Blog | Tag: Inclusion

Happy Pride Month! What a wonderful month to celebrate with you. Before we begin the blog, we want to name that whether you are out or not, figuring out your identity or not, we see you, we appreciate you, and care for you. Your experiences and identities are valid, and we hope to always offer you a safe space at our organization and events to be your true and authentic self. 

December 3rd is International Day of Persons with Disabilities! This day strives to bring awareness to the experiences of people with disabilities around the globe, promoting the disability community’s rights, dignity, safety, wellbeing, and success. It also calls attention to the treatment of people with disabilities and where there is more work left to do.

November 11th is World Usability Day, an annual event intended to highlight the importance of technology as a way to help make our lives easier. Devices like cellphones, laptops, tablets, and public access kiosks — and the websites, applications and interfaces that run on these devices — have the potential to remove barriers, open up opportunities, and advance inclusion for people with disabilities.

In 1990, President Bush pulled the equality and inclusion bus up to the White House and invited People with Disabilities to climb onboard. He compared the act of signing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to the destruction of the Berlin Wall, a powerful symbol of Communist oppression that many of us feared, fought, and cheered when it finally fell. It was such a pivotal moment for that generation; how could we not cheer and applaud the fall of another wall of oppression a year later?

While there are still times when a dedicated assistive technology (AT) device is necessary or recommended, the rise of the smartphone and tablet age has changed the way we look at AT. Often there is an app for less than $100 that can do the same or similar job as a multi-thousand-dollar dedicated device, which makes approvals and delays much less of a factor. And one device, such as a $500 tablet, can provide a number of functions that would have taken several dedicated devices to accomplish in the past.

Olivia Babis discusses her personal connection with the ADA and how her life has changed over the years since its inception.

Disability Rights Florida staff member Victor Panoff shares his thoughts about the ADA on the eve of its 30th anniversary.