Today is global accessibility awareness day. This is a day of recognizing the things and people that are allies to the people in the disability community.
Thank you to the following people:
Thank you to Feinstein’s at Vitello’s for creating accessibility by adding the chair lift to your place. I truly feel like family when I attend shows at your place.
Thank you also to the federal bar in North Hollywood. I love attending shows upstairs, and I love how easy the access is for a wheelchair and walker user like me.
Thank you also to theatre 68, who gave me a front-row seat to see my friend Renee Marino in a production of Danny and the deep blue sea. Thank you also to Renee Marino for letting me take a Walker-free photo with her on two occasions.
Thank you also to John Lloyd Young, who was the first person to take a walker-free photo with me back in August of 2015.
Last but not least, thank you to my family at Eagle Rock Baptist Church for not giving up on me or leaving me out of things when my movement became a little bit more difficult.
The things I think need to change:
The first thing that needs to be changed is the restaurants that use the accessible bathroom stall or the walkway to the bathroom for high chair storage space. Companies need to require their employees to go through a training called the other side of the chair. A training in which wheelchairs, walkers, and other assistive equipment is used to give people the experience of those who use that equipment daily.
Another improvement that needs to be made is accessibility in entertainment. The only way that crip face casting will become a thing of the past is if theatres and movie and tv filming locations become accessible.
The definition of Cripface casting is- casting someone in the role of a disabled person when the actor has no life experience as a person with a disability.
Society still has a lot to learn, but I do believe that things have the potential to get better.
Encouragement Notes Podcast 