Emails to Obama! Creating Change for People with Disabilities!

Posted on 13 November 2008. Filed under: Advocacy, Email Obama! | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

[People who wish to communicate with the Obama administration should PLEASE CONTACT THEM DIRECTLY. I am NOT able to pass along your emails to the Obama administration. You can contact the White House at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. Or you may prefer to contact the White House Office of Public Liaison, which in their own words is “the front door to the White House through which everyone can participate and inform the work of the President,” at http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/opl/]

Politicians are more quick to do as they promise when they know the world is watching them. That’s why it’s important for people with disabilities, Deaf people, our loved ones, colleagues, and other allies SEND EMAILS TO OBAMA! Let him know that we are aware of the promises Obama has made to people with disabilities! I have linked to several letters to Obama below in the hope of inspiring others to write letters of their own.

Letters to Obama
The disability community of Kosovo congratulates Obama and urges him to support disability rights internationally as well as domestically: http://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/kosovo-obama-disability/

A Deaf woman with attention deficit disorder in the US writes about how she felt when Obama mentioned people with disabilities in his election night speech–and what she hopes he will do next: https://reunifygally.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/thank_you_obama_disabilities/

A disabled person’s organization in Bangladesh sent this letter of congratulations: http://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/bpks-congratulates-obama/

An international disability activist from Uganda thanks the people of the United States for choosing Obama: http://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/uganda-thanks-us-for-obam/

Take Action!
1. Please send your own emails to Obama! Send your emails to Kareem Dale, Obama’s National Disability Vote Director (at kdale@barackobama.com), WITH COPIES TO Anne Hayes, a volunteer on the Obama Disability Policy Committee (at ahayesku@hotmail.com). Congratulate Obama; thank him for mentioning people with disabilities in his election night speech; then remind him of his promises to people with disabilities. He promised to increase educational opportunities; end discrimination; increase employment opportunities; and support independent, community-based living for Americans with disabilities. And he promised to sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the first international, legally-binding human rights treaty for people with disabilities.

2. Read more about the Call to Action that explains how and why people in the Deaf and disability communities should email Obama, and how people can educate themselves about Obama’s promises to people with disabilities. At http://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/disabilities-email-obama/ Or, most of the same text is also available in the slide show provided further below in this post (click on the arrows to advance through the show).

3. Spread the word! Please ask your friends and other people you know to write their own emails to Obama. Feel free to copy/paste the Call to Action into your blog, Facebook page, or email and circulate it. Or make a podcast or video to promote awareness of the email-writing campaign to Obama’s team and post it on-line. Or post the slideshow (below) at your blog.

4. Consider sharing your own letter to Obama as a way to help inspire others to write their own. Post the email that you sent to kdale@barackobama.com and ahayesku@hotmail.com in the comments area below for other people to see. If I like your letter, then I might also ask for permission to post it at this blog so it can attract a wider audience.

Of course, also let me know if you have blogged the email campaign–I’ll be happy to link to you.

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Bangladesh Disability Organization Congratulates Obama

Posted on 10 November 2008. Filed under: Advocacy, Email Obama! | Tags: , , , |

From across the United States and around the world, both Deaf people and people with disabilities have been reaching out to US President-elect Obama. Both individuals and organizations have sent emails to his team in an attempt to raise the visibility of the challenges that face us and why his administration will need to address them. Read the Call To Action. Then also read this letter below, sent from an organization of people with disabilities in Bangladesh.

Congratulation letter to US President-elect Obama from Bangladesh Protibandhi Kallyan Somity (BPKS) Bangladesh

Dear all in Disability movement, We disabled peoples from Bangladesh send the congratulation letter to Obama as the Elect president of the USA and mentioned thanks for his acknowledgment of the need for unity between all citizens, including the “disabled and not disabled”. Please see the letter that attached herewith. Sattar from Bangladesh

November 4, 2008
Mr. Barack Obama
President Elect
C/o The Embassy of the United States – Dhaka
Madani Avenue
Baridhara, Dhaka, 1212
Bangladesh

Dear Mr. Obama,

As the Executive Director of Bangladesh Protibandhi Kallyan Somity (BPKSP and President of the National Alliance of Disabled People’s Organisations (NADPO) and on behalf of the membership of Disabled People’s Organizations of Bangladesh, I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations for your historic success today. You demonstrated enormous determination and integrity throughout the election campaign and I truly wish you every success.

I would also like to thank you for your acknowledgment of the need for unity among all citizens, including the “disabled and not disabled”. This is an important step in the right direction. However, at this crucial juncture, I would also like to take this opportunity to request that you give your very serious consideration to the catastrophic impact of war and conflict on all people, particularly those that are vulnerable, including people with disabilities. I also enjoin you to consider the tragic way in which war creates more people with disabilities, people who will struggle with poverty and face enormous challenges, long after the bombs stop falling.

Finally, I urge you to use your new position as a world leader, for the good of people with disabilities, not just in your great country, the United States of America, but also in those oft “forgotten corners” of the world you referred to in your speech, like Bangladesh, and others, where wars continue to be waged.

With our warmest regards and best wishes from Bangladesh,

Md Abdus Sattar Dulal
Executive Director, BPKS


  • Thank you to Md Abdus Sattar Dulal for agreeing to allow this letter to be posted on-line.

    This letter is one more contribution in a campaign among Deaf people, and people with disabilities and allies around the world to send emails to Obama. These emails are an opportunity to thank him for mentioning people with disabilities in his election night speech. More importantly, they are also an opportunity to remind him of the campaign promises he made to deaf people and people with disabilities. These include a promise to sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Read more about the Call To Action, and how YOU can participate, at http://wecando.wordpress.com/2008/11/07/disabilities-email-obama/

    Send YOUR emails to the Obama team, addressed to Kareem Dale, Obama’s National Disability Vote Director (at kdale@barackobama.com), WITH COPIES TO Anne Hayes, a volunteer on the Obama Disability Policy Committee (at ahayesku@hotmail.com).

    Read another letter to Obama this one from me.

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