Signing Photo Fundraiser

Special Fundraiser - Signing Photo - Limited Edition

Concurrent with the celebration of 25^th Anniversary of the signing of the ADA in Washington D.C.  on July 26, 2015, the widows of Evan Kemp and Justin Dart signed 250 copies of this wonderful photo (long time activists Yoshiko Dart and Janine Kemp).  Tom Olin and the Disability Rights Center are proud to offer these numbered and historic signed photos for sale at the price of $150.00 including shipping.  Proceeds will go to keep Tom Olin and the Road To Freedom Bus Tour on the road.   Photo size – 11” x 14”, not framed.

The limited edition photo will make a wonderful gift for a friend, coworker, or yourself.

To place an order, email your request and mailing address to Dave Fulton at thedtfgroup@gmail.com.  We will reply and ask that you make payment through our donations page at https://disabilityrightscenter.wordpress.com/donations/   Once the transaction is complete, your photo will be sent on its way.

Rolling with the Road to Freedom Bus Tour

It’s October 2015 and The Road to Freedom Bus Tour just left an amazing APRIL 2015 Conference: The Revolution at the Beach. It's IL Baby! The ADA Bus team (Tom Olin, Janine Bertram, and Dave Fulton) remains in Virginia Beach for a day and a half planning meeting.

Next, Tom Olin takes off for Athens for the Georgia Disability History Symposium. He will connect with disability rights icons Eleanor Smith, Mark Johnson and numerous resourceful history buffs. One of the Road to Freedom Bus Tour’s goals is to promote the preservation of history.   Many of the leaders who were involved in making the ADA into law did not preserve their papers and historic objects. It is critical that we conserve the history we make. Johnson and Smith have done substantial work saving and highlighting disability rights and justice history nationwide.

Voter registration is also a key priority. Everywhere we travel, we partner with hosts on their efforts to urge all eligible people with disabilities to vote.” Get involved in politics as if your life depended on it because it does.” Justin Dart

Tom Olin and the Road to Freedom Bus Tour are media magnets. If hosts do advance media work, mainstream media is drawn to the bus and covers your issues. Make the ADA Bus a photo opportunity for you.

After Athens, The Road to Freedom Bus rolls into Columbia, South Carolina for some serious business: joining the flood disaster relief efforts for people with disabilities. Portlight Strategies, ABLE, (Center for Independent Living) and Marcie Roth at FEMA are tireless in making sure people in the disability community displaced by the floods have the services and supports to meet their needs.   The ADA Bus is honored to join this effort.

Over winter and spring, the bus will be in Florida and then travel across the southern part of the nation with a long stop in Phoenix and a meander through California.  We hope to be in Portland, Oregon in June. For the entire month of July the ADA Bus will travel through Washington State working closely with local activists. We may get to do an event or two in Idaho as well. Emilio Vela of WASILC is partnering with us in Washington.

Now that you know our route, contact the ADA Bus team and book a stop in your city or state.  The bus brings photo and history exhibits as well as supporting advocates on local hot button issues.

Tom Olin and the Road to Freedom Bus Tour are media magnets. If hosts do advance media work, mainstream media is drawn to the bus and covers your issues. Make the ADA Bus a photo opportunity for you.

Get with the ADA Bus and roll on!

It’s Independent Living baby!

Tom Olin, Janine Bertram, and Dave Fulton will be congregating in Virginia Beach (in, you guessed it, Virginia).  Besides getting sand between our toes and making the patios look good, Tom and Janine will be assisting in the 3:30 pm session on Sunday.  We look forward to seeing you there.  Just take a look at the program description!

Taking the Reins, Rolling Out the Revolution, and Seizing Your Seat at the New Public Media Table                   

Presenters: Tom Olin, Janine Bertram, Lawrence Carter-Long, Stephanie Hydal

Presenters will discuss non-violent revolution ahead in regards to funding cuts, institutionalization, and more, including how CILS are getting involved. These experienced organizers will teach basic organizing methods.  Then Carter-Long and Hydal will teach us how anybody with a YouTube account (which is free) can, if they are creative and savvy enough, make something go viral.  Podcasts can be produced in your bedroom or basement. Producing our own work also gets us around the persistent issues the disability community continues to face with media representation. To be blunt, "they" (conventional media) can't screw the story up if we produce, write, and edit it ourselves. The workshop places an emphasis on the different ways we could and should go about telling our own stories including: podcasts and audio storytelling in the IL movement, as a way of getting our stories out there, to build a skill set helpful in seeking employment, and how the stories we tell ourselves, and others, can motivate and provoke civil and social action. Join us and launch a disability rights and justice airwaves takeover. It’s Independent Living baby!

Tom Olin Receives Max Starkloff Lifetime Achievement Award

Tom Olin, famous disability rights activist and photographer, getting the Max Starkloff Lifetime Achievement Award. Well deserved! — with Tom Olinand Colleen Kelly Starkloff.