Subject: Fwd: Sensitivity
From: "Ann O'Leary" <[email-masked]>
To: Jim Margolis <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>, Kristina Schake <[email-masked]>, Robby Mook <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Dennis Cheng <[email-masked]>, Mandy Grunwald <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jake Sullivan <[email-masked]>, Maya Harris <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 8 May 2015 12:35:48 -0700

Hi all -

Tony Coelho has been helping me on getting connected to the disability
community on policy issues and helping Dennis on raising $$ from disability
community, but he is also very focused on several communications angles:

(1) He has expressed disappointment that people with disabilities were not
in our launch video; So...
(2) He wants to make sure that when HRC talks about families and different
kinds of people, she talks about people with disabilities;
(3) Want to be sure we are mindful and inclusive going forward.

He called me this morning on it and then sent the note below.  Who is Comms
can I connect him with so he knows we are being responsive?

Thanks,
Ann

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tony Coelho <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, May 8, 2015 at 12:22 PM
Subject: Sensitivity
To: Ann O'Leary <[email-masked]>

I am sending this to you so that Hilary is sensitive to it! Actually she
will know this BUT do her handlers - those who set up the meetings or photo
ops. I would like to make sure this doesn’t happen to her. Tell me who I
should discuss this?

          Tony

I recently watched a video with first lady Michelle Obama exercising with a
group of children as part of her "Let's Move" program to encourage more
physical activity.

Smiles and giggles filled the air. Their energy and shared happiness
radiated across the screen.

Something was missing, though.

Where were the children in wheelchairs? Where were the ones in walkers?
Where were the kids who need a caregiver's help to raise their hands above
their heads so they can participate?

Where was the inclusion?

For 16-and-a-half years, I have nurtured and cared for my son with special
needs. He has a mitochondrial disorder that leaves him with hypotonia – low
muscle tone – and developmental delays. He is full of life and will try
anything, but the one thing he loves is to be with others.

Sadly, I have had to fight many times to have him included. It's a shame
that parents have to fight for this at all.

The government says we need to all live together. Yet, there isn't a video
that shows all children being included in a program as popular as "Let's
Move."

It's an important image all Americans should see. After all, more than 5
million children in the United States are living with a disability. That
works out to about 12 percent of schoolchildren. Those faces need to be
seen – and supported.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004
requires students with disabilities be provided with physical education. If
a child has a disability and an individualized education plan, the school
must provide physical education as part of the child's special education
program.

I fought three years for inclusive and adaptive physical education for my
son. When he entered middle school, I found out that he either sat on the
bench or walked around the gym in his walker during class. He stayed with
his adult paraprofessional because the gym teacher was not properly trained
in adaptive PE.

Now that he is in high school, we have been amazingly blessed with an
athletic director who has training in adaptive PE. She attended his IEP
meeting and asked me questions about his disorder and what he can and can't
do. She even has gym mentors to help the students with special needs so all
the children are included.

If this can be done in one high school, why can't it happen elsewhere? I
have spoken to many parents of children with special needs in Delaware who
share similar stories about their children not getting adaptive PE, either.
I know parents in other states also are fighting the same issue.

A friend and I had a meeting with a Delaware State Board of Education
member, and when I asked her why the state didn't promote adaptive PE in
their schools, her response was that the state didn't have the money for
training.

Why doesn't the state have the money? I see Advanced Placement programs
being funded and money being spent on testing. But why is my child being
left behind because he has a disability and is not up-to-par with the
"typical students" in our state?

My son can't chase after the other children on the White House lawn like
the news clips showed at the recent White House Easter Egg Roll. No, he
can't roll the eggs down the hill on his own. But adaptations can be made
so he is included.

A friend sent me a news clip with a quote I will never forget: "There are
no limitations. Everything can be adapted."

For our children's sake, we need to make that happen.

Deb Buenaga lives in Brandywine Hundred.

-- 
Ann O'Leary
Senior Policy Advisor
Hillary for America
Cell: 510-717-5518