Site Stats and Progress Center

Thus far, I am happy to report that Ambertracker has had 555 unique visitors over the course of its little life. While the vast majority of visitors are English users (including visitors from the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand), Ambertracker has also been visited by friends who use Korean, Norwegian, Russian, German, Finnish, Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish and French. The city with the highest number of visitors is Denver, Colorado, followed by Austin, Texas and Chicago. Maybe I should move to Denver...jeez! I know that a good number of visitors are my fellow ADAPTers, so a shout out to ADAPT and its incredible network. Free Our People!

I report the statistics not only because they amaze me, but also because I hope that readers are finding the site useful in feminist disability rights work. Do feel free to contact me with questions or suggestions. I am happy to share work and find partners in this cause (it's much better that way). If you see an idea to use in your area, go for it!

Also, a shout out of thanks to Progress Center for Independent Living, which last night presented me and advocate Annie Hopkins with the annual Advocate of the Year award. Progress Center is one of those small but revolutionary CILs that really utilize grassroots power. They are very conscious of youth and Spanish-speaking community development. PCIL was run for many years by Not Dead Yet president Diane Coleman, who recently relocated to Rochester, New York and is the assistant director for advocacy at the Center for Disability Rights (leaving her with, hopefully, more time and energy for Not Dead Yet...we miss you Diane!). The current executive director is Horacio Esparza, who is a longtime PCIL employee and host of Radio Vida Independiente, a Spanish language radio show about independent living.

My award was presented by my friend and fellow ADAPTer Larry Biondi, who manages to kick prodigious amounts of ass (and poke out lots of eyes with his head tapper thing) as an advocate with PCIL. I write all this because I want to express how important I think Progress Center's staff is---when there is a hot issue, they are always there in the thick of it, but they always make you feel at home with them. They are just regular people who take important risks and really believe in empowering people to live independently. Oh, and their current Board President is my good friend Laura Obara Gramer, who is leaving soon to relocate to Seattle, Washington, so if Seattle is looking for a good deaf woman ally, find Laura!!! We in Chicago will miss Laura very much.

So to wrap up, keep visiting this site, and many thanks to PCIL folks for being such great friends and activists!