Welcome to the Disability Allyship 26-Day Challenge! Or what we call: “The Daily Dose of Anti-Cure.” Why Anti-Cure? We’ve chosen this name as a call out against historical (or maybe not so historical) views that pathologize disability and assert the need to always ‘fix’ or ‘cure’ bodymind differences, often in place of removing barriers to create more inclusive environments. We invite participants to engage in their own beliefs and practices around disability, and to consider an alternative view- one that celebrates disability as a key part of human diversity.
Each day over the next month, you will engage with brief snippets of media, writing, and other materials to broaden your knowledge, challenge your perspectives of disability, and provide a pathway toward allyship and action as an individual, a campus group, or a unit or a department.
Why a 26-Day Challenge?
We have structured this challenge to mirror the take-over and sit-in of a federal building in San Francisco by disability activists demanding that Section 504 be signed into law. Disabled activists took over eight Health Education and Welfare office buildings around the country (including in Seattle!) on April 5th 1977. The longest sit-in was maintained by activists in San Francisco, who took over and remained in the building for 26 days. When the legislation was finally signed on April 28th, protestors remained in the building until April 30th allowing protestors to clean up and reconnect with fellow protestors returning from Washington DC. This remains the longest, non-violent occupation of a federal building to date.
How do I get Involved?
Each day for 26 days, we provide a short resource to engage with- a video, blog post, article- that is designed to take up no more than 15-20 minutes of your time, most often shorter than 10 minutes. This is your ‘daily dose of Anti-Cure’! On the weekends, we invite you to dive a little deeper with feature-length documentaries or longer articles or media. After the completion of the 26-day challenge, on May 8th from 12:00pm-1:00 pm we will be hosting an online discussion forum for participants to share their responses and reactions to the challenge and discuss how we can all move forward with allyship across multiple contexts and environments.
Please register for reminders and challenge updates and to receive the zoom link invite for the May 8th discussion. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments about our 26-day Challenge, reach out to Heather at hdevans@uw.edu and/or hfeldner@uw.edu with the subject line “26-day Challenge”.
About the Organizers
This challenge has been curated by Drs. Heather Evans and Heather Feldner. We are women in academia with research and teaching backgrounds in rehabilitation medicine, sociology, engineering, and disability studies. We are disabled, and have leadership roles in university and federally-funded technical assistance centers, accessibility centers, and the Disability Studies Program at the University of Washington. We participate in advocacy and access initiatives within and outside the University and strive to support disability justice, culture, and inclusive community.
Dr. Evans
is the Interim Director of the Disability Studies Program. She is a socio-legal scholar who focuses on the ways in which institutions such as the law, higher education, and the medical field interact with marginalized populations. She has conducted statistical analyses, ethnographic fieldwork, and evaluation research. Heather’s current work is in the field of Critical Disability Studies examining disclosure, identity management, and workplace accommodations among people with physical, mental, and sensory differences that are not readily apparent. She is also committed to community based research and does consulting work for local social justice organizations, primarily focusing on disparities within the criminal justice system. Heather earned a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Washington and spent 8 years teaching courses in the Department of Sociology; Disability Studies Program; and the Law, Societies & Justice Department at UW. She joined the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at UW in July 2021 as an Acting Assistant Professor and Research Director for the Northwest ADA Center serving Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Dr. Feldner focuses on advancing participation and health together with people with disabilities and their families by examining early, equitable access to mobility and assistive technology within home and community environments. Her research centers on the design and implementation of assistive technology and the effects of technology upon activity and participation, and within a variety of personal and environmental contexts, including how perceptions of disability and identity emerge and evolve through technology use. She is especially interested in conceptualizations of accessibility and how technology design facilitates or hinders access. Her current work incorporates a multidisciplinary, mixed methods approach rooted in a participatory action framework and draws from her background as a pediatric physical therapist, doctoral work in disability studies, and postdoctoral research in user-centered rehabilitation and design in mechanical engineering.