Disability Thinking Weekday: 4/17/24
Three bulletins from the American Association of People with Disabilities
Somehow I find myself with three things to share from the same organization. I don’t work for the AAPD, but I don’t mind promoting their work from time to time.
So here are three disability-related links from the American Association of People with Disabilities for Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
1. Disability Download
American Association of People with Disabilities, (AAPD) - March 2024
Source: Email bulletin
“The Disability Download is a compilation of disability-related news, special announcements, events, and updates from the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).”
This is the AAPD’s monthly newsletter. The section that interests me the most is on AAPD’s work on voting. That’s where I found the 2nd shared link for today …
2. Find Out How to Vote in Your State
American Association of People with Disabilities, (AAPD)
Source: Email bulletin
“Voting is a way to live a self-determined life by influencing the people and policies that affect your everyday life. And your vote can help create positive change.”
This guide to voting rules and procedures in every U.S. state is great tool for disabled voters. It also represents an impressive amount of precision work by people with disabilities who took on the task of compiling the mountain of information necessary to fully include it all — and put it in a format geared to Americans with disabilities preparing for an election day.
3. Tell Your Senator to Support the Child Tax Credit Now!
American Association of People with Disabilities, (AAPD)
Source: Email bulletin
“The Child Tax Credit is one of the most effective tools for reducing child poverty – in 2021, the CTC lifted 2.9 million children out of poverty. Families raising children with disabilities and/or chronic conditions are more likely to live below the poverty line.”
I appreciate how the AAPD, and increasingly other disability organizations too, don’t just talk about strictly disability issues. They also highlight more general issues that have a disability component, or which affect disabled people in unique ways.
Every country needs at least one disability organization like the AAPD. It’s not perfect. No such organization is perfect. And some are quite imperfect for specific reasons. Some disability organizations are too dominated by the never-ending chase for money. Some are so committed to generic forms of “outreach” and “awareness” that they never actually do any difficult or controversial advocacy. Others are so tied into the advocacy aesthetic and the activist experience that they disdain the kind of progress you can sometimes make through boring, behind the scenes work. A few disability organizations make themselves vulnerable to tyrants and thieves in their own ranks. But despite all these risks, it’s still worth the effort to have at least one organization run by and for disabled people that all disability communities can use as a reference point, if not for fully unified leadership. As far as I can tell, the AAPD is a pretty good example of the value of a national-level organization, representing all disabilities — not just one or one type, run by disabled people themselves, and committed to having a strategically sound by bold voice on disability issues.
If you live outside the U.S., which disability organizations do you trust and look to for information and leadership in your country? Please share in the comments!
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