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. David Dively, Minnesota Council on Disability. A person standing, wearing a t-shirt that reads “Disability Pride.” An ASL interpreter is signing.
DAVID DIVELY: What gives me hope is seeing our younger adults and younger children out there. I get to see the new ways they see the world, how much more accepting and inclusive they are of people that are different from them. They give me a lot of hope. I see my kids talking about what disability is and it’s so different than previous generations, and it gives me hope that, while the days are hard, the long arc is going in the right direction.
DESCRIBER: David Fenley, Minnesota Council on Disability. A person standing, wearing a t-shirt that reads “Disability Pride.”
DAVID FENLEY: What gives me hope when disability rights are threatened? I really– I’m really impressed by watching up and coming generations. And when I say up and coming generations, I’m thinking more of like the people who are small right now. I watch them interact with all sorts of different people, and the way that they treat and view disability, I feel, is much more natural and much more– much more part of just everything, as opposed segregated or those people over there. I really feel like it’s more innate in them to include folks rather than have to be taught to include people. So that really does give me hope. It’s these generations that are coming up behind us.
DESCRIBER: Linda Gremillion Minnesota Council on Disability. A person standing, wearing a t-shirt that says “Disability Pride.” An ASL interpreter is signing.
LINDA GREMILLION: What gives me hope is art, humanity, love, lovely family members, nature, the Milky Way, the aurora borealis, the stars, the moon. Nature, love, art. That gives me hope.
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 1 [Audio Described] (YouTube)