Venture Together Celebrates Black History Month 2023

For Black History Month we’re celebrating the lives and work of Black disability advocates.

This week we meet Betty Williams. Her remarkable journey into self-advocacy began when she was encouraged by a friend at her workshop to attend a self-advocacy meeting. She first became an advocate for voting rights for people with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities. Later, she was instrumental in getting her home state of Indiana’s MRDD commission to remove the demeaning “R” word from its name.

She worked for The Arc of Indiana as Self-Advocacy Training coordinator, and was named to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities by Barack Obama.

Learn more about Betty here: https://www.indianadisabilityhistory.org/exhibits/show/sai/williams

As a writer, poet, musician, graphic novelist, historian, lecturer, and activist, Leroy F. Moore, Jr. has never let his disabilities (he was born with cerebral palsy) keep him from making his mark on the world.

Moore’s accomplishments are almost too numerous to list; he’s written a column for POOR Magazine since the 1990s. He is co-founder of the disability performance art collective Sins Invalid. He co-authored a children’s book called Black Disabled Art History 101. He currently serves as the Chair of the Black Disability Studies Committee for the National Black Disability Coalition. And he is a founder of Krip Hop, a movement that uses hip-hop music as a means of expression for people with disabilities. In 2021, Krip Hop won an Emmy Award for a song used in the Netflix documentary Rising Phoenix, about paralympic athletes.

Learn more about Leroy’s life and work here: https://abilitymagazine.com/leroy-moore/

Haben Girma is a lawyer, advocate, speaker, writer, and activist advocating for disability justice. Haben is the first deafblind individual to graduate from Harvard Law School.

Growing up in California, Girma was able to access the tools she needed to learn, such as a braille reader, accessible materials, and other accommodations. That wasn’t always the case though, and says she made the decision to become a disability rights advocate in college when she had to advocate for herself to assure she had options and advantages that were not available to her.

She has been named a White House Champion of Change, and she has received the Helen Keller Achievement Award, a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and TIME100 Talks. She has recently published her best selling memoir Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law. She has been globally recognized by world leaders including President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and more.

Learn more about Haben here: http://ow.ly/1MXo50MUEBr

In 1999, the Supreme Court’s Olmstead v. L.C. found that the warehousing of people with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities in institutions was unconstitutional under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The L.C. of that important lawsuit was Lois Curtis, a woman who was in and out of institutions for nearly 20 years, beginning at age 11. Born in Georgia in 1967, Lois’ cognitive and developmental disabilities often led her into trouble at school and home, which in turn would involve the police, and wind up with Lois being placed in jail or institutions.

In 1995, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society helped Lois file a lawsuit against Tommy Olmstead, commissioner of human services the Georgia state, claiming that Lois would be better served in a community setting, an option that wasn’t open to her in Georgia at the time. The case went to the Supreme Court, who ruled in favor of Curtis and her co-plaintiffs in a decision that would change the face of ID/D care throughout the nation. Because of Lois Curtis and her courage, all people with disabilities in the United States are afforded the right to live where and how they choose.

Learn more about Lois and the Olmstead decision here: http://ow.ly/ooeU50N29Cu

Venture Together Celebrates Black History Month 2023

For Black History Month we’re celebrating the lives and work of Black disability advocates.

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