Every summer, longtime independent living and transportation advocate Lisa Franklin encourages fellow Acton residents to join the annual Disability Pride event, or ADA Day, hosted by the Mass. State Independent Living Council at Dunn Pond State Park in Gardner. Franklin, a thirty-plus year stroke survivor, recalls a member of Acton’s Commission on Disabilities going kayaking at the event, a surprise since they had thought they had to give up the sport due to their disability. Franklin herself, who likes to swim in a relative’s pool, tried a beach wheelchair and thought it would help her get into and out of the lake. Alas, her hemiplegia (paralysis of one side of her body) made the process of floating off of the chair and then onto it again after the swim, impossible. Franklin laughed as she described her effort.
“Many people who are new to having a disability assume that the activities they love and enjoyed prior to acquiring their disability are something they have to give up,” Franklin said this week. “It doesn’t yet occur to them to ask, ‘How can I?’ and they don’t know who to direct the question to anyway.”
“In Acton,” said Franklin, “the Commission on Disabilities (cod@actonma.gov) is often able to direct you to resources and introduce you to our community of people with disabilities so you can learn from others how to overcome the barriers preventing you from getting back into activities you may have thought impossible. For instance, NARA park has a beach wheelchair, adaptive bicycles, and accessible changing rooms and bathrooms, not to mention the Miracle Field. Camp Acton has an accessible campsite and portapotty. The Acton Arboretum has accessible trails.”
Franklin suggests that Acton residents with disabilities can meet many other people from all over the state who are living with disabilities (italics are hers) if they come to the Dunn Pond event, 11 to 3 on Friday, August 2. The announcement from the Massachusetts Center for Independent Living website invites participants to “hike, kayak, swim, listen to music and hang out with friends. Light lunch and drinks provided” and to RSVPby July 18. Accessible hiking and kayaking will be hosted by the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Universal Access Program.
The Acton Commission on Disabilities meets by zoom the third Tuesday of the month from 10 to 12. Everyone is welcome and the committee is looking for new members and volunteers.
Franny Osman was a member of Acton’s Commission on Disability until recently, and has worked with advocate Lisa Franklin for many years.