FAQ
Learn more below by reading through answers to some of our frequently asked questions.
What do we mean by welcoming language and behavior?
Including language in all outfacing (communication, websites, brochures, maps, etc.) that invites someone to request reasonable accommodations so their participation in an environment, product, or service is genuinely accessible (language, visuals, physical access, etc.). This is the practice of meeting someone where they are at and can be challenging to break past our own personal blinders and biases both implicit and explicit. It takes our ‘self’ out of the center and puts in the person/people/community we are serving.
What does it mean that we are aging into disability?
According to the ADA National Network, “More than 30 percent of Americans over age 65 have some kind of disability, and over 50 percent of those over age 75. These may range from difficulties seeing and hearing to walking and thinking.” For almost all of us, we will either develop a disability ourselves or have close friends and family who develop a disability. This means that we all stand to benefit from creating the conditions for easy access that allow any individual to participate and enjoy a place, product or service independently and from changing cultural norms, attitudes and perceptions of disability in our community.
Why is it important to talk to the person with I/DD, not their support worker?
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted?
What do you mean by seen and unseen disability?
Key Terms and Phrases
Universal Access
Having the supports or accommodations needed to gain access that would allow any individual to participate and enjoy a place, product or service independently.
Support
- Support (or accommodations) are individualized for each person and circumstance and should be driven by them (person-centered) and their needs.
- Accommodation Definition from Dicitonary.com:
- the act of accommodating; state or process of being accommodated; adaptation.
- adjustment of differences; reconciliation.
- Sociology. a process of mutual adaptation between persons or groups, usually achieved by eliminating or reducing hostility, as by compromise or arbitration.
- anything that supplies a need, want, favor, convenience, etc.
Community development
- Wikipedia: The United Nations defines community development as “a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems
- To me (Julie), it can mean a collective and collaborative effort to create culture and/or a space or environment sometime with a culture perhaps this is Thompson Acres.
Housing
Special needs/Special privileges
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Dignity of risk
The right of the individual to take risks – make their own choices – when participating in life experiences and understanding that all experiences may not be positive. People with disabilities often have many choices FOR them, not BY them.
Whole life or whole/full life/good life
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all, not just those with privilege, lucky breaks, white skin color, etc…
All Means All
Team, self, community-check to see who is being excluded even if we do not like what they bring. Leading with race and other traditionally marginalized people.
Healthy Ecosystem
A healthy ecosystem will have the right conditions for a wide range of (diverse) organisms to (diverse) survive and thrive. Can be modeled in nature but used in community, family, and other human groups.
Ordinary needs
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Seen vs. Unseen
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Accommodation
Something individualized or uniquely provided that will offer the ability to participate in an environment, product, or service as others do. ADA uses this in employment, ‘reasonable accommodations’.
Equal participation
Equal participation is not necessarily equitable. Think of the kids looking over the fence equal vs. equitable. Equal means we all get the same or equal parts that may not work for some. We all want to participate and may need varying supports to do so (not ‘special privileges’).
Equity
Nothing about us without us
- From the early Disability Rights Movement of the 1990s a phrase directly from the Disability Community to everyone else that people with disabilities do not want to be excluded and oppressed when creating policy, culture, and environment.
- I (Julie) challenge Sammy’s Place to put families and individuals with the local lived experience in the lead and others follow that lead.
Trust Humanity
The overall trust that humans are good and will be there for us when needed.
Presuming Competence
To expect a person CAN succeed given the proper support and/or accommodations.
Self Determination
A process by which someone controls their own life. Often misunderstood by those already in control of their own life.
