One Persons ADAPT Action Experience

	I wrote the following article after attending the ADAPT Action in
September in Washington, D.C.  I wrote it for the student newspaper at
Purdue University North Central.  I work here as the Disability Services
Coordinator. 


The Civil Rights Movement is Not Just in History Books By Jodi James 

	On September 11, 2006, I left O'Hare to start out on an incredible
journey to Washington, D.C.  For one week, I was part of a civil rights
movement that I had only read and heard about in history books and on TV. 
I joined a group known as ADAPT, a grassroots organization which uses
demonstration and civil disobedience techniques to fight for the rights of
people with disabilities. Each year, they host "actions" in different
parts of the country to get the word out about the needs of people with
disabilities. 

	This particular action was held in D.C. and focused on the passing
of MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Support Act. 
This law would allow money go to a person who needs long-term care
services so they can stay in their own homes.  Currently, 94% of long-term
care funds in Indiana go to nursing homes. This means that people do not
have a choice of where to live if they need help such as dressing,
bathing, housekeeping, etc. 

	ADAPT believes that people with disabilities should have the right
to decide where they want to live and should be more in control of how
they receive the services they need. Each day during the action, we would
line up according to our color groups.  It was an amazing sight to see
over 300 people using wheelchairs lined up single file rolling down the
middle of the streets of Washington.  We received a police escort
everywhere we went.  There was chanting and singing.  I do not think I
have ever been with so many people at one time who all believed in the
same thing.  They were all going for the same goal and all had one agenda. 
It was an exhilirating feeling. 

	The first day, my group broke off from the rest and went to visit
the offices of the National Public Housing Authority.  It was difficult to
get that many wheelchairs up to the ninth floor, especially when security
started threatening to turn the elevator off so they could stop us from
going up.  We then took over a hallway of offices and blocked it so that
no one could do business.  Our demands were brought forth and we sat there
and chanted, sang, and made lots of noise until negotiations were held and
both sides were happy.  What surprised me most was the attitude of the
staff at these offices.  You would think that they would want to sit down
with us and get us out of there as quickly as possible.  However, they
immediately said they couldn't help us and called security.  Eventually we
were able to talk with them and get what we wanted.  What an exhilirating
feeling! 

	It is amazing what you can accomplish when you have so many people
supporting you and wanting the same things you do. On another day, we
piled into the plaza in front of the Housing and Urban Development
offices.  We were asking for help from them to make affordable,
accessible, integrated housing.  It was pouring down rain and cold, but
that didn't stop all of those in and out of wheelchairs from making sure
that we were heard.  We held up signs such as (I'd rather go to jail then
die in a nursing home), we chanted things like (Our homes, not nursing
homes). Then finally someone emerged from the building that we had been
negotiating with and announced through the bullhorn that they would be
giving us what we spefically came to ask for. This was an amazing
experience for me of empowerment, achievement and productivity.