BY EMILY FREEMAN
Bjo Ashwill
Jon West
CAMP
CAROLEZOOM
CAROLEZOOM
GUIDE
Flying High
LILA hopes to bring the community together
during an evening of uniquely educational plays.
Y
ou’re leaving for dinner at your fa-
vorite restaurant. Walking down your
front steps, you get into your car and
drive to the café, where you then walk up a
flight of stairs. A host shows you through the
crowded dining room to your usual table — a
tiny one in the corner by the window. You eat,
leave, and drive home. And you don’t think
twice about it.
But people with physical challenges have
to think more than twice about such an
evening. If they rely on wheelchairs, how will
they drive to the restaurant or make it up the
flight of stairs, much less through the crowded
dining room? If they are blind, will the restau-
rant have a brail menu, or will someone be
available to read the menu to them? People
with disabilities face these kinds of challenges
every day; challenges that the “temporarily
able-bodied” are not likely to meet in their
everyday lives. The word “temporarily” is in
recognition of the fact that all of us will be-
come disabled at some point, if we live long
enough.
In 1990, Congress passed the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA). Now it’s against
the law for employers to discriminate against
people with disabilities, and mandated that
public buildings, transportation, and telecom-
munications must accommodate people with
disabilities.
To commemorate the 15th anniversary of
the ADA, the Lane Independent Living
Association (LILA) will host a week-long cel-
ebration beginning July 26. The celebration’s
main attraction will be a performance, entitled
“Flying High,” of four one-act plays at the
Soreng Theatre at the Hult Center. The per-
formance will be preceded by a gala reception,
7:30 pm hosted by Mayor Kitty Piercy.
The plays LILA is producing are written
and directed by award winning playwright Bjo
Ashwill, who is herself a person with a disabil-
ity. Ashwill has produced plays both here in
Eugene and in Portland, and has been part of
the festival for the Actor’s Cabaret for the past
two years. “LILA suggested that we do some-
thing different, something that would attract
more people than just those who already know
about the ADA,” Ashwill says. “We decided
we’d do a festival of my one-act plays, each of
which has people in it with disabilities as well
as temporarily able-bodied actors.”
LILA is hoping that the celebration and
plays will provide an opportunity to bridge the
gap between the disabled and non-disabled
parts of the community. “Our intent is to enter-
tain, to have fun, but I also think that we’ll give
people a few things to think about in terms of
how much we are all alike — whether we’re
disabled or not,” Ashwill says.
Jon West, LILA director, is also trying to
get local businesses involved in the celebra-
tion. “The businesses are coming aboard be-
cause we communicated the fact that this is
about the Americans with Disabilities Act,
which relates to employment,” West says.
When a business decides to support the event,
they purchase a minimum of 10 tickets to the
plays at a price of $15 each. LILA then sends a
representative to the business to conduct a 45-
minute training in some of the critical issues of
the ADA as it relates to employment and public
access. West says that different businesses may
have different projects going on that could
benefit from such training. For instance, one
supporter of the event, a medical group, is
building a new clinic and found the training to
be an opportune time to sit down with people
with disabilities and get feedback on the con-
struction of the facility.
“I think one of the major draws to LILA
bringing businesses in on an event like this is
that LILA is a non-profit organization run by
and for people with disabilities,” West says.
“What that means is that when we talk to busi-
nesses about the ADA and about accessibility,
we’re bringing that very strong perspective of
people who are actually living with disabili-
ties. People who just don’t have to talk about
accessibility, but have to face it every day.”
The four one-act plays, which are come-
dies, will be performed at 7:30 pm Tuesday,
July 26, at the Soreng. Tickets are $15 and can
be purchased at the Hult Ticket Center and at
the LILA office. The ticket price also includes
admission to the gala reception that precedes
the performance at 6:30 pm in Studio One. The
WOW Hall will host 2 pm matinees July 30-
31, tickets $5.
Both West and Ashwill are enthusiastic
about the event, and hope to educate the com-
munity on important disability issues through
an evening of laughter and learning. “The
plays are comedies, which is pretty unique,”
West says. “If you’re going to learn about dis-
ability issues, you might as well go to the per-
formance and have fun doing it.”
ew
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