Episode 40: Unity is the Way Forward

Carissa Johnson and Keith Hosey interview Mark Johnson, a long-time powerhouse for change in the disability community. Mark and the Disability Caravan recently visited Carissa at the Murray office of the Center For Accessible Living. He talks about the early days of ADAPT, where the movement is now, and gives ideas for how we can get where we want to be.

To learn more about Mark Johnson, visit https://newmobility.com/person-of-the-year-mark-johnson/

Learn more about the Latonya Reeves Freedom Act

Visit the ADAPT Virtual Museum

<img alt="A bland-and-white photo of activist Arthur Campbell Jr. being led away by the police" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qANak9Mcc4EUhJeckid9eDDH0VAXttj1/view?usp=sharing" title="Arthur at demonstration credit Tom Olin" />

Learn more about the Disability Caravan

Watch the movie, When You Remember Me

Thanks to Chris Ankin for use of his song, “Change.”

The book "A Celebration of Family: Stories of Parents with Disabilities." is available from Amazon here.

Visit Moving Forward, the Advocado Press blog.

Send comments and questions to [e-mail]

Demand and Disrupt is sponsored by the Advocado Press and the Center For Accessible Living.

You can find the transcript in the show notes below when they become available.

Transcript:

Welcome to Demand and Disrupt the Disability Podcast.

Here, we will learn to advocate for ourselves and each other.

This podcast is supported with funds from the Advocato Press based in Louisville, Connecticut.

Thank you for joining us.

My name is Kimberly Parsley and I am joined today by Carissa Johnson.

You all have heard her before.

She's been on the podcast as an interviewee and an interviewer, and that's what she's doing today.

She is, she conducted our interview today.

So Carissa, tell me who we're going to be hearing from.

We are going to listen to Mark Johnson.

He is not one of the original 19 of ADAPT, but he joined the organization not long after they started.

So he is kind of one of the OGs a little bit, and he's been involved in disability advocacy since the 1970s.

You'll hear a lot about what he did with transportation and the city in Atlanta for, that happened right before the ADA was signed and just so many different things.

He had a plethora of information.

So I was super excited and lucky that I got to ask him to do this.

Oh, wow.

Okay, great.

So tell me, you mentioned ADAPT and we have talked about ADAPT before.

So tell us again, what ADAPT is.

ADAPT is a disability activist organization.

It started as a movement to help individuals fight transportation issues on buses.

And Mark will talk about some of that.

Once that issue was sort of resolved through the ADA and the civil rights, they have now moved on to home and community-based care and wanting that t