Be proud, be loud

One way to battle feelings of helplessness: help

Bark mulch can be a mobility challenge for wheelchair users (and others).

Happy Disability Pride Month!

I’ve been writing this post for more than a week and as I pondered, the U.S. Senate and then the House of Representatives passed a spending bill that severely cuts funding for Medicaid and other social service programs that aid our most vulnerable citizens. It is big, but beautiful? I don’t think so. Is there any beauty to be found in a downright mean self-serving bill that will serve to harm those who struggle to make ends meet while providing tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans and increasing the country’s deficit by trillions of dollars? And to do this in our month of pride is just adding insult to injury.

Does this upset me? You bet it does. But I’m trying to stay hopeful — hard as that is.

Many of my friends, family members, fellow creators and colleagues are more than worried. Cortisol-fueled nervous systems make it difficult to focus on artistic or any other endeavor for that matter. The unpredictability of our times only adds to our overtaxed brains. To those of you who are feeling this way I say, I see you, I understand. But I am offering an alternative here to feeling helpless and that is to be helpFUL.

I’ve been busy advocating as best I can despite these untenable, sad and incomprehensible times. It’s one reason I write this newsletter — to provide hope, information and motivation to fight back. We cannot let our voices be silenced — there are too many of us to be ignored.

Recently my friend and fellow Ability Montana board member Liz Ann Kudrna and I presented a grant proposal to our city’s Urban Parks and Forestry Board. After creating a 10-page document including maps and photos, we had the opportunity to pitch it in person to the board members who will make the ultimate decision about which of eight submitted proposals will receive funding.

Piles of soft bark mulch make for inaccessible park areas.

Here’s the gist of it: Liz Ann is a manual wheelchair user and lives less than half a block away from a lovely park where a weekly farmers market and other events take place throughout the warmer months of the year. The area where some of these events occur is graced with large shade trees, the surface is maintained with loose bark mulch. Vendors arrange themselves along the edges of the sun-shielded area abutted by a road on one side and grass and road on the other. There’s a bit of an incline too. As you’ll see if you watch the video, the terrain is not only a problem for wheelchair users who struggle to maneuver over the too-soft ground. People using a variety of mobility devices are also affected. And as I am wont to bring up universal design as often as possible, creating wheelchair-accessibility will benefit not only people with disabilities but also those pushing strollers or pulling wagons, for example.

As you watch the 2-minute video, you’ll see in the beginning Liz Ann being pushed by a friend in her manual chair along a hard-packed fine gravel trail at the edge of the park. The ease of mobility is evident especially when compared to the difficulty her friend had later in the bark mulch.

Note: Liz Ann was pushed because she’d recently had shoulder surgery. Taking her power chair to the park on another occasion, she told me she was quickly mired in the bark mulch, unable to move without assistance.

Anyway, here’s the video we showed at the city board meeting.

For those of you who are blind on low-vision, click on the button below to watch the video with audio descriptions.

So, this is what I do when I am feeling disheartened — I seek out ways to make a difference even if it is a small thing like accessible trails in one of my city’s parks. No doubt opportunities exist where you are. Seek them out. Do something, anything. Write to your legislators, volunteer with a nonprofit, serve on a board, make a donation, speak out, create meaningful art, expose the issues in whatever way works for you. Sign up to receive notifications from nonprofits about causes that you care about and then act on those alerts. Most importantly, let’s turn the hand-wringing and use the cortisol running through our veins to fight rather than flee.

All is not lost unless we give up.

So, what are you going to do? Share your thoughts in the comments and let’s be the rising tide that lifts us all.

Thanks for reading, watching, listening. Sending you hugs of gratitude.

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