Disability rights advocacy is tough and tiring. Supporting disability rights advocates shouldn’t be. Napping as activism is an easy way to do it!

Here’s what you DO:

1. You, your kid, dog, cat, horse, or sloth companion nap anytime between 3/13-15/20 and snap of photo of you doing it. Post it on social media with #TiredOfAbleism. Include alt-text!

Here’s where you can follow the action:

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/196300241622595/

On Twitter: @IngridTischer, @DREDF

2. Post a message with your photo: “I’m napping for disability rights because I’m #TiredOfAbleism. We need to bring attention to ableism and support Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) in fighting discrimination. Will you give a donation in honor of my nap?”

B/W photo of a young white man sleeping peacefully with a calico kitty

Photo courtesy of a Naptivist team

3. Add a FB Donate button or a link to dredf.org/support-our-work/, and note “naptivism.” All donation amounts welcome!

→ Scroll down for The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Support Naptivism for Disability Rights March 13-15, 2020

Top left-right: A basset hound sleeping; a golden retriever napping; a white woman napping on a couch in an office; middle row left-right: a white woman holding a small sleeping child; 2 cats curled in a basket; a little dog napping belly-up on an office floor; bottom row left-right: a woman napping with a cat; a white guy cuddling a blanket and stuffed frog; a lounging white woman

All images courtesy of Naptivists

Disability media peeps! Naptivism is an example of crip-led activism and philanthropy shifting the disability narrative from:

“awareness” to advocacy
charity to social justice
using less accessible fundraisers to more inclusive action

Young woman sleeping at her desk. Text: #TiredOfAbleism NAPTIVIST www.talesfromthecrip.org

This Hero Naptivist could be you on World Sleep Day, 3/13/20. Will you answer the call of naptivism for the cause of disability rights?

Long ago when I was a disabled fundraiser at Breast Cancer Action, I jokingly said sleeping was more my thing than some 3-day-schlepp for “awareness.” Yada yada, it’s the 1st annual nap-a-thon for disability rights advocacy!

Welcome to the 1st Annual Nap-a-thon for Disability Rights Advocacy

**100% of Proceeds to Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund’s (DREDF) Tireless Legal Advocacy and Know Your Education Rights Trainings**

World Sleep Day, Friday, March 13-15, 2020

Your nap, your way. For all ages, all sleepy creatures (bored workers! babies! pets!), all nap lengths, all nap times, all nap locations. All donation amounts welcome.

Suggestion: 40 winks/$40, anytime 3/13-15/20

WHAT A NAPTIVIST DOES: 1. ASK FRIENDS TO SPONSOR YOUR NAP. 2. TAKE THE NAP. 3. SNAP A PIC OF THE NAPPING. 4. POST THE PIC AND SHARE WITH YOUR SPONSORS. 5. GIVE/GET DONATIONS TO DREDF ONLINE OR VIA TEXT. →Scroll down for details in The Naptivist’s Toolkit

Say hello to your little Naptivist friend: a 3-toed sloth. Shall we name him Dozer? Photo courtesy istockphoto.com

A NAP IS A WISH THAT YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM, CREATIVITY, MEMORY, AND MOOD MAKE. EMBRACE YOUR INNER SUPER-HERO SLOTH. BE THE NAP.

Here’s Your Naptivist’s Toolkit:

1. Your sample message for spreading the word before 3/13/20:

“I’m going to be a Naptivist/sponsoring a Naptivist for the Nap-a-thon for Disability Rights Advocacy on World Sleep Day, Friday, 3/13/20! I hope you’ll join me in saying you’re #TiredOfAbleism by giving $40/40 winks to support DREDF’s tireless disability rights advocacy. If you do, I’ll share my napping photo with you on the big day and you can make your donation directly to DREDF. Thanks!”

→ Need help explaining your excitement to others? Scroll down for The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Support Naptivism for Disability Rights March 13-15, 2020

2. Your sample message to go with the photo you take of yourself napping wherever you are (don’t forget the alt-text description!). Post on social media and share with your sponsors:

“I’m a Naptivist who’s making the dream of equality real because I’m #TiredOfAbleism.”

3. Here’s a sample message for sponsors about the two ways to give a tax-deductible donation to DREDF, tax id # 94-2620758:

“Thank you for sponsoring my naptivism! You’ve seen the photo of me napping and here’s how to make your donation. Go to https://dredf.org/support-our-work/, and note “naptivism.” Or text to the number 243725; text “dredf”; click on the link.”

→ Need help explaining why DREDF’s advocacy matters to disabled people and our families? Scroll down for The Top 5 DREDF Advocacy Priorities Your Nap Advances

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Support Naptivism for Disability Rights March 13-15, 2020

10. Napping feels DELIGHTFUL.

9. A naptivist can say, “I’m sorry, Boss-Person, I can’t do [UNPLEASANT TASK] because I have to go nap for disability rights.”

8. Advocating for yourself and/or someone else is exhausting.

7. You have a napping child, or dog or a cat, who, frankly, has never really pulled their weight, fundraising-wise.

6. 100% of the proceeds from your naptivism will fuel DREDF’s 41st year of tireless advocacy for cross-disability rights, including education access, Medicaid, ACA and the ADA.

5. Introvert naptivists get some down time and extrovert naptivists get to host a slumber party.

4. Consider it a way of putting your dis-respectability politics into practice – we don’t buy into the idea we have to “look/act less disabled/chronically ill/aging” to succeed or that taking care of ourselves makes us lazy.

3. Dozing for dollars is a dream come true and demonstrates how philanthropy can model inclusion.

2. You’re tired of ableism.

1. We need advocacy more than “awareness” – and ending up toasty, dry, and refreshed because you took a nap beats being cold, wet, and tired because you emptied an ice bucket over your head.

The Top 5 DREDF Advocacy Priorities Your Nap Advances:

Protect the education rights of 500 disabled students by training parents, family caregivers, and child welfare professionals on how to navigate special education systems.

Pursue impact litigation that protects disabled students from the trauma of illegal and abusive use of restraints and seclusion, and punitive segregation.

Bring cross-disability rights legal/policy expertise to intersecting issues such as disaster preparedness, emergency-services, and housing, plus CPUC representation so our communities will have input into proposed measures like the PG&E power-shutoffs.

Increase cross-disability participation in and access to the 2020 Census that will profoundly affect disability representation in public funding for Medicare/Medicaid, education, and myriad programs for years to come.

Expand healthcare access and reduce healthcare disparities for disabled people by dismantling physical, policy, and programmatic barriers.

Ending disability discrimination is a marathon, not a sprint — Naptivists conserve their spoons!

Fatigue is natural, it doesn’t mean you’re lazy, and some of us tire more easily than others. I don’t know about you but I’m TIRED. I always have been – fatigue is just part of my disability.

But while my disability-related fatigue is just a part of being human, there is nothing natural about the structural discrimination that makes me so very #TiredOfAbleism.

So let’s do something about it. Something that feels as good as the change it supports. Let’s nap!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR NAPTIVISM!

Postcard with 4 images of people napping, on desks, the ground, on the flor, in a chair. When in doubt, get horizontal. "Anytime can be nap-time."

A postcard left by a housemate in our funky Dupont Circle flat in the 80s, which no doubt called me to move to the Bay Area as Hold the Mustard Productions took the photos in Oakland. https://www.cardcow.com/799397/when-doubt-get-horizontal-photographic-art/

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