Feeling voiceless to finding our voice…feeling alone in disability to being enabled to help others…from being unaware of all the resources available for your child who is disabled to being educated to advocate: These aims and more will spur us on our journey as Fort Wayne’s League for the Blind and Disabled kicks off its inaugral Leadership Academy class.
That’s what brought twenty-four of us together at 9:00 AM this morning at the Anthony Wayne Services building. We want to speak for the disability community in community events, public forums, and in one-on-one conversation. Twenty-four people from across the disability landscape from blind and low-vision to deaf, quadriplegic, and autistic. You may recall the themes we often emphasize here on Boldly Blind: mutual encouragement for us who are blind or low-vision and raising awareness among those who are not so disabled of our dignity and capabilities. Both emphases were on full display as we shared our stories with each other. For me personally, I loved hearing the challenges that so many of these colleagues in advocacy have overcome. And yet we don’t overcome such hurdles for our own sake but for the betterment of others who face various degrees of discrimination. We share such coping stores to find that commonality that will bring us closer in helping each other embrace our blindness, deafness, autism, cerebral palsy, et al.
Perhaps, your State or city doesn’t have such a plan or advocacy opportunity. Contact The League For the Blind’s Inclusion Institute and speak with its directors, Alana and Luke. They may be able to help you facilitate a similar effort in your area or they may steer you toward someone else who can build such a course of study.
http://www.the-league.org
(260) 441-0551
http://www.the-league.org
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