CINCINNATI — July is Disability Pride Month, commemorating the date, July 26, that the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990.
This year, cities across America are celebrating 35 years of the ADA with parades and festivals. In Cincinnati, there are a slew of events, including a documentary film screening, a carnival night and a roller skating party where all wheels are welcome.
With party lights overhead, the DJ pumps up the crowd at an outdoor roller rink along the Ohio River. The nonprofit Skate Downtown Cincy runs the rink, which is crowded with traffic from roller skates and wheelchairs on a recent night. One of the organizers of the event, Morgan Rigaud, says whether or not someone has a disability, "Everybody is challenged when they first put on skates. Everybody feels a little wobbly and uncertain of where they're going."
But once you find your groove, she says, that's liberating. "Skates have become this tremendous symbol of freedom, because you can go at speeds you wouldn't normally walk or even run."
One person going full tilt on the rink in his electric-powered wheelchair is Michael Denlinger. "Something came over me and I just went out there and I went for it," said Denlinger, a disability rights activist and the former chairman of the Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council. "I had the speed turned up literally as high as it would go. I went all the way to one end, and I just came speeding towards the other direction and kind of just sort of, let my hair down as they say."
But, he says, this night is about more than finding top speed on his power chair; it's about being on the rink at all. As a child of the '80s, Denlinger remembers life before the ADA was fully implemented.
He says his introduction to activism was seeing his mother fight to get curb-cuts built into their neighborhood sidewalks. She told him, "This is happening for you," while watching news coverage of the Capitol Crawl, where disabled protesters abandoned their wheelchairs to crawl up the U.S. Capitol steps, demanding passage of the ADA.
"To see how far the world has come. And to have a big skating rink that someone like me can drive on, and kind of in our own way be part of the same things that other people are — that's an amazing experience."
While he's celebrating at the skate party, Denlinger says that off the rink, people are on edge about the pending Medicaid cuts in the major tax and spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. Referencing the new requirements for Medicaid eligibility — including onerous work and renewal requirements for some recipients — Denlinger, who has cerebral palsy, says: "I've been this way since I was born, it ain't changing … I don't know how else to say it."
He's planning to host a workshop with Disability Advocates Network to coach people with disabilities on how to speak out and share their stories with policymakers. "Everyone should have the right to talk to their legislators," he said. "And there's nothing like helping a person with a disability see that they can have their own voice. You can open a door to someone else that they never knew was there."
This month's events are all posted on a website, supported by Hamilton County Developmental Disability Services and local nonprofits. The organization, LADD (Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled), which has been around since before the passing of the ADA, built the calendar that now also includes year-round activities in Cincinnati. For example, adaptive CrossFit, art classes, and weekly skate nights at the river rink, where Rigaud says "all wheels" are always welcome. She says their adaptive skating aids are available every week, and they collaborate with Cincinnati Children's Hospital on a monthly program for children with chronic or complex medical needs.
As the music ends for the night, it gives way to the sound of the last skater on the rink, and Rigaud describes the magic of this space.
"You know, this rink is special because the walls have been taken down, and you can see exactly what goes on inside," she says over the gentle soundtrack of carving skates.
"If you drive out to the suburbs and these warehouse-looking suburban skating rinks, the beauty and the culture of skating is hidden. But, by bringing people together here in the park, it's on full display. And the reactions are priceless."
Someone could be walking their dog and they discover skate culture, she says, and on this night disability culture was also on display. And that's what it's all about.
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