(In) Accessibility: Commentary on Disability Rights

This is very similar to the bus that I was on I am posting this immediately after the ACLU trip blog, because I feel that it was too emotional to have in that one, but my story needs to be put out there.  I want to preface this by saying that this is just my experience with one company and I will be naming the company, so that people can decide for themselves if they want to give it business, and I do not mean any sort of ill-intent with this post. Throughout the week in Washington, D.C., the program that I was a part of used a company to take us places called DC Trails.  Prior to this particular incident, I had had issues on DC Trails with wheelchair ramps not working in the past, on an earlier trip with the ACLU.  Each day, the drivers would load me on and off, and strap me in so I wouldn't roll around.  Each bus had two Close Up leaders on board, and each time we would get off, my leader would wait for me. On this particular day, we were going to the Capitol Building a

This is a photo that I took, shortly after landing in D.C. From Sunday, July 28th to Friday, August 2nd, I traveled to Washington, D.C.  I was there as part of a weeklong program hosted by the  ACLU  and  Close Up Foundation  called the 2019 Advocacy Institute.  In short, this institute was directed towards college students who are interested in advocacy and law careers.  We learned many things about advocacy, lobbying, and even got a chance to network with other rights organizations in order to jumpstart our respective careers.  This post will give you a taste of what we were doing each day, as well as things that I learned.  Also, in lieu of explaining the activists and organizations that I met with and learned from throughout the week, I will be linking websites for your reference if you want to learn more, otherwise, this post would be way too long. Now onto the Advocacy Institute from last week. Sunday, July 28th:   The first day of the program was not nearly as packed fu

Image Courtesy of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Photo of Rep. Jimmy Anderson This was not the original post that I was planning to write this week.  I was going to talk about my recent trip to Washington, D.C.;  why I was there, what I did, etc.  However, when I first heard about this situation on Tuesday, I knew I had to comment on it.  You can expect to see a post about Washington, D.C. sometime between today and next Saturday. Most of this post will talk about an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel .  So let's get into it. Jimmy Anderson is a representative in the Wisconsin State Assembly for the 47th district.  He became a wheelchair user in 2010 when he was in a car accident that killed his parents and brother, which left him paralyzed from the chest down.  He was elected to the Assembly in 2016 as a Democrat, assuming office in 2017.  Robin Vos is a representative and current Speaker of the Assembly who represents the 63rd district, which includes my hometown