Day of Acceptance

Today, January 20, 2015, is the International Day of Acceptance (IODA). It is a day given to educate about all kinds of disabilities and learn how to accept these diversities into mainstream life. That includes schools, work, and anything people do every day.

In living the quad life, I know the pubic in general are not fully accepting of someone like me with diverse needs. Despite the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) nearly 25 years ago, many places remain inaccessible to wheelchairs. An addition to the ADA, Section 508, requires web sites to have certain features added to make them accessible for all users. Unfortunately, I commonly find sites that don't meet these requirements and site owners can be reluctant to have them included.

Despite these problems, disability acceptance is improving. First of all, these laws exist and since the passage of the ADA in 1990, several improvements in accessibility have been made. Due in part to this, you can see someone with a disability more frequently in public places as well as work. Accepting a person with a disability is a great start, but this country is getting far worse at acceptance.

Yesterday, several of the groups I follow shared a news story about seven kids that were "stolen" from their home (text has more detail than the video) by police. It is a Christian family that home schools their kids and they prefer to go without footwear. After a second investigation, the children were taken due to the house having a chemical used to purify water for the garden. A social media campaign has since started showing support for the family.

The general thinking is the anonymous complaint was due to home schooling from a Christian perspective, similar to the family I talked about last year. From what I've read, this is similar to my ideal for raising kids, perhaps minus the water purifier. Christians are being less accepted and not allowed to openly practice our faith at a fervent pace.

Living the quad Christian life has its challenges, that in some ways are easier than times past. However, in other more important ways, they are ever increasing. We will see what comes up in another week.