A Tool Made of Words

(Part Five: Disability and Civil Rights)

[SARN Memo for December 16, 2009]

If you want to get the job done, you need the right tool. Civil rights thinking gives us a new tool for self-advocacy. We can use this tool in many ways: to undo discrimination; to fight labels; to get legislators on our side.

This tool is stronger than steel. It’s made of words. These words: “We are people—people with rights. We have to work together to make change.”

Let’s use this tool. And share it.

1. Group Activity: A Collage of Tools
2. Resource

• Respond to this memo!

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1. Group Activity: A Collage of Tools

In this art activity, each member makes a collage. The collages are then displayed on a prominent wall.

Gather lots of catalogs, ads from the Sunday paper, magazines, etc. that have pictures of tools. Give each person a piece of paper with the following words printed in the center (or people can print the words themselves):

“We are people—people with rights.
We have to work together to make change.”

Invite people to find and cut out pictures of tools, then glue the pictures (or draw their own) around the words. When finished, post these collages on the wall, below a heading with big letters that say: “A tool of words to build self-advocacy.”

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2. Resource

Get On Board This Train to Freedom: Understanding the Civil Rights View of Disability
In this self-led workshop, your group looks at this civil rights view of disability: what it is, where it has come from, and how you can use its power to make change.

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