-: So two days ago, I was checking into the hotel,
basically, that I'm staying at here in town
while I'm on this trip.
And as I had prepared for this trip,
I was emailing back and forth with the manager
of the property, and just letting her know,
hey, by the way, I reserved the wheelchair accessible unit,
but just to let you know, I do use a wheelchair
and I'll be arriving around this time.
Just kind of as a courtesy thing,
that's just something that I thought to do.
She had been super friendly and super accommodating
over the past several weeks when I was working out
my accommodations with her.
So, when I checked into the unit on that day,
I roll in, and I automatically notice
that there are some things kind of rearranged
that she took the liberty to do
to make it more accessible for me.
So I took some pictures of the different things,
I posted them to my social media and onto my blog,
and that post got over like 200 likes
and numerous people commenting saying, oh my goodness,
I've never thought of accessibility in this way.
And so that's just one example of how,
when I'm trying to spread my message of disability advocacy
and inclusion and someone comes up to me
and just says, thank you so much for your message,
thank you for what you're doing and letting people
know about inclusion, or letting people understand
that inclusion is for all of us,
not just for those of us that feel marginalized.
Or advocacy, anyone can advocate on behalf of people
with disabilities, not just people with disabilities.
There are so many different things that I'll share
that they'll just say, oh my goodness, thank you so much.
And so those moments are the most powerful and make me feel
so great and wonderful and validated
and affirmed in the work that I do.