{"id":3994,"date":"2020-09-18T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T18:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/?p=3994"},"modified":"2020-09-21T11:36:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T19:36:04","slug":"at-the-2020-census-an-accessible-path-to-ensuring-disabilitycounts2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abilitytools.org\/blog\/at-the-2020-census-an-accessible-path-to-ensuring-disabilitycounts2020\/","title":{"rendered":"AT & the 2020 Census: An Accessible Path to Ensuring #DisabilityCounts2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ability Tools<\/a>, the program that produces this blog, is a program of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers (CFILC)<\/a>. CFILC has many other programs, including the statewide disability advocacy network, DOnetwork<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ability Tools and DOnetwork are always looking for ways to collaborate and support one another. This is because we know that if it weren’t for the efforts of those willing to fight for the rights of the disability community, Assistive Technology (AT)<\/a> would not be as readily available for our community members. Complimenting that, if it weren’t for AT, many members of our community would be less capable of engaging in self-advocacy, and therefore community-advocacy. It is with this happy partnership in mind, that we reached out to our brother down the hall, the Statewide Community Organizer for DOnetwork, Russell Rawlings, to check in and see how AT impacts the work that DOnetwork does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I don\u2019t know about you, but this is the first time I\u2019ve ever completed the census. I was always aware<\/em> of the census, kind of the same way that a person who has never had the opportunity for documented employment is aware of taxes, but\u2026 I had to admit this publicly when I first started working to help promote disability community engagement in the 2020 Census. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first thing I learned \u2014 when at my previous position of Director of Advocacy at Resources for Independent Living<\/a> \u2014 was that the disability community is part of a \u201cHard-to-Count\u201d community according to the State of California<\/a>. (The U.S. Census Bureau has a different approach to defining \u201cHard-to-Count\u201d communities<\/a>.) So really, I shouldn\u2019t have been ashamed that I had not responded prior to 2020 because I was: <\/p>\n\n\n\n