Wow. I'm honored to be sharing the same

planet with these young leaders. For any and all of us sick of hearing bad news about disability rights, activism, or disability studies:

This is quoted from an email from the Justice For All Listserv:

"Leading on...Disability History Week Passed In West Virginia!!!

Youth leaders with disabilities across the country are letting America know that it's their right to learn their history! Based in the research done in the field of youth development/youth leadership, youth with disabilities need "an understanding of disability history, culture, and disability public policy issues as well as their rights and responsibilities" in order to successfully transition to adulthood. Projects such as the state youth leadership forums (YLF) taking place in 23 states around the country, the National Youth Leadership Network (NYLN), and the 15 youth resource information and training centers all work on helping youth and emerging leaders with disabilities access this critical information. We are very excited to report though, that two youth projects have taken this as a rallying cry to educate all youth about disability history, culture, and community. Last summer West Virginia had their first YLF with an agenda set by Marissa Johnson, former chair of the NYLN, and was supported by Ann Meadows, Corey Rowley, Jan and Mark Derry, and several other leaders in the disability and independent living movements. The forum included a heavy emphasis on the history, culture, and community of our movement. The delegates started out as a group young people of different disabilities, backgrounds, and experiences and ended with a community of new leaders, brought together by a single mission, empowerment. The turning point for the youth came when a call was placed to the advocates sitting in at the Governor's office in Tennessee, protesting cuts to Medicaid. When the new leaders saw just how important these issues are, they quickly wanted to do something to make others aware of the disability rights movement.

For the legislative session, the youth were able to use the actual House chambers and Speaker of the House, Bob Kiss was present to oversee the proceedings. The "Justin and Yoshiko Dart Disability History Week" bill, would dedicate the third week in October (Disability Employment Month) as Disability History week, to educate all children in public schools about the importance of the disability civil rights movement. Speaker Kiss was so impressed with the preparation and presentation of the mock session that he agreed to sponsor a real bill, to be written and lobbied by the delegates, in the next legislative session. The bill was written by the delegates, support garnered, and has been passed by the House and Senate and on its way to the Governor.

Congratulations to the leaders in West Virginia! Your older brothers and sisters in the disability community are so proud of you!!!!!

You're making history by teaching it!

The Florida Youth Council, part of the National Consortium on Leadership and Disability (NCLD/Youth), is creating their own bill (based on the West Virginia work) to be presented to the Governor at the Family Cafi conference in June. Working with other youth leaders from their YLF, High School/High Tech projects, and Disability Mentoring Day, they are hoping to have a draft ready sometime in the near future. NCLD-Youth will be hosting a call for those interested in doing similar work within their own states.
Contact Rebecca Hare at 202-822-8405 x127 or harer@iel.org, for more information."

This is great stuff. If all the states pass legislation as above, *that* is another blow against leaving those with disabilities as a group anyone would just *rather not think about,* ignore, or keep invisible.