could have put every single photo and video into it, but that would be almost 6 years of material. In short - the photos and videos, are for proof of training, self-evaluation and interaction with other Owner/Trainers and of course, for memories. I’ve always wanted to write a book about Jolanda, the dog I worked with before Chief. She was the book kind of dog. But Chief loves the camera and he loves to pose and I knew from day one that he needed to be on screen. People love seeing his photos and videos, which made the final decision easy.

CG: Prior to making Chief, what types of films or stories had you seen where you felt they properly reflected life with a service dog? What sort of influences did you draw inspiration from, or did you feel there was a gap in representation?

SO: Yes, there’s clearly a gap in representation and often times misrepresentation or underrepresentation. Often times people think it’s more than enough to always want to hang out with their dog to turn their pets into service animals, but that’s not how it works. Owner/Trainers are hardly ever mentioned in a positive light, which I find heartbreaking, but somewhat understandable since we have no representative who would promote us in public or share our stories, nor do we have the funds to do it ourselves. Lots of us have social media pages in which we try to help people access our world. Many people with disabilities literally put their lives on hold and spend lots and lots of hours and money on training their own dogs. We meet up for training and exchange tips, we help each other, we travel far for meetups and have to make all the phone calls ourselves. No one finds us “interesting” enough to follow us around… We have to organize those things and it’s really exhausting, but rewarding. We’re all dealing with daily struggles and the amount of effort and team work it takes can’t be put in words.

I want for people to hear the good things about us. I want for people to see and understand that we’re out there, our dogs are incredible, and they’re highly trained and carefully chosen, and how it isn’t easy to train your own dog while you’re the one who needs the dog’s help. I also want them to see this process, and how owning a service dog is a lifelong responsibility and takes continuous training. My inspiration is my life and the dogs I’ve worked with and people who surround me. It’s such a beautiful feeling when someone truly “sees” your dog and immediately says - wow, what a cool dog you have. I can tell it’s a well-trained service dog. Those are the people I’m grateful for every single day. It’s such a good situation when people ask sincere questions about Chief or training. We’re always happy to explain and educate and people even get to say hi to him when they are respectful and interested. Luckily Chief is perceived very well and people naturally feel drawn to him.

CG: What kinds of obstacles did you encounter as a first-time filmmaker?

SO: Oy...nothing major. Amir Jaffer generously donated his time and knowledge to make this film happen. It’s was a really amazing process. He was not familiar with owner training initially, so we spent lots of time talking about service animals and training. Many conversations were personal and of course, some subjects were emotional and challenging. But we took our time and worked our way through it. I think the process was an incredible experience. We had a few logistical challenges in regards to finding days to film and do the interviews since we both travel frequently. Some days we met up with other Owner/Trainers and we had to find dates to get us all together. Sometimes I just simply had a hard time finding the right words or was dealing with personal issues. When you live with a disability, the illness doesn’t necessarily define everything you do, but it does influence your days. But other than that, it was a really awesome experience, and I can’t thank Amir enough for being so reliable and for helping me turn my thoughts into an actual film. I can be challenging to work with at times, but he was steady and kept us on track.

CG: In a short amount of time, your film captures a variety of issues. Why do you think film is an important medium in spreading awareness on not only service dogs but also highlighting living with an invisible disability?

SO: Watching or hearing something is oftentimes easier for people to access. It’s less “time consuming” and people are more willing to watch a short movie rather than hear someone talk or read pamphlets or books, plus I find it more personal. I love all media such as books and film and audio. I’ve shown Chief’s movie many times during educational events and people respond with different emotions. Some people were speechless, others cried, many were happy and sincerely appreciated it. They feel connected to Chief and myself, which immediately offers a great baseline for any kind of conversation and discussions. Invisible disabilities are things people don’t like to talk about. There’s still a lot of stigma attached and people often times are judged. I’m at a point where I’m completely open about my disability and feel comfortable sharing when people ask. Chief is such an amazing little guy, he makes me look special. But it’s all him. Chiefie’s movie helps people connect and understand on a cognitive and emotional level. It touches them. I’m glad it does.

CG: Do you feel there’s been an increased skepticism towards guide/service dogs? What do you hope resonates with audiences after viewing your film?

SO: I could go on and on about politics and schools vs Owner/Trainers, and about people thinking they know it all, and all those “specialists” out there who think they’re totally rad.... I don’t think people are “more” skeptical toward service animals, but due to lots of propaganda and the media reporting all the bad things, people now think they know “all about it,” and they are now confronted with things more than they used to be. Not too many years ago any kind of service animal was rather a rarity. Today, more people do have legit service animals and they’ve become more public.

Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to tell a legit working dog from a pet in a harness or vest. There’s lots of stuff going through the media, but hardly any sincere service animal education. Often times people can’t tell a well-trained dog from a training school or from an Owner/Trainer from a poorly trained one. There are poorly trained legit service animals as much as there are amazingly well-trained ones. They don’t know how to look for behavior, connection between handler and dog, synchronicity, etc… What makes me really unhappy is how businesses often times make no effort to keep people with disabilities and their dogs safe. They are poorly informed about existing laws.

CG: What questions can a covered entity's employees ask to determine if a dog is a service animal?

SO: In situations where it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two specific questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? And (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Staff are not allowed to request any documentation for the dog, require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person's disability. Someone with a legit dog, who has had proper training should, for their own protection, make no fuss and respond accordingly. Businesses need to take responsibility so others can see that the “service dog business” is a serious one and that lives depend on it. Skepticism often times comes from being uninformed or feeling helpless and results in accidental or purposeful discrimination. I like to give people a hand and help them understand. It’s not easy, and it is very exhausting, but it’s worth all the encounters we had.

CG: Finally, what do you look forward to being a part of Superfest?

SO: I’m just so so honored that Chief’s movie was selected for this specific festival - it means the world to me. Can’t wait for the festival to start. My best friend from Germany is flying in to be there for us. It’s just amazing. Looking forward to all the things :)

*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tags:

Superfest: International Disability Film Festival

Dennis Billups: An Activist through the Disability Rights Movement, Two Tech Booms, and a Housing Crisis

Visitor — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 16:36:18 +0000

By: Asa Arnold

The experiences of Dennis Billups reveal two things that are overlooked in today’s discussions of disabled people in tech: 1) we live in a second tech boom (the first was the “Dot-Com” era at the end of the 1990s) and 2) people with disabilities play important roles in tech that are completely unrelated to programming, development and access. Interviewer Asa Arnold and Dennis Billups

As an African-American man with a visible disability, Dennis predated today’s discussions of diversity in tech by a generation. He worked in the dot-com era. Many times, when he took the train to his job in Silicon Valley he was given free fares because people found it so remarkable that a blind man was going to work at all. A participant in the 504 occupation of the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977, he has long been an activist who focuses on increasing economic power for disabled people [click to view our oral history interview with Dennis to learn more]. Since working as a telephone operator and information specialist for various Silicon Valley companies in the 1990s, he has first-hand experience with the effects of gentrification, the changing skillsets required in today’s tech world compared to thirty years ago, and ideas around people with disabilities. In each area, he finds both positives and negatives.

In the mid-80s, Dennis was looking for a job, but was unable to find one that would let him stay close to his wife who he had recently married. After a while, a representative from the Department of Rehab came to him about a job program in Silicon Valley and said, “We want you to become our poster child because you had a good speaking voice, you speak clearly, and you’re around a lot of people and a lot of people like you.” Dennis enrolled in the program and became a phone operator and information specialist at various computer chip companies in Silicon Valley. He describes his job as being “the person who did the calls, made sure packages got out, faxing in and remembering names of people and changing the phone list…letting people know what’s going on with the company.”

Dennis’ experience working in Silicon Valley during the Dot-Com boom was remarkably positive. This can partially be attributed to his job working well with his personality and skill set, but it was also due to supportive coworkers and workplace accommodations. He had documents provided in braille in addition to teachers who explained what he needed to do; his accommodations were “a natural thing.” Dennis also got on well with people in the office; for example, he would tease them when the lights went out, offering to guide them to the bathroom. One engineer and friend of Dennis’ would give him tours of the workplace, saying “you don’t need to be isolated at that desk all the time.”

With the money from his job and some struggle, Dennis and his wife bought a house in Bayview/Hunter’s Point, San Francisco in 1994 so they could settle down. He lived in the house for 20 years. In 2015, five years after his wife had died and 15 years after being laid off from his job, Dennis found himself being evicted due to failure to make monthly mortgage payments. Believing it unfair as he feels he was not given adequate time to prove he could make payments, having been receiving notification in print rather than braille, he has been challenging the decision. In general, Dennis is disappointed in how gentrification is sweeping San Francisco and pushing many (including disabled people like himself) out of their homes. He finds the trend “really uncomfortable, disheartening, maddening…Bayview and Hunter’s Point were the last community for African Americans.” Despite this, his goal is to return to his home and control some property to stop the gentrification and bring disabled people back into the neighborhood. Dennis says, “it’s never too late, as long as you can get one foothold you can get another one just like they do.”

Like many, Dennis lost his job when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, in his case because many of his responsibilities as an operator were becoming automated. He recalls two good friends and coworkers warned him ahead of time, “Den, you’re going to get fired, and it has nothing to do with you, it’s a company thing.” He had an opportunity to retrain for working on the web which was just starting to take off, but he decided to stay at home to take care of his wife who had grown increasingly sick. He has been unemployed since then and now focuses on advocacy. Dennis believes “we have a chance to do something for disability, especially when it comes to economic chances.”

Having lived through a disability rights movement, two tech booms, and a housing crisis, Dennis is surprisingly upbeat. “We need all kinds of people and all kinds of opportunities,” he says. “That’s how change happens.”

Students for Access also sees the chance to do something for disability, and aims to improve the employment situation for people with disabilities in tech through our summer project. We thank Dennis for sharing his story with us. Dennis Billups during the 1977 504 sit-in.

Tags:

People with Disabilities in Tech

San Francisco

Silicon Valley

technology

Disabled People's Forgotten Revolution

Visitor — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 16:23:52 +0000

The 504 protest in San Francisco - outside the building. Photograph by Anthony Tusler.

By: Catherine Kudlick

As the nation prepares to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 2015, the Paul K. Longmore Institute will celebrate the unique Bay Area contributions to disability rights. Our ambitious exhibit “Patient No More!” will focus on what is known as "the 504 occupation" in 1977 when more than one hundred brave women and men paved the way for so many of us and passing the ADA thirteen years later. We must return to thinking of the Americans with Disabilities Act as the product of grassroots activism and disabled people’s political savvy rather than a mandate somehow passed down from on high. To quote Paul Longmore’s speech at the 20th ADA Anniversary celebration in San Francisco, “We are the ones who did this. This wasn’t handed to us. This wasn’t an act of charity. This wasn’t something done paternalistically. We made it happen. We did it.”

The little-known story of the 504 protests is amazing. On April 5, 1977, dozens of disabled people from diverse racial and social backgrounds entered San Francisco's office of Health, Education, and Welfare for twenty-five days in what remains the longest occupation of a federal building in US history. They came on crutches, using canes, and in wheelchairs; some used American Sign Language, others augmented communication devices. Many others contributed simply by showing up to offer support. Most arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs, guided by a few vague ideas about why they were there. Yet enough of them had political smarts, experience with building coalitions, tenacity, and fire in their bellies to confront the government of a major world power about their civil rights, and win.

They had come because of Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. Buried in the law to accommodate returning Vietnam veterans was a provision based on the 1964 Civil Rights Act stipulating that individuals with disabilities “should not be denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Cast in broad terms and bureaucratic language, Section 504 - which would serve as a model for the Americans with Disabilities Act thirteen years later - basically said that everything touched by the U.S. government needed to be fully accessible to people with disabilities: schools, universities, public offices, transit systems, hospitals. After over four years of government stalling that extended to the newly-elected allegedly pro-disability rights Carter administration, the regulations still awaited a final signature.

Infuriated, hundreds of protesters around the country occupied several federal buildings. Most were starved out within a day or two. But San Francisco was different. The organizers' incredible resourcefulness and months of cementing relationships with local community organizations resulted in an unlikely, dedicated coalition of supporters that included the Black Panthers, the gay community's Butterfly Brigade, labor unions, Glide Memorial Church, Safeway and McDonald’s, along with sympathetic local and national politicians. Thanks to food, showers, and other forms of help, the 504 occupiers held on for nearly a month, generating national attention and ultimately helping to gain the support necessary for signing the regulations.

The 504 Occupation would be a watershed personal and political moment, one that solidified the Bay Area’s key role in the struggle for disability rights. The Americans with Disabilities Act would not exist in its present form - or even at all - without the energy, people, and determination galvanized by this unparalleled historical moment. Thanks in no small part to the 504 sit-in, cross-disability thinking would be central to the ADA’s scope and reach and would shape the disability rights movement in general. The experience of spending more than three weeks in close proximity among people with a wide array of disabilities during what became simply known as “504” fostered an esprit de corps and coalitions that would have been unimaginable a few years earlier. When officials first cut the phone lines, Deaf people stood at the windows and used American Sign Language to convey messages between protesters inside and outside the building, while, blind people fed and toiletted quadriplegics. Friendships and romances formed. The experience of 504 helped create a sense of community grounded in successful activism that in turn gave people with disabilities a sense of their historical agency. Once people with disabilities had shown this prospect to the outside world and to themselves, they could continue to fight for expanding their civil rights. Indeed, a number of 504 participants would go on to help forge the ADA as well as key organizations such as Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund -DREDF (1979) and the World Institute on Disability – WID (1983) that promote disability rights.

And thanks to insisting that 504 be signed unchanged, language linking disability rights to civil rights would find its way into the law of the land. Section 504 states in part: “No otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States shall, solely by reason of his handicap, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act is far from perfect. But thanks in no small part to our brave sisters and brothers 37 years ago, at its core the ADA is more about rights than about charity. Let us not forget that this movement, like our nation and its other ongoing struggles for civil rights, was forged in revolution. By sharing this history, we hope to inspire? incite? future generations to continue this important work.

To learn more and to get involved, visit: http://longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu/patientnomore

Tags:

Americans with Disabilities Act

Catherine Kudlick

disability rights

Paul K. Longmore Institute

San Francisco

Uncategorized