Author: Angela Van Etten

REGISTER TO VOTE, THEN VOTE AND MAKE IT COUNT

Post author By Angela Van Etten
Post date September 21, 2020
No Comments on REGISTER TO VOTE, THEN VOTE AND MAKE IT COUNT

Are you registered to vote? National Voter Registration Day on September 22, 2020 is a good day to check. If you’re thinking why bother, read on to find out why voting matters for both constituents and election workers.

Constituent Voters

V ─ VOTE because federal laws—the Americans with Disabilities Act and Help America Vote Act—protect the voting rights of people with disabilities.

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O ─ ONE vote can make the difference between winning and losing an election. Google it and you’ll see. Tie votes have been broken by pulling a name out of a hat, a coin toss, or drawing the highest card. Don’t surrender your vote to chance! Did you know that, in the 2018 midterm election, 20% of voters either had a disability or lived with someone who had a disability? i.e. more than Hispanic/Latino voters. Vote and be sure that our powerful voting bloc is heard.

T ─ TOUGH choices in troubled times is no excuse for not voting. Tear through the trial of long lines or people not wearing masks, and vote early or by mail.

E ─ EDUCATE yourself on candidate platforms, referendums, and proposed amendments.

R ─ REGISTER to vote prior to rolls closing for the November general election. If you don’t know the registration cut-off date, find the date in your State by clicking on this link, https://www.vote.org/voter-registration-deadlines/

S ─ SERVE as an election worker. If you need an accommodation, ask for it. I served as an Inspector giving voter passes at eight primary or general elections with two accommodations—my adjustable height Ergo Chair for Little People and a block of wood. Yes, you read that right, a block of wood! The block was placed under the back of my assigned Electronic Voter IDentification (EVID) machine tilting it forward so I could read the screen.

Election Workers

V ─ VALUE differences in each unique voter.

O ─ OFFER help, but allow voters to choose their own helper—a friend, family member, or an election worker. If help is accepted, ask how you can help and wait for instructions. Don’t insist on helping if the offer is refused.

T ─ TRAINING is mandated to promote access and participation of individuals with disabilities. Local disability advocates are ideally suited to conduct this training. For ten years, I provided disability sensitivity training to election workers on terminology, communication, respect, and access issues.

E ─ EQUAL access to facilities and equipment is required. This includes the opportunity for private and independent voting. Accessible voting machines—equipped with earphones and other modifications—must not only be in the precinct, but must also be ready to use.

R ─ RESPECT a voter’s pace and space.For example, don’t pat or reach over a voter’s head.Allow a voter to move and speak at their own pace.

S ─ SPEAK with a typical voice volume, tone and subject matter. People who are blind are not deaf. People with dwarfism are not children. People with intellectual disabilities understand what workers say about them.

Almost time to order your copy of Angela Muir Van Etten’s book—PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith—which releases during Dwarfism Awareness Month in October 2020.

Hospitality

Welcome to Our Home

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ∞ 1 Peter 4:9 New International Version)

Hospitality is an opportunity to deepen relationships and help one another. It doesn’t take a big, fancy house to share a meal or offer a bed for the night. We learned this as newly-weds in a one bedroom apartment and continue the practice 39 years later in our larger custom-built home.

Membership in Little People of America (LPA) and having family and friends separated by thousands of miles has given us many opportunities to welcome people into our home. In recent times, it also helps that we live in Florida—a great vacation destination and escape from northern winters.

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LPA’s mission—to improve the quality of life for people with dwarfism—is largely achieved through a network of people with short stature, family members, and professionals who support and encourage one another. Hospitality is a big part of how this is achieved. LPA members open their homes for local chapter meetings and welcome those visiting from out-of-town. Churches encourage home fellowships where people are accepted, encouraged, and loved. Families and friends enjoy a special bond maintained by spending quality time together. What better place than in your home?

As Little People with a limited number of steps in our day, my husband Robert and I developed our own brand of hospitality. After a grand tour of our home that includes showing the location of food and supplies, guests are encouraged to make themselves at home and help themselves. In our first year of marriage when we lived in Baltimore, our proximity to Johns Hopkins Hospital allowed us to shelter LPA families of hospital inpatients or outpatients returning for follow-up appointments. The special adaptations we’d made in our apartment also gave parents ideas on how to modify their homes for their child with dwarfism. We also hosted a boys’ weekend retreat when a couple asked us to help their son who was having difficulty adjusting to his size.

Robert organized the boys weekend to include swimming, pizza, a Star Trek movie, and the boys helping to cook breakfast. Billy—the inspiration for the retreat—had started the weekend making excuses whenever he was asked to do something, “because he was the smallest.” Well, in the company of five little people he’d definitely picked a losing argument. By Sunday, Billy’s perspective had improved and he stopped making references to his size. More than 25 years later, we learned that the boys retreat had made a big impression on “Billy.” The revelation occurred at the wedding of Mr. Bill Klein whose bride, Dr. Jennifer Arnold, had been the flower girl at our Florida wedding in November 1981. Who could have imagined that the two children whose lives we separately touched in Florida and Maryland would meet as adults, fall in love, and star on TLC’s reality show, The Little Couple.

Extending hospitality to others has enriched our lives. How have you benefited from giving or receiving hospitality? This post was adapted from Angela Muir Van Etten’s book—PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith—a new release in October 2020.

Dignity

Read A Book Day

Reading a book by the water — Image by Bibliotheek Bornem from Pixabay

September 6^th is National Read A Book Day. Who knew? The idea is for people to spend the day reading an enjoyable book which reportedly improves memory and concentration and reduces stress. Older adults who spend time reading are said to slow cognitive decline.

The promoters of Read A Book Day encourage us to sit back, relax and read a book from a featured list of books. But if you’re like me, you already know what you want to read. The books might be sitting on your bookshelf or on your buyer wish list. Whatever the case, I would like to add a book to your recommended reading list—“LOOKING UP: How a Different Perspective Turns Obstacles into Advantages.”

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This is a perfect choice for Read A Book Day because many Amazon customers found it hard to put the book down and some read it straight through in one sitting. It’s a must read as attested by Cherie Blair, Bono, Michael Bloomberg, Scott Harrison, Sheryl Sandberg, Clay Scroggins, and many others.

Michele L. Sullivan is the author of this Harper Collins Leadership book published in February 2020. As the first female President of the Caterpillar Foundation, Michele describes how looking up to people from the vantage of four feet was not just a physical phenomenon, but a leadership practice of elevating the people around her. Michele skillfully intertwines her childhood lessons of embracing her physical differences as a person with metatropic dysplasia, a rare type of dwarfism, with adult lessons of growing on the inside. She credits her parents for teaching her that she was more than her size and that life was not all about her. LPA (Little People of America) helped Michele with self-acceptance and interdependence.

Michele attributes her gift of empathy and compassion shared with foundation beneficiaries, partners and staff around the world to her family and the people she met in LPA and during five summers of orthopedic surgeries and therapy. She introduces the book with her most potent life lesson—learning to expand her view of others saying, “When we learn how to elevate the people around us to discover and champion what’s noble and beautiful and powerful in them we uncover the path of impact in one another’s lives.”

Indeed, Michele successfully passed along this lesson to readers of her book. I agree with the many customers who describe the book as inspirational, but not for the reason you might think. Michele’s story does not inspire people to admire her courage for all that she has endured, but—through laughter, tears, and example—inspires people to change their perspective and to see people for who they are on the inside.

The book is packed full of life changing advice and wisdom about the value in every person, including ourselves. Looking Up is not just the name of a book, but a principle to follow that changes how we see and impact people.

To read more of Angela’s writings, subscribe to her weekly blog at https://angelamuirvanetten.com and coming soon is her own book—PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith—due to release on October 1st.

Accessibility

Marketing to People with Disabilities

Post author By Angela Van Etten
Post date August 31, 2020
10 Comments on Marketing to People with Disabilities

Flying Dollars — Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay

Businesses spend billions to attract customers with marketing, advertising, decorating, and mood enhancers. But how many dollars are spent attracting 20% of the marketplace, the last frontier, the people with disabilities? Whatever the amount, it’s not enough. More is needed to open doors for people with disabilities excluded from shopping in stores, eating in restaurants, sleeping in hotel rooms, going to the theater, etc. Poor disability parking and curb cuts; impossible to open entrance doors; untrained sales staff; out-of-reach facilities; blocked aisles; and inaccessible bathrooms all add up to lost business and potential lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Businesses can stop discriminating and start improving their bottom line by understanding the questions people with disabilities ask when choosing where to take their business. It boils down to four things—the invitation, the welcome, the comfort level, and the satisfaction.

This invitation doesn’t come in the mail. It’s an assessment people with disabilities make in the parking lot with questions like the following: Is there any disability parking and how far is it from the entrance? Is there a curb cut onto the sidewalk and how close is it to the door? Can I open the door or is there enough customer traffic that I can count on another customer to open a heavy door for me?

The welcome doesn’t demand red carpet treatment, but calls for the same service offered to others. Unwelcome service occurs when (1) a customer is ignored because of the assumption they are not a buyer; (2) customer service representatives—hidden behind high counters out of sight, sound, or reach—don’t even see the person with a disability; and (3) places designed with a low counter fail to assign staff to work that station or use it for their own equipment. And what better welcome than to see people with disabilities providing service to customers.

The comfort level of people with disabilities involves accessible seating and bathrooms, for example. The ability to drink anything depends on an accessible bathroom and the wisdom of eating anything after going to the bathroom depends on the ability to reach the soap and water. Comfortable seating often determines whether I will return to a restaurant. I need to sit at a table instead of a booth so I can adjust the distance of my chair from the table. I need staff to treat me as an adult and not offer me a child’s menu or booster seat. My palate demands more than chicken fingers or hotdogs and my 40 inches in height does not indicate child size dimensions.

Satisfaction is achieved when customers are able to move around the store, reach and pay for selected merchandise, and use necessary facilities. People with disabilities often choose not to return to a business when payment options are inaccessible, display racks block the path of travel, carry bags are out of reach, and hotel beds require mountain climbing skills.

Marketing to people with disabilities makes good business sense.

Look for the October release of my book—PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith—which discusses what happens when God intervenes in a marriage complicated by dishonesty, dwarfism, discord, and discrimination.

FAQs

How Old Are You?

Frequently Asked Questions — Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This is a common question for an adult to ask a youngster. And a common answer is for the child to signal their age with fingers extended on one hand. So, when a three-year-old looks an adult Little Person in the eye it’s no surprise the child asks, “how old are you?” The adult’s response, however, can’t be counted even with all fingers and toes.

Nonetheless, it’s the ideal time to teach a child that age is unrelated to size.

Young kids aren’t so much interested in the actual age as is in knowing whether I’m a kid ready to play with them in the sandpit. They intuitively know I’m not the same as them. I used to calculate the age of the parent in the vicinity and say something like this, “I’m old enough to be your mother.” Although now I have to say, “I’m old enough to be your grandmother.”

The child usually accepts my answer and moves on to something else. It’s the parents who cringe at the exchange. Take, for example, the mother and child riding with me on an elevator. This child discerned that I was an adult and said, “look mommy there’s a little grandma.” The mother was mortified and could not wait to exit at the next floor. I told the mother not to worry, I was used to children calling me little and added, “it’s the grandma part that hurts.”

The curiosity does not end with little children. Not so long ago, a nine-year-old girl in a kids’ church program asked me, “so just how old are you?” A typical question, but the timing was surprising given that she had known me for a year. I entered the danger zone and said, “so how old do you think I am?” Her answer, “NINETY!” In that moment, she elevated me from grandma to great grandma status. It also confirmed that children have no idea how to assess the age of adults. Thankfully, I am decades away from that milestone.

Now adults know that it’s impolite to ask an adult how hold they are. Right? Well, people with dwarfism know that you can’t count on people being polite. Over the years, many adults have asked me how old I am. How I answer depends on the situation. For example, when another passenger waiting in an airport lounge asked my age, I said to him, “are you planning to tell me how old you are?” He immediately realized the impertinence of his question and explained that he had a grandson with dwarfism and was interested in knowing if he had a “normal” lifespan. He didn’t really want to know my age, but wanted to know how long his grandson could expect to live. This was not a time for me to stand on etiquette, but rather an opportunity to allay his fears and help him understand that the answer lay in his grandson’s type of dwarfism.

This post was adapted from my 1988 book, Dwarfs Don’t Live in Doll Houses, coming soon as an e-book. Used print books are available on Amazon.com.

Etiquette

That’s Not Funny

Enjoy a Joke — Image by seojob from Pixabay

We all have a funny bone, right? But don’t ask me to find it on a skeletal model. Yet I do know that funny bone development is individualized to our personality, culture and sensitivity. As a kiwi (New Zealander), I can laugh uproariously at a British comedy while my husband Robert sits next to me without the hint of a smile.

As August 16th is National Tell A Joke Day it’s a good time to think about what makes us laugh.

For example, many have a penchant for bloopers whether it be outtakes from a TV episode or mistakes in a church bulletin. Here’s a few bulletin bloopers that made me laugh:
•    Don’t forget next month’s prayer and fasting conference. Registration is only $50 and that price includes all meals and snacks.
•    Potluck supper at 5. Prayer and medication to follow.
•    Please pray for Joe to have a good autopsy result.

Situational comedy can also be funny. Take for example the only scene that I found slightly amusing in the poorly rated movie, “Under the Rainbow.” A man stepped into the elevator at six feet tall and after a fast and bumpy descent stepped out at four feet tall. In addition to bloopers, Terri Garey is credited as saying, Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves because they shall never cease to be amused.

Many comedians have mastered the ability to make fun of themselves. Although we are not comedians, my husband Robert and I often joke about being aliens as the reason why we get along so well—he’s from Jupiter and I’m from New Zealand. Other comedians revel in making fun of people who are different. Sadly, making fun of others has become a national past-time that in some cases has escalated to bullying and hate crimes.

Those of us who are different are tired of being the butt of jokes. We are not amused at being ridiculed because of our appearance. Name the difference and there is a joke to go with it. Obesity related jokes can be merciless in their cruelty and offensiveness. It’s not funny to mimic the speech and movement of a person with cerebral palsy or the walk of a person with short stature. On occasion, when I have seen a group of kids laughing, pointing, and mimicking the way I walk, I have confronted them. I challenge them to get it right by walking and climbing stairs without bending their knees. They quickly learn that my way of walking is no joking matter.

Yet those who object to being the butt of a joke are accused of being thin skinned and not having a sense of humor. But a healthy sense of humor and ability to appreciate a good joke comes from those who value people for who they are and not what they look like. People made in God’s image, for His pleasure not our amusement.

Look for the October release of my book—PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith. For more book information go to https://angelamuirvanetten.com.

Inclusion

Staying Safe in Church

Churches are a haven for God’s people and a target for those who hate them. As a result, responsible churches have taken Jesus words to heart:

“Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as serpents and as harmless as doves.” ∞ Matthew 10:16 (Holman Christian Standard Bible).

Knowing that Satan will do whatever he can to destroy a church, shrewd leaders have taken many steps to keep parishioners safe—mandatory criminal background checks for children and youth workers, safety patrols barring entry of unauthorized people during Vacation Bible School, and volunteers trained to counter an active shooter, to name a few.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, safety involves six feet social distancing, frequent hand washing, and wearing cloth face masks. So why would a church reopen after a mandatory lockdown to slow the spread without a key element of government safety protocols—asking people to wear face masks? Is it political, a distrust of the government and media, an expression of personal freedom, or something else? Whatever the reason, this choice does not meet the “harmless as doves” standard. It forces high-risk people—due to disability, being age 65 or older, or both—who depend on others to wear masks, to keep a safe distance at home.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, without a cloth face covering, a person in close proximity to another can spread the virus through their mouth or nose when they breathe, speak, or sing. Even with a social distancing policy, people still get close to each other when they bunch together in a line, pass each other in a hallway, or are together in a bathroom.

Individual decisions not to wear a mask have the effect of excluding high-risk people from church and run counter to God’s law of liberty and love discussed in Romans 14. Paul talked about different beliefs on eating and honoring special days that resulted in church members judging and despising one another. He reminded believers that they do not live for themselves and asked them not to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

Today people have different beliefs on wearing face masks. And we need to consider that those who believe they are free not to wear a face mask are hurting members who believe they cannot attend church as a result. ^”For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.” ∞ Galatians 5:13 (New Living Translation)

Together we can make church a safe place for everyone. Look for the October release of my book—PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith—which discusses what happens when God intervenes in a marriage complicated by dishonesty, dwarfism, discord, and discrimination. The story speaks to the hearts of everyone, regardless of their differences, difficulties, or legal status.

Disability Rights Inclusion

ADA 30-year milestone

Thirty is a great age—young enough to meet the world head on and old enough to be taken seriously. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) reached this milestone on July 26, 2020—the day when disability rights were finally recognized as civil rights.

At 30, the ADA is old enough to be taken seriously by people who ignore the right of people with disabilities to be fully included at school, in the work-force, or on public transportation, to name a few protected rights.

It is against the law for school districts and colleges to deny equal access to programs or facilities. The photo of a student with a disability can’t be left out of the year book, students must be included on field trips, reasonable accommodations must be provided. Yet the ADA is young enough that people with disabilities are still twice as likely as those without a disability not to finish high school. Disability advocates must fight for student inclusion and accommodations.

The ADA is violated when employers refuse to hire someone because they are perceived as being too short, looking different, talking funny, making customers uncomfortable, or otherwise not fitting in. Yet the ADA is young enough that many people with disabilities ready and able to work are still denied this opportunity. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2019, only 19.3% of people with a disability were employed compared to a 66.3% employment rate for people without a disability. The 7.3% unemployment rate for people with disabilities was double the 3.5% rate for those without a disability.

Federal law is broken when local governments deny people with disabilities access to public transportation. Buses without lifts should not be bought, roads without curb cuts should not be built, door-to-door service should not be denied to those unable to get to a bus stop, taxi companies should not be operating without a sufficient number of accessible vehicles to service customers unable to board regular taxis. Yet the ADA is young enough that people with disabilities are denied access to public transportation all across the country on a daily basis.

At age 30, the ADA can meet the world head on as a powerful tool people with disabilities, families and advocates can use to achieve justice and equality for all. We can’t sit around waiting for somebody else to enforce the rights protected by the ADA. Nothing will change until somebody becomes the someone who cares enough to do something. And that somebody needs to be me! Not me alone, but me and many others working together as a coalition. Not only is the world too big for one person to conquer, the task is so huge that one person will buckle under the weight. Tapping into our collective power is essential.

“So, let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9 (New Living Translation)

Look for the Fall release of my book—PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith—which discusses what happens when God intervenes in a marriage complicated by dishonesty, dwarfism, discord, and discrimination.

Inclusion

The First Time

Do you remember the first time you did something? Rode a bike, got your driver’s license, kissed a boy, spoke in front of an audience, went to church. We all have a list of firsts.

Some of our firsts we look back on with fond memories and others we choose not to remember or repeat. Well today, I’m writing my first blog. Maybe you will be my first reader or the first to write a comment. You can guarantee I’ll remember the first one. I pray that this blog will be a positive experience for readers, especially since I plan to repeat the process every week.

My motivation for writing this blog is to be a voice for people with dwarfism and other disabilities, guided by faith and justice. My goal is to raise awareness and advocate for biblical standards of integrity and justice. When I encounter ignorance, insincerity, and inequity, I am compelled to do something about it—speak up, take action, or write something.

Raising awareness has been my lifelong mission. Typically, the smallest person in the group, for as long as I can remember I have made people aware that staring and name calling cause pain, patting me on the head is demeaning, ignoring me is not an option, and independence is paramount.

Even as a child, I rejected special treatment and patronization. As an adult, I conduct sensitivity trainings with school students, poll workers, business leaders, and volunteers in charitable organizations. Although media interviews help broadcast the message, inaccuracies and victim mentality often dominate the story. This led me to write my own material to educate the public.

Dwarfs Don’t Live in Doll Houses, my first book, covered my early years from birth to a young single adult. It published in 1988 almost seven years after I was married. As a result, some readers were disappointed not to read about the marriage of the President of Little People of New Zealand to the President of Little People of America. I would say, “wait for book two.” Well, it has been a long wait!

Finally, in 2020, PASS ME YOUR SHOES: A Couple with Dwarfism Navigates Life’s Detours with Love and Faith will publish and cover 35 years of my marriage to Robert Van Etten. This book raises awareness on living with dwarfism and disability. A third book—ALWAYS AN ADVOCATE: A Couple with Dwarfism Fight for Independence and Respect—will publish in 2021 and cover 35 years of disability advocacy against discrimination, dwarf tossing, breaking the six-inch reach barrier in public buildings and facilities, and the like.

My prayer is that writing a weekly blog will help bring me closer to readers who share my passion. And that together our voices will increase awareness and advocacy for people with dwarfism and other disabilities.