Hello from Ms.Wheelchair Massachusetts 2010
Hello Everyone!
First off, I wanted to introduce myself as the newest Ms.Wheelchair Massachusetts for 2010, Santara Sen. I apologize for posting so late after my crowning but was undergoing some pretty big health issues during the holiday season-Thanksgiving, Christmas...all the way up to New Year's Eve...then I was good for a while and again back in the hospital the last week of January. Anyway, just wanted to explain that. I appreciate everyone's patience and support during this time, especially Autumn's, our state coordinator.
Well, I've done a few things already. I was interviewed by WBZ radio regarding Ms.Wheelchair Massachusetts, which will be airing soon-she's going to let me know when. I wrote up a profile for the Spina Bifida Association of Massachusetts's Quarterly Newsletter regarding Ms.Wheelchair Massachusetts, and I'm going to participate in the kick-off event in March for their First Annual Walk n Roll, which is on May 23, 2010. (For more information on that, go to their website (www.sbamass.org) and you can sign up on their volunteer page.
For my February event, I went to the Massachusetts State House for the first time ever, which was really exciting! It was for an event called "OUR Day" for the Disability Policy Consortium (www.dpcma.org) , advocating the needs for deaf, hard-of-hearing and deaf/blind constituents. (FYI-please go to their website to join this group to help us change legislation for the millions of people with disabilities! You can also join their cause on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.) We started the day hearing from different senators and such from the State House about what they do, and thanking us for being there...and sending out the message that we need to be there often to remind our senators and representatives of our needs. After that we went off to lunch, and then the afternoon was all about meeting with our senators and legislators. So...off I went to find Senator Marian Walsh to speak with her about the needs of this population. She wasn't there actually, but we were told that if the person we needed to see wasn't there we could speak to whomever was there instead...so I spoke to one of the assistants. I spoke of many different subjects related to Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing/Deaf-blind awareness. I knew I wanted to advocate for many of the pressing issues such as the CART system (Communication Access Real Time), Independent Living, Emergency situations, and the overall need for more interpreters for American Sign Language. The woman I spoke to seemed pretty receptive and wanted to hear what I had to say. I have friends who are both deaf and blind and I know the challenges they face everyday due to lack of access so this was very important to me to be able to speak up for them, even though I do not fall into one of these categories myself. To me it doesn't matter because we all have needs that need to be addressed and changes that need to be made to legislation for the better.
So after Senator Walsh's office, my next stop was to Representative John H. Rogers, who again was unavailable to speak with me. (I knew at the beginning of the day that this was going to be the case because appointments were not scheduled with these two particular people for some reason--either I was the only one from my hometown of Norwood, MA or they just weren't available-not sure which...)...so again (after getting lost about eight times trying to find his office hehe), I found it! This time, however, I was simply asked if I had information for him to read, and I said yes and gave it to the woman at the desk. Something to definitely follow up on there!
Because my representative and senator were both unavailable, I had a good hour and a half or so at the end free. So I decided to tag along with one of the other groups who were not done with their meetings and participated in theirs. So off we went (once we found out how to get there--did I mention the State House is very confusing?) to Senator Montigny's office and a large group of us got to speak with the lawyer who works for him. There were some different issues brought up in this group such as After-Hours Emergency Interpreter Services at hospitals and such and the need for them. We also asked why it seems that they have a variety of other "spoken" language interpreters such as Spanish, but not American Sign Language in hospitals--it's not something they focus on but they should!
So, that ends my first official appearance as Ms.Wheelchair Massachusetts 2010. Overall it was a very enjoyable day and it was interesting to be seeing American Sign Language again after not taking the courses for some time when I was in college. I'm looking forward to many other events in the future this year.
Thanks!
Santara
