Millions of Americans with disabilities have gained innumerable rights and opportunities since Congress passed landmark legislation on their behalf in 1990. And yet advocates say barriers and bias still abound when it comes to one basic human right: To be a parent.
The National Council on Disability recently released a report covering how the U.S. legal system is not properly protecting the rights of parents with disabilities: most states allowing courts to determine that a parent is unfit on the very basis of having a disability. NCD says that terminating parental rights for this reason “clearly violates” what 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act stands for.
Stella Young: Why she kicks ass
- She is a comedian and disability advocate.
- She is an Editor of ABC’s Ramp Up website, the online space for news, discussion and opinion about disability in Australia.
- She began her disability activism at 14 when she conducted an access audit of the shops in the local main street.
- She is a member of the Victorian Disability Advisory Council, Ministerial Advisory Council for the Department of Victorian communities and Women With Disabilities Victoria.
- She is a two-time state finalist in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Raw Comedy competition.
- She has hosted eight seasons of Australia’s first disability culture program No Limits, which aired on Channel 31 and community stations across the country.
- She has worked with Youth Disability Advocacy Service to establish the LiveAccess project, advocating for better access to live music venues.
- She holds a degree in Journalism from Deakin University and a Diploma of Secondary Education from the University of Melbourne.
- Before joining the ABC, she worked in Public Programs at Melbourne Museum, where she taught kids about bugs, dinosaurs and other weird and wonderful things about the world.
- She was part of the global atheist convention in Melbourne during April 2012.
- Places you can find her: website, twitter, youtube, archive of ABC articles written by Stella, Don’t Look Past My Disabled Body - I Love It, Ramp Up (the website she is an editor of), Eulogy For A Wheelchair.
The weight of inaccessibility is not logistical. It is not just about ramps, ASL interpreters, straws and elevators. It is a shifting, changing wall—an ocean—between you and I. It is just as much feeling and trauma as it is material and concrete. It is something felt, not just talked about. It is made up of isolation from another night at home while everyone else goes to the party. The fear of being left by the people you love and who are supposed to love you. The pain of staring or passing, the sting of disappointment, the exhaustion of having the same conversations over and over again. The throbbing foolishness of getting your hopes up and the shrinking of yourself in order to maintain. It is an echoing loneliness; part shame, part guilt, part constant apology and thank you. It is knowing that no matter how the conditions around me change, my body will still not be able to do certain things—it will still need other people, it will still signal dependence, it will still be disabled.
Turning Towards Each Other is an accessible, free space for queer people of color to concretely build and practice skills for generative, supportive and loving relationships and community. Many of us know the kind of relationships we want to have with…
