I don't think they're in the waiting room.
Good! Here, too! Hi!
I think they're here with us. Hi! Everyone!
We'll get started at a minute.
Futuras. Can you make me co-host?
Okay, why don't we go ahead and get started?
Alrighty! So this session will be recorded, and will be available after.
So Hi, everyone. My name is Adam Moore.
My pronunns are he him his. I am a white man with short brown hair, wearing a gray T-shirt, and I am a friend of the people.
Cdc. And I'm here to post as Mc.
Or maybe master of webinars would be better than master of ceremonies.
But today we're going to be talking about the Ada and accessibility rights and how to ask for accommodations, request and this is hosted by the lovely people at the people Cdc, so thank you all for putting this together.
And we will have the 2 other panelists in introduce themselves before I dive into the presentation.
So, Ariel, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?
Okay. Hi, I'm Ariele. I am helping present.
Today's workshop. I was previously a student activist with the Ucla Disabled Students Union, and I'm out now in Massachusetts, and I'm happy to help present the 88 rights workshops.
Thank you, Ari. I'll go ahead. Mary.
And thank you, Adam. Hi, Hi! I'm Mary Germanus, Sabra.
I am a member of the people. Cdc. And I have dark brown hair, and I'm wearing some red lipstick and a flower.
Sure, with some lace. Yeah, I'm delighted to be here with so many people today.
We are all, you know, angry and also excited to fight for our rights together.
I wanna say that the nicer wanted to clarify something from our slides, which is that the eighta does not tech.
And I'm telling, I'm saying this isn't a person who has used the Ada to try to get accommodations for myself in various workplace and also medical settings.
The ad is not technically, however, everyone, in fact, the idea is written in a way to be sort of really narrow, and to put disabled people in in positions where we have to advocate for ourselves, and often struggle to be able to access resources and part of what we're trying to do here today is to say
that it shouldn't be like that, and that we all have a right to access to all of our access needs and the wonderful panelists here today will sort of explain some of those ideas and concepts, and that we know we're really just if if the Ada doesn't meet all of our meet of all of
our needs. That means that we need new legislation that does.
And then it means that we all need to fight together for that legislation.
So we're gonna have some sort of creative creative ideas at the end about how we can all support one another and securing the different people's access needs.
And without further ado I turn back to.
Great. Thank you. Ariale and Mary. So I wanted before we jump in.
I wanted to address that this webinar did come together pretty last minute, because the organizers saw very urgent need, and we got I mean, there's almost 200 people attending today so clearly a lot of you also feel this urgent need to have this education.
And do what we can to support and educate one another in fighting for our rights.
And having safe and accessible workplaces and public spaces as a whole.
So because of this rush nature, a few things flip through the cracks that we wanted to apologize for, like on the registration form, we should have absolutely had, like a comment box section where people can list specific access needs which is a pretty ironic oversight considering all the organizers here
are disabled, and we have access needs that we need every single day.
So apologies for that. We do have this recording, and a closed caption should be available for folks.
We unfortunately didn't have time to secure an American sign language interpreter for future iterations of this workshop.
We will be working very hard to secure an American sign language interpreter for future iterations of this workshop.
We will be working very hard to have an interpreter live with us so that people can have that.
If there are other urgent access needs for this zoom, please put it in the Q&A.
And the hosts can make those adjustments as we go, because we do want this to be as accessible as possible, despite the fact that it was kind of a last-minute event that was put together.
And I also wanted to acknowledge that there are some folks in the disability, justice Sphere who have reached out to us with concerns regarding the accessibility, oions that I was just discussing, and the interpretation of the eightya that Mary just mentioned, ada meaning Americans with
disabilities Act, the interpretation being, as Mary just clarified the original promotion.
Material said that it can apply to everyone when that is not actually the case.
But more of the sentiment that the organizers want is that as many people as possible should be able to utilize the Ada as much as they can.
Okay, so now we can dive in. So this pandemic has been a mass disabling event for millions of people all around the world.
Their newly disabled with long covid, that I can.
All sorts of presentations and levels of severity that can change over time.
There's a lot of people whose disabilities got worse during the pandemic, and there's people who are just now newly disabled, or realizing that what they're living with is a disability, and they have rights that they need to be fighting for and so what we're
hoping to do today is share our collective experience in how we have done this.
5 for our access needs and accommodations in our workplaces and in public life, and hope that we can provide a space in insight and guidance.
For the rest of you, the attendees to do this for yourselves, and provide some pathways to do that.
So we're onto the next slide. Now. Titled, relevant Federal laws that we will get into.
So we're going to talk about the Americans with disability acts and specifically titles 2 and 3, section 5.
O, 4, section 1557, of, and section 1557, of the affordable Care Act, and just a Disclaimer.
The panelists. Here we are not lawyers or legal experts, so this does not constitute as official legal advice.
We are presenting this as our interpretations navigating these laws.
In our own lives and our experiences doing that, and how they can be used.
And so oh, think they're missing a slide. Okay?
Or Nope, this is Ariel. Go ahead! Are you?
Hi! So for the title. 2 and 3 to 88.
This is an excerpt from disability rights, California, where they explain the rights that are granted to us by titles 2 and 3 of the 88, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and section 1557.
Of the Affordable Care Act. It requires that disabled people be granted full and equal access to healthcare services and facilities that we can receive reasonable modifications to policies, practices, and procedures when necessary to make healthcare services accessible that we have the right to effective
communication that includes having auxiliary aids and services, and it talks about the undue burden clause, where, if an entity finds that a reasonable well, that's the that the accommodation would be either unreasonable or oppose an undue
burden, either financially or it would cause a fundamental alteration to the program or services provided.
Then they do not have to provide that modification. Next slide.
Please.
Okay. And also there are, of course, caveats to who qualifies for an accommodation and medical setting.
So a person with a disability under the Ada there are different definitions of disability, and a person with a disability under different legal statutes, legislation's policies and agencies across the United States.
It also can vary State by State, but under Federal legislation, like the Ada, a disabled person is defined as a person who has physical or mental impairment.
That substantially limits one or more life activities.
A person who has a history or record of self, an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others of having such an impairment, and that source is from eightya.
Gov. It also can apply to someone who lives with or takes care of someone with a disability.
So and obviously, that has a lot of different caveats to it.
But the most common example is, if you are, for example, a caretaker of someone who is unconscious, and you yourself have a disability.
You can receive services to to receive, adequate communication, or to be able to take care of your partner, but also you can.
Argue that you could be covered in order to not pose a physical harm to the person you're taking care of, even if you yourself do not have a disability, and there's a list of conditions from the Cdc.
That makes someone high risk for Covid that may or may not intersect with someone who is defined as a person with a disability.
So that kind of is illegal gray area next slide, please.
So again, accommodations must be considered reasonable, and unfortunately it is usually up to the institution to determine whether or not the accommodation is reasonable, but the main categories that determine whether or not it's reasonable are that they can't fundamentally altered the nature of
the service. They can't pose an undue financial burden on the service provider, and there are different again.
Caveats under the Ada that allow them to make exceptions based on how how reasonable it is to meet the given requested accommodation, and just a note on titles 2 and 3.
Title 2 applies to government entities. So in the medical case it would apply to public hospitals, which are run and funded solely by the government, and that also includes Va.
Hospitals and a private hospitals which are everything else. They're covered under title 3 of the Ada, which covers all public accommodations that are provided by private entities that are not funded solely by the government next slide please.
Right. I think that's on Mary.
I believe I'm covering this one. Thank you, Ariel.
So go. So thank you. Ario, for covering kind of what is covered by the Ada.
And right here we have screenshots of an article of an example of this.
So this is an example of one Federal courts upheld, masking as a reasonable accommodation, and with a note that says, the more we demand it, the more precedents we will have.
And so I'll read this excerpt from the article titled I/O must must permit school districts to require masks.
In some cases court rules, and so, under the May 2021 Iowa law, a disabled student may request a reasonable accountation that requires masks to be worn by teachers, aides, and other students, and anyone else near or interacting with the disabled student to allow the disabled student
making the request to safely and readily access their school and in-person learning.
Pratt ruled any school district receiving such an accommodation request, must consider it just as they would, as they would any other request for a reasonable modification made under the Americans.
With Disabilities Act or the Rehabilitation Act, and the source for this is an Msn.
Story that is actually no longer up on the Msn website.
It's only available on archive.com. And so this is.
This is not the only example of this happening. There have been various Federal court cases where Federal judges have ruled in favor of massking being a reasonable accommodation under the Ada.
And that phrase, reasonable accommodation is very important, because that's what's written explicitly into the Ada and that's where things can get kind of hazy depending on who was making the judgment of what is reasonable.
But we feel this is are really powerful example, because this and the other examples that have been in the news about people winning mask and accommodations in schools.
A lot of this is happening in very conservative areas.
Of the Us, like Iowa, for example, hasn't been reporting Covid case numbers for months like the entire State is just not, hasn't been reporting it anymore.
And so this is an area where the covid denial and minimizing is very strong.
And there was still a Federal judge who ruled in favor of masking.
There was even a point in Iowa where the Governor tried to make required masking illegal, that obviously didn't work out very well.
Luckily. So, yeah, this is one example of many that are coming up across the country where people are requesting these accommodations with the 88, and they're being granted, which is especially good news when it's happening in these more conservative areas that are more likely to be a bit more
hostile towards Covid, safety as a whole, and these all these rulings also show in our interpretation that blanket bans, on requesting masks, violate the Ada.
So we're on a new slide now, titled Blink, at the end.
I'm requesting masks violate the Ada in.
It also says mass. We have an example that just came up in the last few days regarding Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
They put out a new policy, that, according to our interpretation and the previous Federal cases, violates the Ada in, is illegal.
And so we have a screenshot here of the Massachusetts General Hospital frequently asked questions.
Section of their website. And I wanna draw your attention to specifically the last question here, which is, I don't be more comfortable if my doctor, nurse, or other care provider, wore a mask.
Can I ask them to? And the response is, no, you cannot ask staff members to wear a mask, because our policies no longer require it.
Our system is adhering to current public health recommendations.
So given what we were just saying about the Federal court cases in Rio going over what is covered by the Ada.
This in theory, should be illegal. And again, I am not a lawyer, but this policy is a clear violation of what other Federal judges have already ruled is covered by the Ada, which is masking.
So this is just to show that healthcare centers are trying to do this.
They are trying to convince us that we cannot ask for masks anymore.
And it's illegal to do so. But our interpretation oh, sorry!
I just got a clarification that this is not just Massachusetts general Hospital.
It's a lot of Massachusetts, general.
Brenham facilities that are trying to do this. So yeah, this is just to show that they're trying to do this.
And if we educate ourselves and invoke our rights under the Ada, we can fight these policies because these are endangering all of us.
And so some examples of a accommodations that make sense for an airborne Vorus that we wanted to share with you all would be for medical office staff and or healthcare providers to where in N 95 mask or respirators, and that is because as sars
could be to the virus actually cause this COVID-19 has evolved the utility of different types of Macs have changed.
And so we are now at a point in the pandemic, with the more recent sub variants of Omicron, where cloth masks don't do a whole lot of help anymore.
Surgical masks also don't. They're both better than absolutely nothing.
But the high quality, well-fitted filtration masks like an N.
95, or kf, 94. Those kinds of things are much better at preventing transmission than a surgical and cloth masks, so requesting in N.
95 makes sense for an airborne virus.
Also request to not encounter another unmasked person for the duration of your healthcare visit, which again makes sense because, if you need a mask in your high risk, you don't want to interact with other unmatched people, using a separate entrance, so that you will not
encounter unmasked people, earlier or later appointments to avoid crowded waiting rooms.
I personally know people that have had a lot of success in when they're trying to schedule any sort of appointment, trying to get the first one of the day that way.
There's very few people there, and people haven't really been occupying the space in the air for as long beforehand.
Of course, virtual appointments which we have seen the last few years are actually very feasible for a lot of things, but of course, if they are not prohibited to prohibitive to providing adequate care, for you, there's also testing before and after the
procedures. The Cdc. Has just eliminated the requirement for hospitals to report testing data, which means we are not guaranteed to know how much hospital acquired infections are happening at a given facility which is another piece of crucial information
that's being taken away for us. That makes it harder for us to navigate this world safely.
So, an accommodation. You could ask for would be that the people you interact with test before and after the procedure.
So you have some sense of the people you just interacted with in the level of risk.
And then also, if you have surgery or something to where you cannot be masked, because you need anesthesia mask, or something else, where your mouth is exposed, you can ask the staff to put a mask back on you immediately after surgery before you wake up that way, you wake
up and you already have that mask back on, and the sources for these are from the Vermont center of independent living training, and healthcare in the Americans, with disabilities act from the Ada National Network.
And so more examples of accommodations requests private transport with a masked driver, that can be accessed through which can be Medicaid or shuttle service.
Having ambulatory services, provide care at home, vaccines, blood draws infusions.
These are things that paramedics are trained on, how to do.
Excuse me doing a check in from your car and waiting in the car until you are called to be appointment.
So you don't have to sit in a waiting room with other people having outside visits with your primary care.
Provider, so literally just being outdoors if that's feasible for your appointment, receiving masked services in the parking lot like vaccines, and testing again the last 3 years have shown us that something like this is in fact, a very feasible considering just
about every healthcare facility pivoted to doing their practice this way.
Oh, excuse me being you can also request an appointment a bit earlier than the spaces open to the general public.
People have had some success doing that, and that has also been.
That's been a thing to request pre pandemic as well being granted.
A private room with a closed door and only mask, staff.
Entering like an like for an infusion, suite, inpatient services, recovery services, requesting a private room for those things, and same sources as the previous list, for months center for independent living training and healthcare in the Americans with disabilities Act from the Ada National network
and so here we have a. The next slide is titled.
Suggested language for accommodations, requests, and so I'm going to read these.
So we have 3 different quotes for suggested language.
I'm going to read them to you. So the first one, because I have a medical condition that, according to the Cdc makes me high risk for severe Covid outcome, my function outcomes my functional limitation is that I can only participate in indoor spaces which require universal
masking in adequate ventilation, matching at least 6 or 12 air changes per hour, as as recommended by the American Conference of Governmental industrial, hygienists, industrial Ventilation Committee.
The second quote is, I am requesting disability, accommodations for a functional limitation where I require unal masking in indoor spaces.
The third quote is, I have a loved one such family member who is high risk for severe Covid outcomes.
I request reasonable accommodations in the form of universal masking.
During my entire visit to your facilities. Oh, excuse me so!
A big thing with the language that you use for these accommodations.
Requests is being very specific in citing the appropriate things and using the right language.
So like a lot of these use the word accommodations in the disability, justice, sphere.
When we discuss it more casually with one another.
People are trying to move away from the term accommodations in instead use.
The term access needs, because the way accommodations are frequently framed is that there is a scarcity of them, and the phrase reasonable accommodation means someone can decide that it is unreasonable, and often the person making that decision is not that disabled person that actually has
those leads, but for legal purposes, and for making these official requests, using the phrase reasonable accommodations is important, because that is what is connecting it to the legal framework.
So how to make a request. So when it comes to making an actual request, there are a lot of different avenues in methods for doing this, and and some of these are a bit more formal than others, these are things that have worked for some of us.
Meaning the organizers in the past. So we will have a subsequent training after this.
That is more on the details and minutia that come with making a formal legal Ada request.
But these are some other ways to, you make these requests and invoke the Ada without going through the big formal legal process.
So you can just make a request at the point of service, like when you entry your doctor's appointment.
It's better to do this ahead of time. So these things are kind of working out ahead of time. So these things are kind of worked out ahead of time.
But you're also totally allowed to make that request. When you go to your medical appointment, or whatever this can be, Inverbal, this can be verbally like over the phone or in person, or in writing via email or something writing is best because it gives you evidence for a complaint and whenever you make
these requests, especially for medical facilities and workplaces.
I really recommend always doing a BCC. Or which stands for blind carbon copy doing that to your personal email address that way.
You always have this running record of the communications. What you were requested, how the responses were handled in case this needs to escalate later down later down the line.
It's always helpful in these requests to mention the Ada, and to use the phrase, functional limitation and reasonable accommodation, as protected by the Ada, because, invoking that language and making the explicit connection to the ada and often get the wheels turning
because it reminds facilities and employers that this is like this is a legal request, and it's covered by phone law.
And they are legally obligated to meet the requirements of this law.
So just mentioning it can often help move things more in the direction that you want them to in terms of getting your accommodations met, and you do not need to disclose the details of your disability.
At any point in this process, according to the Ada medical documentation, is not required to provide the details of what you're disability is how it manifests in functional limitations and why your specific accommodations make sense this changes so that's more of the case for healthcare
facilities in some other public areas. But this can change when it comes to employment or educational accommodations.
Who often ask for medical documentation, and sometimes are able to sneak that into an employment contract, or like a yeah, like an employment contract which is making it more restrictive than the Ada.
So just to be clear that Ada does not actually require medical documentation.
But there are some areas that do put that additional burden into place.
If you are at a university, and you've ever tried to request accommodations through.
For example, your student disability services office. They often require medical documentation which requires more light work on your end.
Or maybe I shouldn't say more. Late work, more energy and time on your end.
So what has worked from some of our experience and other experience in the world is calling it, calling in advance and being confident in firm with your requests, and also asking to speak with the clinic director or an Ada officer, and then calling and following up as well the morning of your
reportment to make sure these things are in line, because often, if you speak to, maybe a receptionist or a secretary at the front desk, they likely do not know all the ins and outs of the Ada, and what does apply?
And what doesn't apply. And so they may just be going based off of what their supervisor or manager told them, which also isn't necessarily accurate.
So if you're getting pushed back from people at the front desk, which isn't to say these people are bad at their job.
They're just trying to do what they're told.
But sometimes you need to talk to someone higher up in order to get these things moving, and also, as I'm sure a lot of you have the unfortunate experience of a lot of times, not accommodations requests does not go super smoothly, and there's a lot of resistance to them.
And so you do. There is. You do need to sometimes dig deep and use a few extra spoons.
That is your kind of general energy to talk to the right people and be firm about these things, because it can be difficult.
And like, I said earlier, putting everything in writing and asking the center to like.
So a healthcare facility to confirm your request in writing so having a follow-up email, if it was a phone conversation writing to the leadership of the clinic in the hospital's general counsel, which is the hospital's lawyer provide a regional ada center
contact, info or state disability law center for the facility that you're making.
These requests to if they need to contact those people. And of course, being polite and confirming with them and thanking them, because, even though these access needs really are the bare minimum, and we should be granted these just as a basic human right unfortunately, that's not the world, we live in
and there's this phrase that my mom loves to use, that is, you get more bees with honey, and so we can be firm, and we can demand what access we have the rights to.
But it also just helps to be polite and thank these people, because that's also a positive reinforcement for any future disabled person that comes after you and makes these requests. And so I'll pass it to Ariel for these notes.
Hi, yeah. So I wanted to add these notes, because if you aren't super familiar with making accommodations, requests whether informal or formal, you might not be super familiar with the role of general counsels, both in employment situations, academic situations, and medical situations, so I wanted to make the point that
general counsels. Their job is to protect loss. The hospital from lawsuits, while still adhering to the bare minimum of Federal law or State law, depending on where they are, and also that your accommodations request will be granted.
If the general counsel determines the risks of a lawsuit, outweighs the benefit of denying the request.
This is a very, a big, very straight forward. A lot of people believe language.
That is this plane. And I wanted to do that, because that is my experience.
Of having having made these requests for over a decade, and having worked with general counsel in the past.
That's basically their thought process. So if you are denied an accommodation, do not try not to get discouraged or think that it means that you don't deserve an accommodation, everybody deserves access to safe healthcare and even if you don't qualify
under the eightya. You still do, and if you do call under the Ada, they might still deny your request, because they believe that you are unlikely to Sue, or that they, if you did sue that they could win easily in a court of law, and unfortunately that's just that's just a reality thank you.
Thank you for those important notes. Aerial. So the next slide titled page support helping each other get access needs the accommodations process is designed to be vague, and as a result it often isolates individual disabled people burdening us with securing accommodations in
dealing with the possible retaliation on our own. And this is definitely inherent to the design of this process of requesting accommodations and getting your access needs met in.
Because if you're alone and isolated and up against this big Goliath of a Hawaiian or a university, or a company, it's very easy to just get bogged down and to give up which is part of what they want you to do, because then it's less work and it's on them and
it's less money they have to spend to get the proper equipment or make the changes.
And we can change this by collectively fighting for a better law, while also enforcing regulations that guarantees these accommodations and funds.
Everyone's diverse access needs. And we can help our disabled peers with less spoons by calling and emailing on each other's behalf.
So having a support network can be really important for these accommodations requests, because they often take quite a while to go through, even if everything goes well.
I've done the only places I have worked where I have also requested a accommodations are university settings, and when I have done it the process, nothing has necessarily gone wrong, but it still takes months and it's a lot of bureaucracy.
It's a lot of work, and it can be very draining, especially when you are in a meeting in your are saying, Hey, I like.
Let's say I need a standing desk at this workplace, because my body physically cannot handle sitting down for 8 h a day at my desk in an office chair, and you have to sit there and have someone tell you no, you don't need that someone who has never met you has never looked at your
medical files, has no expertise in any of this, and that can be very discouraging and very isolating.
And that's the point. And so, having a support network and this doesn't need to be just with other disabled people that often helps because you have your collective experience together.
But it can also be people who don't necessarily know about this process.
But people, you're close with, and you're just reaching out.
And you're like, Hey, I need support getting through this, because this is really difficult for me to handle.
So can I. Can I share this with you? Can you help me, brainstorm, how to approach these people who I need to contact instead?
That sort of thing, having a support network in a community with you is very helpful with making these records in some ways to do that peer support is to do these things together.
And so you can have a group which is the carbon copied or blind carbon copied on all of your emails with these accommodations, request.
So. Not only you have a record of it, but you have your peer support, having a record of it as well, so they can see exactly what is being communicated, and you can also offer, if you are trying to support someone who is seeking a accommodation.
You can offer to make info gathering and follow-up calls, or do other accommodation seeking tests on behalf of people with less spin.
And so just a quick, site. Now, I've used the free space spoons a few times for those of you that are aware, and a lot of disability spheres.
The term spoons is meant as kind of a catch all term to mean once physical and mental energy.
It ability at a given time so like, if I have less spoons, I'm unable to do certain tasks, because my physical and mental energy and ability at the time is low.
If I have more stones I can do more tasks, so just so to clarify what the term spoons means.
Other ways to do peer support are together requesting a meeting with disability.
Law centers in your community, hospital administrators in their general counsel, departments of public health, etc.
And there are probably a ton of other creative ways to do.
Peer support. So if you have any other suggestions, throw them into the chat.
We are much, much more successful and active when we work in brainstorm together.
These are just some ideas we had, and getting these numbers like with hospital administrators and departments of public health, aren't always easy, but these meetings can be really effective, because it's often much harder for someone to deny your rights to your face via Zoom.
Than it is in an email. So that's just one way.
And having a meeting face to face, or over the phone, or something.
Can often adjust, help, humanize everyone in the process.
And everyone can be a bit gentler and kinder in the process.
I'm not saying that's guaranteed.
There are definitely people who you can have an in person meeting, and they're still going to be able. As to your face.
But these are just some avenues that can be helpful, and of course, if you do have these meetings bringing your support group to the meeting with you.
And so the next slide is getting support and complaining together.
If you are denied your accommodations, requests, and these complaints can be filed at such places like the Department of Justice Office for Civil Rights State Office of Human Rights, State Office of Developmental Disability, Protection.
The State Attorney General, and so the official legal process for fireing these complaints can be complex and we are hoping to go into some of that in more detail.
In future, webinar, but just to show that these are potential avenues and then support networks, you can contact disability law centers and disability advocacy groups.
These can be specific to your community and geographic region, or they can be broad across the whole country, because a lot of times there's avenues that are protected under Federal law, so you can get support from a law center that isn't necessarily in your State.
So, yeah, these are just some avenues to pursue together.
If your accommodations request is denied, and so more resources shown.
Here we have the people. Cdc resource on the Ada, adapted from Aaron dolls, Covid Inclusion Times, Facebook, page, we have Covid times, Inclusion.
Facebook, page, Vermont Center for independent living and training on Ada.
Excuse me. The University of California access now demandifesto, and the University of California Justice Coalition.
Safe workplaces. Now, excuse me, and these are all links that are going to be available.
And in fact, already are, I believe, one of our panelists.
Mary has already put the link to this slide deck in the chat, and we will send this out with the recording so that you can actually click on these things and visit these websites.
And so here at the end, is a kind of a template letter, for an accommodations, request that, I believe was provided by Ariel.
And so this is I'm not gonna read through this whole thing here, but it will be available in the slide deck.
But this is just something for you to take away from this afterwards.
It's a template that you could use that sites to specific logs in uses.
The specific language that should be the most helpful in terms of getting these requests accepted.
And so with that. That is the end of the presentation.
My fellow panelists. Do we want to do a address?
Some stuff in the address, some stuff in the chat.
I think. Thank you, Adam, so much. That was just a really heroic effort of going through all of that Adam and Ario.
I really am grateful myself. I think we can do a little bit of I don't know Pante Jeffy. Don I don't know if you're here at the computer in the moment.
Also, if you'd like to introduce yourself and add anything to this.
Hi, thank you so much. Thank you. A lot, Adam, for that.
That was really brilliant and very thorough and thoughtful.
I really appreciated your presentation a great deal, and thank you.
Mary and all the other panelists to for organizing this I really don't have a whole lot to add, because it was so thorough and wonderful.
I just wanted to submit the notion that you know the Ada's definition of disability, while there are certainly legal reasons for being very concerned about its narrowness, I do believe that it does have an inclusive definition, and I think during this time of great flux it's
really important to keep long. Covid in mind, and you know we do have some statistics that are really powerful about this going from 2022, and 2023, where in 2022, we had around 23 million Americans who were ined by long coveted putting at least 1 million people out of
work and in twenty-twenty, 3, 15% of all Us.
Adults reported having had long Covid, which is just astronomical at some point, and 6% reported current symptoms.
And so I just wanted to emphasize kind of what's already been said.
But that long Covid does qualify as a disability under federal civil rights laws and so that's why I think more folks should certainly get involved in this effort and consider themselves as qualifying and of course, a lot is to be worked out around long covid.
But there are, you know, under the Federal Civil Civil Rights standard.
If it's substantially limits one or more major life activities, it qualifies as a disability according to guidance issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Department of Justice, people whose long covid qualifies as a disability are entitled to the
same protections from discrimination as any other person with a disability under the Ada, and also under the affordable Care Act, and the Rehabilitation act so so just kind of supporting what's been said, and certainly the Ada also protects individuals who have a
relationship or association with a person with a disability. So again, just supporting that expansiveness, while still being mindful of strategizing around the narrowness of the definition.
Thank you, Pentez. So much for that addition. I know Ariel is. Gonna speak!
I just wanted to say briefly, you know, I, a lot of people have been saying things like we need to organize regionally, absolutely, people should start organizing regionally. One of the main things.
This has happened in the past 3 years is that people who are high risk, who are aware of the risks actually not just people who are high risk.
I mean, of course, everyone is high risk for long. Covid.
I have been shut out of public space, and are continuing to be shut out of public space, and have taken a lot of like been very vocal on social media.
And on Twitter, and unfortunately, a lot of that energy has not hit the public arena has not.
Actually, you know, we've been meeting here in Massachusetts with some of our legislators.
They just haven't heard from anyone like us, and you know, it's really sort of remarkable in some ways that that's what's happened.
But of course everyone is. This is a collective trauma event, and so, but it is important that we recognize that, and that we do take real action.
But take relaxing together, and we will in the coming weeks through people's Cdc.
Be trying to like, put out some toolkits and means to help people get in contact with other people.
Regionally and in our in kind of our areas, in each other's areas.
And I just wanted to add to what Pantaya said, which is that as more and more people become impacted by long Covid, it is going to become more and more obvious.
The sort of long impacts of this pandemic, and but the only way that that's going to make a difference politically, in the way that our government responds, and in the way that we have access to care and access to you know all of the kinds of things that we had at the beginning of the
pandemic unemployment benefits childhood.
You know, child subsidies. The only way that we're going to get back those things is by recognizing and seeing it and making it very kind of creating together a moment.
And the collective kind of possibility and narrative around.
How we do deserve those things, and how we need them.
We actually have to. All of us fight together. Everyone who's here.
We all have to fight for this in order to make it happen. But it's wonderful.
There are 200 people here, so I have a lot of confidence that we're gonna do that. Go ahead.
Are you?
I just wanted to add on quickly to what you and Pante are saying.
Is that like it? Just because a right doesn't exist right now doesn't mean it won't be in the future.
And just because you aren't currently covered under something doesn't mean you shouldn't be HIV previously was not covered under the Ada previously does not covered under the Rehabilitation Act, and it was legal to openly discriminate against HIV positive people in the
workplace in medical settings and in educational settings.
For years, until a landmark case, I'm forgetting the exact name of the case.
But there was a landmark case that happened, and it made it illegal to discriminate against people with HIV, and that also opened up the floor of 2, including people with chronic conditions to be included under statutes like the Ada so keep fighting, and just because you're
not covered under something right now doesn't mean you shouldn't.
Should we take some of these questions that are in the chat?
I just saw one real quickly from Justice Harris, I think we're going to try and stay around until the hour.
I know everyone's tired, and oh, and overworked and but we'll, you know, do our best.
To answer some questions, just as Harris asks, what is the most urgent thing people can do today in light of the May eleventh changes.
I'll just briefly say there's a lot of things that people can do.
Make sure that you've written all of the letters that we have put out and that anyone has put out to all of the politicians and call to follow up, call to follow up and request meetings requested all of these things that were offered to us.
You know free tests, free masks, free that vaccines treatment, that all of those things continue to be.
I think that you know one thing we're doing in Massachusetts is on mass filing complaints to the Attorney General's office.
So not just having one person file a complaint. It's wonderful.
Someone has said here that that the lawyer, Mountthew Portland, I'm not saying saying their name wrong, has put a has put the complaint that they have filed to the Attorney General's office copy paste that complaint and file it yourself everyone should be doing this we don't
need lawyers and advocates and people to do this on our behalf.
We all have to take action. We have to take it together.
Imagine if they get flooded with complaints, what are they?
Gonna do. Everyone should be doing that kind of thing. One other thing that you could do is, you know, Massachusetts coalition for health equity has a flyer, I think, on their link tree for directly flying hospitals and saying that these hospitals are no longer requiring tests or masks.
You will get Covid at this hospital. Flyer. Your hospitals, people don't know, and the last thing I'll just say before I pass to someone else is, tell your friends I know a lot of us have been made to I know that there has been a systematic gaslighting from the media.
And the government to make people feel like they should stop taking precautions, write emails to your friends, do this again in groups and to the groups that you're in and say, I need you to protect my life.
This is what's happening. I need you to take a step and to call you know whoever it is called the Governor call hospital.
I need you to protect my life and we just need to start activating our communities in that way.
Does anyone else? Wanna go?
I think that was great, since we only have a few minutes left, we can pivot to another question.
So one question I see in the is, I think, important.
It's asking how basically to talk about Covid as a disabling virus while also honoring disabled lives and not saying a disabled life is not worth living.
So a lot of advocacy groups frame at the same way that Covid, it is a disabling virus and covid.
Precautions are needed to protect high-risk individuals and to protect everyone else from getting Covid.
And then all the subsequent disabilities that come with long Covid.
But phrasing it in a way such that you are not, so that a disabled life is a bad life to live or in unworthy life and the way I personally go about navigating, that is just being honest with it, and kind of saying exactly that of like disabled
lives or options are absolutely worth living. I have multiple disabilities.
I don't think my life is not worth living. But Covid is also a disabling virus, and a disabled life is not an easy life to live, and we do not live in a society that is supportive and helpful.
So we can talk about the dangers of Covid and how it can be disabling, which can be very disruptive to people's lives, while also acknowledging that people who do become disabled with covid or at high risk because they are already disabled absolutely deserve all
the protections and access needs and accommodations that they require.
So that's just personally how I tell that line while being respectful to everyone.
And of course, myself and my lived experience, because I am always trying to check my internalized ableism, because I don't want to say a disabled life as bad.
But I also don't want to say that getting a disabled virus is okay.
If anyone else can chime in on that, or we can hop to another question.
Okay, so another question I had was, I can't remember where it is in the.
But someone asking specifically, kind of like, what does a functional limititation mean?
And how does that differ from being high risk for covid and Whatnot?
And that language is very vague, which means it can be very useful to us in terms of how we apply it, because a functional limitation, often everyone d is already high risk for Covid has a functional limitation in some sort, whether it's like severe anxiety that limits how much
you can interact with other people. Severe depression in how?
Just going about your day to day life, arthritis that limits how much you can like, move or grab, or pick up, or other mobility impairments that are sometimes seen as more obvious functional limitations.
But a functional limitation can be a broad thing. It could be a chronic migraines that make it impossible to focus or do anything during the day.
Functional limitations are a very big category, and also just a note to say that it's this could also apply to some people here.
But it can be very hard to accept that you are disabled, my first disability started manifesting in 2,003 and another disability started manifesting in 2,010.
I didn't consciously think of myself as disabled until the pandemic hit and I started becoming more of of what disabilityilities actually means, despite the fact that I was like getting access needs met and having different accommodations in different settings it can be hard to accept that but accepting
that as a an aspect of your identity and a reality of the body, that you live in, opens the door to a whole lot of access that you aren't getting right now and it opens the door to a lot of requests that you can make to actually make things better and more enjoyable and
just, safe and accessible for you. So that's always that can be something difficult to internally grapple with or helping someone else come to the realization of just because of we live in a very able of society.
So overcoming that mental barrier is not necessarily an easy task.
Thank you, Adam. And I wanna say it also opens you up to a whole community of people.
So, with which we can all fight together. And I think that that's the most important thing here is that we are not this whole.
The pandemic and the accommodations. Process isolates people makes us fight for our rights and deal with retaliation alone.
I see there are some questions about that. We have to find a way to fight back together and that's what we're trying to do here.
It's calling everyone in to doing that together. So with that I want to say, I'm sorry. I know there's a lot of questions here.
Please share them with us. We're gonna find a way to do another session like this.
And I'm just so glad that we could all be here together and do this.
And I wanna thank everyone. Raj and Ariel and Holly and Adam and Pente, Adam.
If you wanna have Aaron out of an article, if you want to have any closing words, I'm just so grateful.
This is really helpful and inspiring.
I just wanna say thank you to everyone for attending. It is incredible to see literally, hundreds of people show up I've been doing disability, organizing for what?
Almost almost 10 years now, and it has never been this energized in.
I'm just very grateful to see everyone here, and we'll well, when that's it, we're gonna win.
We are. We're gonna win together. Adam.
Yeah, thank you. Everyone for coming. We really appreciate it.
Especially as this was such a last thing. We will have the recording and the transcript available.
After that we'll send out to everyone that registered for the event, and we will be planning subsequent webinars regarding Ada, and accommodations, requests, and we will have a bit more of a heads up for the next one.
But yeah, we we win when we fight together. And a lot of this is simply just talking to people a lot of times like, Can I?
Just quickly a lot of things in the chat were, can I ask this, can I ask this person that you can ask anyone anything?
They may not always respond to you, but it never hurts to ask just making the request.
It doesn't need to be a formal thing. You can just email your supervisor and be like, Hey, can I get this this and this because I'm disabled.
And this is an accommodation that should be protected under the Ada.
It can be as simple as that, and when we do this together, and we educate one another, and we support one another, we win, and the future is disabled.
But the future is also accessible. So thank you all for coming.
Thank you. Thanks for coming. Everyone.
Thank you all so much.