This week on Voices of Disability Pride, we feature Julie Farrar, an activist whose journey began as a teenager working in one of the first independent living communities in the United States. Farrar became a notable activist in the disability rights movement, as she participated in significant ADAPT protests across the country, including the 1990 Capitol Crawl. After working in health policy in Colorado, Farrar now advocates for disability rights and home care issues in New York State. We discuss the importance of mentorship, confidence and connection in self-advocacy and activism.
FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript provided by a contractor and may be updated over time to be more accurate.
Emyle Watkins: Hi, Julie. Thanks for joining me on WBFO.
Julie Farrar: Thank you so much. I really appreciate being here.
Emyle Watkins: I'd like to start by asking you why you became interested in disability advocacy and when you became interested in it.
Julie Farrar: Well, I got involved in the disability rights movement as a teenager, which seems fitting. I was born with a disability and I think I practiced the denial method of, "Smile pretty and talk fast and they won't notice," which was a bit ridiculous. And when you're a teenager, there's this even more acute focus on appearance and fitting in, which I knew I wasn't going to do that. I was smart enough to know that I wasn't going to do that. I was more like the drama kid and the debate team kid and the speech team kid, and that's what helped me survive high school.
But I also met a very amazing man named Wade Blank. His wife, Molly, was my mom's best friend, and they met actually when her daughter, Heather, and I were at Children's Hospital in physical therapy together. And then Molly and my mother, Pam, were literally teenage moms or in their young twenties with these disabled kids spending a lot of time at Children's Hospital, and that's how they met really, so that was a very strong bond.
And when Molly married Wade, he came into our lives and he started an independent living movement in Denver, Colorado, with another man named Barry Rosenberg. They were youth counselors or activities directors, youth counselors in a youth wing of a nursing home, which is pretty disgusting that there was a youth wing of a nursing home, and they would take these kids to Grateful Dead concerts and bowling and whatever. Whatever the hippies were doing, they were out there doing it too, and they literally loaded up a bunch of these people who were in this horrible place where they were being abused every kind of way you could be abused, and they just drove away in this VW Microbus and started taking care of people in the community.
They got them into a rundown apartment building situation, and I met Wade when I was 16 years old, and he offered me this job working at the learning center. It was called Atlantis and it was in Denver, Colorado, and so I was supposed to be teaching living skills to these adults with disabilities, and some of them had been born in institutions. They had all grown up in institutions. There was one man in his fifties who started living in the community. It was amazing to meet these people and to think that I was teaching them anything was totally ridiculous. I learned everything from them because they literally were people who had nothing and therefore they had nothing to lose, and they busted out of a nursing home and started living on their own, and I met these people and I really realized that we were part of a family.
It didn't matter that my history was different from theirs. What mattered was these were people who were used to fighting for the right to exist, and it was a place where I could channel my anger, to be honest. And I think I was pretty depressed, which is a lot of times described as anger turned inward, and so when I met this guy who said, "You know what? You're not the one who's all messed up. It's the way society sees you." And boy, I could really latch onto that, grab onto that, and I started chaining myself to people, places and things, and I don't think I've ever stopped. So that was my introduction, was to start turning that anger outward at a society that was not going to recognize me and my needs and my right to live just like everybody else in this country.
Emyle Watkins: You've been a part of disability history in several ways. Among them, you participated in the Capitol Crawl when you were just 19 years old. How did you get involved in that protest and what was it like being there?
Julie Farrar: That was a pretty remarkable time. Looking back, I don't know that I knew then, I don't think we knew then the historical significance that it would have, and it was just the perfect convergence of policy and politics and direct action really that was all necessary in order to get the Americans With Disabilities Act passed. And what better way to symbolize and encapsulate the fight that disabled people, disabled Americans have to live in society, is to literally crawl up the steps to the capitol.
And I happened to be in one of the most famous pictures, and that was because back then, I was a lot tinier and I could scoot up the steps to the Capitol on my rear end. And I was cheering on Jennifer Keelan. She was eight years old and I was just cheering her on, and it was just so amazing to be a part of that. And so as people were pushing on the inside, the policy folks were pushing on the inside and the people who were supporting the Americans with Disability Act were really working hard. We were showing the public how important this piece of legislation was to our lives.
Emyle Watkins: Since then, you've done a lot of different things including going into working on health policy. Can you talk a little bit more about why you decided to get into the work you did and the work you've done?
Julie Farrar: I decided... Well, I got addicted. One of my favorite terms is WONK, a policy WONK, and it's W-O-N-K, which either stands for without normal knowledge, which I really like, or it's the word 'know' spelled backwards. And I did a lot of direct services. Actually, when I started working at Atlantis, my sister, Snow, my best friend who now lives with me and helps take care of me as well, we worked as home health aides for Atlantis because I just couldn't get enough of hanging out with these incredible people. And I loved the whole concept of just being... I was just the link to the community. I wasn't a social worker. I wasn't there telling people how to be. I was just this really critical link. They were the boss being able to participate in society.
And with ADAPT, I think it was pretty funny. Because I could really scoot on my butt pretty quickly almost everywhere, I ended up finding a lot of secret ways into buildings and things like that. And I don't know what it is, but I feel like I'm still good at it. I'm 56 now so I guess I've been doing this for 40 years, and I can find the pocket and I can get in there and I can provide a voice for what we are doing, what we're fighting for.
Emyle Watkins: If you could give advice to a younger you or another person with a disability just getting started on their own self-advocacy journey, what would you tell them?
Julie Farrar: I would say get to know yourself and get to know other people who are disabled. There's a really cool organization called Empower, but it matches up female identifying disabled young women and girls with other older mentors, and so you're just not alone. And that's what I would say, is find mentors. Find a place where your voice is heard and you are supported in understanding how powerful you are, and that your disability is part of that power. So I would say just get connected with communities that support you and support all of you, all of who you are.
Emyle Watkins: And what do you wish non-disabled people understood about our community, the disability community?
Julie Farrar: It seems so ridiculous to say, but to understand that we are you and you are we, and are all in this together, and there's no shame in disability. There should be no pity and shame, and all of these negative things that society just attributes to disability are not true. And you can age into disability and you will have a community, and anybody can become disabled at any point in time. I really think it's really important to get to know other people who have lived experience, and to find your voice and find your power as a proud disabled person.
Emyle Watkins: Who do you look up to or admire in the disability community? If you had to name one person?
Julie Farrar: Well, if I have to name one person, it's so incredibly easy because she is the queen. And that would be Anita Cameron. And Anita Cameron and I, let's see, I think I've been doing this for 40 decades. We've been doing it together for 38 years, and she is just an amazing human being and she really just encompasses all of the pieces of disability justice that we're missing from the Disability Rights Movement. And she is reclaiming history and she is making sure that the contributions of everyone who got us to this point are recognized and remembered. She works through a really wonderful organization, the Harriet Tubman Collective, and Anita Cameron, we are ADAPT sisters through and through, and Anita Cameron is an amazing, amazing woman.
Emyle Watkins: Correct me if I'm wrong, but she's also from New York. She's from Rochester and she participated in the [Capitol] Crawl with you, right?
Julie Farrar: Oh, yes. Yes, she did participate in the crawl, and yeah, we've definitely crossed the country and even gone to Canada, chaining ourselves to people, places and things, and making a difference. I think that is the most important thing I want to say to everybody, is you can make a difference. You can get involved, and now we have to get involved. Justin Dart is another person in disability history, but get involved as though your life depends on it because it does. That's the advice that I would give to the everyday person who can see that we need to take back our power and our voice and be strong and work together.
Emyle Watkins: And lastly, is there anything you've learned in your career that sticks with you, maybe a skill or an idea that you carry with you every day?
Julie Farrar: I appreciate that in my work history and through school, that I can look at policy and I can work on policy and it's this bird's eye view. And I always say that policy is looking at how trillions of dollars trickles down to be pennies worth of services, and can we make it dimes? Because it really is that kind of work. But then also being able to look at some of the mentoring that I've done, some of the things that I've been able to participate in on an individual basis, and some of the people that I've met who have made these incredible changes on an individual basis, working collectively together to give us voice. That I appreciate that I have all of these different perspectives and can look at things in these different ways, and to know and understand that we actually have a tremendous amount of power, individually and collectively.
Emyle Watkins: Well, thank you so much, Julie. I really appreciate you speaking with me today.
Julie Farrar: Thank you so much, and I really appreciate you taking the time to get to know me.
