Today, July 26, 2024, is National Disability Independence Day, the day when our country commemorates the 34th anniversary of the passing of the Americans With Disabilities Act and honors the individuals whom the act aims to protect and support for better lives. As part of the Groundwork equity series of articles, we are handing the mic over to Paula Martin, Groundwork’s Community Nutrition Specialist.
When I think about this day, one thing I reflect on is that disabilities are far more universal than people realize. For example, a small but ubiquitous thing, if you wear glasses, you have a disability—you have a visual impairment. There are a lot of people who have disabilities that are visible, and those individuals unfortunately still receive a lot of discrimination, but there are millions of others who have disabilities that you don’t see. And since disabilities increase as we grow in age, if you live long enough, you and nearly everyone you know will experience disability to some degree.
This holiday helps to remind us of that—each of us will experience this discrimination. I remember my grandfather telling me that he was attracted to my grandmother because she had nice legs, and by the time I knew her she was in a wheelchair due to a disease and she couldn’t walk. And she told me she was attracted to my grandfather because he had a beautiful smile, but when I knew him he had false teeth. So all that stuff is so superficial, right?
“This day can be an antidote … a universal reflection point, an opportunity to embrace that idea that we are all imperfect, and we all need understanding, acceptance, love, and support.”
paula Martin
We are often so quick to label people without giving them a chance to show us what they’ve really got. But this day can be an antidote to that, a universal reflection point, an opportunity to embrace that idea that we are all imperfect, and we all need understanding, acceptance, love, and support.
I have a chronic health condition, and it ebbs and flows. Most of the time you look at me and I look completely fine and normal, but you can’t tell what’s going on in the inside. I fight through days of having pain. I fight through days of my medication effects—the meds can make me feel really sick. And I fight through days of fatigue. There are times, like when I’m organizing a big event at work, and I’m hauling things, and going up and down stairs, and suddenly I will feel like I just need to lie down on a carpet.
The ADA is fundamentally about making accommodations for people with disabilities. And in my life, I definitely witnessed both the negative effects of not having accommodations and the positive effects that having accommodations made for me. When I was in 10th grade, I got sick and had to leave school and was not able to come back to school until the 11th grade. My school never gave me a tutor or even organized the teachers to send homework home. And I know my parents were asking for that. It was very difficult making up that lost ground. And then some years later I had another sick spell when I was attending my community college. The college added some infrastructure in a bathroom that helped me do some of my medical procedures. And I was able to have flexible parking accommodations. These small accommodations made a big difference for me.
You do still hear complaints sometimes about the ADA, especially when it comes to the cost of construction. But you know, we have to ask ourselves, are we caring, and do we want full engagement from everybody in the community? If the answer is yes, then that’s just what you do. You have to put a little more in to get a better outcome.
Our team thought about accessibility quite a bit when building the Esperance Community Teaching Kitchen. We carefully chose the height of our counters. We made sure we did not clog up the space with furniture, so it’s easy to get around in a wheelchair. We have very easy access from the elevators and to the bathrooms. We have an outdoor deck off the kitchen and it’s easy to access that in a wheelchair. So it’s not like, “It’s a nice pretty view out there. Too bad you can’t go out and see it.”
Of course we have a ways to go, but I feel optimism because we always have a chance to do better. I feel optimism because without it the alternative isn’t so hot. But we need to know that any progress is tenuous. It’s always tenuous. I mentioned that it costs money to accommodate people with disabilities, and you know that if it costs money it’s always a concern. But I feel we always have to advocate for disability rights—that’s just part of our civic duty.
As far as a specific place to make an improvement, one area where we really need change is in social security supplemental disability income limits. The limits we have keep people in disability poverty—the limits essentially legally require disabled people to be poor. For one, you are allowed to have only meager assets. So even if you are able to work a little bit, you are not allowed to have savings above a very low amount. You can’t really own a home. It traps people in poverty, disability poverty. And if you go above those limits in your bank account, you get a notice that your next payment will be reduced, so you have this sense of being constantly policed for having too much money, even though you have less money than everybody else. It’s degrading and wrong.
The Disability Network of Northern Michigan is a tremendous resource for all community members and is good place to give a little love and support. The Network frequently seeks the community’s support in many ways and has opportunities for volunteers with all abilities. Start with signing up for their newsletter and see where you might be able to get involved. 
Paula Martin, Groundwork Community Nutrition Specialist
paula.martin@groundworkcenter.org
