DESCRIBER: Minnesota Council on Disability logo. Montage of black and white photographs depicting the disability rights movement.
NARRATOR: We’ve been here before. We must stick together.
DESCRIBER: Members of the disability community and allies. Many people are using wheelchairs and holding signs and flags.
NARRATOR: When disability rights are threatened, what gives you hope?
DESCRIBER: Large title with the word “HOPE” appears. A series of testimonials in the Council on Disability’s. State Fair booth. Photographs of people with disabilities displayed in the background. Makenzie from Minneapolis, Minnesota. A person wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, a frilly blouse, sweater and pants. An ASL interpreter is signing.
MAKENZIE: It’s the people. It is the people that continue to show up time after time after time and after pushback after pushback, not letting the changes of our political landscape get them down. It’s the hope. It’s the leading with love. It’s the belief in a greater humanity. And just it’s truly the people that lead this work, that see each person as an individual human being for all that they are beautiful, unique, or gifts despite the talent. Right? And are with people every step of the way. Those individuals, like the folks that work at MCD, those are the people that give me hope to keep going. And, you know, we’re living in really uncertain times. So the more we come together in community, I think that energy is contagious. And we just we keep going. So thank you to all the advocates and the people, leaders across the state who believe in a vision for a better Minnesota and believe in humanity as we all know it to be.
DESCRIBER: Nikki, MCD Council Member from Maplewood, Minnesota. A person using a motorized wheelchair. Their hair is tied up in a bandana, wearing glasses, a t-shirt and shorts.
NIKKI: My other fellow disability members, because I know that when we’re together, we’re strong. And in times like this can feel very isolating. And so when I’m here at the State Fair, even though there’s people all around me, and it can be frustrating to move around as a disabled person and not run over people. I do feel hope, because I can see all the disabled folks that are out more than they were when I was a little kid, and that’s because of the work that the Council on Disability has done, and all the great leaders that Minnesota has churned out year after year.
DESCRIBER: Graphic sequence.
NARRATOR: We’ve been here before. We must stick together. Stay in touch via social media, Facebook. On our website at www.disability.state.mn.us. By phone at (651) 361-7800 or email council.disability@state.mn.us. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
DESCRIBER: Black and white photo credit. Used by permission. Copyright Tom Olin Collection MSS-294. Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections, The University of Toledo Libraries.
Video: What Gives You Hope – Episode 4 [Audio Described] (YouTube)