The Disabled Elder Problem

[00:00:02]Hey everyone, it's your favorite source of oral knowledge.

[00:00:06]Uh And yeah, today I wanted to talk about um a a problem that I noticed in the disabled community and that's kind of the And it ties into the like historical infantilization of our people, but like that's kind of the lack of elders, especially for those disabled people born with congenital conditions that um you know, they've had since birth, like me and my cerebral palsy.

[00:00:44]Um And yeah, guys, um I first noticed this because in my community, I'm on the advisory board of a um day center slash um day program and job training uh center in my county and um I'm its vice chair and you know around three three months ago almost at one of the meetings that we do, um they took us for a tour of the facility and this place has been around even since federal since before federal um disability legislation in the US and um it's been around since around 1960, so almost the better part of 70 years. Um you know, and they've been through changes. Before they were like a more traditional special education school, and they transitioned to um, day programs and job training. Then they transitioned away from that, and now they're back doing that, and um, I got to meet residents there that have been with that particular center since it started in 1960. They've been there through all the changes, and like, you know, the adoption of of course, first first um, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, then the ADA, and all of the subsequent uh, legislation, and I was I guess we could say I was shook, guys. Like, it kind of blew my mind, and like, it made me notice that the infantilization that we experience isn't just individual, right? It's It gets to the point even where like, those of us with with congenital um, disabilities especially, but also those in later life, right? There are really no guides um, as to how it is to live with our condition. Now, a lot of um, the people in in this center were intellectually disabled, but some of them were physically disabled, and some of them were both.

[00:03:53]And like I don't know, man. Like if if we want to consolidate if disabled people want to consolidate ever into like a strong uh culture with a strong community, elders are of course going to have to be a part of that to share their knowledge and their oral traditions and stuff like that, and it just um made me really wonder what's going to happen when all these people pass away. Like imagine the stories and the experiences that they have.

[00:04:43]Um because again, even as intellectually disabled, right? I think when people um think of the intellectually disabled, they think of like and I hate I don't like to use this qualifier, but like the worst nonverbal cases, when in reality right? Most intellectual disability isn't like that.

[00:05:13]They just may need a little bit more help, but they can, you [clears throat] know, talk to you just fine, tell you about their day, tell you their likes, dislikes, share their memories with with you because for the most part, like they're just I hate to use the word normal also, but they're just human beings with a lot of the the same human passions and experiences as you or I. And like the thought that especially once again for those with congenital conditions, we could lose that. I don't know. That's That's scary to me. I wish there was a way where like um that type of stuff could get recorded and whatnot. But what I will say is that if you have any disabled person in your family or even if they're recently disabled and they're elderly, they're older, please please please write down or find some way to record their stories because I guarantee you history will vindicate you one day and you'll help the community out a lot.

[00:06:36]Anyway, um I just wanted to make a video about that. Thank you so much for watching.

[00:06:43]Bye.