A black and white drawing of Sonya, a white woman with black hair pulled back. She is wearing a black shirt and is smiling and waving with her left hand.
Sonya Rio Glick
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  • Home
  • About
    • Bio
    • Resumés
  • Writing
    • Projects
    • Where She Stands
  • Dance
    • Dance Artistry
    • This Body's Heart
  • Film
    • The Souls of Our Feet
    • Making The Souls of Our Feet
    • Meet the Team
    • See And Support >
      • Buy the DVD
      • Donate
  • Access & Community
    • Activism
    • Access Consultation
  • Press
  • Contact

Activism

“Existence is resistance”
​- Patte Berne, Founder of Sins Invalid Performance Collective and Co-Founder of Disability Justice
As a multiply marginalized person and as an empath, advocacy is an imperative in Sonya’s life, first taking shape as the need for autonomy and inclusion as a disabled child in public school. Since the days of facilitating her own 504 meetings, Sonya has gone on to connect and engage communities about issues most relevant to them, and continues to educate herself and others on the intersections and impacts of various social biases and oppressive practices. At their strongest, advocacy and activism take many forms. Sonya has educated people of all ages on disability etiquette and the many functions of ableism, giving workshops, lectures, and interviews at a variety of Universities, conferences, non profits, and publications. She values the opportunity to care for people marginalized in ways both similar and different from herself, and takes pride in mentoring younger people who are disabled and/or queer. She leverages social media to intentionally amplify the work and lived experiences of People of Color, as well as to connect with other thinkers and activists. Additionally, she has worked diligently to reform ineffective and biased policy, most notably the fire evacuation practices for students with disabilities at Purchase College, SUNY, and proposed anti-panhandling legislation in Colonie, NY.
A greyscale gif depicting Sonya, a white femme with dark shoulder length hair, sitting in her wheelchair raising a blank sign. Sonya has a gentle but determined expression on her face, she stares ahead with a slight smile. She raises a blank sign in protest up and down while the rest of her body is static. She is seated in her wheelchair with her left hand in her lap.
 The cover image for the Spasctic Chatter podcast. Two lines of text reading “Spastic Chatter Getting real about Cerebral Palsy” on a white square background. The first line has in large capitalized text reads “SPASTIC CHATTER” in blue block letters outlined in purple. The second line in dark purple comic sans font reads “Getting Real about Cerebral Palsy.”
​“Spastic Chatter is a platform meant to feature stories from those in the Cerebral Palsy community. I will be getting together with individuals with CP (Like Myself) to have a kind of uncensored chat if you will about what it’s really like to have this type of disability.” In Episode 36, Sonya discusses dance, The Souls of our Feet, and addressing internalized ableism Listen on Spotify and Apple podcasts: Spastic Chatter Podcast ep

Local action protesting against anti-panhandling legislation in Albany, NY
In August of 2020, the town of Colonie, New York introduced a Chapter of legislation entitled ‘Aggressive and Unsafe Panhandling’ that would effectively criminalize all panhandling activity in the town, with the intent of “keeping public places attractive.” The Chapter subsequently deemed all panhandling ‘aggressive and unsafe’ based on the exhaustive list locations and ways to solicit that would be criminal under this legislation, and paved the way for the arrest and fining of the community’s most vulnerable inhabitants despite the fact that all panhandling related police calls to present had been handled without arrest. As such, it is abundantly clear that ‘Aggressive and Unsafe Panhandling’ was in actuality not concerned with safety at all, instead a thinly veiled attempt to disallow impoverished individuals from being in public. After reading the proposed chapter closely Sonya crafted a detailed public statement citing the chapter’s many biases and dangers and presented it to the Town Board and Town Attorney, along with her mother, Barbara, and local social work students who did the same. The group continually returns to Town board meetings to dissent against the chapter (which has yet to be passed as of February 2021), and Sonya’s statement and citations were lauded as ‘extremely helpful’ in the Town Attorney’s ratification of the chapter. There was subsequent news coverage of the work of Sonya and others against ‘Aggressive and Unsafe Panhandling’ viewable here.
Immediately upon transferring to Purchase College, State University of New York (SUNY) in the Fall of 2018, Sonya was put at risk when the ‘accessible’ dorm she was placed in was on the third floor, and there was no effective policy in place to evacuate students lacking the ability to navigate stairs in the case of an emergency. Over the course of four months, Sonya, along with at least 5 other disabled students residing in the building, would be left in over thirty possibly emergent situations: the fire alarm would sound, and no one would come to evacuate them or provide notification as to the cause of the alarm. Sonya was tossed from office to office before finding that the existing “policy” pertaining to the safety of disabled individuals was one (1) paragraph stating that individuals with disabilities should familiarize themselves with accessible exits, and plan ahead. 
   Sonya sits in between two people in her power chair in front of the SUNY Purchase library’s librarian desk while holding a hand drawn sign that reads in bubble letters: “I’m not safe at Purchase, Ask me why.” The text is inside of a speech bubble, a common symbol used in SUNY Purchase branding and logos. Sonya is a petite white femme with shoulder length hair and is holding the sign up which covers her seated body and chin. Her face is turned away from the camera as she authoritatively speaks to someone out of view. To her right is a Black man in a manual wheelchair wearing a brown sweatshirt and a knit hat that looks like the Black Panther’s mask. He is looking off screen with a sorrowful expression on his face. In the background, to Sonya’s left, is a Black man sitting cross-legged on the floor, looking up at Sonya as she speaks.
During this time, she held meetings with every level of university administration seeking information on and reform of their emergency evacuation policies. These discussions had little impact, administration refusing to be at all involved or responsible for student safety, rarely answering questions full or directly. Eventually, Sonya rallied the support of the student body at large, holding a two day protest in the school library that resulted in the student senate passing a resolution for the administration to respond. 
    Six Protesters sit in front of the librarian’s desk at the SUNY Purchase Library. Left to right: Sonya is seated in her power chair holding a hand drawn sign reads in bubble letters: “I’m not safe at Purchase, Ask me why.” The text is inside of a speech bubble, a common symbol used in SUNY Purchase branding and logos. Sonya is a petite white femme with shoulder length hair and is holding the sign up which covers her seated body and chin. She is smiling. Next to her is a blue haired white femme holding informational leafletts given to people passing by and interacting with the protest. Next is a medium toned man in a power chair, then a short haired white person in a green jacket, then a white person with shoulder length brown hair in an orange sweatshirt, then finally, sitting at a slight angle is a white woman with short dark hair wearing a red flannel.
These protests and meetings supported the same goals, formulated by Sonya after extensive research on current practices and the needs of students with disabilities: Written policy that outlined the University’s responsibility to safely evacuate disabled students, the option of annual one-on-one safety planning for each of the disabled students living on campus (a plan that would be documented in writing), practice drills with local first responders, and a timely notification of emergent situations (often disabled students would not learn if something was a drill until all other students had been evacuated then released back into the building at the conclusion of the drill). 
​Sonya live-streamed being at risk during multiple alarmed emergencies on campus. In response, Sonya was featured in a local news segment about the issue (viewable here), and the greater public voiced their concerns to the colleges admin with emails and calls. Eventually the administration wrote an eleven (11) page document outlining evacuation and safety procedures, covering a wider variety of disabilities. The thrust of the document remained that the students solely responsible for their safety while on campus; the administration never put in writing their responsibility for the lives of these students. 
Allowed a brief window to submit comments on this document, Sonya drafted pages of notes and submit them to administration. Despite this, none of these changes were incorporated in the final document.  While the university agreed to institute optional individualized safety plans for each student, it remained the responsibility of the student to write their plan, with  no medical or legal expertise provided to the student in the synthesis of this plan. Additionally, There were to be coordinated practice drills at the beginning of each semester. This never occurred without explanation. Upon inquiry, we were informed that the local first responders did not agree to these drills, citing it was a liability for them. 
 Photograph of Sonya holding a hand drawn sign reads in bubble letters: “I’m not safe at Purchase, Ask me why.” The text is inside of a speech bubble, a common symbol used in SUNY Purchase branding and logos. Sonya is a petite white femme with shoulder length hair and is holding the sign up which covers her seated body and chin. Her mouth is open, possibly in speech, and her eyes are determined. Sonya is sitting in front of the librarian’s desk at the SUNY Purchase library.
Through this, there was no acknowledgement from the school of the ongoing emotional and academic strain of this ordeal on disabled students. While imperfect, it became clear that the expanded written policy, existence of individualized safety plans, awareness of the need for disability specific safety drills, and public outcry was as much progress as there would be for the time being. Sonya continued to meet with relevant administrative offices so the risk would not be forgotten, but forced herself to shift her focus to academics. As is so often the case, it became clear the work would never be finished. Sonya spent the rest of her time at Purchase telling stories of disabled existence and resistance through the building of This Body's Heart, and connecting to Purchase's disabled community through social and academic activities, with the hope that even if they were still at risk, they felt supported by one another.​
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