Good morning everyone. I am president for the american percent your progress im honored to welcome all of you to todays event. As you know this is the 29th anniversary of the day of the ada was signed into law. This led part one landmark piece of legislation that millions of americans cannot be denied a job simply with a disability. It is also the reason they are guaranteed the same basic rights as every other person across the country from schools and shopping malls to Public Schools and restaurants. There is no question that over the past 29 years our nation has broken down many obstacles which used to confront those with disabilities but we still have a long path to travel that american with disabilities have fully achieved quality and justice. This moment one hour at five live below the poverty line and is too often the case and then from marginalized communities including women and people of color who continue to suffer the most. Recent events have a painful reminder the disabled community continues to face deep divisions based on issues of race and gender. Everyone in this room recognizes the time for disabled americans every background can come together for everybody within the Progressive Community because entering the white house has had a sweeping assault on disability rights. This administration has threatened regulation introduced by the department of education under obama to protect people of color and his allies in congress with the critical disregard. Here for the center of American Progress we understand opportunities is the intersection of nearly every issue recover from education to health care and criminal Justice Reform and the environment. Last year we were proud to have launched our initiative , the first dedicated disability project of any major thing taken the country. We are proud of everything our team has accomplished me look forward to the work they will do. That they were thrilled to release a new report for Economic Security for people love respond dash responsibility that every one had a fair shot to assign dignity. s and out to the keynote speaker at amazing leader toward advancing this exact mission claudia gorman. Vice president of assess ability but before assuming her current role she was sad spending seven years but also is a trailblazer of her own right in American History to graduate from law school and we are so grateful she could join us please give a warm round of applause. [applause] clerk. Good morning everyone. Happy 80th anniversary. It is truly an honor to be here with all of you. It is the Disability Justice institute. But i was here watching the program getting inaugurated on complicit. But now and then the amazing young lady. Your name preceded you. We could finally meet you. Congratulations but then the Educational Attainment and did not go beyond eighth grade. The society and the system that operated as designed without any interruption in that next test would surely be drastically different. It would not be the economically independent educated lawyer and advocates and then to include someone who has worked in Senior Leadership position in the nonprofit sector. In the federal government. Thats why i work at the white house in that so without those systems and of this would be possible today. I still shudder when i think about what my life would be like for me today. And those that are reserved for people like me to look at intersection of multiple marginalized patients so 1980 on another day, overnight. And then i needed to figure out my life and my worth and my destiny. Or so they thought. I spent my time twiddling my thumbs and doing housework but a hardworking single mom i could emigrate to new york where i could continue my education for the school for the death the death. But even there i was still forced to disrupt. They fit a social number that i happen to not fit. And i spoke about that topic and i still talk about that what it feels like to be an outsider within. So the example mentioned today is i have just too many to mention i hated. I absolutely hated. Theres nothing wrong with working at mcdonalds but i knew i was regulated to the worst shift and the most foul disgusting duties like having to watch all the pile of dirty dishes after breakfast and always clean the bathroom. I have to think mcdonalds. So when they came up with that notion yes i will definitely settle for this. This is cool. I know that i was destined for more. For better. They were very leery of her leaving me for four year college. She looked at me and said i was capable but i was not worthy of that investment from my mom that maybe i may have minor learning disability. But my mom and i were recently moved to the country. But we just continue to press forward. My desire to go to howard university. We keep that fire with us for that support that we need and deserve. And i graduated with honors by the way. There are so many stories that i could share today served to and lower expectations. Would eat them with this dash with even that system. Its harmful and then there are others that affect fund the unfitness on finish business of the ada. Things do organizations that i see my former office of obama federal complete program but with the Obama Administration we believe in those who happen to her great profit from taxpayer dollars. That means hiring , accommodating and promoting people with abilities. Including adding 7 percent ethical but to wage the range bill. Then raise the minimum wage also play 2025 the first time in the house of the senate, now we have a vote to get rid of that archaic requirement to allow players to pay people the minimum wage so, parade for that. But this is progress people at disability deserve an equal wage for their work. So now with ada and that as a grownup and with this joint society and with these accommodations and then to never even know any different i meet young and deaf people reminding them once upon a time you didnt have an iphone in your pocket when you could text people. I had to call my mom and a pay phone to come get me. [laughter] now young people 29 years dont know about these basic things and take them for granted. Because it is not the norm. They dont know any different. But when they decide to enter the market, too many of them find that door is so close. We must continue to push the door open and leave it open. Our youth and young adults will go as their hard work but the strength of our work ethic and but also i am reminded of doctor Martin Luther king. He understood the simple truth that social justice is in the dna that brought us here. That is social justice. So without economic opportunit opportunity, think about that. Because the laws and regulations and bills hand policies are just words on a piece of paper. And too many with inter communities to this way led but when they try to get a foot in the door and then for Financial Security that can come from having a good job. And lets be clear and also fixing all of those other problems like healthcare sing, transportation but the point is whether or not they had which means they cannot get to work but we cannot just focus on an employment of population. So it is not simply about disability agenda. But paid family leave. Child care. Become parents, caregivers, as well as us but in closing yes, yes, but harvest cannot always happen in a Straight Line but federal discourse but then with that rhetoric that we must not considering the others. But after all talk about disability issues, republican parents and children with disabilities share the same hope, dream, and aspirations as parents without disabilities. The all of their children to grow up and be capable and selfreliant and a working member of society. And that their children will grow up and will be recognized for their inherent selfworth and values. I believe our collective commitment is what will continue to transform the ada promise and it will become a reality. I believe it and in fact i know it because look around. I see all of you here and it is overwhelming. Failure, giving up, is not an option for us. Too many lives depend on us and depend on our work so thank you all, thank you cat, rebecca, thank you for all you do, all that you see happening in this room even, thank you. Lead on. Thank you. Good morning. Happy ada. I want to start off, i have the pleasure of being director of the sub Disability Justice initiative for the center for American Progress and first i want to start by thanking near and claudia for an amazing kickoff. Both of your support for this work, this team has been so meaningful. Since its inception, we couldnt do it without folks like you who rally around us daily and remind us of the important work weve done at work we have ahead. I would love to introduce our amazing panel, that comes with a variety of types of experience in the employment and economic ability spaces relates to the experience of americans with disability starting with crosby cromwell, the founder since day one. This is week one of flexibility which is a search firm targeting seniorlevel folks with disabilities in communities of color which is phenomenal, the first of its kind, focused on the senior sector which a number of us are thrilled to see so congratulations, crosby. Karen williams, this is her first event, shes managing director of the poverty to Prosperity Team here, the center for American Progress. Carrie wade is director of programs at the American Association of people with disabilities and the ever so dapper mister neil carter, who is cofounder of new consulting. Lets be honest. We know this is been kind of an exciting week. There have been a number of challenges that if we are really honest these have been things festering in our community for a long time, we heard claudia address it. We have really far to go. Any framing of an economic narrative around the rights of people with disabilities and what true Economic Empowerment would look like is neglectful if it does not account for the center of excellence whether it is citizens abilities initiatives around disclosure or the intersection of dealing with a blizzard and racism, homophobia, xena phobia. How do you see this come up . We know this is an you but how have you seen this come up in your own career path or the work you have been dealing with . And you cant press finger to your toes and say not it. I would say i am a clear woman. I was born with cerebral palsy. Im also 30 so im at the start of ada generation. It has always been a fact of my life. I think actually my experience in the workplace and the world at large has largely been one of privilege and that has to do with whiteness and economic status. I come from a middleclass family. Everyone collegeeducated, now a question of where you go to college but how prestigious will university be. I am sort of i come from an interesting standpoint in terms of i didnt really have to think about my disability as a factor of my life experience. Certainly in an employment context until i was maybe in my mid20s, it was always framed as a sort of personal thing that i had to navigate and it was sort of you just have to find a different way to do things that you will be able to do the same things and achieve the same things as all your peers which is a great framework but also let me off of confronting these other intersections in any real way especially when it came to my employment status. I think i have gotten a very skewed perception from my personal experience of what employment and Economic Security and empowerment is like for disabled people because my dominant experience was one of privilege but i will say as somebody who runs youth based initiatives, i will say that one of the things that comes up on these various intersections is you can have for example participants of color in your program and love to keep people talk about that, they love to throw out the data of what percentage of your places people, what percentage lgbt q and what percentage is both and that sort of thing but not really have your programming acknowledge or reflect that in any way so you are still putting marginalized folks into a system designed for and by privileged white people and then you are surprised when that doesnt go well. When it is not an affirming experience, when it doesnt provide for everyone what it is supposed to provide and that is the thing i come facetoface with in my work with young people, how do i, particularly as a white person in leadership help to restructure these programs to make sure they are actually delivering on their promise and not just two people coming from already privileged backgrounds but making sure we are addressing and fully acknowledging the existence of oppression within the programming. Much like carrie coming from a place of privilege, good intentions and understanding how damaging saying i dont see color, i dont see disability, we are all just people how that erases identity and understanding the actualization and recognization of identity is as important to the movement as the legislation component, the employment component so we walk into these spaces as ourselves, recognizing all these spaces. I will comment a little bit on this as a black woman who lived with a nonparent disability and been socialized in environments that are predominantly white and that is true of both education and employment. I have confronted both external ableis in and racism and internal able is about is him, often times that has taken the form of knowing that in order to be successful, in order to understand and be able to convey that i belong somewhere, i have to work twice as hard and have to work twice as long and i also know that if i make an error, and i have not requested bit of time, i may not be afforded the same level of grace as would someone who has more privilege or someone who is presumed to belong to that place in the perks. I also as a woman with a nonapparent disability, as a woman living with also read of colitis and arthritis, know that if i work twice as long or twice as hard that is a surefire way to land in the er or gw around the corner so as i have grappled with that throughout my career i can say quite frankly i dont yet have the answers. I do know that sometimes my act of resistance is to show up as my authentic self and understand that as i have grown in my career and have a seat at leadership tables i have a responsibility and the ability to educate others on how damaging ableis him can be, how damaging internalized racism can be in the ways in which implicit bias shows up in the structures we create. The reason we need the economic agenda we are released today, we are still actively producing institutions and policies that reinforce all of those iss and makes it much harder for us to really really truly realize justice. For the Disability Community and all communities of marginalized people. I will just add particularly being a were being an entrepreneur for most of my life and being in the capacity to hire other folks is something i never would have been able to think that i would be able to operate in a space of. Talking about that internalized ableis him and racism, a lot of that also comes with who is in her circle and recognizing some of those folks be them abled or disabled, may disrupt or cause harm to your actual growth as pertains to your lived experience so for me i can honestly say that for probably most of my career prior to getting into politics and public policy, it was skewed and different and it took a clear recognition for me to understand that i need to take for myself and not be concerned with what my family thinks, not be concerned with what my friends think in terms of where it should operate and what lane i should operate in, because for the most part i can only speak for myself but in my line of work i didnt have a direct mentor that could speak to my experience and help guide my path so i kind of had to create my own path and blaze my own trail individually and create space for others. How did the issues we have this continual debate in the Disability Community and im seeing it as it plays out ahead of 2020 which is people i like when is this person coming out with a disability agenda and at the same time we hear our community continually fight for inclusion, we want to be included alongside everybody else and one thing i thought was interesting in this report was how it was laid out, how these issues fit into the broader agenda. They are not short bus issues are segregated disability issues. The brilliant author and folks that worked on this report really fought to think about how this fits in the context of the broader Agenda Setting narrative right now and so how do you think that works . How do you think we engage on this conversation around creating a more integrated agenda versus creating a more silo disability agenda . I think for me i think what it comes down to is having more conversations like this one, having more folks who want to be here rather than folks who are required to be here. I know with respect that is for many of the folks in the room right now. What it comes down to is making sure the spaces in the conversation and especially the agendas have disabled folks at the table and make sure that table is accessible before you invite disabled people to that. A lot of times that table is not. It is a matter of creating the agenda, creating the policy, to generate this policy because it is something that hasnt been seen in the past, something the folks in that community talked about, it has never been on paper and i thank her again for taking the lead on that but also understanding that her individual report she put together with a great team is not the only report that needs to be done. We have 2 it has to be consistent, cant just be one report, great, thats it, policy set, we are done. It has to be consistent and has to be an ongoing conversation. And in order for the kind of landscape to change, the entire landscape of the accessibility space has to also adapt as well. I think of an economic agenda for people with disabilities as an economic agenda for individuals all across the country. Claudia talked about some of what is in this roadmap we released today for people with disabilities so i wont go through all the points. I do strongly encourage everyone to take a look at the report and the recommendations that are named there but i do want to highlight one example and that is the one of paid leave and sick days. I gr