Advocacy

Jim O’Donnell presents Museum of Fine Arts Accessibility Specialist Valarie Burrows with the first Award for Excellence in Accessible Programming at Celebration ’14, Cambridge, MA.
Jim O’Donnell presents Museum of Fine Arts Accessibility Specialist Valarie Burrows with the first Award for Excellence in Accessible Programming at Celebration ’14, Cambridge, MA

Advocacy — Jim O’Donnell

Advocacy! What a wonderful word, it sounds so empowering, worthy and respecting of individuality. But how does it work? When I work with kids in the public school system who have a hearing loss, we try to teach them how to speak up for themselves in class by asking for what they need. And we give them knowledge of what they need. But it’s the most difficult skill to teach.

The same is true for adults, we just don’t want to risk offending. For many years I have sat in group conversation and social situations where I was missing a large chunk of the conversation and I did not speak up for more accommodation. How absurd, for I’m a lawyer trained to advocate for others. I can do that because it’s for others. I can even get self righteously angry on behalf of someone else who’s been badly treated or ignored. But most of us choke when speaking for ourselves admitting to a need based on a deficiency. So you see the conundrum. But I am learning that if I am polite, consistently civil, persistent to the point of boring, I can get my needs met. Most people, when aware, do want to accommodate you.

I remember experiences I had when campaigning for political candidates who weren’t shoo-in: there was a constant drill at every meeting of the campaign, try again, follow up, do it again, over and over. The mantra of follow up: it was the key to getting volunteers, tracking voters, persuading votes and collecting results. In two campaigns with near no hope of winning, I saw it this work. And afterwards, we met to talk about what went right and what we could do better. After all, the next campaign was only two or four years away. Plan now, follow up and it will come your way.

When facing a theater staff that doesn’t know a loop from a rear window or an FM, maybe a training from the Mass Commission is in order: let’s organize it. An emergency announcement on transit without captions, let’s write to their legal department about ADA compliance. Cable stations that have butchered captions, tell the provider and FCC.

We’ll examine some of these situations in future columns and I welcome your comments and experiences. I also hope you’ll come to our workshops so we can meet and learn from each other.