slowly and deliberaty. hopping on a bus became a challenge. i would need the aid of a friend or passenger or driver to help get me get the lift i needed to board a bus or streetcar. i was unsteady and apprehensive from having fallen several times. having access to public transportation was vital and i was happy to see that san francisco had an accessible fleet of vehicles thanks to the ada. when visiting different agencies or offices or hospitals i was very glad to see the winding ramps, required by the ada, to provide access for people with mobility challenges, because the steps and stairs, which is too much for me some days. by the way, it seems a cruel irony that most of the hospitals in san francisco are at the top of hills. i suppose we have over 50 hills in the city and it was inevitable, but when you are

low on strength and agility it really does matter. when visiting different agencies or offices -- i already read that -- in the early 2000s my physical condition improved somewhat and wanted to explore the possibility of returning to work at least part-time. so i went to the department of rehabilitation, and took advantage of their services for people with disabilities wanting to return to the workforce. they provided me testing for aptitude, research for different types of jobs, and planning assistance for education and careers. i used their resources to explore employment opportunities and spent time with an employment counselor examining my choice. i could no longer do restaurant work as i did in santa fe with too much time on my feet, but to sit at a desk several hours a week. as things worked out i didn't return to regular work because

of the restrictive income requirements. many of you aware these limits have the effect of keeping people with disabilities living at or below the federal poverty-level. i could work a few hours a week, but not enough to support myself and pay for my medical care and expensive prescriptions required to keep me alive. full-time work was out of the question unless my employer allowed me to have naps which was highly unlikely. my physical condition would likely worsen if i tried to work all of those hours. so i never even worked part-time until years later when another opportunity came up. i benefited personally from that exploration and discussion of what i wanted to do with my life and it definitely influenced my thought process in the arena of disability

rights and social justice. rather than returning to the workforce i volunteered, a lots. one side note, as a result of all the testing at rehab, i discovered what i had known intuitively, i scored in the upper categories separate for you one glaring exception. i believe i scored in the 12th percentile and would like at gears and pulleys and i would start humming all beatle songs from keeping from falling asleep. except i change a flat tire once in 1979. anyway in 2007 i enrolled at city college to take some enrichment course work and later on to get a certificate for community education in case management. i was able to attend classes at no cost because i was a person with a disability and very

limited income. the people who worked at the offices at city college for students with disabilities helped to ensure that i had access to quality education. my life was enhanced by my time at city college and my course work changed how i viewed myself in the world. it was after that my advocacy work accelerated and i found my calling. during my years of having a disability, i have lived alone, mostly by choice. i enjoy the privacy, the freedom and the tranquility of living by myself. isolation from society and services can be depressing and anxiety-provoking and contributed to a worsening of my health from time to time. in early summer of 2011, my son

had two cat ones big problem, one was beating the crap out of the other all the time. i guess these battles grew bloody sometimes and one day she suggested that i take the male cat named highlander, but i said flatply no. mid-summer came and she wanted me to take highlander and again i said no thanker. by the end of the summer, she called up and said you are taking highlander and i did. so i got a cat. i could speak for highlander's presence in my home has changed my lives and has given me support no one human ever could. i bore my friends with the tales of his hijinxes.

thanks to the ada people can support animals even if their leases prohibit them outright. i was able to move highlander in my home and he moved himself into my heart. his presence can make the stress of any day melt away. my disability is non-visible and that can be uncomfortable in some situation because i don't appear physically disabled, although i am. besides having a disabling disease i have secondary conditions resulting from it and from the medications that i take every day that result in physical pain, affect cognitive functioning and lowers my strength and stamina. i have zero pain-free days in my life, but i don't take narcotics to control the pain because it makes it difficult to move through my life. i use weaker pain relievers

that allow some relief, but with a clear head. i have an order that requires heavy medications that made me feel like a zombie with slow and confused speaking and no energy. today's treatments have some aggravating side effects, but taking them i can think clearly, function in the workplace and better maintain relationships. with no medication, let's just say it's a different version of me than what you see here. on those days that i'm not feeling so strong or well, i hesitate to take a disabled seat on the bus, because i feel that somebody will confront me about "note not looking disabled." maybe that is all in my head, but i think much the general public hasn't have an understanding that there exits a large range of disabilities

that are visible and not. so because of the effects on my body, and mind, and mood, some of my days are more challenging than others. long ago i decided to change what a good day is for me in my head. i lowered my standards for feeling good and now you feel okay how my body is doing and feeling the it's a new-level of normalcy. it's an attitude change and form of acceptance of the fact i cannot control many things about my body. that attitude has served me well and avoided dangerous feelings such as low self-worth, depression, self-pity and pessimism about the future. every day that i avoid serious illness or hospitalization is a good day for me. every day that i am able to get out of bed and move through the world and do my part is a good one. while i accept that i have challenges i accept that i

learn to grow. as some of you know, i am a busy man with many commitments and friends wonder how i do it all? i take time out of my days for ample periods of rest and relaxation. giving myself breaks in a busy schedule allows me to conserve my energy and take care of myself while i do my best at all the different things that i do. i also take complete days off two or three times a week and just for rejuvenation and repair. the ada has helped me access services would you tell us discrimination for the fact that i don't look disabled. i still qualify for free muni and still protected in areas of housing and education and access and taken it upon myself for advocate for those who have all sorts of non-visible

disabilities either from traumatic brain injury, developmental cognitive challenges, ptsd or other reasons. in summary i have so much to be grateful. stable mental and physical health, meaningful work, gainful employment and general contentment with life. as i read these word issues realize the ada and its their way through my life and my experiences. having the ada has improved the quality of my life, allowed me freedom and opportunities, contributed to my ability to work and hopefully make a difference in the world around me. and to live a longer and more productive life. are there any comments from staff or the public about these stories? yes? come on up to the microphone, please. >> we have exactly the same

situation, and that is why i accepted the nomination to become the vice president of jfk towers and having meetings with the citywide counsel every now and then, with the commissioners, meeting, and making me more alert. although, again, the disability doesn't show, but it's there, really. it's hard. i went through a lot for many years of physical therapy, medications. it didn't help. but through it all, my no. 1 help is faith in god. god helps those who help themselves. >> thank you.

any other comments from staff? >> yes, co-chair supanich and council members. i know that a number of our staff members today would like to address you and to tell their own stories as well. before we start though, i just wanted to tell you how much i have appreciated hearing each of your stories. i have known something about each of you, but i think you shared new stories with me today. and they were really great stories. and i just am so thankful that you opened up to share those experiences with us. so thank you. thank you to each of you. who would like to go first? >> i will go first, because i have the microphone. so i guess i will take it. mine is going to be kind of a short story. i have many stories that i could tell under the ada, but i will just started with one.

co-chair supanich, i liked your goldfish example. [laughter ] >> i have always been mechanical and loved taking things apart and building things up again. from my teenaged years i loved woodwork and after putting in my time working as a carpenter, doing things like renovating victorians here in san francisco, i ended you will become a general building contractor. i have a little bit of notoriety, because there weren't that many women general building contractors back in the 1980s, because there weren't that many women really working in the trades. i capitalized on that notoriety by evening having a cable show called "carla the carpenter." [laughter ] write this down.

[laughter ] >> can we look it up? >> it's all about relationships; right? who were your neighbors in the castro? one was a videographer. what i would do with my "carla the carpenter" show i would teach basic home repair and that was one of my tag lines "stud-finder." [laughter ]but i just loved building things and i was happy in that career. and then one day when i was at work, i had an accident. and when you are in the trades and you are working with these heavy tools, and these very sharp tools, i think just about everybody at some point either has a close call or they actually have some type of an accident. and in my case, what happened was i was operating a table saw that had a malfunction on the

switch. and i got my hand caught in the table saw, which is kind of a bad image -- i know -- i know, sorry, but it's true. and it's something that actually happened while i was work for the city of san francisco for the department of public works. and this was a pretty bad injury. i ended up spending the next year-and-a-half in and out of hospital, and in and out of a variety of different reconstructive surgeries. so i wasn't able to work during that time. they wouldn't allow me while you are recovering from workers' comp. and i also wasn't capable. when something like that happens, when it takes away one of your passions, it has a very devastating emotional effect on you. and i think i share some of the experiences that i have heard from you today, too, but how a disability with become more than physical and it can become

emotional and involve a lot of issues like post traumatic stress disorder and other things to work with. but it also was very devastating to me financially, because now i couldn't work anymore. and that left me with a lot of fear that i wasn't going to be able to find another job. and that is where timing is really critical, because my injury was in january of 1992. and while the ada had been signed in 1990, it didn't actually take effect until january of 1992. and shortly after my accident i was talking to my you workers' compensation lawyer and he said there is this new law called the americans with disabilities act. and it's not just about buildings. it's not just about elevators and curb ramp and those sorts

of things, but it's also about employment. under the ada as an employee with the city of for instance san francisco, you have this thing called "reasonable accommodation. and your employer is supposed to help you and what that meant for me is after hearing that, i actually started to get a little bit of hope. it started to lift my spirits. it gave me the idea that i might be able to get another job, and that might be able to be a job that i really enjoyed. and when i came out on the other end of my health recovery when i had recovered sufficiently to start working again, i approached the city. and i asked for a meeting with our director of our department of public works, and i explained my injury and my recovery and i told him i'm ready to come back to work. and i gave him a list of the

jobs that i thought i was qualified for. jobs that i was capable of performing even with my disability. and i also done my research, too, to find out where the job openings were in the city? and so with a little bit of knowledge about the ada, and also a little bit of knowledge about the city system, i was empowered to tell my director that you need to help me as a reasonable accommodation under the americans with disabilities act to find a new job. and i was really lucky. my city department head was familiar with this program called "rule 34." it's a program that later evolved into what we call "rule 115." and that is the program that allows a person with a disability to get hired or transferred within the city into a civil service position without taking a civil service examination first. and you still have to meet all

of the minimum qualification for the new job and pass four different performance evaluations during the course of a year to demonstrate that you are capable of the job. at the end of the year, when you pass, you have a permanent civil service position with the city. and that job that they placed me in was as a building inspector, working for the city's building department, and that position was working with jim whipple, our very same jim whipple, who works here with us at the mayor's office on disability. and our work was staffing the department of building inspection disabled access division and our task was to enforce the architectual provisions and it's years later and with a few titles and promotions in between, but at the end of the day, i owe my job and my career and my new

passion to the americans with disabilities act. >> thank you, carla. ? >> hi. i would like to first thank the council for sharing their stories today. and i just want to say that co-chair supanich's story really touched me and i felt it on a personal-level, as a fellow person with a non-visible disability. i want to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to share my story today. i wrote just a brief statement about my feelings about this topic. so first off, the ada has given me an opportunity to live in a country where i know that i have the legal protections as a person with a disability. even if it is a non-visible disability.

and i'm even protected when people don't believe that i have a disability, and they give me that look, like, i'm faking it. or that people just straight up tell me, you don't look like a person with a disability. and it's very uncomfortable experience, but at the same time, i know that legally i'm protected. and that is a relief. and that there is this sense of a disability community to feel supported in as well. my identity as being a person with a disability really began when i was in college. and even though i had disability issues prior to being in college, i think it was in college where i really put it together and realized that hey, i'm a person with a disability and there are other people who have these experiences as well. because of the ada, i was able

to be accommodated by my professors and enroll in the disabled students program at uc berkeley and community college. it helped me feel there was a system in place so i could graduate like everyone else and because of this i have the same opportunity as others to be employed and build a career in something that interests me. i decided to graduate with a degree in social welfare and what do you know? disability studies. [laughter ] so basically, the passing of the ada and the people who advocated for it, who helped build the strong disability community of today, i would like to give a shout-out for all of them. because it's -- it's because of you that we have a strong community that can work towards keeping us going. because there is a lot of work that still needs to be done, even though we have had the ada

law. we need to change different attitudes in the community, and i agree with co-chair supanich, a lot about non-visible or invisible disabilities. i think people understand physical disabilities, where it's visually displayed. but it's a whole other realm when we are dealing with something that you don't -- that you can't see. thank you. >> thank you, heather. next. >> i'll go next. first i want to thank the council for sharing their stories. as the council clerk, i get to spend a lot of time with each of you, but i have to say that i have learned something new about each and every one of you and thank you for giving your stories ahead of time and trusting me this with that information. i am also a person with a non-visible neurological disability.

i also grew up in the state that has 320-days of sunshine each year albuquerque. i was a service coordinator and i had a case load of about 30 folks and i spent a lot of time doing site-visits and job site-visits and community visits with certain clients. and one day, unfortunately it was back in the day there was still sheltered workshops. i was in the workshop with a gentleman who is non-verbal and somehow he and i got our legs tangled and fell head-first on to a concrete floor. some of what i'm going to tell you is information that was told to me because i don't remember a lot of it. there are pieces that i do remember. i remember not losing consciousness and being in the back seat of a car with a co-worker, and a very good friend of mine, who was also working there. i remember thinking they were talking about taking me to the hospital. and they continued to talk to

me and at one point i said outloud, why do you people keep calling me donna and they said then they knew i was in trouble. i also remember getting to the hospital, and sitting in the waiting area, and looking at this woman walking towards me, coming down this long hallway. i remember thinking i should really know who that is. it was my mother. we met with a neurologist, and basically they decided i had a closed-head injury. and i lost my memory. i remember my mom saying how long -- when is it coming back? and they said anywhere from three weeks to never. and they thought it was best if i went home with my folks. i had an apartment by myself, but dn't want me to be alone and i essentially lived with my parents, god love them, for about three weeks. my memory kind of came and went, but one thing that was sort of a constant, my mom and dad took time off -- they

alternated taking time off taking care of me. every morning there ways similar thing i would say, what day is it in and what are we going to do today? a lot of the answers to those questions or generally we're going to go to the doctor or do this or do that. i have to say that i apparently didn't lose my sense of humor during the time, because my mom tells this great story how we went to the nurologist. she was a young looking woman, and i said how old are you? and orientation of time and place and they ask you who is the president of the united states? i said bill clinton. and they said well who is the first lady? i said mrs. clinton. [laughter ]. so apparently i wasn't that bad off. on the 17th day, my mom came in, and she would always sit

down and chit chat with me. she left the room. and she came back. and she said you didn't ask what day it was? i said that is because it's thursday. and my memory came back just like that. i was very lucky. if you have a closed-head injury, if you have a choice, you want it to happen on the left side of your brain, which is what happened to me. i tell that story to say that i wasn't able to go back to work right away and i really want to go back to work for a couple of reasons. one was i was tired living with my parents and wanted to feel i was contributed and really missed the staff and clients. so my employer accommodated me by giving me a schedule where i could come in two or three days a week for three or four hours, whatever i was coverable comfortable with. they set up timers and buddies

me with up with a different starve staff and went out of their way to accommodate me. so that is my ada sorry that has to do with employment. thanks. >> to the council i want to share what the ada has done for me and i feel like i'm no longer paralyzed from fear or anxiety of discrimination in access in public goods and services. as we know, some disabilities carry a nasty stigma, which have been around since, you know, whenever things have come about. so because of the ada, i feel protected.

i feel like i'm able to live my life and carry on as anybody else, and i don't have to worry about others and what they think of me and my lifestyle. thank you. >> thank you, nate. joanna. >> joanna. oh, hi. [laughter ] >> good afternoon, council members. some of you might not remember me from last year, but for those who don't, summer interns for the mayor's office on disability and student at george washington exactly in one month from now. as a member of the disabled community, autism to be exact, i'm glad that july was proclaimed americans with disabilities act month in order to succeed and function in the real world, despite our

disabilities. because of muni, my friend who has cerebral palsy and because of braille blind individuals can read. and because of closed captioning and american sign language, the deaf and heard to hear can watch movies and tv and know what is going on. i may live in post-ada america, but i can appreciate what people like ed roberts and judy have done to get these things. i just wish that the ada was more aware in the school curriculum, so that other students could learn more about it. i just feel fortunate i could learn more about it when i did. thank you. >> thank you, joanna. now joanna. >> all of you have been a