“I’m organizing a Disability Community day of Occupy Pittsburgh this Saturday 10/22 from noon to 5:00pm. I’m finding an issue that probably falls into this Workgroup: If we want participation from the Deaf community, we need to have the capacity to provide interpreters. We either need volunteers or to have some capacity to pay interpreters. Of all the different communities that make up the Disability Community - the Deaf community is the most marginalized because of their language-minority status. (Short rant - why isn’t ASL the first “foreign” language that everyone takes in school?) So - volunteers and / or some financial capacity to get interpreters when needed.” Paul O’Hanlon, 5:56pm Oct 19, FB group for members of marginalized communities at Occupy Pittsburgh.
Martina Robinson writes at The Disability Examiner:
On Tuesday, October 18th, the Organizer's Forum had its monthly meeting. This meeting is a chance for people with disabilities (PWD) to talk among themselves about an issue. This month's topic was the Occupy Movement. Organizers Rachel Siler of Chicago, Nadina Laspina of New York City and Marg Hall of the Bay Area were the main speakers. The audience was about 40 people in total on the conference call....[Laspina] said that a lot of people with disabilities in New York come from other oppression struggles. Disabled In Action, the New York City group, has always joined in marches for issues as divergent as single-payer healthcare, the environment, or gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT) pride. She cited the Occupy Movement as "a golden opportunity for all oppressed groups to coalesce" and urged the disability rights movement to "be bold" in any demands it makes as a result of the Occupy Movement. She added that a group of PWD from New York City attends Occupy Wall Street every Sunday from noon to 4 PM and welcomes visitors
