For the past few days, the Obama Transition Team has asked for community discussions on health care reform. There have been several in Upstate New York, including two here in Rochester. I attended one of these meetings, and I am still fuming! Let me tell you what happened:

On the evening of December 30th, I attended the health care reform community discussion meeting–or, shall I say, I tried to. The site, Boulder Coffee, located at Genesee and Brooks, is inaccessible to people who use wheelchairs! There is one large step at each entrance to the shop. I asked for the manager, who was very apologetic. She looked around, and found a plywood slab, and I was able to gain access. Unfortunately, that solution would not have worked for someone using a power chair; the slab was too flimsy and lightweight. Further, the meeting was set to be held upstairs, and the building has no elevator. I told Emily Queenan, the organizer of the meeting, that I wanted to attend, so they held it downstairs.

To say that I am livid would be a vast understatement! This site was part of the original Brooks Landing project, and since the building was renovated, should not have opened without being accessible. There seemed to be a prevalent belief that, according to the ADA, the shop doesn’t have to be accessible because the Brooks Landing project did not receive federal funds, but I told them that they are wrong. The building is a public place that can be made accessible, and by federal law, it must be. Remember, this building had just been renovated! I left my card with the manager to give to the owner, but this is not the last that they will hear from me!

I am in the process of writing to the Obama Transition Team because if this was done under their auspices, they must know that some of those meetings are being held in inaccessible venues. After all, if that site was inaccessible, there is a fair possibility that other sites used for the meetings were inaccessible, as well. I’m also going to include the state Democratic Party representative as a recipient of this letter.

Some of you might be familiar with Brooks Landing and Sector 4. Last year, Sector 4 held its Brook’s Landing project unveiling at an inaccessible location. I wrote a letter to the Mayor and the Sector leader and others, that led to Sector 4 holding a another unveiling at CDR. There was follow-up between CDR and the architects, as well as the city on the Brooks Landing project, with input from us on how to make certain venues within the Project fully accessible. Honestly, I though that we had made some impact. WRONG!!

Let me say it again. I am livid. Fuming. Furious. Outraged! Furthermore, I am tired, okay? I am simply tired of the same apologies, tired of the excuses, tired of being made to feel that I am being unreasonable, tired of my community being rendered invisible, and tired of having to put up with discrimination when there are laws in place that are supposed to protect us. I am tired of the fact that my people are an afterthought, at best, unless we are present, and even then, sometimes are still unconsidered unless we speak up. I’m tired of the verbal (and sometimes literal) pats on the head that I get when I introduce myself, or speak of my accomplishments in nondisabled settings. Frankly, I am tired of having to bite my tongue, and be professional when I am raging inside, but I know that if I say what is truly on my mind, then, people won’t see me as Anita Cameron, Systems Advocate with the Center for Disability Rights. They’ll see me as an Angry Black Disabled Woman, and treat me as such.

What is especially tiring for me is the constant fight that I and other disability rights activists must engage in every day without fail, and without end. I can’t give up, though, because I am not fighting for me alone, but for every person with a disability who cannot fight for themselves, who dreams of a better world, who, themselves, has given up. It’s not about me, so, in the words of the Mozambique and Angola Freedom Fighters, “A luta continua” (the fight continues) because, in the words of Nelson Mandela, “The struggle is my life”, so I will, in the words of Justin Dart, “Lead On”!