From Jason Katz, found of Access Quad Cities, in his own words:
I’m Jason Katz, 37 yrs old born and raised in Arlington Heights, Illinois. I went to college at Northern Illinois University (NIU) where in 2001 I graduated with a B.S in Applied Sociology. I studied the civil rights movement, and various other activism type subjects. In 1999, I was in my first protest in Chicago, against police brutality.
While at NIU, I also met my wife Judy Katz. This is where my focus on accessibility issues started. We met with some friends that were visually impaired, and others that had mobility issues. It is here we realized that people with disabilities are typically excluded in society and at colleges. We created NIU DELTA (“devising efforts leading towards accessibility”), a student group that brought awareness to other students and faculty. This group was started in fall of 2000 and, unfortunately, fell apart after I graduated. My impact, however, can still be seen today. With our group at NIU we empowered individuals to realize that they are more than a disability.
Today, 12 years later, and living in Moline, Illinois, I continue the battle. I learned a lot during my time of advocacy in college that one person may not be able to change the world alone, but one person’s voice can start a revolution! Recently, we restarted our group with a new name: Access Quad Cities. My wife Judy Katz is my inspiration for all of this, not letting her disability stop her. Since we started of Access Quad Cities, we have made an impact in our area. Our biggest impact was when we had our service dog in training, which passed away from a heart attack in early 2012. He was an ice breaker for people to ask questions. After his passing, I stepped back and had to rethink my priorities. My focus has since turned to awareness in the community with education.
We’ve had many new developments in recent days. To begin with, our dog entered the program to become a service dog and will soon start working to help educate children in after school programs. We also had our first meeting creating a grassroots disability council. And finally, our website www.accessquadcities.com is under construction. It’s a work in progress so it still needs work, but I am thrilled that it even exists (yet sad that it has to exist).
Our mission statement is “Advocates bringing awareness to the community.” Many times the easiest “fix” is to not do it again (e.g., having a grocery cart corral in an access aisle, plowing snow into accessible space(s), ignoring a person with a disability, etc. Our future goals consist of, but are not limited to the following: affordable, accessible housing, and/or fully accessible hotels. These would be available to all, not just those that are differently abled.
Please take a moment to LIKE Access Quad Cities on Facebook and stay informed of their progress and wonderful advocacy work in the community!