Event ID: 1404766
Event Started: 9/22/2009 12:00:00 AM
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  Please stand by for realtime captions.   .  
>> Hello. And welcome to tonight's teleconference entitled independent media two .-dot zero. I am Gabriel, and I am a member of the national youth leadership network. Also, I am a member of the advocacy committee that organized this presentation for you. I will be your moderator along with Stacey Milbern tonight. Will take a little time to tell you about the call. The National Youth Leadership Network is hosting this teleconference. It is scheduled to be one hour 30 minutes. During the first hour, the speakers will answer questions about their work in media. The last 30 minutes of the teleconference will be for the participants to ask the speaker's questions. Once the speakers have answered all the chosen questions, the telephone lines will be opened, giving you a chance to ask the speaker's questions. For those of us -- for those of you joining us on the web, you can them to [Event concluded] three.  comcast.med. Now we will introduce our speakers. 
>> Thank you, Gabriel. Tonight we are joined by Moya Bailey, founder of Quirky BlackGirls. Anita Cameron, a longtime activist and media maker, Cripchick, community organizer and blogger, Melanie Yergeau, the director of the Central Ohio Autistic Self Advocacy Network. First, Moya Bailey. She is a scholar of critical rates, feminism, and that thinks. Her current work focuses on normative issues in a critical context. She received her undergraduate degree from Spellman College, where she majored in women's studies with a concentration in health. She uses all kinds of media in her work. Our second speaker is Anita Cameron. She is 44 years old and is from Chicago, oh my. She holds a degree in biology and computer information systems. She also is a systems advocate for the center of disability rights and Rochester, New York. She became involved in several things that led to her introduction to the disability rights. She joined the death national rights group that uses nonviolent civil -- civil this obedience for nonviolent change. She has risen to a position of national leadership in that organization. Anita helped write a piece of national legislation that has been entered -- introduced into Congress. She has been invited to the White house on to them -- occasions and is meant to presence. She has also helped organize a national march and was published in a book. She has been arrested 115 times in the fight for civil rights. In addition to her advocacy work, Anita also has a blog. She uses her blogs to post death actions. If you visit her blog, you can see how the negotiations and organizing play out. Our third speaker is Cripchick. She is a blogger who writes about accessibility, disability, feminism, and how these issues overlap. She believes in the power of independent media and how we can use these tools like the Internet to really mobilize ideas and reach a larger audience. Cripchick wants to see me it just is incorporated into the meat -- justice system and works with many groups. She also likes radical women of color, a group of feminists who use poetry and personal stories to address questions about power and freedom. Cripchick is also known as Stacey Milbern. Our fourth speaker is Melanie Yergeau. She is the director of the Central are chapter of Autistic Self Advocacy Network. She is a PhD student in rhetoric, position, and let her see at Ohio State University. She teaches courses in writing, disability studies, and digital media. She is published in a journal of rhetoric technology and pedagogy and computers and composition online. Our fifth speaker is Ari Ne'eman. He is the founding presence of 1024, and international advocacy organization. He is currently studying political science at the University of Maryland, bottle -- both were County. He is a leader of the -- in August a culture and disability rights. He has become involved in self advocacy as a high school student, arguing for his own inclusion in an academic course work. Having been profiled in several media outlets, he has a lot of experience in bringing the disability rights perspective to a mainstream means. His organization recognizes the power of independent community owned media and frequently mobilizes the Trinity to respond to media. In addition, he is currently a writer in the Huffington Post. 
>> Participants, please remember that you will not be able to ask questions until the end of the speaker sessions. So please try to remember your question. We are now ready to begin our speaker section. All of our speakers will have up to eight minutes to discuss his or her answers to the questions, and will answer three questions. We begin our discussion tonight on independent media with Moya Bailey. Can you tell us a little bit about Quirky BlackGirls and how you came to be involved in this disability justice movement? 
>> Yes, I can definitely do that. Quirky BlackGirls is an online social media network. Something similar to Facebook, but specifically for black girls who kind of find themselves in the odd girl out and not necessarily represented in mainstream media. With the way that black people are represented, black women in particular, so it's a place that people can come together and generate there own media and to see themselves the way they want to see themselves. And I got involved in the disability justice movement kind of threw my interest in how black women are treated in the world. And that led me to think about how different oppressions connect to it -- each other. So it's related to my time at Spellman when I was learning about racism and sexism, that I really got to know about able-ism. 
>> What connection and differences do you see between black people's struggle for civil rights and that of people with disabilities? 
>> Well, one of the things I really see as a connection is just the way the civil rights movement was a spark for different groups that kind of see themselves as a group and that as a way to claim rights for themselves. I think a lot of different movements were able to build on the actions of the civil rights movement and build on protesting and direct action things that we saw during the civil rights movement and kind of apply that to their own demands for justice. And I think it is a bill to move in, you know, we see that a lot. And now, kind of the way the civil rights movement is helping people think about their movement and how people with disabilities are thinking about the movement and people are shifting into saying that, you know, writes a really important, but you need a justice framework. You need to think about not just having access to the proverbial table, but thinking about how things -- how the table is structured. Not only who has a place there, but is the place accessible? Really asking different questions about what our movement needs and what it looks like. So, you know, Web activism has been a really important place for racial justice and disability justice are really finding their voice in ways to connect, not necessarily, although that is definitely a piece of it and people organize in that way, but the Web and the Internet have been important for helping people connect in different ways. 
>> One final question for our audience. Where do you want this movement to go? 
>> I think more than anything, and I think kind of what this call represents, and what it is that I think Quirky BlackGirls also does, is try to see the intersections where are different struggles come together. So how did my experience as, you know, a black woman connected to someone else's experience with a disability, connect with some of the else's experience as a clear connection to somebody else's experience as an immigrant in this country? Like, really seeing the ways in which our society is structured and kind of project an ideal person that a lot of us don't connect with. That a lot of us don't represent. We are really trying to get all of us kind of pushed out to those boundaries and kind of come together and see ourselves as connected. And really, by working together, being able to bring about the change that we really want to see in the world. 
>> We will not take this opportunity to take a few questions from our young people in the audience tonight. We will now on meet the telephone conference line for questions. Operator? 
>> At this time, if you do have a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, that his star, one to ask a question. And we do have a question. 
>> Good evening. I am not a very young person, but I was interested in this teleconference. I work in my community in the state of Georgia on disability rights as it relates to education. I am trying to raise or us on several issues that are going on in my state and in seven states in the education system. Children and students with disabilities are being spanked in school and we have reports of injuries occurring, and we are trying to push this to our lawmakers that they need to issue a immediate moratorium because children are getting hurt. And I think it is an educational opportunity here in the state of Georgia. I know that this is probably hitting you from the side. I don't know if you have a position on the source you can help me, because I am networking on Facebook to try to raise awareness on this, two. 
>> Well, I actually live in Georgia, Atlanta. Are you familiar, I don't know if you are familiar, with that great reductive justice organization, SPARK, in a letter? This is one of the groups that is working together nice to the community. I mean, really, corporal punishment in school should not be happening at all. And the way that school criminalizes children across the board, is really something that we need to talk about. And it's really an issue, and isn't about educating people. 
>> Exactly. I agree. 
>> Let me add quickly, this is Ari. I would be glad to help connect you to some other people. 
>> I am hooked up with many as well. I am trying to galvanize -- 
>> Because of time, we do need to move on to the next question. If you can please hold your question, we will have a Q. and a session at the end of all the speakers. I would like to take this time now to ask Pat Hartman if we have any Web questions. 
>> No, we do not. 
>> Our next question is from Cody. 
>> I was going to mention that the e-mail address to send questions to did not show up in the captioning. 
>> Okay. That e-mail address -- 
>> I'm waiting for the Cap sure to up. That e-mail address is pathartmann@comcast.net.    Okay, got it. Thank you. 
>> No problem. 
>> We will now move on two and he said. 
>> Great. Thank you for your great knowledge. 
>> Our next captioner -- our next speaker is Anita Cameron. Can you tell us about your experience with ADAPT? 
>> Sure. I joined and two in 1986 at the age of 21. I was fairly young when I joined. I had been involved in other social justice movements. But really did not find a movement where I felt at home. I found out about ADAPT somewhat accidentally and joined while I was in my hometown, Chicago, Illinois. After about a year with ADAPT, I went on my first national action in Washington DC. It was very intense. We took over the department of transportation. It was therefore 30 hours.  we were there for 30 hours. At that time, this was before the Americans with disabilities act days. Shortly after that action, I moved to Colorado. Denver, Colorado, in particular. It was the home of ADAPT. It was from an independent learning Center -- Independent living Center, a group of young people were helped to leave a missing home. They actually started ADAPT. And because of the work on accessible public transportation, ADAPT spread. And today it is in roughly -- roughly about 40 chapters in 23 states. And so now my home chapter is Rochester, New York. As I said, ADAPT, when I joined, we were working on access to public transportation. And with the passage of the Americans with disabilities act and 1990, ADAPT looked to our roots, so to speak, and begin to work on a national program attendant services. So in the very early days of that, we got together in a church basement in Denver and put together the very beginnings of what looks to be a piece of legislation called CASA. And attendant is someone who helps someone do something they have difficulty doing like feeding, dressing, transferring into or out of their wheelchair, bathing, also includes things like helping with grocery shopping, helping with, like checkbook preparations, things of that nature. So over the years, ADAPT was able to get our piece of legislation introduced into Congress. It was first introduced into Congress in a 1997 by then house speaker Newt Gingrich. And there were lots of actions and protests surrounding finally getting him to do that. It has been reintroduced into Congress each year since then, and over the years it has changed. It has evolved and changed its name. Presently it is the community choice act, which describes -- probably the best description of what we are trying to do. Over the years, I have been arrested 115 times. ADAPT uses civil disobedience as a major tool in our work. Although we do use other tools in our work. 
>> What are the ways that you use the media to connect the work as an on ground national activist? 
>> We use blogs. ADAPT has a website. Www.adapt.org. We use Twitter. We use Facebook. We use T-shirts. As far as I'm concerned, T-shirts are also media. When I wear my trendy T-shirt, people ask me what is that? Is a good chance to educate. We use buttons, banners, we use a number of different media forms. Also we use a tool called cap whiz. Is a tool that gets people to call their Senator or Representative or right or things like that. So we use a number of different things. 
>> Great. Thank you so much. And in all your greatness, you answered my next question, which is how do you use the media and the different tools that you use. So we will actually ask the operator to open the question line. And we well not take questions. Thank you, and he took off for everything. 
>> Thank you. 
>> Again, ladies and gentlemen, it is a star followed by the number one to ask any to a question. Again, that is star, one if you'd like to ask a question. And you do have a question from Beth Thompson.   . 
>> My question is, I am working with a group of youth advocates, and we have started trying to use Facebook and other sorts of social media -- other forms of social media. They are having trouble reaching out and finding people. I wondered if anyone had suggestions on how to reach out and get active with Facebook entity like.     With Facebook and the like. 
>> I'm sorry. You asked about how we could use Facebook and things like that? 
>> How we can get used more involved. We are having trouble reaching the youth in getting them actively participating in reading the blogs and actively engaging in the conversation. 
>> Okay, I needed, what would you suggest?  okay, Anita, Willowood you suggest? 
>> It is good that you would beat reach out -- reached out to. In ADAPT, we have adults who were almost literally born into ADAPT and coming to ADAPT literally when they were babies. Now they are adults and they are continuing on the work. What we are doing in New York is we are going into the high schools in reaching out to students -- to youth with disabilities. I have done some work with a group here in New York to talk to youth, and I think a lot of times, youth want to do things, but they are kind of scared of what their parents might think were scared of things. It's just a matter of reassuring them that this is the right thing to do, that it is right to speak out about rights and all. Sometimes it's a bit of a slow process. Facebook is a good thing for use, blogging and whatnot, but I think you kind of have to approach youth where the they are.  approach youth where they are. Something like Facebook or something, they may not be ready for that yet. So approached them where they are and work with them and encourage them and then as time goes, they will be ready to do any number of things. 
>> Great. Thank you so much. Is there another question? 
>> Not at this time. 
>> Perfect. Thank you, Anita, for everything you said. You brought a great amount of insight to independent media. 
>> Thank you. 
>> Thank you, Anita. Cripchick is here tonight to share her thoughts about other important issues of blogging. You speak a lot about media justice. What exactly is that? 
>> Hi, everyone. Media justice is a framework or a way of looking at things and also a movement. It focuses on people that are normally excluded from other media like things that get portrayed negatively in newspapers and on TV. So it really emphasizes people making their own media. For example, in our community, it might look like media justice might look like disabled bloggers blogs and those folks spreading their own news and organizing media. So it is really people making their own media and not depending on, like, mass media delivering their message. 
>> Cripchick, how can the community use independent media to make our voices heard? 
>> There are so many good tools out there. A lot of people are using podcasts, which is basically can't you just plug in a microphone, or you can even do it from your cell phone. And you can record, like, radio shows and had conversations with those shows. It's really cool. I have a friend that does a podcast and she has always reading materials that go with it, and people tend to play poetry and played music. And I mentioned blogs. Blogs are Internet websites and they are kind of updated like a journal, where there are updates and other entries. It's really cool because blogs are people -- something that people can check easily on a daily basis and is on most like once you start reading a bunch of blogs, you can use, like a speed reader, and it's almost like making your own -- deciding what information you want because you can kind of figure out who you want to beat your news sources. And there are things like -- let's see what else. We have video casting like live broadcasting where you can take, you know, a video camera to a meeting and using free software on line, Mozilla, and there are so many free tools out there that help. 
>> How do you think that blogs and social media will revolutionize the disability community? 
>> Well, blogs and social media are really cool, because it just takes Internet access. Most of this stuff is free and a lot of it is accessible. It's something our whole community can use. A lot of disabled people are really isolated from each other. So we live in communities where, you know, translation issues might make it hard to get to another place or two go to a disability rights meeting or something like that. You can have all these amazing conversations online through the Internet. There is a problem with works that don't have Internet or cell phones.    -- there is a problem with folks that don't have the Internet or cell phones. 
>> We will not take this opportunity to take a few questions from our young people in the audience tonight for Cripchick. We will now open the teleconference line for questions. Operator? 
>> At this time, if you would like to ask a question to Cripchick, please press star, one on your telephone keypad. And we have a question from Cody. 
>> Okay. One thing that I wanted to mention that kind of seems to get a guard a lot, is not so much of an issue when it comes to blogging and textual content, but there is an increasing amount of podcasts and videos out their nowadays, and I have noticed a lot of time people don't take the time to transcribe or caption them. This is a problem. I have some difficulties with hearing. As I imagine quite a few people would in the movement. And the fact that this is often ignored kind of bothers me. 
>> Thank you, Cody. I definitely agree with you. There is so much work we need to do around accessibility. Yes. Totally, totally, totally. 
>> Do we have anymore questions, operator? 
>> S. We do have a question from the line of Adam Ballard. 
>> High, Cripchick. I wanted to mention at the end, we have the problem of some of our people don't have access to this technology. You mentioned that some policy work is probably needed. What kind of work with the group -- would we be pursuing along those lines? 
>> I'm definitely not a policy person, but I think there are a lot of initiatives that kind of get Internet access for all communities.    -- before our committee. Like last week they were talking about Philadelphia closing all it's libraries. That kind of public access is definitely going to be a public policy issue for our communities. And from a grassroots perspective, I think it's something that we need to take into consideration in our organizing. So not just being, like, Internet and e-mail, but also using phone trees and postcards and things like that. 
>> Great. Cynic I just wanted to add as a policy-oriented person, and I was kicked off the call briefly and just got back on -- got back on. So if this was mentioned, my apologies. But in the area of accessibility, independent media technologies, there is legislation pending now called the 21st century indications and video accessibility act of 2009 that may do some work around this. So I just wanted to put that out there. It's built numbers HR3101 in the house. 
>> Thank you very much. Before we move on,, I would like to ask that if we have a web questions. 'S. 
>> We actually have four in one message. 
>> Yes. They all for Cripchick? 
>> It doesn't say. 
>> Go ahead and ask one. 
>> What is the most effective way to gather information? Have you found any problems with accessibility and blogs being inaccessible at all? 
>> Cripchick? 
>> Well, like Cody, there are still tons of issues around accessibility. And it feels like the only way to get around that is to talk about these. So as a blogger, I really tried to talk about areas -- [inaudible -- audio is breaking up] Mick sure that I include pictures and have a text description of what the pictures are and things like that. So that's the nature of bloggers to have things heavy on text, but it is aboard to have pictures to kind of explain the text. So it's a combination of all things. 
>> Okay. So before we move on, let's also go ahead and take in another question, pat. 
>> In using the social media, what has been the most successful -- most successful -- most successful and most accessible? 
>> Was that about social media? 
>> Yes. 
>> And Moya and Anita, you can feel free to answer, two. 
>> I think it depends on what you know. 
>> Two other books have answers? 
>> This is Moya speaking. Having worked with some folks, one of the things -- things that frustrate me is when people are designing websites -- websites, the distinction between accessibility and usability, as if there is a difference. Accessibility -- usability has to deal with is the range would make sense, but those are accessibility issues as well. I think those are brought concerns. 
>> Absolutely. And just to build on that, having to consult at the beginning is important. Not just building and putting together the website with everyone in mind. It's about doing things after the fact and trying to make adjustments and alterations in pieces. 
>> This is Anita. I know there is a growing movement to incorporate accessibility into some of the software that is used to create websites, whether it is blogs or social networking. And there is software that is out there that will actually check your site to make sure that is accessible, say, two a screen reader. There are programs out there now that will allow captioning of the videos. That is something new that ADAPT is getting into. Because we have a number of deaths members who, obviously, had no abs -- access to the video. One of these things, if we cannot actually caption the video itself, then we do provide transcripts. So there is definitely a number of software programs out there and things that will help to make the site successful. And some kinds of things like Cripchick was saying, writing in accessible language and use descriptors, you know, descriptors it of pictures and whatnot. 
>> Thank you, Cripchick. I apologize. Go-ahead. 
>> I was going to second what Moya just said. The way we answer this question is the best way to God -- go about making things accessible. It's like she said, making sure that everybody is part of the question when you are trying to decide how to make your site accessible. 
>> Thank you very much, Cripchick, and everybody else you just participated in answering the questions. This is been very insightful information. Next we would like to hear from Melanie Yergeau, I apologize for the mispronouncing of your last name, about her involvement in the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Melanie, what are some common trends in media representation in disabilities? 
>> I'm going to talk about a couple of trends and then it will go ahead and transition more specifically into ASAN. When it comes to representing people with disabilities, there are several common trends. They involve using the mainstream media. And generally, I would classify these as good. Really, as I am sure most people are aware, filibuster -- a a lot of stereotypes are negative or visitation about disabilities abound. But there are some common themes. Prices, we are commonly presented details about how the poor little disabled person overcame adversity or with tales about how horrible it must be to have a disability. Tales of pity. Tales of how good so and so had it before he or she became disabled. There is lots of bad rhetoric here. These are only a few among many trends in popular media. If you turn on the TV, radio, or bring up a newspaper or an online article, you will usually find some negative rhetoric about disability. You really don't have to search very hard. Saw this week, this is a very, very big problem. And I think this is like our conversation on independent media -- is really important. In terms of things that are going on with the Central Ohio/Ohio state chapter of ASAN, today, for instance, was the student involvement day at m-mike University, Ohio State. And basically, 500 student organizations set up tables and handed out informational flyers. About five tables down from our Autistic Self Advocacy Network table, was the autism speaks table. In the autism speaks people had a big, giant tent with a big walk for autism and cure autism banner. And they were handing out free T-shirts. At our table, we were handing out candy and flyers titled why autism speaks doesn't speak for us, which was greeted by Meg Evans, who directs the Southwest Ohio chapter of ASAN. Anyway, we were sure to include our blog address in the flyers were handed out because so much of our present to him -- is online. That's largely how we communicate. So some they would ask why the anti- autism speaks flyers. There are several reasons, but the big one is that autism speaks is fairly offensive as an organization. Among other things, they contribute to these negative representations of people with disabilities, or more specifically, autistic -- autistic people in the media, they present people with disabilities as a diseased and damaged. They compare autism to being worse than death. They are focused on cure and prevention to the exclusion of almost any other issue. So we kind of went to town today at the information fair and I think part of the reason our group has been so frustrated is because these larger charities have a good deal of mainstream media control, so they have a really big hold on the media and none of their leaders are autistic themselves. 
>> Thank you. How has ASAN been through Iowa that's been battling negative presentations of autism in the media? 
>> Sure. In addition to what I was just describing, about the student involvement fair today, we have done quite a bit of blogging. We have also started a Facebook group and a LiveJournal community. And a LiveJournal community, it's what -- sort of like a blogger, but you can have more than one person controlling the content and updating posts. So it really helps us to stay in touch with the chip -- which -- with each other. Another thing we have done is in addition to holding meetings face-to-face in a physical space, we also hold meetings online. We use America Online, Google Mail chat, and the reason we want to do this as we want to be as accessible as possible, so we are able to use these ways to keep people involved who might not be involved otherwise. Some of the other things that people in our group of them, one of our members has started her own podcast called prism box. Also during our online meetings and blog postings, we are able to get other people involved with ASAN as well as autistic advocacy and civil rights generally speaking, we are able to get people from across the country involved in these conversations. So that it's not just a local issue, it becomes a national one. 
>> Also, we have mentioned you are studying rhetoric. But is that, and how does it intersect with disability and the media? 
>> Okay. To put it very simply, rhetoric is the art of arguing. So rhetoric is not all bad. Usually when we hear rhetoric, we think that. But its studying how we persuade people. And one of the most important things about rhetoric and false looking at the relationship between yourself -- rhetoric and looking at the relation between yourself and your message. And this can be a useful way to approach this ability as well as media representation and using digital tools in order to further a cause. By looking at -- we are trying to figure out what your audience is expecting and relating that to your message, you can really make a big difference. And so, when it comes down to blogging, you have potentially a much bigger audience than you would if you are say, handing out flyers. And so there are all these different considerations that you have to take into account. And thinking of rhetoric can help you do that. 
>> We will now take this opportunity to take some questions from our audience. We will not open the teleconference lines, allowing time for questions. Operator? 
>> Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, that his star, one if you would like to ask a question. 
>> Do we have any questions? 
>> Not at this time. 
>> Pat, do we have any online questions? 
>> Is, we did, Gabriel.  yes, we do, Gabriel. This person asked the panelists their most favorite sources of independent media. Which publication or blog do you read? Which online communities do you participate in? And this is for everybody. Whoever wants to answer it. 
>> I guess I can start. I will just name a couple because I have a lot of them. A particularly good one is the autism hub, which is a blogging community. It's a group of bloggers, and specifically they take a positive or diversity approach toward autism. That would be one example. And I guess other people can give their own examples, two. 
>> This is Moya Bailey. Of course, Quirky Black Girls, and with Cripchick another good friend, is disability justice. We can get more information about that. Stacy, I don't remember the groups name. 
>> I don't remember it, too, but I will room for it before the call is over. 
>> Okay. 
>> This is Ari Ne'eman. I participate on the ASAN -- ASAN discussion listserv. I am also a big fan of whose planet is it anyway as well as the blog, cat in a dogs world, if I am remembering the name right. And Trent eight -- her blog as well as well as a number of others. Those are just three that I read very regularly. 
>> Thank you very much. Do we have any more online questions? 
>> Know. 
>> Operator, do we have any audio questions? 
>> S., we do. We have a question from Wallace Johnson. You are not -- your line is open. And I heard no response, so we will move to the next question. You're next question comes from Sarah Peterson. 
>> Hi. This is Sarah. And I wanted to know, I was interested, you were mentioning all kinds of different ways to convert for people, which makes it very accessible. How do you then bring all those different thought streams back together and develop a unified message for her -- or to sort of integrate those different conversations that are happening in those different forums? 
>> Sure. This is a really good question and it is one that we are still working on. I think that's one of the challenges of using the independent media or the social networking technologies, is that everything of technology has its advantages and disadvantages. So we have to wait some pros and cons. But mainly, we have a listserv, and that is primarily our primary form of online indication that we use. Also, our blog is the other primary thing that we do. So we try to link to these other types of web sources like Facebook. As well as our LiveJournal community. But I would say that our main venue -- venues involved the listener as well as the -- the listserv as well as the blog. 
>> Do we have one more question operator? 
>> There are no questions at this time. 
>> Thank you, Melonie. Finally, we would like to hear from Ari Ne'eman about his involvement in the [Event concluded] four. Ari, can you tell us a little bit about the ASAN work in the mainstream and other media? 
>> Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be are here. I viewed the role of the trend before in a lot of ways. Not just an advocacy organization, but in some senses, when we are talking about the kind of grassroots campaigns we run to either promote particular policies or legislation that will help autistic people and others with disabilities or working to fight against media and entertainment misrepresentations of the autism spectrum and the broader disability committee, that's something of a battle tank. The truth of the matter is, is that media is an incredibly important thing, and how we are represented in media is an in print -- is an incredibly important thing. I think that people often forget that some of the worst atrocities to ever occur against people with disabilities really occurred because of a stage that was set by media which devalued our lives. I'd like to take us a moment to go back to 1917, if I may. ASAN was not around them, but if I may go back anyway, in 1917, if you were to go to a movie theater, one of the most popular movies it could see, and they would play it all day, was called the Black stork. And that was a movie about Claude and and, who married against the advice of their position, who warned them if they married because Claude had the effect of genes caused by the fact that his grandfather had had an affair with a slave, and this was very, to equate -- equate racism and bring in racism into eugenics and other philosophies, but a disabled child would result from their marriage. And Claude and and get married anyway, and the child that is born is disabled. And big Doctor encourage them to withhold treatment and allow the child to die on the table rather than to allow the child to live by virtue of the fact that the doctor does not think that that child's life is worth anything. At first she refuses, but then she is visited by a vision from God who says how horrible her life is going to be, because he has a disability, will eventually shoot the doctor that condemned him to live. The baby dies, the baby's soul is shown leaving into the arms of a waiting Jesus figure, and Congress and society response to the movie by passing a national premarital inspection law. This was a popular movie than, and it was a crucial piece of propaganda for something called the eugenics movement. What the eugenics movement was was basically a movement that was a group of people who believed that they were going to help save the world by stopping the disabled and otherwise unfit people from being born into it by approaching how human beings Brad and had children in the same way they would approach how dogs or horses would breed and have children, saying these people are fat -- fit to pass along their genes and have the kind of people that we want to have in the world, and these people are not fit. And they used this to justify incredible atrocities against people with disabilities. 10 years after that movie, as eugenics was popularized throughout the community, the Supreme Court ruled that it was acceptable to him voluntarily sterilize, Sir location made it -- making it impossible for people to have children, of people with disabilities, making it impossible for them to have children -- to not have children against their well. Oliver Wendell Holmes announced that three generations of imbeciles was enough. And 30 states past several station laws, and over 50,000 people in the 20th century, the majority of which had disabilities or were believed to have disabilities, were involuntarily sterilized. I think it is very important to keep this in mind. Because it really all started from the media. It started from this idea that was put forward that people who have disabilities or a burden on society, and we have to get rid of this burden, otherwise society is going to collapse. What is scary about this, and in addition to this idea he would also see this idea that it was for the disabled child's own good, that they should be sterilized or keep them from being born were to euthanize them in childhood or to kill us off. It was supposed to be for our own good. What is a scary about this is we see this kind of thing in the media now as well. As we look about, for example, the advertising of groups like autism speaks, which Melanie was just describing at the protest earlier today, activities were the Ohio chapter was engaged in the protests today, which is a public service announcement where they announce the odds of a child being in a fatal car accident where the odds of a child being struck by lightning, and the odds of a child being's dashboard with autism. And they also have a fundraising video where they show a mother talking about how she considered placing her child in the car and driving off the George Washington Bridge, but decided she had better not because she also had a normal child as well and must somehow persevere on because of that. We see it in the kind of cost of statistics in which people announce the autism -- the autism costs the nation $35 billion. We see it in respect to other cost statistics in which people in the society are -- because the people in these societies are driven home and suppressed, and what was really the message of the disability rights message, that not accommodating people as a burden. I want to read to you the ninth finding of Congress and the Americans with disabilities act. That the continued existence of unfair and unnecessary determination and prejudice denies people with disabilities be ability to compete on an equal basis and can pursue those qualities for which our society is famous and costs the United States billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses resulting independency and non- productivity. This is a massive paradigm change. The idea that discrimination costs. Our idea. The disability rights idea. And the idea put forth so often in our media, that we caught ourselves, cost. I'm sorry. Are we running over on time? 
>> We have time for one more question. What kind of groundwork do you do to prepare yourself when things come up that you need to mobilize around? 
>> That's an excellent question. I do apologize for running a bit over their. I guess the big thing that I would really stress here is that it's very important to carefully pick targets in terms of media campaigns that will resonate with people. One of the examples was the New York University study in -- that presented children of disabilities as kidnap victims. It really resonated with both self advocates and parents and professionals. To focus on where these organizations that are putting out these messages are getting their money or their power, directing attention not just to people who run the groups, but two their Board of Directors and their donors. Realizing that it is important to look at the pressure points in an organization. I guess the last two things I would mention is that there is a need to be dignified and respectful, but at the same time, keep in mind the rules of politics and grassroots advocacy aren't always the same as the rules of politeness. So if it is possible to collaborate with folks, coming up with something better, that's great. If it's not possible, then sometimes it's necessary to confront the folks. And invited you that effectively, it helps to have an on the ground infrastructure like we are seeing in respect to the local chapters of ADAPT that have sprung up around the country in the last 20, 30 years, and social capital, in terms that you have people who know each other, who our friends, who have pre-existing relationships. That makes it easier for people to come out and two advocacy. So I think it's incredibly important to build that sort of thing up ahead of time. 
>> We would now like to take this opportunity to take a few questions from our young people in the audience for Ryan Pinion. We will now open the telephone lines for questions -- people in the audience for Ari. Operator, do we have any questions? 
>> No, we do not. 
>> Pat, do we have any online questions? 
>> No, we do not. 
>> Okay. That is the end of our speaker section. Now we will go into the purchase of a section where the speakers answered the questions from the participants. The phone lines will now open for the participants. Before asking the question, please state your name. If you have a certain speaker that you would like to have answer your question, please say who you want to answer the question. Again, the speakers for tonight are Moya Bailey, founder of Quirky Black Girls, Anita Cameron, ADAPT, Cripchick, feminist blogger, and Ari Ne'eman and Melanie Yergeau, organizers of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. We are now open for questions. 
>> Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is a star, want to ask a question. And we do have a question from the line of Angelina Ramirez. 
>> High. This is Angelina. My question, I guess, is for Ari. Maybe also for the person on Cripchick. How do you help -- maybe not necessarily prevent, but how do you fight negative portrayals of people with disabilities, and what can you do when you create your own media to, kind of like, diminish these stereotypes? 
>> Ari, do you want to answer first? Maybe you could talk about your work and then I could talk about mine? 
>> That's a great idea. I guess when dealing with mass media, and dealing with defensive -- offensive portrayals, even mind that not everybody is going to see them as offensive, as we are. In fact, most people won't. This is not an argument against opposing them. What it really sends a message of is that it is all the more important to be very visible in opposing them and to put out a very clear and quick message as two why they are a problem. In the New York University campaign, which presented children of disabilities as kidnapping victims, we had to put together a very quick turnaround. We made sure we did was in our press release ended the public statement we put out, we explained in very clear terms why this was a problem. And white is needed to stop. And in addition to mobilizing folks, we made sure that we could get this in mass media outlets. I still do believe that as important as independent media is, to talk to your own constituency, there is a role for mainstream media in getting access to mainstream media and learning how to do things like what a press releases and handle reporters and all of that in terms of accessing the general public, very often, these groups that are engaging in offensive portrayals are portraying -- depending on as customers or donors or what have you. So I think that what is very crucial in fighting offensive portrayals is you need to have a fast turnaround time with an easy-to-understand message, assuming that your audience when you are talking to mainstream media, is the general public. The average person. So many who has no familiarity with your message. And to try to strike on things that are going to resonate with that person. And by doing that, think that you can really access the general public and then be in a better position to utilize media like blogs, like list serves, like YouTube, to mobilize your own base, to mobilize your own constituency around these things. Spack and just to follow-up on that, I think -- 
>> And to follow up on that, I think when you are working with media, it is a two-pronged strategy. So what Ari is talking about, is making mass media better. That is true of all committees, like broadcasters and who is feeding the media and like that. And there is also media justice which is super, super powerful because it focuses on all these different communities coming together and sharing strategies of how to make their own media. So where I Rick -- get really excited about is where I see different movements. For example like you can't weather -- even on Twitter, activists -- on activism and all these things is really amazing. So I think kind of like  on the search engine you portrayals of the way we see ourselves, like all the internalized things got us what we really start changing things. 
>> I just want to build on what Cripchick is saying. Another committee that I didn't pitch before, the [indiscernible -- distorted audio], bringing some of the -- together and I think that's really important. Seeing how these different movements that usually are considered or thought about as separate. Seeing how they really intersect in people's lives and how they move through the world. So I think it's really important in generating the kind of media that we want to see and is reflective of our communities [indiscernible -- distorted audio]. 
>> One thing to add onto that, that is kind of like the perfect example. A lot of times that we look at as a disability issues, we just to see them as disability issues. What Ari is having about with eugenics, the people that he's talking about our poor people and women of color. And there are all these committees doing this work, and media, where it is media basically just about communicating with each other and creating a space to have that dialogue, it's perfect for this cross movement work. 
>> Think you very much, everybody, for your insightful information. We will now allow them to our next question. Operator, do we have a next question? 
>> Yes. We have a question from media. 
>> High. My question was -- we have a question from Mia. 
>> My question is about Ari, and the sterilization issue, but I was wondering if it was just men, but folks who identify as men or who have male bodies were also being sterilized. In most of my research that I have done, it has predominantly been women and female body folks. I wanted to know what you meant when he said people. 
>> We saw during the eugenic. Was the sterilization of both males and females. And I don't know the exact breakdown, who it was occurring with, but there was definitely significant populations, all genders who are facing sterilization or sterilized. And you can look two prominent examples on both sides. Some of the folks in the Skinner the Oklahoma case, which turned back the tide of eugenics, those were primarily male prisoners. But if you look at a lot of the folks who were sterilized in other contexts, you are looking at a lot of women. I don't know the exact break down. I would suspect that women were overrepresented because of some of the issues around sexism and some of the issues around lack of power for that population at that time. But we definitely saw a desire on the part of the eugenics movement to sterilized and deprived of the ability to pass along characteristics of all genders. And that speaks to all genders and all races. But it was disproportionately oriented that certain races and certain income classes. That speaks to, I think, the arrogance of the eugenics movement then and now. 
>> Thank you very much. Before we go -- before we move on to our next question, would like to remind our forks job -- folks joining us by a web, you can ask questions to Pat Hartman. Once again, his Web address is pathartmann@comcast.net.    Operator, do we have anymore questions? 
>> Yes. We have a question from Messerat Kateau. I had a question about the eugenics issue. Is something like that going on, like infanticide, which is like in India and sometimes in China where if a female -- if you are pregnant with a female that they would abort it because they prefer male children? I'm wondering if they are doing that with, you know, with -- I don't know if they can tell what they are still -- I'm looking at it like it is a present-day eugenics right now that is going on. 
>> Well, is. You are right. That's an extremely important issue. In East and South Asia, that practice is frighteningly common. And there is some presence of that practice among some new immigrant groups to the United States. It can be tracked to a certain extent, by looking at gender ratios in the population. And there is a knowledge of what a natural ratio is and what a disproportionate gender ratio is. That generally indicates some sort of sex selection abortion, which is a eugenics practice. There are parallels, I think, a disability selection abortion, 92 percent of fetuses that test positive for down syndrome are selectively aborted. There are other selective abortion rates in the eugenics movements that exist today. I think we can learn from those parallels because the underlying social stigma and fear around disability and prejudice is similar to what we are saying in motivating sex social abortion. I think some of the few countries that have succeeded in fighting sex selection abortion, they way they have done that is by looking at significant public relations campaigns, not only stigmatized the practice of sex selection abortion, but presentation as worthwhile of its citizens of women in society, and in the power that women in society have a general. So I think that's very instructive, and it speaks to the need to empower women and to empower people with disabilities. Change the way society works at both populations, to change this eugenics practice. 
>> Thank you very much, Ari. Before we move on, I would like to remind everybody that this teleconference is entitled independent media two .-dot zero. We do ask that you keep your questions within the area of media and those six precious. I would like to remind a ready that this is an open question and answer session, so please feel free to ask a question to anybody that has spoken tonight. Operator, do we have any questions? Snack at this time I would like to take a moment to remind everyone, to ask a question, you can press star, one, on your telephone keypad. At this time we have a question from Angelina Ramirez. 
>> My question deals with creating positive messages that at the same time raise funds for the disability rights movement. How do you come about doing such a thing? I think it has been our problem in the past year. 
>> With any of our speakers be so kind to take that question? 
>> What was the first part of the question again? 
>> How do you create messages that at the same time raise funds for the disability rights message -- with a? 
>> Did you say raise funds? 
>> Yes. So you can continue to provide your services and your involvement in keeping people interested in disability rights.   . 
>> Thank you. Well, this is Cripchick speaking. I'm a really basic level, [indiscernible -- distorted audio] I appreciate the way blogs give you an opportunity to get to know people. I would know how much to independently find a center for Independent living. I am trying to fund raise to go to a conference or, like an organization, in on the verge of shutting down. And being connected to the community, the Internet has often been a really good way to be able to get some funds really quickly. So that has been kind of a cool thing to see. People raising thousands of dollars in a matter of weeks. Media is the way to have that connection to people. Do folks have other answers? 
>> This is Anita. As I stated earlier, in addition to being a mentor -- a member of ADAPT, I work at an independent release center here in Rochester, New York. And we have a website, and on our website is our blog, which I also write for our blog. And we have a donation button. It goes to like a PayPal kind of thing that we use. That is a fundraising tool. We publish pamphlets. We publish videos. These help to fund raise. We are able to get public service announcements out on some of the cable TV stations. We get some advertising on TV. I find it really interesting that right after the football game yesterday, I happened to hear my executive directors of voice. And it was a commercial for Center for disability rights, right there on prime time on a Sunday. And so I think that as Cripchick was saying, media is an excellent way of getting -- of using as a fundraising tool, and then as far as putting out, you know, positive images, you know, we just try to make sure that in our media, that we show people with disabilities interacting in our community. And that our depictions are very diverse. That is as far as gender, as far as racial, ethnic, as far as different types of disabilities, cross disabilities. And just show people in the community living, doing, you know, ordinary things that everybody else does, so people can see that folks with disabilities are ordinary people. They are your neighbors, and not just these people that you need to be afraid of. 
>> This is no the. I would like to add something in real quickly. A couple of things. First of all, I think that you can do different things in different contexts. In terms of raising funds and creating positive messages at the same time, you want to -- you don't necessarily have to think about addressing a really huge cock massive audience all the time. That sometimes limiting the scope of who you are addressing can be helpful. The reason I am saying this as I am thinking particularly of the workplace or of school. And so there are ways to get your message to specific groups of people that could be helpful. Another thing, to give an example, I guess, of one group that has created positive messages and have also worked toward raising funds, if you go to curepity.org, there are a series of videos as well as stories about kids with disabilities. They are positively. , but it is obvious that this particular organization is requesting donations and is trying to raise funds. 
>> To give her a much, everybody, for your information. I would like to move on now. Operator, we have any questions? Operator? 
>> We do have a question from Cody. 
>> I was wondering, one of my issues, one of the reasons I am particularly big on using social media, is that I can't drive, due to just their logical stuff.  due to their logical stuff. So it is easier for me to get out by posting online. That is not helped by the situation where I am not a big city, but in a small college town, with very little opportunity for transportation to bigger cities. And anyone, what are your thoughts on that? Do you have any advice on how I could better get out into the physical world using my online advocacy as a kind of jumping off point? 
>> Well, this is Moya. We have local groups and regional groups for people that are in a specific area. [indiscernible -- distorted audio] we might have gotten people together who wanted to go to a concert or go to an event that was happening in a city. That was a great way to have people who are like-minded who maybe wouldn't have been able or wouldn't have had someone to go to that event with before the group existed to kind of share information and share of the resources. And I think you can definitely use you're advocacy online to create connections with people in your city who do drive. 
>> Okay. I have already kind of started getting on that, but I still don't have -- it's like most of the people I know aren't in my city. 
>> This is Cripchick. I can speak a little bit to that. Just because I am kind of in a similar situation where I live in a world area. I live in kind of a progressive community. They really had a chance to move from this place of isolation to being part of a national community. I use it in the same way, I think you do. So for example, just using the Internet to get involved with the disability community, but to get involved in smaller circles like independent media communities. And then start, you know, working in online collectives and organizations. And eventually that kind of transforms into this work. But there are issues of access there, whether you can travel somewhere or whether you have the funds to participate are things like that. 
>> I'm sorry. I'm just waiting for the caches to catch up again.    -- okay. I'm waiting for the captions to catch up again. 
>> Is it okay to go on to the next caller? 
>> I think we are going to move on to the next caller, due to time. Thank you for a much for your question. Operator, do we have any other questions for our speaker tonight? 
>> You do have another question from Angelina and Ramirez. 
>> How do you get people involved in media, especially when people are so far and in between, like in rural areas? How do you get your questions -- like on our website we have people joining us on Facebook and joining us in different ways. Is there any way that we can, you know, try to gather them in, into the online community?   . 
>> This is no the speaking.  this is Melanie speaking. I guess trying to understand your question, your trying to get people involved socially by a media, you been involved online or do you mean involved in physical spaces or both? 
>> I mean both, but mostly online. We know that most people who are younger, 18-25 or something, are moving into online social networking. 
>> Okay. This is Melanie again. I will just say something briefly and then if someone else would like to jump in with their thoughts, that would be great. A couple of things that we found have worked well for us, and admittedly, it can be very time-consuming, is for instance, say if you are using Facebook or blogging and you are trying to get more people involved in your Facebook page or on your blog, a good thing to do would be to search out other related blogs or other related Facebook groups or individuals whose interests on their pages match up with the interests on their Facebook page. , but some of their blog posts. Leave a comment on their Facebook page. Again, it is time consuming, but it can go a long way in terms of generating online interest and involvement in the online community. 
>> With any speaker like to answer, due to the fact that this is our final question? 
>> S. This is Ari. I want to add that I find meetup.com is a useful website to bring people together. I think there is a real value to try to integrate social networking technologies and online technologies with in person meetings because as much as we all like the Internet, when you are engaged in advocacy, via legislative or more grassroots, there is still a real value, a real need for on the ground presence. I think that is one of the things that I have seen some groups do to great effect is to have in addition to monthly meetings, just have a constantly active listserv, so that social capital and by social capital, I mean social relationships and loyalties and friendships that connect activists and people who are part of the community, can build up even when a particular meeting is not occurring. It's hard to meet regularly. It's hard to meet every week. It's hard to -- easier to do it every month. But by using online technologies to try to supplement that, we can help bring more people out. And we can help connect them and get them to be more close together in their relationships while they are there. 
>> This is Anita. Once again, it's a matter of finding out where people are.    You know, Facebook is a great tool, but it may not be the tool that some Jews want to use. Also, as I think Ari was alluding to copy transition of relationships. If you can find someone that you are dealing with, whether in the physical or online, to cultivate that relationship and friendship with them, and then they will be most likely to come on to, you know, online communities on Facebook or LiveJournal or any of the main type of social network -- social networking sites. I know that on Facebook, some folks leave their number. They leave it there for a reason. If you can't find you have the resources, use it. Call them. If you have a relationship with them, so it's something more than just a screen name on a computer.   . 
>> Unfortunately, we are coming to the conclusion of our call this evening. Please visit the teleconference webpage in which there will be resource material available for you to view. On behalf of the National Youth Leadership Network, I would like to thank the participants and speakers for taking time out of your busy schedule and joining us today. We also want to thank ILRU for their support. Thank you, and have a good night.   . 
>> This concludes this evening's conference call. You may now disconnect.    [Event concluded]