Whether you celebrate it or not, this Thanksgiving will be like no other. Airports will not be full, grocery stores will not be packed, restaurants won’t be serving, and nobody driving across town for dinner. But fear not! We are having two events. ILY-LO is celebrating.

At Noon ET, Candace Cole-McCrea will tell the story of Thanksgiving through the memoriesof the Iroquois. She will share traditions of her family. Everyone welcome!

At 5PM ET until whenever we will have a drop-in get together. Show off your delicious food, or bring a glass of cider. Share memories. This can be the loneliest day of the year. Don’t let it be. We can be your family. Spend time will us. Everyone Welcome!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87049154871?pwd=UXlJRnJGSXNnNVZCWmxrNnJ5OTRXQT09

Earlier in the week on Tuesday, Dessa Cosma will be leading a discussion on language. What words do we use to describe ourselves? What do we call others? Do we repect people with our words?

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86841555147?pwd=SWYrMHhzSmRFY1JjOGxkODJJbWJiZz09

Due to unexpected behaviors of participants, it has become essential to immediately implement a code of conduct. This may go through revision, but until then, this stands.

ADA 30 Michigan Code of Conduct
All attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at MI-ADA are required to adhere to the following code of conduct. This code will be enforced throughout all events. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe environment for everybody.
To ensure that conference sessions are informational and fun, and allow everyone to feel included and safe to participate, MI-ADA is dedicated to providing an experience free of hate speech and harassment for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate hate speech, disrespect, or harassment of conference participants, including presenters, in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not acceptable, except with topic appropriate and pre-arranged presentations. MI-ADA  participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from MI-ADA at the sole discretion of MI-ADA organizers.

08/13/2020 Mi-ADA.org

We made it through the first week. All the presenters showed up on time, as did the ASL interpreters. AI Captioning worked fine. Zoom never failed us. Eventbrite on the other hand handed us some glitches.

Much thanks to Senator Gary Peters, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Justice Richard Bernstein, Carolyn Grawi, Mike Harris, Teddy Dorsett III, Lisa Franklin, and Kate Pew Wolters for being a part pfot opening event. Thanks also to our sponsor Michigan Arts Access, ADA Michigan, and the Great Lakes ADA Center.

Sunday afternoon we have the film Intelligent Lives, see it again or watch it for the first time. One of its stars, Micah Fialka-Feldman will be with us afterward.  Anthony Tusler, an avid music and disability historian will share how disability is portrayed in music. Daniel Cascardo, a creator of fanciful murals that grace many walls in Detroit, will introduce you to his art. Soon get a piece of art to download to color during his talk. Sheryl Ellis will help you understand what accommodations you are entitled to under the ADA when you have a serious health condition. Thursday is Parents Day! In the afternoon a workshop about raising your kids of any age how to be proud and empowered – and in the evening learn about how parents and disability activists are sometimes allies and other times not.  Do you know the rights of service animals and how they differ from emotional support animals? And the week ends with a virtual dance with DJ Nakia.

Hope to see you!

Susan

The whole reason we are having a virtual ADA Celebration is the impossibility of holding something safely, in public on or near July 26th. It was hoped that 65 days of events would give the pandemic enough time to level out and public events would be possible again on September 28th. While many communities are opening up, and many people are discovering protest as a form of civil disobedience for the first time in their lives, public gatherings remain unsafe for people with high-risk health concerns. This impacts the disability community disproportionately. So it is decided. it would be disastrous if we held an event that put so many of our community at risk or left out. Join us virtually and safety in celebrating everything disability is and will become while remembering the struggle it has taken to get here.

Bookshop forming!  Support the celebration by reading books by our presenters and recommended by our participants.  10% of sales comes to the ADA Celebration and 10% goes to support independent booksellers.  Your cost is the same, but your dollars are doing good work.

Send your suggestions for books we should include below.

This is the link to the bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/disability

July 26 at 2, we will welcome people to our ADA Celebration. Senator Gary Peters will do the honors. We will also recognize those people we have lost to COVID-19. Justice Richard Bernstein will  lead off with his memories of Congressman Isaac Robinson. If you have lost a love one,  who is a member of the disability community, you are encouraged to post your memories here.