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AAPD President and CEO Mark Perriello’s remarks at the Justice for All (JFA) awards

Calls on disability community to dream big

July 23, 2013 | AAPD Press Team

In commemoration of the 23rd Anniversary of the ADA, AAPD releases our President and CEO Mark Perriello’s remarks at the Justice for All (JFA) awards. AAPD honored Senator Max Baucus (MT-D) and former Senator Robert Dole (KS-R), and both Senator Baucus and Senator Tom Harkin (IA-D) spoke at the event. AAPD awarded Dan Habib, the Filmmaker in Residence at the University of New Hampshire's Institute on Disability, with the JFA Champion Grassroots Award and Joyce Bender, AAPD past chair and founder/CEO of Bender Consulting Services, with the JFA Corporate Award.

---Remarks as prepared for delivery---

First thank you, Senator Tom Harkin and Andy Imparato for securing our room.

Thank you to the Board at AAPD for your outstanding leadership. I couldn’t ask for a better board. And to the staff at AAPD, your tireless work is producing positive outcomes for people with disabilities every day. Thank you. I would feel confident marching into the toughest of fights with this team.

Today we come together to celebrate the 23rd Anniversary of the ADA.

Today we come together to celebrate the tremendous gains we’ve witnessed, and that many in this room helped to achieve.

Today we must do more than celebrate. We must look to the future with wide eyes and a sense of possibility.

Today we dream big. Our charge is too big for cynicism, too big for burnout, and too big to spend time on the seemingly satisfying pursuits of gossip and infighting, which yield no results.

We dream big for the hundreds of thousands of young people with disabilities who face the dual challenges of low expectations and isolation, which become the dual challenges of poverty and unemployment.

For the community we represent, today we ask what if?

What if Martin Luther King Jr. never gave his “I have a dream speech?” What if he listened to those who told him not to dream?

What if Harvey Milk did not run for office? What if he listened to the dark voices of doubt and fear that encouraged him to hold back?

What if leaders in the LGBT movement said that marriage equality could not be achieved?

What if leaders in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community accepted discriminatory zoning laws and remained legally barred from living outside designated districts to this day?

What if Justin Dart had not married Yoshiko?

What if Justin never put on that hat? Would we have the ADA today? Would we be gathered together in celebration?

Now, what if Martin Luther King Jr gave the “I had a dream speech", but stood at the steps of the Lincoln memorial and faced an empty mall with no one to listen? Would a black man sit in the Oval Office today, were it not for the courage of so many before him?

What if no one marched with Dr. King from Selma? Or read his letter from jail?

What if Harvey Milk had run for office, but no one answered his famous call, “I’m here to recruit you?” Would Tammy Baldwin be the first openly LGBT US Senator today?

What if Justin Dart had gone on the ADA bus tour, but at stop after stop he found no crowds there to join him in the fight?

A movement is made up of people. Our movement, for justice for people with disabilities, is no exception.

Today the fight for social justice for Americans with disabilities is at a crossroads. We gather today, having made great progress, but our work is far from done, and there is a new generation that is not interested in excuses, is not interested in appeasing politicians, or that has patience for the tired excuses that HR managers have used to slow the hiring of people with disabilities, just as they used those excuses for other minorities in the past.

These new leaders of disability should never hear "slow down" or "lower your expectations" from anyone who claims to help lead this movement.

What if instead of saying, "We tried something like this and failed?" We try again and again until we achieve our goal? It's called practice. And we should do it until we get it right.

What if we organize an effort around the Disability Treaty that matches our opponents in terms of calls and emails one-to-one? What would it take to get there? What should we stop spending money on now, so we have the resources to achieve this? We can.

Have you picked up the phone to weigh in with your Senator on this important issue?

What if, instead of simply lobbying for federal dollars to support our programs, we lobbied to make sure that the programs achieved their intended outcomes? In 2010 the federal government spent over $4 billion dollars across 45 programs to support the employment of people with disabilities, and we lost jobs. That is not what success looks like.

What if, like the LGBT community, 90 percent of our organizations were funded for and by people with disabilities? People will say we are poor, and I say back we must expand the fold. We come from all walks of life and socioeconomic statuses.

What if every person with a disability identified with the word “disability” and that all Americans knew the meaning?

What if politicians couldn’t show-up for a photo-op with our community because they knew we were disappointed in a vote or a position?

What if you did not need to prove you couldn't work to get services and supports, and could still receive critical services as you transition to the American workforce?

What if every school teacher in America was taught to teach our young people to dream big? The message is reaching more and more young people thanks to the hard work of advocates, but still reaches all too few.

What if hiring managers didn’t think twice about hiring a qualified applicant with a disability?

What if the MetroAccess showed up on time? Or that taxis were accessible?

What if developers of new tech ask “what if a person with a disability were to use this?”

Every day in America young people with disabilities are told not to dream. We have the power to change that – At AAPD we are changing that through the internship program, through Disability Mentoring Day, and through the anti-bullying public awareness campaign.

Every day people with disabilities doubt their capacity to run for office. That is why we are launching the Bob Dole leadership series to train people with disabilities across the nation on what it takes to run and win an elected office.

Every day in America a hiring manager makes a decision not to interview someone from our community. We can change that through education and programs like the Disability Equality Index, which we have launched with our partners at USBLN.

Tony Coelho tells a story about his decision to make a difference in his life and the lives others. He was sitting on a Hill overlooking a park in Los Angeles. People were laughing and playing and he was miserable. On that day he looked inward, was not satisfied with what he saw, and asked what if?

He got up off that Hill and made a difference. What if he had not gotten up off that hill?

Today, we come together to dream big. We must get up, get off that Hill together, and march to the mountain top arm in arm, step by step, wheel by wheel.

We must recognize that the old ways of doing business will only get us so far; recognize that what so many great leaders have helped Americans with disabilities achieve has set the foundation for a stronger movement for social justice and independence. A movement that is only limited by our dreams for the future.

Thank you for joining us today.

Please join me in approaching the next 23 years with youthful enthusiasm and boundless optimism, and build the movement for equality that achieves its aim of equal opportunity, economic power, full political participation, and independent living, and never apologies for prioritizing equality above all other considerations.

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The American Association of People with Disabilities is the nation's largest disability rights organization. We promote equal opportunity, economic power, independent living, and political participation for people with disabilities. Our members, including people with disabilities and our family, friends, and supporters, represent a powerful force for change. To learn more, visit the AAPD Web site: www.aapd.com.