Psychiatric survivor activist for more than 40 years, who is now very disabled after a fall, now focusing on challenging global warming. Lives in Eugene with his marvelous wife Debra.
For ten years, after my accident made me a quad, my team of care workers & amazing wife Debra have kept me independent here in Eugene, Oregon. A year and a half ago, a superb caregiver joined our team, Elijah Gittens, and his caring, good-humored, professional and friendly approach have been crucial to my quality of life.Here is Elijah with his family:
Elijah, his wife Sam, David Oaks & their daughter Layla at Minor League baseball game. Go Ems!
Elijah and his family have started a Go Fund Me campaign. They are not in immediate crisis, but they need to build up a savings account to prevent future housing emergencies. It is great that this blog goes out at the beginning of Black History Month. Elijah is African-American and the wealth disparity among marginalized groups need to be addressed.
As a consumer/employer, I cannot give directly to Elijah’s crowdsourcing campaign. But I hope you can. You may read his brief Go Fund Me appeal here:
Let me explain: Last year, our family suddenly had a medical issue and we had trouble making rent. My wife, our 11-year-old daughter, and I came within hours of being evicted. It was too late to do crowdsourcing.
We can make rent for now. Our health is okay, both my wife and I are working. But we do not want to face such a rent crisis again.
Between getting our child to school, and other after-school activities, on top of both of us going to and from work, we are at risk of someday again being in a financial hole.
Our monthly rent has increased and we only have one fully working vehicle at this current moment in time.
I don’t like doing this. But, here I am, asking for help. Any gifts received will go into our bank account and only be used for an urgent crisis, such as the threat of eviction.
If we never face an emergency like this, the funds will go to our daughter’s college tuition in the future. We want to prevent any housing crisis.
Mail or drop off your check made out to “Elijah Gittens” and in the memo area put account number: 153696635090. US Bank; 55 W. 29th Ave.; Eugene, OR 97405.
Since the below special messsage, a number of you have donated. THANKS!
Update: As of 12/23/22: Because of community support, as of today this campaign has met the challenge match. It looks like a Festivus Miracle!
Thanks to each and every one of you for whatever support you’ve provided. Additional donations from you will help build my quad independent living medical trust. Fees are not tax deductible. Please consider a monthly pledge for 2023.
Below is the special message from my amazing friend David Zupan who has supported this Unleash Campaign all year!
Special Message That Put Us Over the Top
Below is a message from well-respected activist and close friend David Zupan. But first, here is his one-minute hilarious video to support my medical trust campaign. Please share widely:
A brief message from activist/friend David Zupan:
Hello Community Member,
Earlier this year in May 2022, we launched our “Unleash the Oaks” fundraising campaign for long time activists David Oaks and Debra Nunez.
Now thanks to the generosity of supporters like you, we are much closer to our target goal of $12,000. To reach it by 12/31/22, we need to raise $3351. Fortunately major donors have stepped up and will add 50 cents to every dollar you donate so your gift goes 50% larger in 2022!
So we’re counting on you and other community members for the final push. If you can’t afford to donate, you can also help just by sharing this message widely.
Thanks so much for your support, David Zupan Friends of David Oaks
Click below to learn more about the Campaign and how you can Unleash The Oaks:
David W. Oaks: Older white male in blue vest, light green shirt and dark green tie. Short grey hair & beard, smiling.
Today, Thursday, 1 December 2022 is auspicious. Ten years ago on this very day, I climbed a ladder in my writer’s studio to retrieve our cat Bongo from a loft. I fell and broke my neck. During the next month of intensive care, my disabilities grew. Because of complications, it took weeks to operate, impairing my communication: voice, fingers, etc.
You may remember that historic month ten years ago, December 2012, because the Mayan Calendar cycle stopped. That time was supposed to have an ending, but profound creative transformation in the future. That sure applied to me.
Now I am a quadriplegic in a power chair. I am dictating this to my superb Aciu! Program Coordinator Kiana with my challenged voice, which a disability advocate in a meeting recently compared to a “barking dog.” To mark this occasion, here are a few lessons I have learned over this past decade. Since humanity may soon find itself in its own sudden collapse on the floor, perhaps a few others might benefit from my top ten, starting with #10.
Mad Pride logo by artist Sarafin, showing figure in black breaking chains, with a partially red background. Text at the bottom reads: The right to be free, the right to be me.
10. MAD PRIDE, THANKS!
Several friends have used that word “inspirational” about my persistence and attitude. I know many disability activists are bugged by that word “inspirational,” but I have to say I have kind of inspired myself over this past decade! Instead of “My Journey,” I should say “Our Journey,” because my super-amazing wife, Debra, and I have discovered we are more resilient and stronger than we ever thought. Seriously, during my whole life I have had deep and incredible support of so many family, friends, and other resources, thanks. The idea of finding a silver lining in a catastrophe is a beautiful concept from mental health system survivors. May we all find a way to celebrate being different, transforming oppression, and overcoming overwhelm.
9. THE MOVEMENT, THANKS!
When I started my community organizing 46 years ago, we activists were surrounded by the 1970’s social change ferment of the anti-war, women, eco, civil rights, LGBT, disability, prisoners, etc. movements.
Back then in ancient days, countless activists including myself just thought of ourselves as part of The Movement, one big united global force for nonviolent revolution. Little did I know then, that our international grassroots movement of mental health consumers and mental health system survivors (sometimes called C/S) would continue to remain so invisible over the decades.
Silver lining of our obscurity: We are a very real deal social change movement, and for whatever reason each of us has the incredible honor of working with one another: positive, creative, amazing leaders.
8. ACIU!, THANKS!
Aciu! Institute logo with a blue butterfly shielding Earth, for green disability revolutionary consulting.
For most of my life I have worked with nonprofit social change groups. But a few years after I fell, I thought it would be fun to start a for-profit business. I was correct, it is fun! I founded our green disability consulting firm, Aciu! Institute. What does “aciu” mean? Aciu is pronounced like a sneeze: “Ahhh-chooo!” In Lithuanian, this simply means, “Thanks!”
I started by being one of the many consulting editors for the World Health Organization toolkit, QualityRights. I have done several speaking engagements across the U.S. and even internationally via Zoom for conferences in Wisconsin and North Carolina, two national events, and even a workshop in Portugal! I’ve mainly consulted for MindFreedom International, to re-build their Support Coalition. No client is too small or big, see: www.aciu.info
7. UNLEASH ME, THANKS!
After I fell, thousands of individuals sent letters, donations and even a hand-crocheted prayer shawl. Over the years, several folks have continued to donate to my medical Irrevocable Trust, which my family was able to set up thanks to a helpful Oregon law. While Medicare and Medicaid cover my basic costs, this trust has been crucial for my independence. Supporters have now pledged a $4,000 matching fund – for every dollar you give, they will provide an extra 50 cents. For more info and to give one time or monthly, see www.supportdavidoaks.org
6. THE YEAR 2222, THANKS?
Wise Indigenous tribes native to North America have advised us all to think ahead seven generations. Personally, to help me visualize this, I chose the year 2222. Surely two centuries are enough for seven generations, if humanity survives.
Apparently many people do not understand what almost all scientists are warning us, over and over: We are collectively reaching a tipping point, where cascading, chaotic, triggering, climate feedback loops may make the current crisis far worse and irrevocable. Will we reach a runaway “Venus effect”? We don’t know, but we do know by taking immediate action we can help humanity and countless species increase the chance that we will reach the year 2222. We need positive visions, positive ways to think totally differently, positive peer support, and positive nonviolent revolution! MAD Pride!
5. UU, THANKS!
Wheelchair icon with black figure leaning forward with lit Unitarian Universalist (UU) chalice in hub.
Before my fall, as a pagan I would sometimes do a fast for a few days in the remote Oregon wilderness. After my fall, I realized I needed to build my spiritual community in an easier way. The Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church in Eugene refurbished a large building in our neighborhood, and they were very supportive during visits. I’ve become active in both local and national UU activities, mainly for people diagnosed with mental or physical disabilities.
4. MIND JUSTICE, THANKS!
Because of amazing activist leaders like the late Judi Chamberlin & Justin Dart, I connected mental health issues to the disability movement for decades. But it took my life-altering accident to build a huge, solid bridge between mental and physical disability.
Mind Justice icon balancing a black & white wing equally on a scale.
Yes, I know that many of us mental health system survivor organizers reject connecting psychiatric labels to disability. Of course, like LGBT leaders before us, we challenge goofy, destructive, false psychiatric labels that are irrationally slapped onto us.
But hold on, radical psychiatric survivors, did you know many disability activists reject or do not use the term disability? Did you know that many Indigenous tribes did not even have a word for disability? Did you know that many deaf and hard-of-hearing activists see themselves as a community, not a disability? And anyway, what kind of an excuse would it be for a man to say, “I am not a woman therefore I will not support or connect with the women’s movement”? I would like to bridge our movement to other marginalized voices, including the neurodiverse, brain injury survivors, intellectual and developmental disability, LGBT, BIPOC, and many more. I call this concept “Mind Justice,” and we already have so many leaders that build these bridges. Keep it up, to nonviolent revolution!
3. MENTAL HEALTH CONSUMERS, THANKS!
By far, most individuals who have “lived experience” with the mental health system, and currently use part of that mental health system, would call themselves “mental health consumers.” If that includes you, I would like to encourage you to also consider how you may be a mental health system SURVIVOR, too.
For this past decade, I have regularly met with a superb mental health therapist, mainly to work on what would be labeled PTSD. My experiences with my counselor have always been positive. But also please reflect on how even having a connection with a psychiatric diagnosis, whether you reject or accept it, can and does indeed lead to discrimination in our current society.
Even if you never use the mental health system, ever, I feel you are a mental health system survivor, because this industry has suppressed and limited what it even means to be human.
2. MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM SURVIVORS, THANKS!
Those of us who have experienced trauma and oppression within the mental health industry face some unique challenges.
When we were in some of the most vulnerable times of our life, individuals who had been trained and licensed to supposedly support us, betrayed our trust, in so many different ways. While I have lived experience with involuntary psychiatric drug injections and solitary confinement, I have met individuals who have gone through dozens of forced electroshocks, decades of homelessness, years in institutions. When the trauma is caused by a helper, who do we turn to for help? That said, over this past decade I have had a chance to reflect. The extreme hurt and oppression we have experienced can sometimes overwhelm us into a lifetime of bitterness and isolation.
More than ever, I appreciate MindFreedom International, which I helped start and was Executive Director of for 25 years. MFI has always been wide open to all who support human rights, including attorneys, family members, and mental health professionals. But a survey showed that the vast majority of MFI members identified as psychiatric survivors. I appreciate that so many mental health system survivors have stayed on the side of love. This viewpoint has helped sustain me over this past decade, and kept me in touch with so many survivors.
1. THANKS, BUT…
And my top lesson from this decade: There have been so many people to appreciate. Many times I realized the main help I needed was simply showing my gratitude to so many folks. You may be one of the individuals I have hoped to thank, so thanks!
David and Debra pose on our new deck from Habitat for Humanity in our backyard summer August 2013: I am Home. David is an older white male with gray hair and beard, and headset. Debra has brown hair, brown eyes with large red glasses.
That said, I have learned that while thanking is so very undeniably important, if I had any advice to someone facing a similar disaster, I would encourage you to keep REACHING OUT. In a way, especially in our current society, building community is important for everyone. But especially for those experiencing extreme sudden disability, after any initial support, please continue to build bridges to family, friends and the world. Just because I had a lot of support including activism and a unique social change movement for 46 years, even I have not been invulnerable to the sometimes-subtle, pervasive tendency to isolation, or what is sometimes called “ableism.”
Wow, So How Can I Help Mark This Occasion?
MAD Pride: One of my wonderful homecare workers and I created a small discussion group about this international way to celebrate. Please join our MAD Pride group within the free, enormous, discussion platform Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MadPride/
MindFreedom International: If you are not a current member, or you may have let your past membership lapse, or even if you’re not sure, please consider a donation to this unique nonprofit: www.mindfreedom.org If you are with a social change group, or would like to start one, ask me about MFI’s Support Coalition.
Aciu!: While it would be wonderful if you visited my green consulting business, Aciu! Institute, website; even better is if you would like to be an advisor or client. Please just visit www.aciu.info
A reminder: You probably noticed that I made a pitch for my medical Irrevocable Trust, so here is a reminder to give once or monthly: www.supportdavidoaks.org.
UU? On Facebook, please search for and join our group: Mental Health Justice UU.
Our local UU Eugene Church has an Accessibility Task Force, and I am co-chair. While we mainly cover Eugene, Oregon disability news, we also try to include some national UU disability resources. Anyone is invited to get our free, occasional news here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/MxNirL8/uuceatf
As an individual with quadriplegia, I have had a wonderful team of fantastic careworkers. For a decade, about half a dozen careworkers have maintained my independence here in our home with my amazing wife, Debra, in Eugene, Oregon.
David & Debra in their home, which they call “MadSwan,” in southwest Eugene.
We now have new openings for one or more careworkers. Ideally, you would already have certification and a careworker number from Senior & Disability Services. However, we have helped people brand-new to this career to get their SDS number, which allows them to work for many other disabled consumer/employers.
I have more information about this position on this page on my blog here:
As promised in my blog, below are some tools you can use to build Mad Pride and Disability Pride.
This is not meant to be a comprehensive directory, but to provide you with inspiration and tips. Please comment on both my Mad In America blog, and at the bottom of this resource blog, with your views, suggestions, ideas… and I will respond as I’m able.
When I broke my neck one decade ago, I drew upon the lessons I learned about empowerment from decades in the psychiatric survivor movement. I am proud of applying these skills when I needed them most. There are many other reasons to have Disability Pride: Our resilience, the amazing global disability community, the uniqueness of every human being…
Mad Pride Resources
Background on Mad Pride
Mad Pride logo by artist Sarafin. Text at the bottom reads: “The right to be free, the right to be me.”
MindFreedom Oregon has voted to support Mad Pride Month as July. Part of July is Creative Maladjustment Week. Martin Luther King, Jr. utilized this concept of creative maladjustment many times in his speeches. You can read about that week here: https://mindfreedom.org/mfi-taking-action/creative-maladjustment-week/
Who are the leaders of Mad Pride and Disability Pride? You, if you choose. I consider both Mad Pride and Disability Pride to apply to anyone and everyone that chooses to take leadership in a positive sense.
You can be in touch with MindFreedom Oregon in promoting Mad Pride July by emailing to: MadPrideWorld@gmail.com.
It was surprising to me how much information I could find about Mad Pride simply by searching for it in Google, Twitter, etc.
Mad Pride Switzerland
Mad Pride Switzerland official website: https://madpride.ch/ Several language options are offered on their website.
Wikipedia has reported that there have also been Mad Pride events over the last few decades in Australia, Canada, Ireland, USA, Portugal, Brazil, Madagascar, South Africa, and France.
Korea: Mad Pride Seoul in Korea usually picks 10 October, World Mental Health Day, for their parades and creative activities. Glad to see a song devoted to honoring their work: https://youtu.be/e1vEeQaCXNc
This is only meant to be a partial listing. If you know of any Mad Pride events, please share this news with others. You can find a discussion about Mad Pride on Reddit at: www.reddit.com/r/madpride. Also, you will find an email address at the end this blog to be in touch with World Mad Pride, as supported by MindFreedom Oregon.
Disability Pride Resources
Background on Disability Pride
The Disability Pride Flag was a collaborative design by Ann Magill, a disabled woman, with feedback within the disabled community.
Surviving Race: Intersection of Injustice, Disability & Human Rights–Savannah Dialogues 2022 on August 28, 2022: https://fb.me/e/1YCHJCV7K
On Twitter, it was gratifying to see the hashtag #madpride was in use. Other hashtags to consider using are: #MadPrideMonth #MentalHealth #Disability #DisabilityPride #DisabilityPrideMonth
Please leave your comments, ideas, questions, and leads below!
First, let’s talk about Mad Pride Month, which MindFreedom Oregon has launched. Why July? The month of July has many connections to the movement for mental health consumers/psychiatric survivors (C/S), here are a few:
Several decades ago, some activists in New York State were looking for a day to hold an annual protest in Albany of the mental health system. At first, they were about to choose July 4, but psychiatric survivor Myra Kovary encouraged them to choose a non-US-centered date, Bastille Day, July 14, 1981. C/S movement groups still often choose events on July 14.
Past Mad Pride Switzerland event.
When MindFreedom International looked for a week to celebrate the concept, invented by Martin Luther King, Jr., of “creative maladjustment,” they chose a week from July 7 to 14.
By happy coincidence, the birthdate of one of the most amazing psychiatric survivor activists in history, Leonard Roy Frank, is on July 15.
As we learned more about our history of the Mad Pride Movement, Wikipedia carried an interesting fact about one of the first known psychiatric survivor groups: “On 7 July 1845, Richard Paternoster, John Perceval and a number of others formed the Alleged Lunatics’ Friend Society.”
David Oaks & Patch Adams search for meaning at the Oregon Country Fair.
And in Oregon, of course, the infamous Oregon Country Fair is always shortly after the 4th of July. MindFreedom has held events in the heart of OCF, the Community Village, for many years. Dissident physician/psychiatric survivor Patch Adams has often spoken. In the past, the late dissident psychiatrist, Carl Hammerschlag, has also joined Patch.
So, when MindFreedom Oregon, a small affiliate of MindFreedom International, discussed having a Mad Pride Month, July was the obvious choice.
But Why is July Disability Pride Month?
Meanwhile, the disability movement was engaged in a wonderful simultaneous action: Naming July as Disability Pride Month. Because the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law on July 26, 1990, when the disability movement created a month to celebrate disability pride, they chose July.
As an individual with quadriplegia and several additional extreme disabilities, the concept of “disability pride” resonates with me. But at first, I can easily imagine someone thinking, “What is there to be proud about when you have a disability? Proud to lose a leg? Proud to go blind?”
Disability pride does not mean every impairment one might experience is somehow splendid. Here is the description of disability pride from the organization, AmeriDisability: “‘Disability pride’ has been defined as accepting and honoring each person’s uniqueness and seeing it as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity.”
In other words, my applying the lessons I learned from decades in the psychiatric survivor movement, to empowerment after I broke my neck one decade ago, is indeed one thing to be proud of. Resilience, the amazing global disability community, uniqueness of every human being… are a few more of the many reasons to have disability pride.
Why Mad Pride?
As a psychiatric survivor, I know that I spent many years rebelling & resisting the bizarre, ridiculous, unscientific, goofy, demeaning labels found in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM).
So, some might ask, “If you rebel against labels, then isn’t ‘mad pride’ hypocritical?”
No. The psychiatric establishment generally runs away from the use of words like “mad” and “crazy.” Whole books could be written on the topic of language, but just let me say that the only love that I would consider real is being “madly in love.”
We know that social change movements of marginalized people must build bridges to other communities of disenfranchised, such as LGBT and BIPOC. What about the disability movement, one of the biggest in the world? One of the surest connections between the psychiatric survivor movement and the disability movement, is that we human rights activists claim that every type of psychiatric oppression and goofy label, result in disability. For example, electroshock causes massive head injury and memory loss. Sounds like a disability to me.
I am ashamed that a few of my fellow psychiatric survivors have a kind of “brain bigotry” on the issue of disability, also known as ableism. These psychiatric survivors say that because their label is fictional, they cannot and should not be oppressed and forcibly treated. Hey, here’s a concept for you: Whether or not your label is true or goofy, you do not deserve oppression!
Many of us psychiatric survivors point out that many psychiatric labels are fictional, like the unicorn. But folks, even if you are missing a limb and are obviously disabled, you deserve human rights, choice, dignity, support, healthcare.
Yes, you can be a Leader in Both Mad Pride Month & Disability Pride Month!
It is totally OK if you personally choose not to celebrate Mad Pride Month or Disability Pride Month. Perhaps there should be a “Normal Shame Month”? Let me know if anyone organizes that, I’m too busy.
However, many of us do want to celebrate our differences, Mad Pride, and Disability Pride. I will not impose a psychiatric label on another person unwillingly. But please do not try to impose the label of “normal” on me. What is generally called “normal” is wrecking the planet’s environment and threatens life on Earth. What is generally called “normal” is actually, from my perspective, the worst, most dangerous altered state ever.
Mad Pride Events
Mad Pride is currently alive and well:
Bern, Switzerland, poster for Mad Pride event.
Bern, Switzerland held a lively and large march on 18 June 2022. The website is not in English, but you get the idea: https://madpride.ch/. You can get a flavor of these events on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G6XyX6un6MQ and https://youtu.be/THiuPTziyBg. It was very impressive to see hundreds of people participating, with signs, balloons, and whistles.
Mexico City had a Mad Pride March on 28 May 2022 (Marcha del Orgullo Loco en la Ciudad de México). The sponsors were: Redesfera Latinoamericana de la Diversidad Psicosocial & la Red Orgullo Loco México. You can email the organizers here: orgullolocomx@gmail.com
Mad Pride Seoul in Korea has held events for years. Glad to see a song devoted to honoring their work: https://youtu.be/e1vEeQaCXNc
Wikipedia has reported that there have also been Mad Pride events over the last few decades in Australia, Canada, Ireland, USA, Portugal, Brazil, Madagascar, South Africa, and France.
This is only meant to be a partial listing. If you know of any Mad Pride events, please share this news with others. You can find a discussion about Mad Pride on Reddit at: www.reddit.com/r/madpride. Also, you will find an email address at the end this blog to be in touch with World Mad Pride, as supported by MindFreedom Oregon.
On Twitter, it was gratifying to see the hashtag #madpride was in use. Other hashtags to consider using are: #MadPrideMonth #MentalHealth #DisabilityPride #DisabilityPrideMonth
Personally, as a psychiatric survivor with extreme physical disabilities, I love the idea of building bridges between Mad Pride and Disability Pride. Think of one of the key leaders in fighting the climate crisis: Greta Thunberg. When Greta was younger, she and her family wrestled with many severe mental and emotional problems, including periods of not eating, isolating herself with just a few close family members, screaming and crying for long lengths of time, etc. Greta personally accepts the diagnosis of “autism.” But Greta’s perspective is that being “on the spectrum” is her “superpower,” because her uniqueness helps her see through the web of lies that seemingly control “normal people.”
More Information on Mad Pride?
If I were to look up Mad Pride info, I would do a google search with quote marks around the phrase: “mad pride”.
Off hand, over the years, I would say Toronto has had the most Mad Pride events. I believe you can find a number of recordings on YouTube. COVID slowed them down, but they may start again.
Ireland had the absolute biggest Mad Pride events, because of the poet John McCarthy. He died a few years ago, but you can find videos on YouTube about Mad Pride Ireland events. I hope Ireland has more Mad Pride events in the future. This would surely make my friend’s spirit soar! John often talked about the “normality of madness and the madness of normality.”
I consider both Mad Pride and Disability Pride to apply to anyone and everyone that chooses to take leadership in a positive sense.
You can be in touch with MindFreedom Oregon in promoting Mad Pride July by emailing to: MadPrideWorld@gmail.com. And please leave your comments below.
David Oaks and wife Debra Nunez, 2017, back deck, Eugene, Oregon.
Friends of David Oaks (FODO) have made a matching challenge of $4,000 to support my independent living as a long-time activist quadriplegic. Below is a one-minute video about this $4,000 challenge.
After my disastrous fall 10 years ago, one of my main difficulties has been extending all the Thanks to all the folks who have assisted me. This new challenge of $4,000 is one more example of this community uplift.
A network of my friends & relatives will match 50￠for every dollar you give to replenish the David Oaks Irrevocable Trust (not tax-deductible) for 2022.
Update 6/29/2022: So far, since the matching challenge, $2,588.21 has been raised. That means the Challenge will match this with $1,294.11. So the total so far is $3,882.32. When the campaign raises $8,000, it actually has $12,000.
More info about the Unleash The Oaks campaign to support my trust, why & how:
Unitarian Universalist Rev. Suzanne Fast from Florida identifies as “disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent.”
On the one hand the idea of “invisible disabilities” is pretty simple: For example, if someone is impaired by cancer, no one may see their challenges, but their impairments may be very real.
On a deeper level, fascinating questions arise in this topic of “invisible disabilities.” For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has a very wide definition of “disability,” so that in certain circumstances being “regarded” as disabled — even “erroneously” regarded — can at times fall within the legal definition. In other words, in some situations, experiencing discrimination because of a fictitious diagnosis can be seen as disabling.
I will be one of the moderators for a free, public webinar, and you are invited. The special guest is Rev. Suzanne Fast, who I have personally seen lead some wonderful peer support groups for Unitarian Universalists who are disabled. Everyone is welcome to join the discussion, please spread the word. We’d love to line up questions in advance:
Invisible Disabilities
Free Public Zoom Webinar
Sunday, 29 May 2022 at12:45 pm PT
Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene Community Accessibility Task Force
Co-moderated by Rev. Jen Youngsun Ryu & David W. Oaks
ASL Interpreting by Patrick Galasso
Join Rev. Suzanne Fast for a discussion on “Invisible Disabilities,” and how understanding the concept is important to accessibility & inclusion, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, 29 May 2022.
The Reverend Suzanne Fast (she/her) is a Unitarian Universalist community minister focusing on disability justice, advocacy, education, and pastoral ministry, primarily through UU Association’s EqUUal Access.
She is one of the creators of the Accessibility and Inclusion Ministry Program for congregations and serves on its Coordinating Committee. Rev. Fast is disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent. She is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Naples, Florida.
We’d like to line up questions in advance. Interested? Email access@uueugene.org
We’d especially like to hear from vets who identify as having invisible disabilities.
For information about invisible disabilities, see:
