We all say that being disabled is a full time job. Each of us has to become experts on how the system works. At AHA, our model is to bring disabled people with AIDS together to share our knowledge and expertise on behalf of  our community. We come together, saying this is what worked for me over here and this is how I did that over there. We then take that knowledge and expertise and add it to the power of having the organizational support of AIDS Housing Alliance/SF. It is this combination that yields results.

All else being equal, I really do believe that there is a difference between getting counseling and case management services from another disabled person with AIDS as opposed to someone who has never walked in our shoes. We provide the unique perspective of people who have accessed services and knows the process from the clients perspective, combined with knowledge of how programs work behind the scenes. In addition to that process related knowledge, there is an emotional knowledge that can only be shared by those of us who have been thru it.

An analogy might be me, as a man, giving family planning advice in a woman's clinic. I can be an intelligent, committed, compassionate, hard-working person, but my ability to relate only goes so far. We all seem to get the limitations in that context and would have a problem with family planning services being delivered by an exclusively all-male staff. There should not be a big leap in understanding required to answer the questions why don't we see disabled people with AIDS working in our AIDS organizations?