Accessibility Now: Stories About Disability Rights in Georgia: Recent Episodes
Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia
Accessibility Now is a podcast bringing you stories about real people in Georgia and the victories, resources, and challenges we are seeing day-to-day in the Independent Living Movement. Throughout this series we are going to visit the nine Centers for Independent Living (CILs) throughout the state of Georgia to meet staff members and people with disabilities who have been helped and connected to resources by the work that the CILs do. Accessibility Now is a podcast produced by the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia.
Dana Lloyd, an advocate with the Georgia Advocacy Office, shares her journey into the vital civil rights work of advocating for people with disabilities. From her early days of providing direct support to her current role as a Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities (PADD) advocate, Dana discusses the evolution of mindsets about the disability community and how these attitudes influence societal treatment of people with disabilities. She provides an overview of PADD and the Georgia Advocacy Office's role. We also discuss current advocacy issues her office is addressing.
Jimmy Peterson is the Executive Director of the Georgia Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and he is also a person who is deaf himself. We discuss the advocacy and services they provide to Georgians and how translation is the number one need for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Additionally, he shares insights on what people with hearing should know about communicating with deaf individuals. The GCDHH also facilitates and participates in various festivals and live events, such as DEAFest, a biannual event that provides opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to network and share their businesses, art, and performances. Hearing people are invited to gain an immersive experience of deaf culture. In this interview, we also explore some nuances of American Sign Language (ASL) and the national need for more interpreters. This interview was conducted through an interpreter.
In this episode, we dive into the journey of Garrick Scott, the Executive Director of Multiple Choices in Athens, Georgia. Born with retinitis pigmentosa, Scott shares how his vision loss led him to become a passionate advocate for the disability community. Through initiatives like accessible transportation and community-building events, Multiple Choices under Scott's leadership, is innovating ways to enhance accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities. Join us as we explore how Garrick Scott and Multiple Choices are making Georgia a more inclusive place for everyone.
Living Independence for Everyone, the Savannah-based CIL serving Coastal Georgia, is growing strong. They’re making new hires, building new inroads into the community and practicing truly active listening with their consumers.
We spoke with three of their staff, Executive Director Neil Ligon, Associate Director Angel Denardi, and Students for LIFE coordinator Maggie Meade, about the work they’re doing and the results they’re seeing at LIFE.
The Georgia Advocacy Office is a key player in the fight for independent living. They lead accessibility and advocacy initiatives, take on cases, and spearhead investigations into disability rights issues. We sat down with Cheri Mitchell, a GAO advocate specializing in housing, to talk about her 18-year career, her philosophy, and her organization’s work toward making life in Georgia better for all of us.
For many of our episodes of Accessibility Now, we've consulted the expertise of SILCGA's executive director Shelly Simmons.
Finally, we've spoken with Shelly about her own story — from California to Georgia, from TV commercial production to disability advocacy — as part of our new segment, States of Accessibility, that will profile the directors of SILCs in each state.
Phoenix Station, a new affordable housing project by LDG, will be an apartment complex in Decatur, just outside downtown Atlanta. It's on track for completion in 2024, with applications opening December 2023.
Unlike most affordable housing, 30% of its units will be mobility-accessible, and all units will have the "bones" for easy conversion for accessibility needs.
We talked to Shelly Simmons, SILCGA executive director, and Chris Byrd, LDG director of development in the Southeast, about the collaboration that informed the build philosophy of Phoenix Station.
For the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia created Inclusion, a comprehensive and compelling look at the legacy of the struggle for disability rights.
We sat down with Ty Hunt, director of Inclusion, to talk about his experiences prior to the project and how it's changed him in the time since.
Disability Connections, the Center for Independent Living in Macon, Georgia, has built a strong digital media presence over the last few years. With their online communities, virtual courses, podcasts and more, they might just be a 21st-century vision of independent living. We spoke with executive Director Michael Leverett and two more traditional, analog consumers, Kimberly Harrell and Debra Davidson, about the work Disability Connections is doing in their area.
Unlock 2.0 is a coalition of organizations fighting for change through legislative action on behalf of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDDs. Much of the resources that help people with IDDs live fulfilling lives are tied up in state programs like Medicaid — that requires activists to change the minds of budget-conscious legislators, telling stories and presenting data in hearings at the Capitol in Atlanta. We spoke with grassroots engagement director Rita Young about her personal story and the experiences that led her to work with Unlock 2.0.
What are some of the ways people with disabilities experience discrimination on a daily basis, and how can we start to address those forms of discrimination? To begin answering those questions, we’re featuring a conversation with Dr. Sue ElHessen, an educator and activist in California specializing in Disability Rights, speaking to us about the topic of ableism. This is a form of discrimination similar to racism and sexism, but one that many of us in our society are still largely unaware of. Dr. Sue has served on the California Commission on Disability Access for the State of California, has taught at multiple universities, and is a member of the school board for the Bellflower Unified School District, among many other roles in education and advocacy.
We’re featuring a conversation with Rosario Palacios, an activist with Caring Across Generations, working on the Care Can’t Wait initiative, a cooperative effort involving multiple organizations including us here at SILCGA. Rosario shared with us about her work, her story, and what motivates her to advocate for change as an activist and a caregiver. We begin our conversation by getting her backstory of growing up undocumented in the United States and how that work laid the groundwork to advocate for change within her community and throughout Georgia. We think you’ll find her story and work as enlightening as we did. Learn more about Rosario's work at the websites for Caring Across Generations https://caringacross.org/ and the Care Can't Wait initiative at https://www.carecantwait.org/. You can also learn about the Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia at https://www.silcga.org/.
Atlanta is an expensive city to live in. Because of that, the city’s center for independent living, disABILITY LINK, places tremendous emphasis on job readiness and navigating the workforce. So much so that disAbility Link starts equipping people with disabilities with professional skills from the center’s earliest interactions with them while they are in the local school system.
Kim Gibson, disABILITY LINK’s executive director, joins us on Accessibility Now to discuss the steps that their organization takes to prepare people in the Atlanta area for a career. For her, it boils down to three things that pave the way to real careers: career training, apprenticeships, and internships.
For our fifth episode of Accessibility Now, we talked to the folks at Walton Options in Augusta, Georgia. You may remember them as the CIL for which our last guest, the late Gaylon Tootle, worked. CIL Director Tiffany Crawford spoke with us about the new building for Walton Options, finished in July 2022, and the unique challenges the CIL faces in their area. We also spoke with consumer Mary Reynolds about the life-changing help she received by going to Walton Options.
This is a very special episode of Accessibility Now, featuring an interview with a true champion of disability rights, Gaylon Tootle. Gaylon worked at Walton Options, the CIL in Augusta, and also fought for voting rights for people with disabilities — a timely issue as we have elections just around the corner. We talk about his life’s work, his struggles, victories, and the importance of voting rights. This interview was conducted in September 2021. Gaylon passed away September 10, 2022.
Before becoming staff members at Northwest Georgia Center for Independent Living, Christina, Quinn, and Erna all experienced what it was like to live with a disability. They also experienced the life-changing implications of getting connected to needed resources, like assistive technology, or learning important skills, like self-advocacy. These experiences of gaining the needed tools and skills made such an impact on their lives that they committed themselves to providing those same opportunities to others. In this episode, we hear from the staff at NWGACIL about why they do the work that they do and the tools and skills that CILs like theirs make available to others.
The needs of people with disabilities vary not only based on their respective disabilities, but also where they are living. In rural areas, the needs that people face can be stark and immediate. Disability Resource Center (DRC) is a Center for Independent Living in Demorest, Georgia, that has been serving 13 rural counties in northeast Georgia for over 20 years.
At DRC, the staff confronts a wide variety of needs of their consumers on a daily basis. In this episode, Nancy Peeples and Leah Norton of DRC describe helping consumers with everything from helping them with groceries to tracking down necessary documentation to gain access to social services for those who are currently homeless. We also hear from DRC consumers Tugalo Odister and Ruby Wells about how DRC was able to help them in moments when nobody else could.
Access 2 Independence (A2I) in a Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Columbus, Georgia. We will hear from A2I’s Director Kirk Holcombe about their work transitioning people out of nursing homes so that they can live independently and on their own terms. Not only does this program restore autonomy and dignity to the people transitioning, but getting more people out of nursing homes actually saves the state money in the long run. We will also hear from Donna Greene about how A2I provided her with a ramp so that she could safely get in and out of her home. And former A2I employee Rashad Jones with a vision impairment, who became an A2I consumer when he needed help relocating to the west coast for a new job.