1. Introduction: You don’t have to be a disability activist to want to help make the world a more inclusive place for people with disabilities. There are many small things you can do in your everyday life to help make someone’s life a little bit easier.
Inclusion is a good thing, right? It means that we are treating people with disabilities as human beings and not as “others”.
Inclusion has its own share of problems, however. In the past, there have been many people who were excluded from our society because they were disabled and they were not treated like human beings. They were simply seen as another obstacle to overcome or a nuisance in their day-to-day lives.
We see it all the time in our work:
• One person is helped by another person who is also blind because they can read Braille;
• Another person is helped by another person who has special needs because he or she can drive a car;
• Some children are pushed out of their homes for the same reason that some adults are pushed out of theirs;
And so on…
The problem isn’t with inclusion, it’s with the attitudes that underlie it:
• People don’t understand why they need to help others who can’t help themselves;
• They think that this represents an insult to the people who can do things themselves; and/or that this makes the person less human than other people.
Thankfully, there’s a movement growing around disability inclusion and I wholeheartedly support it (if you’re interested in spreading your own work about disability inclusion, I would love for you to get in touch). The easiest way to get started is using my own personal website (which aims to be disability inclusive), but there are other resources on Pinterest as well. If you’ve got something relevant you’d like to share, please feel free to share your story! Tweet at @d_flynn or post a comment on my blog post about Disability Inclusion: http://daflynn.com/disability-inclusion/ . You can also leave me a comment here!
2. 5 Everyday Items You Can Make For Someone With Disabilities
Here’s a good place to start. From http://www.durango.org/people-with-disabilities:
“Inclusion is not about how much money we can spend, but how much we can make and share.”
Awareness of the law of economic inclusion is increasing throughout the world and today, there are more than 9 million disabled people in the United States (or 19% of the U.S. population). Inclusion happens when people who are differently abled take on their own roles as members of society and engage with this world in unique ways, passing on what they know and experience to others, without preconceived notions or stereotypes about where they fit into this system.
The purpose of this site is to promote awareness through information sharing and education about issues that affect people with disabilities and those who are disabled themselves. The goal is to create awareness so that all Americans will understand what it means to be disabled, what it means for them personally, how they can help build a better future for not only themselves but their families as well as all Americans, no matter their disability or background. Our hope is that by making information more accessible it will be easier for individuals to make informed decisions regarding their own lives as well as those around them whether they have a disability or not.
We want disability inclusion to encompass everything from working with disabilities (using machines) to teaching disabilities (using curriculum materials). We want inclusion to include more than just physical abilities: mental aptitude also needs attention so that all people who have disabilities can be successful in whatever career path they choose.
If you have any questions about what we do please feel free to contact us at info@durangoeducationfoundation.org . If you have any questions about anything related to the site please email info@durangoeducationfoundation.org . If you would like material on this site sent out directly or if you would like information from us emailed directly please contact info@durangoeducationfoundation dot org .
-A wheelchair ramp
We often see disability inclusivity mentioned in the news and policy debates, but there is still a long way to go before everyone gets access to the same opportunities. While it is great to see the inclusion of a wheelchair ramp for instance, it may still be too much for a lot of individuals. Our goal is to help people with disabilities connect with products that will make their lives easier (and perhaps even make them happier).
-An accessible bathroom
There are many ways to bring disability into the mainstream. One is to make sure all bathrooms are accessible, but there is a better way: making it accessible for those people who don’t have the luxury of time or a lot of money. Disability inclusion efforts – using technology and design to ensure that people with disabilities can have access to the life they need without having to ask for it – have become a popular part of Silicon Valley’s culture.
One problem with this approach is that its results can be easily squandered. Rather than being an attention grabber, inclusivity can be one of the most pedestrian aspects of a startup – something you can easily implement with sketchy data and software that has no long term benefits for most users. But it’s still important, so here are 10 everyday items you can make with disabilities in mind (and why):
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Bathroom Accessible Electrical Outlets A simple, slick way to make it easier for disabled people to use an electrical outlet is by making sure that the ones at home and office are both accessible by wheelchair. A well-made accessible outlet can take up very little space and costs less than $5 ($10 if you buy power adapters). If your company makes products like these, consider making them customizable so that people who are visually impaired or deaf can use them as well.
Cable Ties Helping blind people find their way around a house and conventionally sighted people find themselves in sometimes precarious situations when they try to get power at night or when they have low light levels (e.g., a dimly lit room) requires some level of planning on everyone’s part: sometimes they want to go somewhere else, other times they just want their lights turned on/off manually (e.g., because there isn’t enough light), or both! An easy solution is cable ties: simply looping them around something (like a table leg) will always keep your lights on or off, regardless of how dark it gets or how hard you try to turn them off! This also works well for keeping your computer running, which we’ll get into next…
Computer Laptop In addition to helping blind people navigate their homes, these days we’ve also been seeing computers become available with battery packs instead of AC adapters where batteries last longer and do not require frequent charging like AC adapters do today! These specific types of laptops cost more but are
-A sensory-friendly toy
Disability rights activists across the world have called for the inclusion of products that are specifically designed to make use of sensory inputs (e.g., tactile toys) and tailored to the needs of people with disabilities. And while this may sound like a simple request, it is not an easy one to meet. In fact, most existing products do not meet these criteria.
As a result, there are a wide variety of sensory-friendly toys available, but many of them are either too expensive or not user friendly enough. And even those who can afford them often find that they lack certain features (e.g., amusement centers that accommodate multiple users) or don’t provide sufficient support for people with disabilities on different levels (e.g., speech or tactile/visual input).
This is why we created our own, uniquely designed product called “Strawberry Girl” — which has both high quality and usability in mind — to address all these issues at once, and to help bring people with disabilities into the mainstream (Anita Sarkeesian has called this an “awesome way” to get out the vote). Since release in 2014 we’ve received over 100,000 first-time buyers who have bought it because it is perfect for their needs.
-A weighted blanket
The first time I heard about a weighted blanket from a friend in college, I thought it was ridiculous. It seemed like such a simple thing, yet somehow this one accessory, that I would never have considered buying for myself, would actually be useful for someone else. The thing is, it turns out this is not the case.
We are all aware of the many marketing gimmicks which try to sell us on the virtues of doing what we “need” in life, but does anyone really need a weighted blanket?
Before you can start making blankets for people with disabilities (and even after), you need to know how to make them. If you don’t already know how to do this yourself, check out our tutorial on how to make your own weighted blanket. You can find it here: Making Your Own Weighted Blanket . This is also a good resource if you want more in-depth instructions on how to do this particular task (we offer simple instructions and diagrams).
If you can’t find an easy way that works for you and your company, then there are several other tools available online which can help you design one or create your own. You can find these tools at: DIY weighted blanket maker . We also provide illustrations here: How To Make An Easy Weighted Blanket .
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-A communication board
While you may live in a world where disability is never mentioned, or at least not discussed, the world of disability in America has been growing for decades now (I was reading a book about it recently, called The Disability Paradox: How the Diverse Nation Achieves All It Needs to Succeed). People with disabilities are often invisible (they can’t vote, they don’t have a voice in government and their lives are often blighted by poverty), but they are also incredibly hard-working and innovative when given the tools.
This video from The Washington Post does a great job of pushing that idea:
Include disabled members of your company on your team. They might be more creative than you think. They might be able to do things you can’t even imagine. ______________ The United States has some of the highest rates of unemployment and poverty found anywhere on earth. This country needs many more people like them than it already has. ______________
Poverty itself is not just a function of income inequality; it’s also often caused by poor employment opportunities due to discrimination and elimination of barriers that keep people alive who would otherwise thrive in the workplace. ______________ Recognizing this, Congress passed the ADA — which makes it much easier for people with disabilities to obtain employment and earn wages for which they are capable — via the passage of Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 (the most recent Congress passed HR 3590 as part-time employment benefits). Over time, however, House Republicans have fought against this act every time it comes up for vote (in 2006, for example). ______________
The good news is that Democrats have had majorities in both houses since 2011 because we’ve been able to work together across party lines to make all Americans safer from discrimination, better educated about their rights under civil rights laws, and healthier by expanding access to health care, especially through Medicaid expansion among low-income working families and young children through our Affordable Care Act (ACA). ______________ As a result, we’re telling our story—and making sure everyone’s hear us loud and clear—by ensuring more American with disabilities can get economically productive lives through grants under Title VII of the ADA; expanding workforce development programs under Workforce Investment Act; ending job bias against people with disabilities through new legislation such as Senate Bill 523 introduced by Senator Mazie Hirono; ensuring all Americans are empowered so they can live full lives