July 26, 2020 marks the 30 year anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disability Act, or ADA, into law. While I tend to focus on sharing stories that center around disability, and mostly speaking about all the ways we can do better when it comes to disability and accessibility, today I want to focus on the ways the ADA and it’s predecessor, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, has positively impacted our family personally. Additionally, I’ll share some resources where you and your family can learn more about the history of the disability civil rights movement and some of my favorite voices from the disability community to follow today.
The Early Days–People Showing Up
When I think back to our early weeks and months of Lamp’s life I remember people just showing up–seemingly out of the clear blue–to guide us, and lead us to where we needed to go next. The day she was born a woman walked into my hospital room–I’m sure she introduced herself, but I don’t remember her name or her specialty–looked at Lamp’s hand and said, “That will be a great hand for driving a power wheelchair one day!” At the time I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea of my daughter being a wheelchair user, but she was there and she planted that prophetic seed. Who was she? During my 4 day post partum hospital stay with Lamp, doctors and specialists dropped by and made appointments for us. They didn’t ask us if we wanted to go to these appointments, they told us we needed to go to these appointments. And it was exactly the right thing to do.
One of those appointments for early childhood education services, which meant that a group of therapists came to our house a few times to sort of evaluate Lamp, do a little therapy and offer support. We were already getting therapy from the children’s hospital and I didn’t see a huge need for this at home therapy, so we discontinued. (Also, I’ll be honest—I was a little clueless about all of this and should have asked a lot more questions.)
Along with these early childhood services, Lamp was eligible for free preschool when she turned 3. Since we were living in Texas during that time that would have automatically meant all day preschool 5 days a week, and I didn’t want or need her to be in school that much, therefore we ended up at a private preschool 2 days a week. However, when we moved back to Ohio, and again qualified for preschool, in our district it was a half day, 4 days a week program we jumped on it. Not only did we really love the teachers and the program, she was picked up and dropped off in our driveway every day. What’s not to love about that?
School Years–IEP’s and Accessibility
Sometime during this process (it’s a blur now) we created her first IEP, an Individualized Education Program, that made sure to cover all areas of assistance she would need. When she started kindergarten the next year, again transportation to and from school was included in her IEP–which was emphasized to me more than once that an IEP is a legally binding document– as well as providing a one-on-one assistant to help her out during the day. Her assistant would do everything from helping her transfer out of her chair, transition from class to class, and help her during lunch and recess. Eventually we all realized she didn’t need a one-on-one assistant, and she was provided support aids who were always close at hand (but who could also help other students as well) to give assistance when needed, but who stayed a little more in the background so as to help foster her independence as well.
And before she actually started kindergarten, the school administrators came to our house, to meet with us and discuss all these things in detail. Additionally, the woman who would be her aid for a couple of years also came to our house so we could get to know her before signing off on her being a full time aid to our daughter.
[readmore title= “Click through here–you won’t want to miss these lists!”]
So good! Yes, I do! I had a blog called the HamiHarri update where I blogged about the going ons of my life for family to read. As well as a baby blog and a wedding planning blog.
So much fun!
Not sure why I stopped.
You ran three blogs! That’s amazing. Maybe you should start again?
One of my best friends who lives in another state I met through blogging! We both had personal blogs on blogger about our knitting projects and started following eachother. I drove to meet her in person in college (she was closer then) and luckily she wasn’t a murderer or an old man pretending to be a college girl! We have been BFFs since. I still read many blogs and enjoy it, although sometimes I get overwhelmed with the amount of sponsored content. I get it, I want these women/people to get paid too, and I always try and like the sponsored posts… but ugh. Sometimes I feel like half someone’s content is sponsored stuff. Blogs I love: amalah.com, secret-agent-josephine.com, dooce.com, younghouselove.com, manhattan-nest.com, madeeveryday.com, various food blogs, some great knitting blogs 🙂
I love that you met your BFF through blogging. Seriously, the gifts that blogging have brought into my life are many, but genuine friendships top them all. And yes I get it–too much sponsored content from any one creator can be a turn off. It’s a balance for sure.
Also, I didn’t know Dooce was still blogging…. talk about the OG.
Yes! I began blogging in June of 2008 and spent many stolen hours reading and commenting on others’ blogs, as well as my own. I became a more mindful person, to tell you the truth, because of blogging, always on the lookout for what I could write or tell or show my readers and growing community. My blog launched me as a more serious writer — or helped me to get back to the serious writing I’d done before my daughter was diagnosed in 1995. I have met and become close friends with at least ten of the women and men I first engaged with only online —
Yes! I love that you said you became more mindful–it’s such a postive way to put it. I used to wonder if I was doing something just for the blog, or because I really wanted to… and it was often both. But I also decided that if doing more fun things, getting out and exploring, doing ANYTHING good, fun, active, creative was not a bad thing! Even if it was to have something to write about… it was a great motivation actually and like you said, made me more mindful of how I was using my time. And like you, I have formed many real-life friendships that started on-line.
This is the first time in a long time I’ve felt any sort of emotion reading a blog post, and my goodness, have I missed this feeling! The joy of reading words from the heart. I was in college during the mid-aughts, and after graduation, with an English degree in hand, I found myself sneaking in a few minutes each morning to catch up on my favorite blogs before my desk job. I loved reading the words of women, who were living non-celebrity lives, sharing tips on decor, stories of motherhood, writing, causes close to their heart, you name it. It felt– connected. It took years for me to gather up the gumption (and carve out the time since I’m now a mama myself) to start my own blog, but by the time I did, the scene had changed. It became a competition with myself to match women who’ve been writing for years, with a solid slew of sponsorships and ads, that I burned out within months and closed it down. I find myself these days skipping social media posts that have #ad included, even from my favorite bloggers and writers from those early days, because that’s just not why I’m there. And that’s fine. Every platform changes over time, and blogging is morphing into something new, too.
“reading the words of women who were living non-celebrity lives–sharing tips on decor, stories of motherhood…” Yes and yes. And gosh I’m so sorry you closed it down–but I get it. As someone who has never been super blog famous (and always wrestled with the how much I really wanted to be, how much more time and effort I was willing to put in, what that effort should look like, etc) I get it. If you ever get the bug to start again…. well I hope you get the bug again! And I hope it’s something you can do with no expectations except to enjoy it. (I didn’t mean for that to sound like advice, but I realize it does.) And while I get the desire to skip those #ad posts, I understand from the other side what it’s like to do them (they never preform as well, but companies are paying you and it’s A LOT of work, etc.) so I do try to support them (especially the bloggers/creators I really love) by liking and commenting on the posts. But I’ve been known to skip past those as well when I just. don’t. feel. like. dealing. with. it. 🙂
YES! I have been reading blogs for years and years and have seen the evolution. I agree that everyone has an understandable right to earn money from sponsored products etc, but the blogs of “the good old days” is missing…. I still am an avid reader of many blogs, but it’s definitely less personal and informal than in the last. Thanks for sharing; I appreciate your perspective as a blogger
I get that–lacking the personal and informal nature of the blogging of yesteryear. It’s all very polished and “pro” these days… There really was something special about those informal posts–that’s where the nitty gritty was. Especially in terms of motherhood–at least for me.
I started a blog shortly after I got married (in the mid aughts), mostly at the urging of family–my siblings and relatives were blogging and suggested that I start, too. I’ve always been an avid journal writer, and blogging became an extension of that. My family members haven’t kept up on their blogs, but I have found that I love having another record of my growing family’s life, in addition to my journal. My blog is still the old-fashioned type, with a blogger format, unedited photos, and nothing fancy, just stories of what we’re up to. It wasn’t my goal to make it into anything more (and after my kids were born, I made it private, because I was more comfortable with that), and I barely have time to update it, let alone do anything extra with it. I enjoy reading blogs versus other social media, because I feel like I get a deeper “story” instead of little snippets in posts on Facebook or whatnot.
Oh those days! I started ‘blogging’ when I went on my internships in Germany and London to keep friends and family back home up to date. I read them the other day for a post on my current blog and loved how innocent it all was.
Those were the good old days! I read Tales from the Crib too and learned SO much about random details of mothering! (We must be a similar vintage, because my oldest will also start high school next year.) I started my blog 18 years ago, when I was a sophomore at BYU. I still write in it! And very few people read it anymore but I definitely do it for the joy of writing and making sense of what’s going on in my life. Not being an influencer in any way, I have the privilege of deleting Instagram whenever I want for days or weeks at a time, and during those times I almost always spend more time in the blog world. It’s a nice place to be. Nicer than Instagram if I’m being honest!