Hi everyone! I wanted to create a place for myself to find a variety of advocates who are interested in collaborating on projects I do surrounding disability rights.
I am a former broadcast director who lost her career to the ableist notions that are rampant in our society. I have a rare genetic disorder on top of another genetic disorder and I live with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, MHE, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Hemiplegic Migraines. For 13 years I dedicated my life to broadcasting, almost 8 of those years spent in the booth directing thousands of broadcasts; this year I started demanding accommodations and that was the end of my career. I am only 26 years old yet I have had two TIAs so far, once of which they accused me of lying about. My termination letter was an insult that could kill me. I have yet to share the most horrific parts of this ordeal.
I WILL get justice and disability discrimination in the workforce to be taken seriously. Out of this I developed a “training course” program for all types of media agencies, especially broadcast. I want to address the ableism in the media once and for all—the lack of disabled journalists, the lack of reporting disabled hate crimes, the inspiration porn take on the stories shared with them.
Don’t even get me started on hollywood and how the “inclusive” guidelines failed to include the disabled for the starring roles—they want to make sure the disabled stories are used, and that the production and small roles are the disabled, but they don’t want the disabled to star in their own stories?? Come on now.
Through my own life experiences I have learned quite a few things—
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the disabled are the only minority in America that LACK constitutional protection under The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment; this constitutional oversight was reinforced in 1985 by the SCOTUS.
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The ADA, the only legal protection made specifically for the inclusion of the disabled in modern society, does not protect every disabled American. The ADA only protects employable disabled Americans. In my interview with the EEOC I learned if I was “unemployable“, meaning I went on disability benefits instead of searching for a job, I would lose my case as I would no longer be protected by the ADA. That means every soul who decided to give up and go on disability after being discriminated against and forced out of the work force did not have any legal protection to get justice for the injustice that occurred to them.
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It is very hard to get disability discrimination to be taken seriously because of the internalized ableism each one of us has that we don’t understand we have. People don’t understand they are being ableist and feel as if they are being attacked when the reality is they are in the wrong and just don’t understand they are. Education using art and personal stories/experiences has been the best way I have found to communicate
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Inclusion isn’t inclusion if the disabled aren’t included. My former employers had zoom meeting on how diversity and inclusion is their goal, two hours later I was being told I was being very unfair for saying I was being discriminated against when they accused me of lying about my severe medical condition because I “didn’t know they had medical conditions too”. ??
We have to speak out about the discrimination we face in order for society to realize it is hypocritical and must change. As life gets less stressful, I’ll be creating more content and videos that are raw and focused on creating the Inclusion Revolution. The mission is to show what the disabled are capable of despite the ableist society and to demand that society adapt to the disabled. Topics that will definitely be discussed is things like how we as disabled souls can “Untrain” our brains and empower other disabled souls to know their worth and rights, eugenics in modern times, modern day ableism that we don’t realize is ableism, and not only accommodating the disabled in the workplace but addressing the ableist notions that keep the disabled oppressed, unemployed, and in poverty.
If you would like to be a part of any of it, comment here and share what your activism is all about so I can look back when coming up with concepts and reach out to collaborate! My Instagram is @r.a.r.e.advoc8, in case you wanted to see the vibe of my work. I am always open to collaborate and make art for things that you come up with too, never hesitate to reach out!