Welcoming Remarks, White House Conference on Disability and Cultural Diversity and ADA 9th Anniversary Celebration, July 26, 1999

Welcoming Remarks

White House Conference
on Disability and Cultural Diversity
and ADA 9th Anniversary Celebration

July 26, 1999

Marca Bristo
Chairperson
National Council on Disability

Good Afternoon. I want to thank Mary Beth Cahill, Minyon Moore, Jonathan Young, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Chairperson Dr. Dorothy Height and Executive Director Wade Henderson, Ralph Neas, Justin Dart, Pat Wright, and my wonderful Vice Chair on the National Council on Disability Judge Hughey Walker for all of your hard work to make this historic event occur. Dr Height, your mere presence here today elevates this event.

I also want to recognize the ongoing leadership and strong commitment of so many agency officials and members of Congress who made time to be here today, especially Attorney General Reno, Secretary Riley, Secretary Slater, Secretary Herman, Senator Harkin and Representatives Hoyer, Clyburn, Scott, Mink, and Millender-McDonald. [It is gratifying to see the breadth of representation from the Administration, including Commissioner Ken Apfel from SSA, Chairman William Kennard from FCC, Chairperson Ida Castro from EEOC, and the Chairperson of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities my friend Tony Coelho.]

In addition to our esteemed government speakers, I am so proud and honored to see so many civil rights and disability leaders together today to celebrate the 9th anniversary of ADA and to begin a dialogue on how to make the promise of ADA and other civil rights laws a reality for people with disabilities from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Today,the National Council on Disability is releasing a preliminary summary of our report, Lift Every Voice: Modernizing Disability Policies and Programs to Serve a Diverse Nation. The full report will be released when the Spanish and Cantonese translations are ready later this year.

The message of our report, and my message to all of you at today's event, has two parts. First, we who work in civil rights, disability rights, and public policy, regardless of our political affiliation, must take a hard look at how our policies, programs and services are meeting the unique needs of people with disabilities from diverse cultural backgrounds. Second, I challenge everyone here to commit to leaving this room today and taking concrete actions to address the inadequacies in our public and private institutions so that they can truly meet the unique needs of all the people in this diverse nation.

Moreover, those of us in the federal government must expand our efforts to get culturally-appropriate, easy-to-understand information about disability civil rights laws and disability programs and services into the hands of diverse individuals, families and communities so that we can move beyond the current situation of "disability haves" and "disability have nots".

Any tribal government that wants assistance with improving the lives of its members with disabilities and their families should be able to get such assistance from a culturally- competent source.

The Chinatown residents who testified in Cantonese at NCD's hearing last August in San Francisco should have bilingual, bicultural workers and allies in the disability service delivery system so that they can understand and avail themselves of federal laws, programs and services.

NCD's strong recommendation to our sister agencies is that you create broad-based, stable interagency funding to support the creation of an ongoing corps of people with disabilities from diverse cultural backgrounds and their family members to travel the U.S. and territories from East Los Angeles to Harlem to the Native Alaskan village of Sitka to Guam educating local residents about disability civil rights laws and services in a culturally-competent, community-centered manner.

Based on the testimony we have heard around the country and research others have conducted, NCD is convinced that people with disabilities and their families in every community and culture across our diverse landscape are ready and eager to take their part as contributing members of their cities, towns, and villages, but many don't have basic information about their rights and the services available to them.

To be successful, we must all recognize that the efforts to date have barely skimmed the surface of what needs to occur.

I have learned a lot about the intersection between race, ethnicity, culture and disability from my staff back home in Chicago at Access Living. Disability can have very different implications for a deaf Hispanic man, a Native American with quadriplegia, or an African-American blind woman. My staff have taught me that the unique issues that arise for people with disabilities living in two or more communities at once often go ignored or unaddressed.

As a woman with a disability, I know it is sometimes hard to tell whether I encounter artificial barriers because of my gender or my disability. In some ways, it doesn't matter which factor played a greater role. Fears, myths and stereotypes about people with disabilities, women, racial, ethnic and religious minorities, older workers, and gays and lesbians are all alive and well in America. Discrimination continues to rear its ugly head to unfairly limit too many American children and adults.

As President Clinton reminded us recently when he traveled to some of the poorest communities in the U.S., the vibrant economy of the late 90s has offered little in the way of improved quality of life and hopeful prospects to our poorest, most disenfranchised citizens. Racial and ethnic minorities with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the group that has been left behind as much of our nation continues to grow and prosper.

Lets work together to ensure that the ADA's message of hope and empowerment spreads to all Americans, including the sovereign nations that make up Indian country, so that we can start to address the root causes of poverty and unfulfilled potential.

Thank you all for being here. And let's remember, today should be viewed as a step in our mutual journey to equal justice for all. As the song from which we took the title for our report implores, "Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won."