Community Meets to Discuss How to Engage People with Disabilities



Fairfax County residents met Monday night to discuss how people with disabilities could be further engaged and brought into the community.

Supervisor John Cook of the Braddock District sponsored the event at Kings Park Library as part of continuing efforts to get people more involved with their communities. A second town hall will be held in the spring to discuss specifically reaching out to people with disabilities.

"People with disabilities have a great interest and a great capacity to get involved in our community," Cook said.

Chairman Sharon Bulova of the Board of Supervisors also attended.

"Today, people with all kinds of disabilities- physical, mental emotional- have the opportunity to live in the community for a very long time," Bulova said. "We need as a community to change and to be more patient and understanding of the people that live in our community."

Several disability advocates and leaders of groups designed to help those with disabilities spoke on a panel of their experiences, achievements and goals for the future.

Nancy Mercer, the co-executive director of the Arc of Northern Virginia, told a story of how when she was a child, her father ran a pool in the area. When a center for people with disabilities nearby asked if they could use the pool, the board of directors for the pool said no, as they were afraid the residents' disabilities were catching or somehow infectious. Her father was furious. She compared this to the recent opening of a new playground in Kings Park, on which kids of all abilities play.

"We've come away a long way, baby," Mercer said. "We have a long way to go! But at least in Kings Park and in the Braddock district; we're going the right way."

Jill Egle, also a co-executive director of the Arc of Northern Virginia, uses her own experience as a woman with an intellectual disability to make powerful changes.

"I have increased Arc's membership and fundraising efforts by recruiting lots of members and raising over $30,000," Egle said, in a clever speech that drew laughs and nods of agreement from the audience.

When she first became co-executive director in 2007, she set her sights on getting rid of the use of the word "retardation" and its variations in Virginia state law. Though state legislation can take years to pass, she helped push these changes through in six months. Virginia's example inspired other efforts around the country, culminating in the recent signing of Rosa's Law by President Barack Obama, changing all references in federal statutes from "mental retardation" to "intellectual disability." Egle was present at the signing.

Donna Goldbranson, the executive director of Specially Adapted Resource Clubs (SPARC), spoke about the inspiration behind the group that brings young adults with disabilities together to have days of fun. Goldbranson participated in some of the initial focus groups pulled together by the county board of supervisors to identify gaps in service for young adults with disabilities.

"We started hearing from the self-advocates- the young adults themselves, that the programs that are out there are not meeting my needs," Goldbranson said. The group was founded to help its participants connect with each other and the community at large in a supportive, active way.

"The people who we often think we are going to support are often the experts," Goldbranson said, telling how the SPARC members have worked as consultants, offering their expertise on everything from how to enhance therapeutic recreation programs for children with disabilities to how to make stores at the mall more accessible. 

"As we look around in our community, and in Burke, it would be really cool if these young adults were able to tell us how this would work better for me," Goldbranson said. "These young adults really do want to give back to their community."

Disability advocate Mary Wolf, the mother of 25-year-old Jonathan, who has autism and an intellectual disability, spoke about the difficulties her son had growing up.

"Having a family member with a lifelong disability puts you in a different circle," Wolf said. "It's not a better circle or a worse circle; it's just different than what you planned your life to be."

Wolf also told the story of the forming of Project Success, a program bringing youth with and without disabilities together to do community service.

"My ulterior motive was inclusion," Wolf said of the project. "I wanted our youth with disabilities embraced as a peer instead of in a patronizing environment."

The group ended up performing about 40,000 hours of service, with many of the general education students going on to work towards future careers in social work, special education and recreation therapy. Her son Jonathan gained acceptance from his peers in the process, as he graduated as a member of the National Honor Society and took the homecoming queen to his high school prom at Robinson Secondary.

Wolf says that now, at the age of 25, Jonathan's isolation is much worse, as his friends have gone on to college and careers, while he is left to work in an enclave, grouped only with people with other disabilities. His one job outside of this group is washing dishes in an FBI kitchen in Quantico, where he commutes three hours for four hours of work. Wolf spoke out against the lack of employment in the area of people with disabilities.

"This is a population of hard-working young adults that need to be part of this community that they see and observe from a distance," Wolf said.

Janice Kuch of Library Access Services also spoke at the event about the various technologies available to help the community. The library's Braille Printer has been used in the past to create bus schedules, a list of patients' rights and information cards. Community groups can request a copy of their agenda in Braille for interested members. The library also has personal assistive listening kits available for check-out that can be used to help someone who is hard of hearing hear a speaker at a meeting.

Attendees at the event, many who had family members with disabilities, expressed concern at the lack of socializing opportunities for their members. Mercer suggested that one opportunity existed in the Arc of Northern Virginia's monthly Toastmasters group, which helps adults with disabilities learn the routine so they can attend other Toastmasters events in their area. 

A number of resources in Fairfax County are available to those with disabilities:

• The Arc of Northern Virginia advocates for and educates those with developmental disabilities with the information they need to stand up for their rights and participation in the community.
• SPARC is a club for young adults with lifelong disabilities designed to get them involved with each other and in the community at large.
• Project Success is a service learning program that brings youth with and without disabilities together to help others. You are eligible to join Project Success if you are a middle school or high school student in Fairfax County or if you are 22 and younger and enrolled in a special education vocational program.
• Library Access Services provides books in alternative formats, delivering books to readers who cannot visit a local library, and provides opportunities to learn about assistive technology and equipment.
• The Northern Virginia Resource Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing provides education, community involvement and advocacy for those who are deaf and hard of hearing.
• The Shepherd's Center of Burke-Fairfax provides a variety of services to adults 50 and older, from driving them to medical appointments and to get groceries to having regular classes and events.
• disAbility Navigator is a website for people with disabilities and their families living in Northern Virginia, providing valuable information on living a healthy life and the rights of people with disabilities, along with lots of other helpful guides.