Description
This is the remarkable story by and about Micah Fialka-Feldman. Micah has been a teaching assistant at Syracuse University for a decade. Micah has dictated his bok into his phone – and traces a life that bgan with disability labels, and is relatless struggle to live a full life as a citizen. Collaborating with Lynn Albee, they organized Micah’s writing and gathered comments from dozens of others who have been a part of his remarkable journey.
Also available as an e-Book: https://inclusion.com/product/opening-doors-e-book/
Micah was fully included in public schools in Michigan. He is approaching his 40th birthday. He was a pioneer at Oakland University where he was first a guest student taking classes, engaging in student leadership and social activities and then became one of the first students with an intellectual disability to live in the dormitory. He won a history making Federal Court Case based upon 504 laws and the ADA.
Micah is one of the three people featured in Dan Habib’s film: Intelligent Lives and currently is a teach assistant at Syracuse University. He teaches class in the school of education and disability studies. He currently lives in Syracuse with support staff and a significant Circle of Friends. His parents and family live in Michigan and Boston. Micah served on the board of TASH for two terms and currently is a board member of the Kirkridge retreat center in PA. He was active with the disability pride parades, and other disability pride, advocacy and inclusion organizations for the past 20 years
Opening Doors vividly demonstrates the possibilities of a lifetime of struggle for an inclusive life. The book itself is a victory. Micah Fialka-Feldman shares his perspective on the first 40 years of his journey by orchestrating his own supported writing (assisted by Lynn Albee) with the voices and images of his friends. Micah is the foremost practitioner of advocacy by and for interdependence that I know. His conviction that opportunities to go through the same doors as his friends do are both a birthright and a path to building a more
just and peaceful world gives him confidence to imagine himself in new roles and recruit the help he needs to show up and succeed. With the backing of his family and a growing Circle of Support he has developed from elementary school classmate to university instructor, from dorm room to his own home, from student of leadership to advisor to a US president. Micah is unashamed of recognizing his need for others. His form of advocacy is a team effort. He trusts himself to know when he needs help and who to ask. He trusts those he chooses to contribute what they can to his success. In turn Micah lends his energy to others who seek justice and peace. This memoir exemplifies concerned and contributing citizenship. Practicing its lessons offers a politics of healing.
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