#TwitterVoices - Twitter and the Disability Community

I was a Panelist at a memorable Twitter event to amplify disability voices & issues along with Leroy Moore, @AliceWong Jordyn Zimmerman Antoine Hunter @DaniellePerez Tinu Abayomi-Paul @DustinGibson @JohnnieJae Mark Travis Rivera Moderated by @GodIsRivera with "Tweeps" (Twitter employees) Q&A on accessibility@Twitter.
 
At every event I find myself learning more and more about issues faced by the disability community which motivates me some more to be part of that change we want to see. I get to both contribute and learn. And it was so nice to have Accessibility conversations with (rather than for) Disabled Folks. 

#contributeandlearn #DisabilityAccess

 My responses as their is no recording of the event.

• Who are you?
• What are you up to and how are you using Twitter to do it?
• What are key takeaways from your work, you want this group to know.
  

My response.

Thank you Twitter. Hi everyone. I’m Hari Srinivasan. I'm a college age male of Indian American origin with brown skin. He,pronoun. I have short black hair, wearing a blue shirt with the word berkeley on it and a cap with Go Bears on it. My current workspace has a blank blue wall behind me.

I'm a non speaking autistic. I am on the ASAN board and Council of Autistic Advisors for Autism Society. And coolest of all for me, I was featured on President Obama’s Instagram on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

At U C Berkeley, I’m Phi Beta Kappa, major psychology. minor in disability studies. This is my fifth semester as a student instructor for a semester long class on autism which I enjoy so much. I just got selected into the prestigious Haas Scholars at Berkeley and I will be using Twitter to recruit participants for my research on autism.

I got introduced to twitter when I joined the Daily Californian as a student journalist. Many of my articles have centered around disability. My article in the amazing Alice Wong’s Disability Visibility Project, with excerpts in Listen, got quite a bit of coverage on twitter. Twitter definitely helped amplify the message on media representation.

I help manage 3 other twitter accounts besides my personal one.

One twitter is that of the Berkeley Disabled Students which works on a lot of accessibility issues on campus.

Another twitter is the UC Berkeley Disability Lab which is a unique maker space lab hacking low cost accessibility solutions for the disability community. I’m a research assistant and head Team Propaganda. Our projects are directly based on input from the community.

A third twitter is Spectrum At Cal and I'm its first non speaking autistic president. We have harnessed the power of the virtual this academic year to create virtual volunteering and several outreach events. In fact we are rebranding from Autism Acceptance to Autistics Belong. A video tweet by Doha Debates in December where I talk about Belonging got quite a lot of coverage worldwide.

I am involved in a number of parallel projects but I do find time for some light fun too including writing poetry and connect with others through social media. LOL.

I truly believe that social media like Twitter can be powerful tools in spreading positive messaging and thus become game changers for our community in terms of opportunity inclusion and belonging.

If there is one key takeaway about what drives me and my work, it's my dream and yearning towards Belonging for non speakers, for all autistics, for all the disability community. I would like the audience to think beyond Acceptance and Inclusion towards Belonging.