Stop the torture!
Stop torture!
Stop the torture!
Stop torture!
Ma'am, would you use an electric shock collar on your child?
Help us! Tell your coworkers that HHS
can stop the torture of disabled people
Please, help us.
They're playing the audio of the screams of disabled people getting shocked.
And it is bone chilling.
The whole world is watching, shame on you!
I don't know if you've ever gone out to dinner with three people
who use wheelchairs?
Now take 200 of your closest friends to a building and cram it full.
Suddenly, nothing's moving anywhere.
Stop the torture of disabled children and adults.
You can help us.
-Anyone can be disabled at any time. -Yeah.
You could be in an accident. If you live long enough,
you will be disabled.
My name is Ryan O'Connell and I have a mild form of cerebral palsy.
So I've always felt like I've had one foot in the able-bodied world
and one foot in the disabled world.
Today I'm in D.C. with hundreds of protesters
who have come here to fight for disability rights.
Most Americans live in freedom.
They have this thing called the Constitution, that says
they have a right to life and liberty.
We have actually looked at the Constitution
and there is no asterisk in it that says unless you're too disabled.
It is 6:30 in the morning. We are here getting lined up
ready to protest day one with ADAPT.
We're expecting over 200 people today,
the first stop is Health and Human Services.
Stop the shock or we won't stop!
The group is heading to HHS to protest a controversial issue
that many consider one of their most important:
Stop the shock.
The use of contingent electric shock devices
is an inhumane practice that has never been appropriate
and has always constituted an unscientific and unethical practice.
Stop the shock is ADAPT's name for their demand to end
electric shock treatment on disabled patients.
Which is still happening at the Judge Rotenberg Center
in Canton, Massachusetts.
The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center is the only one in the country
known to use electrical skin shocks for its most aggressive patients.
The shock's not like you hear the JRC people say,
it's just a bee sting or it's just a pinch.
It hurts. It hurts badly.
The use of electric shock on disabled individuals
has garnered enormous backlash from clinical psychologists
and the ACLU, who called the practice cruel and inhumane.
Despite several lawsuits against the center, the court's upheld
that the practice is within legal standards of treating individuals
with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Proponents of this type of therapy including many parents
of disabled residents of the Center
argue that it's a last resort for individuals prone to violence
and that it's been effective in treating them
without having to rely on medications.
We feel that the device has changed the life of our son
and it really should be available for the desperate families who need this.
But even the FDA has proposed regulations that would ban the practice.
They have yet to sign off on them however, despite years of protests from ADAPT.
The FDA has written the rules to make this illegal.
They just have to release them.
Reiterate, you wouldn't do this to your family member
you can stop it being done to ours.
Personally engage one-on-one,
don't just stay still follow the person and keep talking to them as you go.
The more they hear you, plead with them.
If you see someone who's military going in
talk about how this can't be done to enemy combatants.
-Okay. -All right.
Cool, thank you, sweetie.
I know you're great with this. Thank you!
Stop the torture, stop the shock.
Disabled people are being tortured at the Judge Rotenberg Center.
We are begging everyone to work with us to stop the torture
of disabled Americans.
I can see, you don't want to look at me
because you don't want to have to acknowledge that this is going on.
This is what we live with every day knowing disabled people are being tortured.
They're protesting the Human and Health Services building
because they are the only place where they have the power to change these laws.
One of the tactics they're doing is they're playing the audio
of the screams of disabled people getting shocked.
The screams are visceral, they're like these guttural, awful screams
and it's just wild to know that this is still happening in the U.S.
People are clearly uncomfortable by it. You can see.
But historically, people with disabilities make people uncomfortable.
So, it's all trapping.
It's really interesting though seeing them try to avoid them
because, it's kind of like, honey, you're outnumbered for once.
Stop the torture, stop the shock!
...These regulations. Stop the torture
of disabled children and adults.
You can help us.
One of ADAPT's youngest activists is 20-year-old, Priya Penner.
She began working with ADAPT when she was 14-years-old.
What do you hope to accomplish with this protest?
Well, so, I think what's really cool about the way we phrase things here
in ADAPT, is technically this is an action.
Protesting, okay, you go and you show that you're against something, right?
You don't necessarily have concrete demands and a concrete way
of getting there. And then an action clearly has
and states those demands.
We present our demands and we expect those demands to be met.
Have you been arrested before?
I have been arrested.
It's not that many, not that many.
It's like six. ADAPT does not allow
juveniles to get arrested.
So when I turned 18, that was my first arrest.
So you've been arrested six times in two years?
Yes! That's nothing.
Is there a point of pride in how many arrests you get?
It is definitely a point of pride, a badge of honor, if you will.
I think though, it's very clear to folks here there's a reason why we do this,
and that's to free our people from nursing homes, to stop the shock
against disabled people.
So, there is a point of pride to make sure that it's not about us.
Right. As young activists
do you ever get tired just having to fight
for your basic rights to live?
I think as a disabled person you get really tired.
Were also very tired as queer people, we're also very tired as people of color.
It astounds me that people don't necessarily understand
what we're doing, or, you know, say, oh that's good for you.
Like, this is for you too. These rams that you use your strollers on...
-Yeah. -Like, that's because of us.
-Yeah. -Those buses that are accessible
-Yeah. -and when you break your leg, like,
that's us. The shit you use every single day
and you don't even think about it, that's us.
That's our work.
ADAPT is one of the most effective civil disobedience groups in America.
It started back in the 70s when a handful of activists
fighting for wheelchair lifts on buses decided to surround public buses
and stall them for days.
Today, the surge in ADAPT’s membership and activism
has really been spurned by the Trump administration,
which has pursued an agenda that ADAPT member's say
literally puts their lives at risk.
And here to kick off the 2018 Spring National ADAPT Action
is our own, the wonderful, amazing, Cathy James.
We're going to try to get [unintelligible] and everybody else arrested.
We hope y'all get arrested.
How about that?
Most of us remember when President Trump made headlines
in 2016, after mocking a disabled reporter.
You should have seen this guys, "Oh, I don't know what I said,
Uh, I don't remember!"
But since then his administration has taken actual steps
toward stripping the community of hard-won rights.
Since taking office, Trump immediately tried to dismantle
the Affordable Care Act,
which would have left thousands of disabled people without health insurance.
Outside Senator, Mitch McConnell's office a different take,
Capitol Police arrested a number of demonstrators, many in wheelchairs
staging what they called a die-in, protesting the GOP bill
and its proposed deep cuts to Medicaid.
Recently, the administration also allowed states to impose
work requirements for people who receive Medicaid,
which will result in fewer people with disabilities being eligible.
And to top it off, Congress is currently considering a bill
that will make it harder to enforce the American Disability Act.
What is the best case scenario coming out of ADAPT this year?
What do you hope to achieve?
What we're trying to accomplish is increased support and awareness
for our legislation, the Disability Integration Act.
The Disability Integration Act is one of the most crucial
pieces of civil rights legislation that ADAPT is fighting for right now.
If passed, it would ensure that people living with disabilities
are not forced to live in nursing homes or institutions against their will.
Do you the right to life and liberty in an institution?
-No! -No!
Disability Integration Act was written by ADAPT
and it solves that problem.
It will free our people.
There is so much public support for the bill
you can now look at the list and see who's not on it.
So that is why we are here in D.C.
We'll see you at 6:30 in the morning.
Yeah!
Let's hear it people!
Seeing all these disabled people together in one room,
which I've never seen before, ever, and it seems wild as a disabled person
like, be like, wow, there's more than like, one or two people.
There is these corporate training things where you know,
-fall into my arms and experience trust. -Right.
Okay, do that surrounded by Capitol police trying to drag you away
and you have a beginning of a sense of what it's like to be in ADAPT.
Disability rights has never been the sexiest of political topics,
but I had the chance to speak with one man who has been championing
the cause for years, Senator, Bob Casey.
For the people in this audience and behind me,
who have a disability,
you taught me that, nothing about us without us, right?
What do you think of ADAPT’s tactics?
Very effective.
Yeah.
All you had to do is look at 2017.
I think, ADAPT was indispensable [unintelligible] determined advocacy
of the disability community and groups like ADAPT,
the bill would have passed and they would have repealed the ACA,
thrown millions of people off of healthcare
and they would have decimated Medicaid.
So, more than 20 million Americans would have lost their healthcare.
and it didn't happen because they often literally put their body on the line.
And look, this isn't just like a Democrat-Republican thing.
They show up everywhere.
They show up in my office, they show up in every office.
They're challenging us to make the concerns of tens of millions
of Americans a higher priority.
Next step, we headed to the Senate buildings where ADAPT members
were set on getting more senators to cosponsor their bill,
The Disability Integration Act.
We are here at the senate building where members of ADAPT
are splitting into two groups.
They're planning on occupying a republican senator's office and a
democratic senator's office, which is obviously illegal.
So, we'll see what happens.
The first group headed to Democratic Senator, Patty Murray's office.
While I headed in with a group demanding support from Republican Senator,
Lamar Alexander, the chairman of a key health committee
whose support for this bill is critical.
Alright, let's go. Go out and to the right.
Out and to the right, please.
People are starting to get escorted out by the police.
Stop the bullshit, stop the crap.
Now it's time to face ADAPT!
Stop the bullshit, cut the crap.
Now it's time to face ADAPT!
Took back my humanity when I
went down to Alexander's house and I
took back what he stole from me and well I
took back my dignity I
took back my humanity.
So, I just left the senate building
there are a bunch of ADAPT members that have been arrested
that are lined up on the sidewalk.
I have seen actually the cops be very respectful and it was
amazing to see kind of peaceful nonviolent protest in action.
It really is seeing like our Constitution at work.
Miracle or miracles, you did not get arrested today,
can you please tell us why?
While folks were being arrested in Senator Alexander's office,
Senator, Patty Murray's office decided to cosponsor the
Disability Integration Act.
So, we went in and within two hours came out with the ranking member
of the committee cosponsoring the bill and agreeing to work with us
to secure other cosponsors.
Do you feel like a weight of pressure lifted off your shoulders a little bit?
I felt like, yeah, if that means you want to jump up and down and scream--
-Yeah. -with joy? Yes, that was exactly how I felt.
Yes, honey! That's the tip of the iceberg.
It is and obviously we're very excited.
This was a great outcome today.
I didn't understand how bad it really was for people with disabilities.
I feel very naive in saying that, but it's true.
So, this whole experience has been very eye opening and it also shows
that we have such a long way to go in terms of disability,
but I really do believe that representation and normalization
is the first step.
As of today, the Disability Integration Act has garnered 24 official cosponsors.
These are senators who have pledged that they will support the bill
if and when it's set to be voted on.
ADAPT will still need to ensure the support of at least 27 other senators for it to pass.
And recently they've taken to following Senators to their homes
in a determined attempt to get the signatures that they need.
Shame on you!