Simon Rouses Audience as Disability Community OKs Resolution

Participants in the Accessible Futures conference sponsored by MTC and the Association of Bay Area Governments today approved a 24-page draft resolution addressing critical issues facing the Bay Area's disability community in the areas of transportation, housing, environmental access and economic opportunity.

"Access and inclusion for all is a human right and non-negotiable," reads a part of the resolution. "This is the world as it can be but unfortunately not as it is... People with disabilities continue to face systemic barriers. In the effort to correct accessibility injustices, this group will work to improve communications at the regional level in order to build a stronger advocacy network led by people with disabilities."

U.S. Rep. Lateefah Simon, who is legally blind, gave the conference's keynote speech Tuesday morning, addressing issues that affect the disabled, saying rights need to be fought for. She praised those who came to the conference.

Simon told attendees they must push and agitate to improve policy affecting the disabled population and hold leaders accountable to achieve disability justice. 

"Your being here and lifting voices and demanding that the Bay Area has a vision, and transportation policies that center people with disabilities, it's about time," the East Bay Congresswoman said to cheers. "We deserve it. It's our fundamental right to mobility. It is a human right." 

Warren Cushman, who is blind, praised the conference attendees and consultants for putting together the draft resolution in just two days.

"When we think about all the things we did over the last two days and all the things we heard, and to have that distilled into a meaningful (document), it's great work," said Cushman, who started Community Resources for Independent Living in the East Bay. "I'm sure we will have edits. But I'm fully behind this and its intent."

Some of the attendees called for language in the document to be more direct and forceful to underscore the critical needs and desires of the community. In the coming days, the resolution will be edited to reflect those desires, consultants said.

"This is the beginning," said Richard Skaff, a disability advocate from Marin County, of the resolution. "It is not going to be a perfect document today. But it is a start."

The resolution states public agencies throughout the Bay Area should:

• Ensure print and online information is fully accessible, including for people with visual and auditory disabilities.
• Create a clear monitoring mechanism.
• Coordinate funding and finances.
• Commit to deep and continued engagement with persons with disabilities and with independent living centers.
• Build partnerships to ensure voices from the disability community are meaningfully incorporated into all decision-making and planning processes.
• Report out to the disability community how input has impacted policies, practices, and programs.
• Educate agency staff to demystify disability issues and provide training to ASL on technical content for accurate
  translations.
• Establish clear procedures regarding emergency preparedness and evacuation for people with disabilities.
• Integrate all needs for maintenance of accessible infrastructure into planning.

There are plans to create a new body to advocate across the Bay Area for the issues brought up at the conference.

Dr. Victor Santiago Pineda, an internationally known disability rights expert, gave the closing keynote speech at the two-day event held at the Bay Area Metro Center in San Francisco.

"The conference resolution we shared today is not symbolic," Pineda said. "It's a declaration of purpose, of unity, a regional blueprint and a line in the sand. It not only identifies unmet needs, but unrealized opportunity and potential. But let me be clear: none of this happens if we play it safe. None of this happens if we go back to business as usual. We can't keep pretending we are not in a fight for our collective future.

Rep. Simon told conference attendees they must push and agitate to improve policy affecting the disabled population and hold leaders accountable to achieve disability justice.

"You know and I know — as a disabled woman — that all policy deeply affects our ability to thrive, from transit, to healthcare, to housing to education," an impassioned Simon told attendees. "Where are we in the conversation? Guess what. We are in this room right now developing an opportunity and a framework. And then we will demand its implementation and then we will demand its funding. And we will demand the care, the care to continue the policies to implement them in a just future. I'm so proud to be part of this community."

Simon said while the Bay Area is seen as affluent, the disabled are often treated as "third-class" citizens.

"We need to make sure our stories are reflected in our policies," she exhorted. "Push back on the narrative that the Bay Area has enough... We have a ways to go, but we are getting there with conversation and opportunities such as this. Let's keep going. Let's keep moving."