10/23/19 PRESS ALERT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More information:
Latoya Maddox: (267) 815-8688, LatoyaMaddox@libertyresources.org
Cassie Holdsworth: (215) 219-0694, cassieadapt@gmail.com
Anita Cameron: (585) 259-8746, anitacameron007@gmail.com
WHO: ADAPT
WHAT: Activists March on D.C. Declaring “All Are One,” Action by Government Necessary to End Pervasive Marginalization of Disabled Americans
WHERE: Washington DC
WHEN: October 23, 2019
Despite decades of direct action and activism, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision, disabled Americans face marginalization in every aspect of life and federal policy– emergency response and management, immigration, housing, culture and recreation, education, and employment, as well as in representation in media and politics. ADAPT, a national disability-led activist organization participating in civil disobedience and direct action to secure disability rights, marches through downtown Washington today with the full weight of this reality and a desire to change it.
On Monday, ADAPT announced a Community for All platform that specifically addressed the institutionalization of disabled people and steps to end it. Mike Oxford, an organizer with Kansas ADAPT explained, “ADAPT has always been about ending the institutional bias and making the freedom to live in the community as much a given for disabled people as non-disabled people. Today, we acknowledge the array of federal policies that keep disabled people from being treated with dignity or equality even in the community.”
ADAPT calls on several government agencies such as Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Homeland Security {DHS), as well as government-funded institutions like the Museum of African American History and Culture. “Every agency needs to stop treating disabled people like we’re not worthy or equal treatment in its policies. The Museum and similar places can change the narrative so that the systemic issues of multiply-marginalized groups like disabled Blacks are recognized,” said Anita Cameron, a lifelong organization with ADAPT currently out of Rochester, NY.
“We also call on the White House to stop its harmful rhetoric and antipathy towards disabled people,” said Laura Halvorson, an ADAPTer in Virginia. “The Trump administration has mocked us, demonized us by calling us perpetrators of violence, and made us out as fraud and abusers of social security. The hate and efforts to weaken legal protections for the largest minority need to end. Today we march to end the end the policies that divide us and tear us down when we ‘All Are One.’”
For decades ADAPT has worked to secure for disabled Americans the same rights and liberties enjoyed by their nondisabled neighbors. ADAPT’s history, the issues we are fighting for and our activities can be followed on our web site at www.adapt.org, our ADAPT Facebook page and on Twitter – look for #ADAPTandRESIST
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