by Elise

Disability Cultural Center Facebook page.

The Disability Cultural Center in San Francisco, which opened this past summer, is the first of its kind in the U.S. and was a long time coming. In April 1977, there was a month-long sit-in at San Francisco’s UN Plaza by people living with disabilities. They won. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, banning discrimination due to disability, was finally implemented. The 504 Sit-in inspired others across the country. More than a decade later, the Americans With Disabilities Act became law. Activist Deborah Kaplan, of the San Francisco’s Office on Disability and Accessibility, remembers being at the sit-in in Washington, D.C., and recalls that accessibility to restrooms, even entering buildings, was a worry. The accessible Cultural Center is a community: a safe space for social, celebratory and educational events. It contains a large space for socializing, and rooms for holding a variety of events, including classes, dance, zine making, plant potting, job search sessions and peer support groups. The Center inspired Detroit to build a disability cultural center. But the disability community is worried about how Trump’s large, ugly bill will affect them.

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“I focus on the person, not the disability; to show them not as objects of pity but as ordinary human beings pursuing their simple everyday dreams,” says photographer Vicky Roy, who authored Everyone Is Good at Something, published by The Inclusion Movement. Over four years, Roy interviewed people living with the 21 disabilities recognized in India. She devoted one day each to one person, living with a disability in India. Artist Bikram Bhattarai, who does his artwork with his feet because he was born without arms, is one of them. The book is in English and in Braille and tells stories about people who help broaden education, work and sports opportunities. Roy is working with V.R. Ferose of Inclusion Movement, to raise awareness, fight taboos and help India meet the UN’s 2030 deadline to make India inclusive.

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Disabled Women Ireland Facebook page.

Ireland voted for ratification of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. But Amy Hassett, co-chair of Disabled Women Ireland, and activist Dewal McDonagh, Chief Executive of Inclusion Ireland, are among disability rights advocates calling attention to the limits of Ireland’s National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030. Even though the strategy has a human rights approach, it is extremely vague and has almost no specific targets. The strategy focuses on inclusive learning and education, employment, independent living and active participation, well-being, health, transport and mobility.