00:00:00:08 - 00:00:02:12
The REAADI for Disasters Act logo.

00:00:03:22 - 00:00:06:21
Congressional
 Briefing on the REAADI for Disasters Act

00:00:06:21 - 00:00:10:12
(Real Emergency Access
 for Aging and Disability Inclusion)

00:00:11:00 - 00:00:14:19
and DRMA,
 The Disaster Relief Medicaid Act.

00:00:15:02 - 00:00:17:08
March 30th 2022.

00:00:18:00 - 00:00:21:07
A Production of The Partnership
 for Inclusive Disaster

00:00:21:07 - 00:00:22:24
Strategies.

00:00:24:10 - 00:00:26:00
My name is Maria Palacios.

00:00:26:09 - 00:00:28:24
I use she/her pronouns.

00:00:28:24 - 00:00:31:09
I am a disabled light skin brown

00:00:31:09 - 00:00:33:17
woman of indigenous ancestry.

00:00:34:11 - 00:00:37:05
I have long, dark brown
hair and brown eyes.

00:00:37:21 - 00:00:42:08
I am right now wearing a light blue, long
sleeved top, which has a great pattern

00:00:42:08 - 00:00:45:12
of a flower on one 
side are lined with small, shiny beads.

00:00:46:04 - 00:00:49:19
I am also wearing white headphones 
which rest over my head.

00:00:51:08 - 00:00:54:08
Today I am representing Sins Invalid.

00:00:55:02 - 00:00:58:09
We are a disability
 justice, performance art

00:00:58:09 - 00:01:02:21
and movement building organization
whose focus is centralized

00:01:02:22 - 00:01:07:14
on the stories of survival 
from the most marginalized communities.

00:01:08:10 - 00:01:11:16
The lives of Brown, poor, queer

00:01:11:20 - 00:01:14:15
or undocumented disabled people who exist

00:01:14:22 - 00:01:17:15
at every single intersection of life

00:01:18:05 - 00:01:23:02
and do so in the midst of oppression 
in the midst of enable this world

00:01:23:09 - 00:01:29:00
that seems to have no problem believing 
that disabled lives are not worth saving.

00:01:30:07 - 00:01:32:15
As a disabled Latina living in Texas,

00:01:33:03 - 00:01:36:24
I have experience
 and witnessed the drastic circumstances

00:01:36:24 - 00:01:40:10
faced by disabled people during
and after a disaster.

00:01:41:20 - 00:01:45:10
When disaster strikes,
the lives of disabled people face

00:01:45:10 - 00:01:48:01
greater dangers and bigger obstacles.

00:01:49:20 - 00:01:52:16
In a world that glorifies non-disabled
ness.

00:01:53:03 - 00:01:57:16
Those who are viewed as broken
are the ones society leaves behind.

00:01:58:08 - 00:02:02:06
Disabled people by especially brown
and indigent, as disabled

00:02:02:06 - 00:02:05:03
people are always the first ones
to be discarded,

00:02:05:07 - 00:02:09:03
abandoned and left to die.

00:02:09:03 - 00:02:11:23
Disabled people live in danger.

00:02:11:23 - 00:02:14:04
We live in danger of poverty.

00:02:14:04 - 00:02:16:10
We live in danger of ignorance.

00:02:16:10 - 00:02:19:05
We live in danger of the systematic
oppression

00:02:19:05 - 00:02:22:05
and ablest practices that to this day.

00:02:22:13 - 00:02:27:09
32 years after the ADA continue
to keep disabled people down

00:02:27:12 - 00:02:32:00
and forced to live in danger
we always live in danger,

00:02:32:21 - 00:02:37:03
but especially so as it relates
to surviving a disaster, because surviving

00:02:37:03 - 00:02:40:23
a disaster may mean losing our mobility
aids during evacuation.

00:02:41:14 - 00:02:44:13
It could mean losing our ability
to communicate.

00:02:44:24 - 00:02:48:17
It could mean being displaced
from the home that was especially designed

00:02:48:18 - 00:02:50:23
for our independence.

00:02:50:23 - 00:02:55:13
It means we could lose our independence
and be left to rot in some institution

00:02:55:19 - 00:02:59:00
while desperately
trying to validate our humanity.

00:02:59:01 - 00:03:03:03
To the doctors, the social workers,
the politicians, and all the non-disabled

00:03:03:08 - 00:03:07:14
who think being disabled means
 we should have no reason to live

00:03:08:24 - 00:03:10:14
but we do live.

00:03:10:14 - 00:03:14:09
We exist in the peripheral vision
 of the non-disabled experience.

00:03:15:05 - 00:03:19:07
We live on the sidelines of the storylines 
invented by a society

00:03:19:12 - 00:03:21:21
that constantly tries to get rid of us.

00:03:22:12 - 00:03:26:16
We live aware of the realization
 that fighting for our right to exist

00:03:26:16 - 00:03:27:24
is something we must do.

00:03:27:24 - 00:03:30:07
Even without the threat of a disaster,

00:03:31:10 - 00:03:33:13
disabled people live knowing

00:03:33:13 - 00:03:38:18
how able-ism can casually throw away
 our perfectly livable disabled lives

00:03:39:01 - 00:03:42:04
because it is easier to let us die 
than believe

00:03:42:04 - 00:03:44:09
there's real meaning to our existence.

00:03:45:08 - 00:03:49:11
That's why, to those of us
 existing and surviving in our brown

00:03:49:11 - 00:03:52:21
disabled bodies, to us, disability justice

00:03:52:21 - 00:03:55:12
must simply become a way of life.

00:03:56:08 - 00:04:01:16
Sharing our stories of oppression and 
survival is how we keep each other alive.

00:04:02:20 - 00:04:03:06
Part of the

00:04:03:06 - 00:04:06:15
foundation of disability
 justice is the understanding

00:04:06:15 - 00:04:10:01
that all bodies are worthy 
and all bodies are valuable.

00:04:10:22 - 00:04:14:22
When we connect the dots
 of our human experience, we all come back

00:04:14:22 - 00:04:19:06
to the same place of wholeness
 and humanity, able to recognize all beings

00:04:19:10 - 00:04:22:08
and all bodies as necessary and essential.

00:04:23:06 - 00:04:27:15
The world needs disabled people 
and disabled people need each other.

00:04:28:08 - 00:04:31:05
Part of our strength
 is the recognition of this.

00:04:31:13 - 00:04:35:18
The interdependence of our humanity 
is what saves our lives.

00:04:36:20 - 00:04:40:09
Disability justice recognizes 
that wholeness must be defined

00:04:40:15 - 00:04:42:20
outside the context of ableist body

00:04:42:20 - 00:04:45:20
notions and expectations 
of non-disabled productivity.

00:04:46:16 - 00:04:51:08
There cannot be real justice 
without disability justice as disabled

00:04:51:08 - 00:04:55:01
people exist at every intersection of life

00:04:55:12 - 00:05:00:15
and disability as the only minority group
 anyone can join at any given time.

00:05:00:21 - 00:05:04:22
And that is also the only minority group
everyone will eventually join.

00:05:05:01 - 00:05:10:05
Through the aging process,
 eventually everyone will be disabled.

00:05:11:05 - 00:05:11:14
We have

00:05:11:14 - 00:05:14:08
to stop leaving disabled people behind.

00:05:16:02 - 00:05:20:00
It is mind boggling to realize that 
in 2022, disabled people

00:05:20:00 - 00:05:24:08
continue to have to slay dragons
 in order to acquire human rights

00:05:24:13 - 00:05:27:08
in order to not be denied access 
to life, in order

00:05:27:08 - 00:05:30:11
to simply be seen.

00:05:30:11 - 00:05:34:03
Please understand that as important 
and as crucial as these proposed

00:05:34:03 - 00:05:38:06
legislation
 is, we are not asking for anything extra.

00:05:38:18 - 00:05:40:24
We are not asking for anything special.

00:05:41:06 - 00:05:45:05
Disability rights are always human rights, 
and there is no justice

00:05:45:05 - 00:05:49:05
without disability
 justice to many disabled people.

00:05:49:05 - 00:05:53:01
REAADI and DRMA would mean the difference 
between life and death.

00:05:54:08 - 00:05:57:17
It could mean being able to access life
sustaining equipment or life

00:05:57:17 - 00:06:01:18
saving medication instead of having to die
from a treatable condition.

00:06:02:14 - 00:06:06:05
It means not having to live 
in so much fear of ending up forgotten

00:06:06:09 - 00:06:07:11
and institutionalized.

00:06:07:11 - 00:06:12:00
REAADI and DRMA 
also means we will have disabled people

00:06:12:03 - 00:06:15:16
sitting at the decision making table 
and the preparedness,

00:06:15:16 - 00:06:19:16
evacuation and recovery process
 before, during and after a disaster.

00:06:20:17 - 00:06:21:24
It means we will have

00:06:21:24 - 00:06:25:11
disabled people leading the way to 
inclusive disaster planning.

00:06:25:16 - 00:06:28:22
It means our voices
 will have a better chance of being heard.

00:06:29:06 - 00:06:31:13
It means nothing about us without us.

00:06:31:13 - 00:06:35:14
This is not charity This is not something
 you must do for the poor or disabled.

00:06:35:14 - 00:06:37:00
Broken people.

00:06:37:00 - 00:06:40:10
Collective liberation
 must include all of us.

00:06:40:18 - 00:06:43:24
It must include the shared experience 
of our humanity

00:06:44:03 - 00:06:46:18
and the understanding 
of our right to exist.

00:06:47:07 - 00:06:49:06
Nobody left behind.

00:06:49:06 - 00:06:51:08
Nobody left behind.

00:06:51:08 - 00:06:54:00
Nobody left behind.

00:06:55:05 - 00:06:57:09
Thank you so much.