COVID-19 Vaccine Advocacy Opportunity & Resources & Information for People with Disabilities and Caregivers

The Center for Health Equity (CHE) at Indiana Institute on Disability and Community at Indiana University is working to improve access to and confidence in COVID-19 vaccine among Hoosiers with disabilities and their caregivers to increase their vaccination rates. CHE has compiled resources about COVID-19 and vaccines for Hoosiers with disabilities and their caregivers; you can view and share this resource at the following URL https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/che/resources/covid-19-vaccination/index.html. 

There is an opportunity for community members to become involved in advocating for vaccination. Are you a person with a disability, or a caregiver who has been vaccinated and would be willing to share your positive experience? CHE has been posting such story on social media to help increase vaccine confidence. CHE will also create several videos a) sharing experience in vaccination, and b) portraying how being fully vaccinated allows people to participate in more social activities while protecting themselves and people around them. If you are from the following counties and are willing to share your story,  please contact Lydia Hamilton at lydhamil@indiana.edu or Don Dumayas at ddumayas@indiana.edu for more information.

CountyPopulationVaccine Rate
LaGrange County39,19321.2%
Newton County13,99223.6%
Franklin County22,77425.0%
Switzerland County10,68525.1%
Daviess County33,12027.6%
Carroll County20,07427.8%
Miami County35,81528.9%
Starke County22,95229.1%
Parke County16,94629.2%
Crawford County10,56930.4%
Fayette County23,19431.0%
Benton County8,67731.2%
Adams County35,37631.5%
Noble County47,50631.8%
Jennings County27,71031.8%

Indiana Disability Justice Celebrates Three Years Together

April is Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness month and the Indiana Disability Justice is celebrating entering it’s fourth year of collaborating statewide to end sexual violence with people with disabilities, including developmental and cognitive disabilities. The IDJ is a coalition of survivors of violence with disabilities, self-advocates, disability service providers, anti-violence coalitions, and caregivers who have a common goal of increasing holistic wellness of people with disabilities. IDJ strategies include education and advocacy, restorative and transformative accountability, policy change, and research that help to create inclusive and supportive environments to help prevent sexual violence.

The leadership includes Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams (Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence), Skye Ashton Kantola (Consultant, Self-Advocate), Tammy Themel (AccessABILITY), Jody Powers (Consultant, Self-Advocate), Jennifer Milharcic (Consultant, Self-Advocate), and Haleigh Rigger (Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking). Together the leadership team works with the advisory council toward creating protective environments that enable thriving for people who are made vulnerable by systems inequity. IDJ 2021 goals include:

  1. Community Strengths and Needs Assessment (CSNA): reimplementing a survey tool to assess safety, independence, and sexual wellness of people with disabilities in Indiana who have experienced sexual harm;
  2. Organizational Assessment Tool: implementing a tool for use by organizations interested in preventing harm against people with disabilities, and identifying areas of improvement for disability services and opportunities for violence prevention;
  3. Educational resources: continue creating educational resources to empower people with disabilities in their self- and community-advocacy efforts, and educational resources to support service providers, caregivers, and businesses in working more effectively with people with disabilities;
  4. Resource Hub: host a website to house IDJ webinars, assessment tools, and blog sharing the voices of survivors with disabilities;
  5. Webinars: Implementing at least 5 new webinars focused on disability justice and sexual violence prevention;
  6. Evaluation: Developing and implementing creative, community‐building evaluation strategies to assess IDJ effectiveness and areas of improvement.

IDJ invites you to pick a protective environment and create or enhance the possibilities for positive and protective relations, organizations, and communities in service of an equitable society for people with disabilities, their allies, and everyone. Contact IDJ for coaching, training, and technical assistance at indisabilityjustice@gmail.com. Subscribe to the IDJ Hub to receive blog posts by survivors with disabilities, accessible prevention evaluation tools, and webinars that centralize disability in violence prevention.

The Importance of Disability Awareness for Change

This image shows a meter from Low, Moderate, High, Maximum measuring the level of awareness. The red dial is on maximum awareness.
This image shows a meter measuring the level of awareness from low, moderate, high, to maximum. The red dial appears to be moving quickly on maximum awareness.

March is disability awareness month in Indiana and Indiana Disability Justice realizes that awareness is a great first step to improve the lives of people with disabilities. Awareness is important because we need to acknowledge ableism and the discrimination that people with disabilities face so that we can reduce and eliminate them. The awareness that people with disabilities are just as human as anyone else is necessary in order to fully include people into our society, communities, workplaces, neighborhoods, and peer groups. Even though we need more than awareness, awareness is a factor in ending violence against people with disabilities. With all this in mind, IDJ will be publishing different kinds of artistic pieces that showcases the perspectives of disabled people. Some of these pieces will relate directly to disabilities. However, some of them will not have anything to do with disability. This is because some of our artists want to remind us that they are more than their disabilities. Please visit us often to grow your perspective!

Post credit: Jody Powers, IDJ Hub Coordinator and IDJ Leadership Action Team member and Cierra Olivia Thomas Williams, IDJ Co-Leader and IDJ Leadership Action Team member