How disabled Washingtonians celebrate, educate and laugh

July is Incapacity Satisfaction Month, a time to have a good time and acknowledge incapacity. Nonetheless, the battle for accessibility and fairness is ongoing.

Why it issues: Based on the CDC, about 1 / 4 of adults within the U.S. have a incapacity, together with 115,400 D.C. residents.

We spoke to Washingtonians who shared how they have a good time their disabilities and, most significantly, what they want for fairness.

Kevin Schultz, a 35-year-old D.C. resident, is proud to speak about his listening to loss.

• He makes use of a cochlear implant in a single ear and doesn’t disguise when he has bother listening to somebody.
• He additionally encourages his pals to get their listening to checked.

On fairness: Schultz tells Axios that he makes certain accessibility options akin to closed captioning and written directions can be found wherever he goes.

• He remembers a time he boarded a Metro practice that was labeled with the incorrect vacation spot. Unable to listen to bulletins, he needed to ask a conductor for assist.

“There are all types of issues that we construct into society which are designed to create fairness for folks with disabilities, however they’re so not often cared for, tended to, and operated appropriately,” he tells Axios.

Lorry Dow, 70, lives in Arlington and has a traumatic mind damage. She tells Axios that it helps to teach the general public about invisible disabilities, too.

On having an invisible incapacity: “I’ve been arrested for showing drunk,” Dow says. When requesting lodging over the telephone for her incapacity, Dow has been transferred plenty of occasions to increasingly more individuals who can’t assist her.

• One time at a celebration, a person advised Dow that she didn’t look disabled. “That’s symbolic of how we consider folks with disabilities,” she says.
• “I attempt to educate folks,” she provides. “Nevertheless it drains my battery.”

Jenny Cavallero, 37, usually appears to be like for tactics to make sure disabled comedians can carry out in an accessible area. She is the interim supervisor on the D.C. Public Library’s Middle for Accessibility, and not too long ago organized a comedy present that includes disabled comedians on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.

• “So many rooms the place folks come up and do stand-up comedy usually are not accessible bodily,” she says.
• Performers had a variety of disabilities, Cavallero provides. “It’s various. It doesn’t have an effect on folks the identical manner.”

On joking about incapacity: “Disabled persons are humorous … We don’t dwell unhappy lives. We dwell very full, wealthy lives,” she tells Axios. Even when making jokes about her personal expertise, Cavallero says she by no means punches down on herself or on incapacity. “I make enjoyable of the foolish issues I do. I don’t make enjoyable of who I’m on the core.”

On fairness: Based on Cavallero, true fairness goes past seen types of accessibility, akin to American Signal Language. It focuses on precisely what assets folks want inside the group.

• “The extra you promote accessible providers that you’ve, the extra folks really feel empowered to ask for the issues they want,” she says.
• Accessibility is a part of the plan, not an afterthought, she provides.