Is Independent Living still Revolutionary?

Disability Connection, Memphis’ Center for Independent Living, participates in a national discussion.

By Tim Wheat

This week the National Council on Independent Living and the IL-NET, the National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Independent Living had a discussion about getting back to the movement. They wondered if the innovative Independent Living philosophy has stagnated and is not current to people with disabilities. Disability Connection staff, peers and board members participated in the discussion. 

What do you think about Independent Living in our community?

What is a CIL?

Centers for Independent Living (CILs) play a crucial role in empowering people with disabilities to lead autonomous lives and actively participate in their communities. As community-based, non-residential organizations, CILs advocate for disability rights, provide essential resources, and offer services that promote independence. In Memphis, Tennessee, Disability Connection Midsouth, Memphis’ Center for Independent Living lives this mission. The Center serves as a lifeline for individuals seeking to take control of their lives while navigating a system that often falls short on accessibility and inclusion.

At its core, the purpose of CILs is rooted in the disability rights movement’s core philosophy: Nothing about us without us! This means that people with disabilities should not only have a say in the policies that affect their lives but also be equipped with the tools to make their own choices. CILs provide advocacy, peer support, independent living skills training, and information and referrals—all designed to help individuals transition from institutions to independent living or to avoid institutionalization in the first place.

Advocacy and Action in Memphis

One of the critical roles of the Center is ensuring that the city's infrastructure meets the needs of all its residents. From advocating for curb ramps and accessible sidewalks to pushing for better paratransit services, MCIL serves as the voice for people with disabilities.

“Accessibility is not a privilege; it is a civil right,” said Deborah Cunningham, the past Director of the Memphis Center for Independent Living. “Without accessible spaces, our community is cut off from employment, education, and simply living their lives.”

Beyond physical accessibility, Disability Connection is instrumental in advocating for policies that ensure fair housing, employment opportunities, and educational access. The organization works closely with local government agencies and other nonprofits to shape policies that uphold the rights of people with disabilities.

Fostering Independent Living Skills

Disability Connection Midsouth is not limited to systemic advocacy; the center also offers hands-on support through independent living skills training. This involves helping individuals develop the practical skills needed to live on their own, manage their finances, or advocate for themselves in medical or legal settings. 

The center also focuses on peer support, recognizing the value of shared experiences. People with disabilities who have navigated similar challenges serve as mentors, helping others realize their potential and break through barriers.

A Community of Inclusion

Ultimately, the purpose of Centers for Independent Living like Disability Connection is to ensure that individuals with disabilities are not isolated or excluded from society. This year the Center hopes foster a sense of community, where people can come together, advocate for their rights, and support one another in their journeys toward independence. In Memphis, this mission is particularly urgent, given the city’s infrastructure challenges, ongoing efforts to improve accessibility and residents struggle with transportation. 

By continuing to advocate, educate, and unite the disability community, Disability Connection Midsouth plays a critical role in creating a Memphis where people with disabilities have the freedom to live fully and independently.

MATA Community Tour

Is MATA Administration Listening?

By Allison Donald, Disability Connection

Across the country public transportation remains a barrier for persons with disabilities. Accessible transportation is a key component to community inclusion, so that people with disabilities can access it for their healthcare, employment, education, and recreation. 

The most affordable and accessible mode of transportation in Memphis is MATAplus. According to reports, MATA is planning to cut the bus service from 23 routes to just 16 routes and will be laying off as many as 200 employees. For people with disabilities in this city the news of the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) being 60 million dollars in debt leaves many in our community wondering where we go from here?

As a person with a disability who relies on MATAplus to get to work, to say that I am concerned about the state of public transportation in this city is putting it lightly. If they cut the 7 bus going down Winchester it is going to affect my ability to get to and from work. If they stop service on the 7 route, that also limits the area that MATAplus will serve. I will not have either a fixed-route or paratransit service near me. 

I know that I am not the only person feeling this way. My question is where are those individuals who will speak out on behalf of the disabled community? Is our community going to continue to be seen as an afterthought, and suffer the consequences of inaction.

We must show our faces and tell our stories. We will continue to have to deal with a public transit that continues to have capacity constraints putting even more pressure on a broken system. As a community we no longer have the luxury of sitting back and watching from the sidelines. If we do nothing, people living with disabilities in Memphis will become more isolated, face the reality of astronomical transportation costs and have to deal with ongoing irreverence from the leadership of MATA.

"I was upset that Director Mauldin, in the opening video, said that public input was required," said Tim Wheat of Disability Connection Midsouth, who was at the hearing in Orange Mound. "MATA did not seem to want or care about my input. The public was to follow along with the changes and respond on their phones at the meeting. I didn't feel like MATA wanted to listen to us at all."

At the Community Tour in Orange Mound, the MATA representatives used a slide presentation for people to respond. Although there were more than 20 people at the meeting, only 8 at the most, were participating in the show. Some in attendance were angry that they had made the commitment to come to an event that they could have taken part of better from home. 

The phone participation however, only allowed a single commitment per person and only one question. There was time for some discussion only because many people stayed beyond the hour allotted for the event. The questions and comments submitted by phone were answered quickly by MATA agents as if they were resolved. There was not a feeling like the input in writing would ever be considered. The final report of the Community Tour seems like it will be some ill-structured input on changing routes only from those with phones and resolved questions. It is hard to think that the MATA administration really intends to “listen” to riders. 

Until September 30, MATA will have representatives at a “Community Tour” for you to learn and share ideas for public transit.  If you would like to attend any of the public meetings to discuss the upcoming changes visit https://www.matatransit.com/transforming-transit/ for a list of dates and times of the Community Tour. Keep up with the conversation about MATA on our blog at https://www.disabilitymidsouth.org/news. 

Accessible Email

Tips for getting your message to everyone

By Christina Clift
E-mail is an essential part of our everyday lives. We use it to send messages for both business and pleasure. We are bombarded with e-mails from businesses that we patron and some that are simply junk. 

For example, I receive lots of e-mails from businesses like Yankee Candle, Sam’s Club, Lyft, the NFB, business related messages, etc., but then there are those that once I read the subject line or sender that I automatically delete. As a person who is blind, I’ve had many positive experiences using this form of communication and some that were frustrating as hell. 

My interaction and level of frustration are normally aggravated by either a poorly communicated message or an inaccessible message. Some email are just junk, a message which should never have been sent in the first place. 

Email has only continued to flourish since the early 90’s and with more and more users and brands using it for business communications, it continues to be part of everyday life across all age groups. But, the question here is: Are they reaching their potential target group and most importantly are they accessible?  

What about the people who are blind?  How do people who have difficulties in hearing or understanding use your email?  Around 253 million people live with vision impairment worldwide, of which 36 million are blind and 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment. 

There are close to 300 million people who are color blind. People with disabilities use the web and email as much as others, thanks to assistive technology and tools such as screen magnifiers, eye tracking systems, and advanced sip n puff devices. It is, therefore, necessary to design and code emails that everyone can receive and understand, regardless of any physical or cognitive disabilities. 

Email accessibility is the practice of designing your email content in such a way that it removes barriers for individuals with disabilities and lets them access, perceive and interact with the content. Accessible content is more readable, logical and more usable by everyone not just for people with disabilities. Good accessibility means good usability and good usability means good business.  

Here are some tips on how to BUILD and TEST your attractive yet accessible email design. Email designing and content plays a major role in making it accessible to everyone. To meet basic accessibility requirements, your email should have the following: 

 

• Maintain a Logical Reading Order - Establish a logical order and maintain a hierarchy of your email content. Irrespective of their screen size, your subscribers should be able to view the content of your email in a logical reading order. This will especially help people with cognitive disabilities and subscribers using screen readers. Also, a logical order will help users to pull out the key information quicker.
  
• Use Large and Readable Fonts - Keep visually challenged viewers in mind while setting the font style and size of your email. Fonts lesser than 14pt become hard to read on desktop or laptop screens. Keep the text evenly spaced and keep the size above 14pt so that it is easily readable. Minimize the use of multiple font styles and typefaces that make it appear condensed.
  
• Keep the Content Simple - Avoid flashy content and keep it as simple and short as possible. Get straight to the point and avoid using complicated layout and metaphors. Avoid justifying your copy and highlight the important areas of your message. 
  
• Use Enough White Space in your Copy - Reading paragraphs and heaps of content that are spaced together requires a lot of effort. It is important to give proper spacing to the text and create enough white space around the copy to make it easy to read. Set appropriate line heights to the text and add padding to the tables and images in your content. People who read your copy must be able to scan it.
  
• Use the Right Color Schemes - Complex colors can be confusing for those with color vision deficiencies. Consider how viewers perceive different colors and choose a color scheme accordingly. Use the right colors in email, maintaining the basic color arrangement of dark text on light backgrounds and light text on dark backgrounds to ensure the content is easily distinguishable.
  
• Include a Text-Only Option - Your emails should have both plain text and HTML options while signing up. While the HTML emails will load the images, the text-only email will load only the text and let the users read the email comfortably. A plain-text version of your email can be of help especially to those using screen readers since they provide only the core content of your emails.
  
• Make the Clickable Links Prominent - Keep the clickable links large and visible, especially for those who have issues in controlling a mouse with precision. Keep the link differentiated from the images and make sure the link text describes what’s in the link. Tell your readers what to expect from the link by writing contextual link text. Instead of just saying “Click Here,” make it more precise by saying “Click Here to View the Products!” or simply: “View the Products!”
  
• Keep the Email Design Responsive - Keep the design responsive so that it is compatible with mobile devices, screen readers, and all other major devices. Maintain proper text-to-image ratio and highlight the main message so that the message is conveyed clearly, irrespective of the device and email client in which the subscribers view it.
  
• Use Precise Subject Lines - The subject line is the first and the most critical attribute of your email. Keep the subject lines brief and to the point. The subject lines should give the subscribers clarity in knowing what’s inside your email. Clear subject lines not only make your emails easy to access but also improve the overall subscriber engagement. 
  
• Use Semantic Tags - Header elements in emails such as , and ensure hierarchy to subscribers using screen readers, who may not be able to scan through your emails otherwise. Instead of using style statements like bold text and colors, use semantic tags such as

  ,

  and that will identify and differentiate the important sections of your content.
  

• Use Proper Alt Text for Images - Include proper alt text for the images in your email to describe the image when a subscriber cannot view your images. Make sure the text clearly describes the image. Sending images will be invisible to blind readers. Make sure that you include a text alternative.

Attachments are also often included with e-mails. All of the work you did to make it accessible, can be undone by attaching inaccessible files to your message. 

For example, if you are sending a flyer about an upcoming event, you could put the same information in your message. Remembering of course, to describe any images. Also, you can let the recipient know there is an attachment in the e-mail by including it in the subject or body of the message. 

Finally, it’s important to ensure that file names of attached documents make since and match their intended purpose. So, instead of have an attached file labeled as “11142019.doc,” you could label it is “holiday flyer.”  

While it does not guarantee that they are 100 percent accessible, these tips will go a long way in getting you there. Unfortunately, differences in operating systems, advancement of assistive technology being used, and that every person’s needs for accessibility are unique to them thus, this will sometimes led to differing results. 

If you follow these simple steps you will be one step closer in ensuring that individuals with disabilities like me have a positive experience if we choose to read them. Now that you know how to create an accessible e-mail message, I look forward to a more positive experience the next time I open my inbox.

The Caravan for Disability Freedom and Justice 2024

Memphis Tennessee

Wednesday, July 3, 2024 

I got a call about an hour before the Caravan was scheduled to arrive in Memphis. The Driver, CW, already had the schedule and just wanted to know if we had something before the Pizza lunch that was on his schedule. I said “no,” but I had packed the schedule with places to visit before the Caravan for Disability Freedom and Justice moved on. I wanted everyone to know that the Caravan had been here in Memphis.

Much of the reason for the Caravan is because of Memphis.

Less than two weeks before the Caravan arrived in Memphis, people with disabilities all over the country were celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision (June 22, 1999). Generally, the decision reinforced the Civil Rights protections of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act for people with disabilities. Olmstead held that segregation of persons with disabilities is discrimination.

Olmstead is also the story of two women that sued the state of Georgia because they wanted to live in their own home. They did not wish to receive services in an institution. The inconsistency is that home and community-based services are more desirable and cost-effective than institutional services, but many states only offered services that people with disabilities needed in expensive institutions. 

That was true for Tennessee. And when Latonya Reeves was young, she and her family were facing a life in an institution. In Tennessee, the only way for Latonya to get the services she needed was to, as a young woman, move into a nursing home. 

Latonya Reeves video: https://vimeo.com/751940724

Latonya can tell her story much better than I can. But I can tell you of a time when the Memphis Center for Independent Living, now Disability Connection Midsouth, helped people with disabilities get out of institutions. The Center here in Memphis helped people leave the state of Tennessee where they could not get services and move to Colorado, like Latonya Reeves did, to live in their own home and not an institution. 

The Center launched a decades long advocacy campaign to change things in Tennessee. But while we worked to change the institutional bias here in our state, we helped people escape institutions to live in their own homes. The parallel to the Underground Railroad was so clear to us, we called it the Underground Railroad. I am sure that other people did this, but no one talked about it much. I cannot imagine a nonprofit that is so passionate about their mission that they would move a person out-of-state, sometimes against a doctor’s orders (AMA), away from their family and into the care of people that they had only talked to over the phone. 

Deborah Cunningham was the director of MCIL who came up with the idea and developed it into a workable solution for at least a dozen Memphians. It was a different time, but as I think back on the Underground Railroad, I just cannot imagine how brave Deborah was to risk her job and the Center to see people live in their own home. And how brave the individuals were who left their home, their family and friends to have independence. 

All over the country I am sure that people with disabilities remember a much different time, now twenty-five years ago, when we did not have the same choices we have today. Please celebrate our Freedom and Justice and follow the Caravan in your area. 

CW and I got photos of the staff of Disability Connection Midsouth and the Arc. We stopped at Graceland, STAX, The Lorraine Hotel, The Pyramid (Bass Pro Shop), Beal Street and other landmarks around Memphis. Congressman Cohen met us at The Arcade, to get a photo with the Caravan in his Latonya Reeves shirt. 

I am really proud of this story in Memphis history. But I also know that for Latonya and all the people with disabilities who did escape on the Underground Railroad, there were many more who never knew what life was like outside of the institutions. I know we still have people, old and young, who will die in an institution.

Support the Latonya Reeves Freedom Act (H.R. 2708 and S. 1193), introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen from Memphis. The bill secures our right to live in the community and not, because of our disability, be forced into an expensive institution. 

Photo Album from Memphis: https://flic.kr/ps/CRKuE

This is a photo of the Caravan at the institution were Latonya Reeves was in Memphis. Now defunct, the property is still kept up, but it is empty at this time. A reminder of our segregated past.