Hello my friends, please allow me to welcome you back to another blog. In my last post, I highlighted a disability advocate named Bill Byrne. This week I want to honor another one. Mr. Javier Robles is a professor at Rutgers University and a fierce disability advocate. His work represents everything I as an advocate aspire to be.
Let me take a step back. We in the disability community always feared some sort of public emergency like Covid-19 because we knew the system was overloaded and pushed to the breaking point. Years before the public started wearing masks. My fellow individuals in group homes we’re worried about a shortage in personal protective equipment. Before the pandemic staff would wash gloves after using them because there weren’t enough for the individuals in day programs. I would go visit folks in nursing homes that had some sort of disability after having a stroke. Knowing full well they were too young to be placed there.
Mr. Robles decided to do something about it. He’s the leader of the Disability Action Committee (DAC) after the outbreak they published a report identifying all the gaps the policymakers and decision-makers overlooked. I will be sure to add it to the sources below for you to read for yourself.
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV
The world decided on its own that the COVID-19 emergency is over. Javier in late September spirited a memorial at the New Jersey state house for those of us who passed away along with our caregivers.
I still can’t believe I was chosen to represent the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities (NJCDD) at this event. I don’t see myself as a great man. I try to stay humble. If you ask me, I didn’t deserve to be there. I was ignorant of the greater disability community. There was only one other boy with Cerebral Palsy that attended mainstream classes in my entire School district. When I was growing up my approach to life was so laid back that I am now ashamed of it. I knew of Mr. Robles’ work along with his colleagues. I even emailed him and his team on more than a few occasions. I had to fight just to enter college. This man has hundreds of students listening to him every week. The lesson I learned that day as if you see a problem coming, don’t complain about it, find a way to solve it. Thank you Javier for mentoring the next generation.
Sources:
https://sas.rutgers.edu/news-a-events/news/newsroom/faculty/3399-javier-robles
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