“Society looks at disability as something negative and something to overcome; like I can overcome my race you know,

1. “Society looks at disability as something negative and something to overcome; like I can overcome my race you know, ha, it’s impossible!”

3. How do you spell power? A-D-A-P-T

4. Lynn Manning “I whip out my folded cane and change from black man to blind man with a flick of my wrist…from sociopathic gang banger with death for eyes…to poor motherless child… My final form is never my choosing. I only wheel the wand. You are the magician.”

6. Our Homes NOT Nursing Homes!

7. NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US

8. “making people uncomfortable since 1973” “This is a shot of me in 1996, at my first ADAPT protest in Atlanta, Georgia. It was published in Mouth magazine. Later that week, I committed civil disobedience for the first time in my life, in the name of the disabled people who died in nursing facilities, against their will.” Rahnee Patrick

9. A teacher in a religious school tried to reassure a student who was deaf that in the world to come, the student would be able to hear. The child quickly protested, “In the world to come, God will sign.” Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig

10. “Sympathy or pity can be an aggressive energy.” ~Sharon Betcher

11. ADAPT at the National Governor’s Association Meeting 2004 “A community that excludes even one of its members is no community at all.” -- Dan Wilkins

12. If someone appreciates your work and leaves you feeling powerful, they are probably an ally; if they leave you feeling grateful to them, they may be a pseudo-ally. ~ Aprille Annette

13. “As for the lies and false images, we need to name them, transform them, create something entirely new in their place, something that comes close and finally true to the bone, entering our bodies as liberation, joy, fury, hope, a will to refigure the world. The body as home.” “Gender reaches into disability; disability wraps around class; class strains against abuse; abuse snarls into sexuality; sexuality folds on top of race…everything finally piling into a single human body. To write about any aspect of identity, and aspect of the body, means writing about this entire maze.” Eli Clare

14. “Those with power can afford to tell their story or not. Those without power risk everything to tell their story and must.” Laura Hershey “Remember, you weren’t the one who made you ashamed, but you are the one who can make you proud. You get proud by practicing.”

15. No longer the polite tincuppers, waiting for your generous inclusion, we are more and more proud freedom fighters, taking to the stages, raising our speech-impaired voices in celebration of who we are. -- Cheryl Marie Wade

16. CRIPPLE “I am a cripple. I choose this word to name me… People—crippled or not—wince at the word cripple, as they do not at handicapped or disabled. Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom the fates/gods/viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely. As a cripple, I swagger… I would never refer to another person as a cripple. It is the word I use to name only myself.”

17. “See a disabled person clearly and chances are you’ll see yourself clearly.” M A R C U S N E I L “Disability is not a 'brave struggle' or 'courage in the face of adversity.' Disability is an art. It is an ingenious way to live.”

18. “I realize that I say I'm proud to be Disabled the same way I would say I'm proud to be Sicilian.” “People who live in poor countries, or in countries torn by war, where everyday is a struggle to survive, can be proud too, and they can love their land in a way Americans will never understand. I love the land of Sicily where I was born. It's a tough land. It sure was tough for a crippled girl to grow up in Riposto. Yet I'm proud to come from there.” NADINA LASPINA

19. North America’s first public mental health hospital: the Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg, VA opened in 1773. During the hospital’s first 60 years prevailing treatments included solitary confinement, conditioned fear of doctors, powerful but minimally effective drugs, bleeding, shackles, and plunge baths. It was thought that the patients had chosen a life of insanity and needed to decide to change their ways.

20. AKTION T4 Action T4 (German: Aktion T4) was the name used after World War II[1] for Nazi Germany's "Euthanasia programme" during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination.” This poster (from around 1938) reads: "60,000 Reichsmark is what this person suffering from a hereditary defect costs the People's community during his lifetime. Fellow citizen, that is your money too.” At least 200,000 physically or mentally handicapped people killed by medication, starvation, or in the gas chambers between 1939 and 1945.

21. Andy Imparato of the American Association of People with Disabilities speaks to the fear of many disabled about the return of eugenics: “You also need to take into account the financial implications of all of this. We have an economy that is not doing well as it once was and . . . one way to save money is to make it easier for people with disabilities to die.”

22. Ashley Treatment, 2004-2006 Doctors in Seattle performed several procedures on a 10 year old girl with developmental disabilities. The treatment included growth attenuation, hysterectomy, bilateral breast bud removal, and appendectomy. The purpose of the treatment was to stop her growth to enable the parents to continue care for her at home, to avoid menstrual cramps and bleeding, to preventing discomfort from large breasts, to prevent pregnancy and appendicitis, and to make her less vulnerable to sexual abuse by future caregivers. The hospital later admitted that the surgery was illegal and should only have been performed after a court order.

23. 2012 Paul Corby, 23, of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, was evaluated for a heart transplant at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and turned down because of psychiatric issues and autism.

24. Although intractable pain has been emphasized as the primary reason for enacting assisted suicide laws, the top five reasons Oregon doctors actually report for issuing lethal prescriptions are: • the “loss of autonomy” (89.9%), • “less able to engage in activities” (87.4%), • “loss of dignity” (83.8%), • “loss of control of bodily functions” (58.7%) and • “feelings of being a burden” (38.3%).

25. The average monthly Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) check is about $850 The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) income level in 2002 is $545 per month (or $6,048 annually in 2009) The average annual SSI payment is approximately 44% BELOW poverty level. Citation: Disabled World News (2009-03-14) - SSDI and SSI programs are the largest of the Federal programs that provide assistance to people with disabilities: http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/social-security/usa/ssi-ssdi.php#ixzz2NAtv6Z5z

26. Naomi Ortiz “[Disability pride] is life itself. People who haven’t found pride aren’t living. They are so trapped, stuck, and ashamed of who they are, that people will find out who they are; and if they hide it just enough, then somehow it will go away. Disability doesn’t just go away.”

27. MURDERED BY THE COURTS "Euthanasia in America now has a name-and a face." Terri Schiavo dies of marked dehydration after almost 14 days of being denied food and water based on Judge Greer's decision that it was Terri's wish to die. The court ignored contrary testimony of Terri's biological family and lifelong friends. The parents of “Baby Doe” in Indiana, are advised by their doctors to deny a surgical procedure to unblock their newborn’s esophagus, because the baby has Down Syndrome. Baby Doe starves to death before legal action can be taken. 2005 1983

29. 1983 Sharon Kowalski is disabled by a drunk driver near Onamia, Minnesota. Her parents, discovering that she is a lesbian, refuse to allow her to return home to her lover Karen Thompson, instead keeping her in a nursing home. Thompson’s eight-year struggle to free Kowalski becomes a focus of disability rights advocates and leads to links between the lesbian and disability rights communities.

30. “The presence or absence of a disability doesn’t predict quality of life.”~ Harriet McBryde Johnson

31. 40% of the population of people who are homeless in America are persons with disabilities. Data compiled from the Weingart Center Citation: Disabled World News (2009-07-20) - An editorial and commentary about Disability and Homelessness in America: http://www.disabled-world.com/editorials/political/disability-homeless.php#ixzz2NAw1fpL7