Jill Eagle’ Speech in Support of SB 620

Patrons Senator: Ticker and Howell

Virginia Senate Committee:Courts of Justice

Senator Marsh Chair

First of all, I would like to thank Chairman Marsh, the rest of the committee members and our patrons Senator Ticer and Senator Howell.

I am Jill Egle’, co-executive director for The Arc of Northern Virginia   and a young woman with an intellectual disability. I come here today for myself and for thousands more who have a diagnosis of an intellectual disability. Some of us can speak for ourselves with words, prepare and present speeches, others speak with our eyes and smiles– still others make statements by simply changing the way we sit in our wheel chair–regardless of how we communicate we all come today and asking for “Dignity.”

As the Senate Committee on Courts of Justice, you already are familiar with the history of how people with intellectual disabilities have been and continue to be treated in this commonwealth. People with intellectual disabilities have been sterilized, institutionalized, victimized and stigmatized for hundreds of years– as Virginia has learned how to best “support” and “understand” people who have intellectual disabilities.

• In 2008, Virginia continues to rank near the bottom in funding community supports that will promote the equality necessary for people with ID/DD to live “A life like yours”.
• In 2008, Virginia continues to be one of the only states that is looking into re-building institutions that provide homes rather than short term crisis care for people with ID/DD.
• In 2008, Virginia is one of seven states that continue to use the words Mental Retardation in the state code to refer to thousands of Virginians with intellectual disabilities.

Today I come to you as a voice for many with and without disabilities, we are not simply asking for a word change….we are asking for our “Dignity” and the opportunity to live in a state where we valued for the  ”resources and talents”  we bring, not as a burden and worse yet “a retard.”

Please support Senator Ticer and Senator Howell’s leadership in changing the words mental retardation to intellectual disability in the Virginia State Code.

Thank you for listening to me and thinking of the thousands of others who could not be here today… individuals with intellectual disabilities, their families and friends who are living in every part of Virginia and are asking for the same “Dignity”– but in his/her “own voice”….in his/her “own way.”