AXSChat Podcast with Andy Imparato, Eric Harris and Tho Vinh from Disability Rights California

 Andy Imparato began work in February as the Executive Director of Disability Rights California (DRC) after a high impact career in Washington, DC in disability advocacy and policy. DRC is the federally funded legal services agency that serves Californians with all disabilities across the age spectrum.  While in DC, Imparato served as the Disability Policy Director for Chairman Tom Harkin on the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and as President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, among other roles.  Since joining DRC, Imparato has worked in coalition to protect vital programs and services for people with disabilities and older adults and to prevent discrimination on the basis of disability and age as the State develops crisis care guidelines for rationing ventilators and other limited resources in response to the pandemic.  He grew up in Southern California and is a graduate of Stanford Law School.  His perspective is informed by his lived experience with bipolar disorder. 

Transcript

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Neil Milliken: Hello and welcome to our third access chat of 2021 with delighted to welcome back to the show and in burrata.

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Neil Milliken: In a new role not terribly new to him, but new to us. So last time, and he was here was probably about three or four years ago and he was at a new CD.

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Neil Milliken: And he's now a Disability Rights California and he's joined by his colleagues. So in vain and Eric Harris so great to have all of you with us, obviously. California is the proud, home of a new vice president of the United States. I'm sure we'll come to that topic shortly.

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Neil Milliken: But, you know, some of the things that I know that the RC are doing right now you know topics around covering Disability Rights disability justice, you know,

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Neil Milliken: Looking at voting rights and census and understanding the disability community. And so, welcome to the show and the we'd like to recap for our guests a bit about who you are and

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Neil Milliken: Then sewing and Eric give you could do the same, that'd be fantastic.

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Andy Imparato: Or. Thank you, Neil, and thank you Debra and Tony for having, having me back. I really appreciate the opportunity.

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Andy Imparato: So I'm a disability rights lawyer. I moved back to my home State of California in January of last year after

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Andy Imparato: 26 years in DC doing National Disability Advocacy and policy work I have lived experience with bipolar disorder and

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Andy Imparato: It's been quite a first year in California. We had record wildfires. We have the pandemic, we have

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Andy Imparato: It's been a challenging year and a lot of ways, but it's also been extraordinary. And one of the things

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Andy Imparato: That's made it so extraordinary for me is getting to work with sewing and Eric's on delighted that they're both Jordan me they both are

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Andy Imparato: Lawyers like me at display rights, California, and we're all working together to try to engage the disability community in a more proactive way. And we're having a lot of fun doing it.

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Neil Milliken: Thank you. So, in

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): High so sewing dead and so excited to join you this morning for me.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): So I'm an Asian American woman I'm a refugee from Vietnam and I been with disparate California for 20 years

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): And very excited. I'm a person with a visual disability and a refugee and you know i just i live intersection only as well so very fortunate to be in California where that for the most part is supported right we've lived through

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Some darker times. So this is a, it's a good time to celebrate all of our diversity. So I'm very excited to join you in the show and looking forward to this conversation.

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Neil Milliken: Excellent. Thank you. And Eric

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Hello everybody, my name is Eric Harris. I am an African American man and I also have a disability. I was born with congenital hip dislocation.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Which gave me nerve damage in my left hip left knee, left ankle left foot, and right foot and right ankle. And so I am a wheelchair user or proud wheelchair user

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): I've spent most of my the early part of my career in Northern California, but in politics.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): IN SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA in the Bay Area with congresswoman Barbara Lee, who represents Berkeley in Oakland, California.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): As well as in Washington DC on Capitol Hill working for Barbara Lee there as well as the American Association for people with disabilities.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): And other nonprofit organizations like the N double A CP of California and mostly I'm a policy walk. I really care about.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Policy public policy. Government and politics and creating laws that help people in marginalized communities like African Americans and people with disabilities. So I'm really excited to talk to you all today.

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Neil Milliken: That's fantastic. And I think we're all equally interested in the topic of intersection ality I spent the last couple of years working closely with our Chief Diversity Officer in my day job.

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Neil Milliken: Both of us trying to make sure that disability is seen as a key part of our diversity as an organization and the wider diversity movement and

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Neil Milliken: And I think that that quite often we think about these things in silos and so and and disability is the, the one thing that is totally intersection and totally transverse so I'm really pleased that this is a topic to today, so

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Neil Milliken: Obviously, so much going on in the news at the moment, especially in the US and

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Neil Milliken: The change in administration has also brought about a change in approached very visible changing approach to disability. You know, it's clear with the signing during the swearing in ceremony, the, the, the overnight change in this the accessibility of whitehouse.gov

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Neil Milliken: All of these things are sending a really clear signal that the new administration is walking the talk on on accessibility but but you'd be much more engaged in

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Neil Milliken: In terms of the rights and the stuff going on in the background, and particularly sewing. If I'm right, you did work on the census and stuff like that. And that really feeds into voting rights and

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Neil Milliken: Impacts maybe less in California because California is pretty blue, you know, pretty, pretty heavily swayed towards Democrat, but but in other parts of the country that that's been really an issue and voter rights voter participation and the

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Neil Milliken: denial of access to the ability to vote, have been really red button issues during this election and previously. So very interesting if you can tell us a bit about your work on that.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Yeah. Thanks so much, Neil. Yeah. So, in speaking about intersection ality I'll start with a census in our 2010 census really the state didn't involve people disabilities.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Right. So in the 2020 senses. I was so fortunate to be appointed a governor appointed to the 2020 senses committee.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): And on that body what I was very intentional on doing is to ensure that disability was represented and how intersection or disability was so

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): And I think folks here would understand this is that oftentimes, even with progressive organizations organizations are left leaning

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Don't oftentimes think about disability when they think about diversity.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Right, and that's really unfortunate because if you look at disability, we spend on race, gender, sexual orientation, so forth, right. So that's been an ongoing battle is ensure that we can inject

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): And make sure that disabilities at the table, wherever we are. So what we were hoping that we were what we were able to do in the 2020 census.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Is that they didn't do any meaningful outreach in 2010 so we brought in as part of that committee was able to bring in other partners.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Including dreaded this rewrites and education Defense Fund, including CFL see the California Federation foundation independent living centers.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): To ensure that they help to spread the message we were able to get funding help to assist them and getting funding. So then they can actually do outreach, the disability community itself.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): And then we were we ensure to get disability information.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Connecting the census. So, it informs the Electoral College and numbers and we know how important that is. Right, the Electoral College.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Numbers, it informs congressional numbers right but it also informs $1.5 trillion US dollars $1.5 trillion and how services are funded

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Through the federal funding and so that what means for for the nation, but also for California is Medicaid funding, right. A lot of people disabilities.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Are needed that it informs special ed funding informs housing informs emergency services informs all aspects.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): So not engaging the disability community edits intersection was a disservice all around to all of California. And so I was just very intentional ensuring that

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): That particular population and its intersection ality was lifted and and accounted for through the, through the whole steps of the 2020 senses.

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Andy Imparato: When and sewing. I also just want to point out that sewing was on that committee.

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Andy Imparato: With civil rights leaders from lots of other communities. So she comes out of that experience with all of those relationships.

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Andy Imparato: And they come out of that experience with a relationship with sewing, who's now a Sherpa for them to the disability community. So there's a lot of side benefits of this kind of engagement.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): That's right, so that we can then enter other spaces. So when I'm shifting the work I'm shifting towards now is redistricting so census data is use to determine the

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): District line and apportionment right so I'm finding myself in the exact same spot again very similar senses were

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Disabilities is not at the table. So as the state determines how lines are drawn

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): I want to share the people disabilities have access to go to those spaces to be able to give input. So that's what I'm doing now.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): So in California. We're very intentional ensuring that when people vote. There's X. There's machine that's accessible.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): That the place they go to accessible. So there's that ongoing conversation dialogue.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): But throughout the whole step, the senses voting and redistricting, they're all connected and that it allows people disabilities across the racial ethnic you know spectrum.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): To have the same civic, you know, duties and to actually express them be able to be able to do everything that everyone else does, so that their voices counted as well.

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Andy Imparato: And then the other thing that happened this week is the California Department of Public Health, which is the lead agency for vaccine deployment in California.

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Andy Imparato: They reached out to us because they want. They're trying to follow the outreach strategy, they used with the census.

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Andy Imparato: To try to communicate with people about the benefit of vaccines. So again, I just feel like there's a lot of benefit to the whole disability community when we engage on these broader issues.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Right. And if if census was not a disability was not part at the table for senses.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): It would not have come up potentially with the vaccination, it may not have come up potentially with other arenas, because the state. The state.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Was involved in how Census Information and out reaching what was happening. Right. And because we were able to give input related disability.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): There's been side effects sided benefits and is pointed to other realms that we didn't think about at that point. We're just making sure that people everyone with a disability in California who counted

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Who knew that that structure was then be used again and again, including vaccination. So we were very fortunate in that way.

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Neil Milliken: Obviously this thing that you mentioned around

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Neil Milliken: The district and boundaries. You know that that's a key part of determining who stays in power, you know, we've seen in my own country, where the redrawing every natural boundaries has

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Neil Milliken: Tilted. The, the advantage to one party or another over you know over decades, where essentially because we have a first pass of post system which works in a similar way to a certain extent to

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Neil Milliken: The Electoral College in each area sends his representative. That means that, like in California, which is very significantly, you know, democratic in its leanings.

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Neil Milliken: There. Isn't this kind of proportional representation and and the district setting boundaries can make a huge difference. And therefore, really have a disproportionate impact on

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Neil Milliken: Policy and governance and all of the rest of it. And so the the intervention of lawyers like yourself, Eric and Andy working on the sort of the fundamentals of the structure of

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Neil Milliken: How we vote, how we are represented is really important. I know Antonia had a question Deborah's got some follow ups as well.

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Antonio Santos: I had a question that was going to a different direction. But I think there's another element that I would like to purchase. Oh, here we are talking about census and the elections, but what are your views in terms of the main political entities.

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Antonio Santos: Putting

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Antonio Santos: Individuals from from different intersections up to the list to be elected. But that's an important part of the representation, I would like to see all of you, your views. Why the neighbor class, the Republicans are not putting more people forward to represent their communities.

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Antonio Santos: Why is that

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Andy Imparato: Eric, you want to go first on that one.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Yes, I can take that one. So sewing just finished talking about civic engagement and the importance of the behind the scenes voting, of course, is

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): A lot of the front line and elected officials are part of the front lines and then so we spoke about the census and redistricting and kind of how that creates power.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): In the United States and around the world. And I think that your point that it's important for Democrats, Republicans to also have people with disabilities, people with different backgrounds.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): And people have inner sexual identities represented in the front lines when we're talking about running for office and actually making policy decisions.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): I think that part of that. It's a two way street, so to speak. I think a big part of that is on the leadership of these parties.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): A lot of our leaders, just like around the world are very are getting older.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Our entire society is getting older. So you have a lot of people in political power in the United States who are getting in their 80s. I know that a lot of

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): A lot of people were recently speaking in this recent election about both candidates being in their 70s and how much that has changed over the years, how in years past, we might have had candidates in their 50s and 60s.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): And I think that another part of that is on the disability community to recognize

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Its leaders and to have individuals within the disability community step up to the plate, so to speak, and make sure that we take advantage of opportunities and run for office, even if

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): They do not reach the level of governor or President yet.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): At this time, we can still run for City Council, we can still run for school board and have an impact on our specific communities because in the United States, just as

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Around the world, our local elected officials really are the ones who make a huge difference in everyday life. They're the ones who are able to make minor changes.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): As far as every day but major changes when it comes to folks who have to navigate some of these systems folks who have to navigate their school system with special education here in the United States.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): So I think that it's really, really important for leaders like Andy like sewing and like myself to do our part to find disability leaders throughout the state of California for in specific

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): And specific ways for us, but really throughout the country. And then for those leaders to really step up and take on the challenge of running for political office and making the changes that we all want to see.

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Andy Imparato: If I could just do a quick follow up great example of the power of that lived experience and a politician to me is Tammy Duckworth Tammy Duckworth is United States senator from Illinois, who is in President Obama's former senate seat. She's a disabled Iraq war veteran.

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Andy Imparato: And our House of Representatives. When the republicans still have control of it passed a law that would have weekend our civil rights law. But if we can. The Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Andy Imparato: And when it went over to the Senate Tammy Duckworth got so upset that that the House had passed a law that we can the civil rights of Americans with disabilities.

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Andy Imparato: That she reached out personally to every senator and she created a letter.

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Andy Imparato: Where a majority of the Senate was on record saying they would never support that bill and she did that quickly. And that was like force of personality for her as a senator

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Andy Imparato: So you know I mean she wears that mantle. She's an American hero. She's a veteran, she's a woman of color woman with a disability. So she wears all of those identities with grace and to me, we need more leaders like Tammy Duckworth

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): And Andy, if I remember correctly. She also brought her baby. Wasn't she the one that was nursing

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Andy Imparato: Yeah, she's the first

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Andy Imparato: Yeah, the first United States senator to have two babies while she was in the Senate, and she brought her baby with her down to the Senate floor to change the rules on the Senate floor. She's definitely a hero role model and a trendsetter in lots of ways.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): I'm such a huge, huge fan of her and I love this topic. And also, I think, you know, a lot of people understand outside the US.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Just like any other country our laws are so complicated. And so that's why we really need lawyers with disabilities fighting for us we need that the lawyers that understand the complexity.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): The census. What's the census, it should know it's redistricting is this is no it's a huge deal. And we all have to come out. It's also so exciting to see what

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): One person can accomplish. We talked about Tammy. You look what sewing is doing. I mean, my goodness, Eric. Now he's about to be a lawyer, now that he's graduated. It's

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): It's so empowering and representation matter so much, but I would like just to dig in a little bit.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Too. Why do we need because I certainly have an opinion about this. Why do we need organizations like disability rights of California now in the United States, I'ma let Andy, correct me.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): We have disability rights in all states or most of our states, but it's like our states. Every state is different and I believe that disability.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Rights of California is the one that's the biggest that we will I see more impact coming from them, but I was just wondering if you'd explain that a little bit.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): So that maybe others outside the US could sort of translate it to theirs. But also, I'm not sure that all Americans understand what you're doing and why it's so important to

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Andy Imparato: You and thank you for that question. Deborah, you know, our, our organization as part of a national network every state and US territory has a federally funded

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Andy Imparato: Legal Services Agency for people with disabilities. We call them Protection and Advocacy agencies and they were created over 40 years ago.

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Andy Imparato: In response to an Expo say that Geraldo Rivera did on an institution in New York called Willowbrook

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Andy Imparato: Where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, we're being were housed and he went in and exposed the human rights violations that were happening at that institution.

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Andy Imparato: And the country was so disgusted by what he what he put on TV and show them.

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Andy Imparato: That they passed a law to create the first Protection and Advocacy agencies and initially we were focused on protecting and advocating for people with developmental disabilities like the folks in Willowbrook

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Andy Imparato: And then over time. Our mission has broadened. So now we serve people with all types of disabilities and all ages and, I guess, Deborah, what I would say in terms of why do we need these organizations, you could make the argument that

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Andy Imparato: We should put ourselves out of business, right, like if our country would embrace all of these civil rights laws.

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Andy Imparato: And the government would enforce them. Well, then we don't need these private sector non governmental organizations doing the work that we're doing at Disability Rights California

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Andy Imparato: But as you know, Deborah, the government is not big enough to enforce the civil rights of people with disabilities everywhere that our rights are being violated. We're not. We're not in every classroom. We're not in every workplace.

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Andy Imparato: And really we don't want the government to be in all these places, necessarily. So, um, so the, I think the goal with an organization like Disability Rights California

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Andy Imparato: Is to make sure that the laws are implemented and enforced, make sure that people are held accountable when they violate people's civil rights.

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Andy Imparato: And make sure that people know their rights. A lot of what we do is just educating parents about the rights of children and classrooms.

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Andy Imparato: Educating adults with disabilities about their rights to transportation, housing, employment, you name it.

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Andy Imparato: So to me it's a beautiful thing the government makes an investment, we often sue the government, the government does not punish us for suing them.

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Andy Imparato: And this is how we hold institutions accountable. Like we sued the California Department of State Hospitals.

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Andy Imparato: Because people are dying in state hospitals for people with mental health disabilities.

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Andy Imparato: And their permanent state hospitals funds us, you know, and they're still funding us even though we're suing them so

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Andy Imparato: I appreciate that the government at the state level and the federal level. Want to have a robust independent advocate for people with disabilities that has the power to take the government to court on behalf of people with disabilities.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): And I will just jump in and say one more thing. I know that the Commonwealth of Virginia where I live. Also sued the government and

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Or I should say that that's not correct. Well, our, our leader stepped up or disability leader stepped up and took it to the Department of Justice in the actually Department of Justice came for the Commonwealth of Virginia and

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): One. And so we had to make a bunch of changes in Virginia, which we desperately needed. And so, and another thing I just want you and your team to comment on. I don't know if sewing or Eric where you want to comment on this, but

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Unfortunately, disability rights are not, they're not they're not the same in every single state, but all the states aren't the same. Right. But at the same time.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): I know families. As a reminder, I have a daughter with down syndrome. Sadly, my husband is very late stage dementia.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): But I know families that have moved to different states because they weren't getting the right support. I know so many families lose like okay well I gotta move to California. So I was just wondering if Eric sewing or

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Andy I wanted to just talk about that a little bit and then let me turn it back over to Neil or Antonia

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Andy Imparato: Sure.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Yeah, so thanks for that. Deborah. Yeah. So we in California, we're so fortunate to have what's called a letterman at

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Their it then I'm that doesn't exist anywhere else in the nation and probably even the world.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): So people do come to California for the services and Atlanta provide services for people with developmental disabilities like Down syndrome cerebral palsy seizure disorders intellectual disabilities.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): From birth to death, essentially. And so it's and I don't want to lose sight of the fact that it didn't come about.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Magically, it didn't come about because government agency suddenly saw the light of day and it, it came about because people fought for it.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): You know, people thought hard people did all that they could, they were marching out in the streets protesting.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Working with their government officials to make sure things are sign. So all the benefits that we have all the laws that we have in the books that are protected.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): And that are that advocate for people disabilities. We do it on the on the shoulders of folks who dedicated a light and in sacrifice their life so that the next generation. So

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): We're very fortunate to have the Letterman out to ensure that people developmental disabilities can live for inclusive lives but

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Andy Imparato: Also sewing.

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Andy Imparato: So can you give them kind of the glass half full answer to Deborah's question, but I want to give the glass half empty. Deborah California is ridiculously expensive.

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Andy Imparato: The inequality in this state is ridiculous, okay so sewing is right, we have this beautiful long electromagnetic that creates an entitlement for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who qualify under that law.

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Andy Imparato: But we also have housing that nobody can afford.

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Andy Imparato: We, you know, we have, we just have serious problems in this state. The homelessness issue in this state is like probably nowhere in the world. Certainly nowhere else in the United States has as many homeless people as we do not even close. So I'm

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Andy Imparato: Sewing right we have beautiful laws we fought hard for them.

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Andy Imparato: But my goal at display Rights California is to make California, the best state in the country for people with disabilities and there are measurements that would attach to that call labor force participation rates.

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Andy Imparato: Poverty rates homeownership rates high school graduation rates. We are not leading the country in any of those. So as much as sewing is correct. And we do have

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Andy Imparato: A generous state government or progressive state government. We still have a long way to go in terms of really getting the outcomes that we all know are possible.

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Neil Milliken: Yeah, so, so I think, you know, we even those of us that don't live inside of us observe what happens in terms of Silicon Valley and the impact of the tech industry on housing prices and

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Neil Milliken: The effect that that has on inequalities and I think that the, one of the things that really has come out of the covert crisis is has been the impact of inequality and poverty on people's health outcomes as well. So I know before we came on air. We were talking about. Yeah, the

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Neil Milliken: The, the way that stuff has been implemented in the US in terms of, you know, you didn't have any global oversight as that which is now being implemented. But yeah, can you tell us a little bit more about your work to help

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Neil Milliken: Make sure that the disability community is is considered fully in the vaccination programs that you that you can influence and and and some of your experience of of the impacts of the crisis so far.

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Andy Imparato: Yeah. Well, I guess I'll mentioned two things and then sewing and Eric, feel free to chime in.

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Andy Imparato: We've advocated strongly that our hospitals, especially in the Los Angeles area right now. Do not punish people with disabilities and people who are older.

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Andy Imparato: When they're implementing health care rationing our state had a proposal that we successfully change.

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Andy Imparato: Where they were going to say it was okay to not give somebody access to a ventilator based on their age or best based on their underlying disability.

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Andy Imparato: And we convince the state that that was discriminatory and illegal under our civil rights laws and that the only thing you should be thinking about when you're trying to decide who gets to the ventilator is will it help keep them alive.

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Andy Imparato: And if you start thinking about their quality of life after they're kept alive that gets you into discriminatory territory, very quickly. It's not just disability. At age. It can also lead to racial discrimination.

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Andy Imparato: Discrimination based on body type. And there's a lot of ways that that can lead to discrimination.

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Andy Imparato: So we were still working hard on that and obviously that's not self enforcing we have to be out there making sure that the discrimination is not occurring.

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Andy Imparato: We also are trying to get people with disabilities who are under 65 lifted up as a priority category for vaccination. I was mentioning

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Andy Imparato: I'm on the California Community vaccine advisory committee, there's five of us on there who are allied around these issues.

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Andy Imparato: And we're pushing the state very hard right now to make sure that that a 50 year old with down syndrome in

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Andy Imparato: group home. Who's that huge risk of getting covert and dying from covert would have at least the same prioritization as a healthy 65 year old living in their apartment on the beach and having no

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Andy Imparato: no increased risk of getting covert to us. That's like common sense. But you wouldn't believe how hard it's been to get the state to adopt that position but sewing or Eric. Anything else you want to add

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Yeah I what I'll add is that I think sometimes what we're all fighting against it's people's potentially subconscious unawareness of the value of a disabled person.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): So folks in power make decisions that have detrimental impact on people disabilities without without understanding because there's an underlying this valuing of disabled lives.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): So there has to be. That's why we've got to be in every conversation every where we are to ensure that this able lives matter and to live that

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Andy Imparato: Eric, did you want to add anything

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Yeah, I think you guys covered pretty much all of it, but just the, the recognition that all marginalized communities are really fighting for this.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): A lot of African American ends and a lot of Latinos have died.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Because of this virus and a lot of them have been older people, but a lot of them have also been people with disabilities as well across the board. And so we're really thankful to have Andy on the Commission that he's on because he's able to impact.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Lives, he's able to save lives because of his voice, and because of the decisions made by this committee so we're hopeful that this committee that

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): That everybody who is in a decision making position is able to make the right decisions with courage and step up for people who do not necessarily have a voice here and who have been dying and getting very sick because of this virus. So

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): We're really really thankful

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Antonio Santos: One of the topics that has been got some quite interesting from different companies.

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Antonio Santos: Is the role of the Chief Diversity Officer.

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Antonio Santos: I came across, I worked for a company in 2008 and that that was the first time that I came across with someone

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Antonio Santos: Appointed for such such a role and. And at that time, the focus was pretty much in terms of geographic diversity cultural diversity, bringing all employees together.

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Antonio Santos: Working for for for for the company and giving somehow everyone the same type of opportunities in terms of leadership roles. That was the main topic we've seen many changes since then and

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Antonio Santos: I've seen in the last three years, many companies hiring someone to the role of Chief Diversity Officer.

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Antonio Santos: But sometimes I see that they they look at diversity as an HR program not as something that they built in the overall culture of the organization.

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Antonio Santos: And there's another thing that I also know is sometimes it goes by trends. Okay, now we are focused on gender. Now we are focused on another group. I am so one, there's always a very partial look

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Antonio Santos: to to to to kind of a moment in time that somehow follows did what

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Antonio Santos: What the audience are talking about or what the media is talking about. So I would like to see of your views. How can we build a consistent diversity, how can we build cover.

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Antonio Santos: This in a more consistent way where all the groups are included and and we are, we can do a better job employing people, particularly people with disabilities.

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Andy Imparato: I guess I'll take a quick shot and then I love for sewing and Eric to chime in. To me, the Chief Diversity Officer of any organization needs to be the CEO.

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Andy Imparato: If the CEO does not understand the importance of all types of diversity, then they are not going to be able to attract and retain the best possible people for every position in the organization.

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Andy Imparato: And I you know I gave a glass half empty answer to the California question. Now I'll give a glass half full Satya Nadella at Microsoft, wrote a book.

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Andy Imparato: About kind of refreshing Microsoft's culture and he attributed his lived experience as a parent of two children with disabilities.

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Andy Imparato: As literally helping Microsoft rediscover its soul. That's the way he put it, and he said that his experience as a parent helped him develop empathy.

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Andy Imparato: Which was the word that he saw as the critical thing that he needed to have and his leadership team needed to have in order for Microsoft to be the best possible and player.

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Andy Imparato: And to be the most successful technology company that it could be. So I think it's fine to have Chief Diversity Officer, but if the CEO is not

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Andy Imparato: 100% with that person, then it's a check the box position and almost doesn't matter how you define diversity. It's just not going to have a big impact. But I'm sewing or Eric. Anything you want to add

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Yes, I'd like to respond kind of from the experience of being an employee at Dr. See, we have over the last six months or so, really embraced our diversity.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): In particular, with its employees, I would say that we have really looked internally and one of those things that we've done is we have created employee resource groups, which essentially

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Allow employees within the IRC to be a part of smaller groups that are part of our cultural identities are gender identities and our disability identities.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): So for instance, I am a part of the disabilities, er, G, which is an employee resource group I'm part of the African American employee resource group.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): And there are other employee resource groups for Asian and Pacific Islanders for those who identify as Latino for those who identify as

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): LGBT Q A plus. And so, and, and not only do we get an opportunity to discuss issues or discuss issues within our work environment and outside of our work environment, but we also get a seat at the table of leadership, Andy, as he said

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Really believes and really empowers all of the staff and he is the one who leads the way when it comes to having a diverse

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Mindset making sure that everybody feels included and a part of the solution. And so each era G at Disability Rights California has an opportunity

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): To speak to leadership often and give our perspectives on how we are doing at work and and what we are looking for in terms of

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Ways that we can be assisted trainings that we can we can offer to the rest of the organization or ways that we can find people outside of the organization who can give trainings.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): So it's really a great environment to work and part of the movement at Disability Rights California

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Is making sure that we're a model employer for people with disabilities and for all employers in every aspect of business and every aspect of nonprofit work political work.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): We're trying to do our part to show others.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): How it should be done and it's not just from an HR perspective, it's all the way from the very top of the organization and filters throughout the organization so that everybody feels empowered and comfortable being exactly who they are representing the identities that they represent.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): And I'm going to be the flip side Andy and be the kind of cup.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): half empty here and I want to just remind folks who the listeners and that it took deaths to even have this current conversation. So it took George flowing

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): You know, Briana Taylor and so many others, and oftentimes black bodies, you know that they have to die so that there's not only this national conversation but international conversation.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): So we want to get to a point where no one has to die for us to have these conversations. These conversation benefits all of us these conversations. This

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Equity and equality benefits everyone. No one is lost for it. Right. So why what I hope you know with and I'm not hopeful person anything

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): That we come to a point where internally we we come from a place where we want well for us. We want well for others. So that bottoms up top down. We're going to do the right thing because the right thing benefits everyone in all sectors.

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Neil Milliken: Excellent. Well, so

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Neil Milliken: I got a couple of comments and where we've. This has been a fascinating conversation and

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Neil Milliken: Unfortunately, it's gone way too quickly. So we will definitely need to have you back again because I think we only touched on it, you know, a couple of topics out of many that we could go down the rabbit hole on here but but when you said that people have died.

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Neil Milliken: In order for the Lord to change it. People have been dying for a long time. What was different was the people that died in public on camera on the internet. And that was what made people take notice. So. So that brings me on to my my closing point about

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Neil Milliken: Representation and, you know,

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Neil Milliken: going full circle to talk about intersection ality and you know the change of leadership in the US, over the last couple of days, you know,

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Neil Milliken: We had a representative of an intersection of community and doing the inauguration poems. Oh, you had Amanda got Gorman from California from your district, Eric.

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Neil Milliken: Who is both

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Neil Milliken: A person of color and also has a an invisible disability representing the country. So I think that that

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Neil Milliken: Visible representation, really, really matters is super important. I, I was gratified to see it. So, you know,

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Andy Imparato: I'm a nail, you know,

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Andy Imparato: Don't forget that she had a disability, that's very similar to the disability of the person who was getting inaugurated as president the united states

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Andy Imparato: So it's kind of a beautiful thing you have an older person who had a stutter as a child that helped shape his character and identity lifting up a 22 year old.

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Andy Imparato: Who the First Lady, Joe Biden had seen perform and was blown away by for obvious reasons. So I just love that combination. It's not just the young woman of color.

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Andy Imparato: But it's

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Andy Imparato: It's the older man who sees the connection.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): Yeah, I would add, I love that she speaks about it in positivity. Yeah, all the time disabilities spoken about something that makes you lesser it made her more.

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Tho Vinh DRC (she, her): You know, and in the interviews you see her in, you know, she speaks of like how it helps a shaper how she's grateful for it. So that's been a really helpful conversation to have, as well.

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Andy Imparato: And I've heard gratitude bird do the same thing when she talks about her autism. So I feel like we've got a generation of young women who are literally ready to take over the world and they're using their lived experience with disabilities that are positive way. It's very exciting.

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Neil Milliken: Yeah. Oh, and talking a better before i i must say she she throws shade in a way that no one else does, because

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Neil Milliken: She wakes to to the perfect moment and then responds and plays back Donald Trump beautifully so

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Neil Milliken: I love greater I need to also share my love for the people that keep us on air which are Barclays access my clear text and Michael link because

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Neil Milliken: Their support means that we can support the rest of the community. So thank you so much. Today it's been a real pleasure. We really look forward to you joining us on Twitter for what's going to be a very rich conversation.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): And before we stop recording. Can we please can we just celebrate that we have new president and a wonderful Vice President. I forget what the vice presidents from do y'all remember

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Eric

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Yeah.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Just

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): One minute about and and i think Eric, you have a background in

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Your family background. So can we just for one quick second talk about that. And then we'll jump off.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Absolutely. So I am proud to be born I was born in Berkeley, California, which is in the East Bay Area, my family. I have God God Father who is the former mayor of Oakland Liu Harris.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): And he's also a former assembly member in the state legislature representing the East Bay Area. And so we are so proud being in Northern California.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Representing the Bay Area, and she doesn't just represent the Bay Area, as most people now know of Silicon Valley. And of course, San Francisco, but Oakland has a proud history and policy and politics, as many of you know the Black Panthers.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Historic Huey Newton and the wonderful Angela Davis.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Have been incredible throughout history and changing we're talking about changing laws and policy and in some cases, having to sacrifice their lives because of

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): The Black Panther Party among so many other activists disability activists who work throughout the Bay Area and and comma Harris is so proud vice president. Kamala Harris.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Is so

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Is so proud to represent Oakland, California and the people of Oakland and Berkeley. And we're so proud of her. We got to see her up close and personal

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): As she rose up and as she became a US senator and we are so incredibly proud to see her as the first African American woman as the first South Asian woman.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): To be an elected to national office. And so we're just really excited and we as ad would say we would hope will hold her accountable.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): Just like we would hold anybody accountable and make sure that she continues as well as President Biden continue to do work on behalf of people with disabilities.

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Eric Harris (He, Him, His): On behalf of all people from marginalized communities, but we are elated have to have the first one and the first woman vice president to be from the Bay Area, and specifically from Oakland, California.

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Debra Ruh (she/her/hers): Congratulations to all of us. Yeah. Thank you.

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Neil Milliken: Thank you. And we look forward to you joining us on Twitter.