Showing Up Matters: Preparing for Disability and Autism Days in Tallahassee

In the coming days, I will be in Tallahassee for Disability and Autism Days; an experience that, from the outside, can look like a few meetings, some handshakes, maybe a photo or two. In reality, what happens there is the culmination of months of preparation, research, coordination, and intention.

Advocacy does not begin when you walk into a legislative office. It begins long before that—with data, with lived experience, with an understanding of systems, and with a clear sense of what you are asking for and why.

This year, I will be participating in eleven legislative meetings within a 24-hour window. Each meeting is scheduled deliberately. Each conversation is grounded in preparation: reviewing voting records, understanding committee assignments, aligning policy priorities, and translating family experiences into language that resonates within institutional frameworks. This work is not spontaneous. It is built.

Why In-Person Advocacy Still Matters

Emails and phone calls matter. They are essential. Legislative staff track them, tally them, and take note of patterns. Those actions absolutely count, and they should continue year-round.

But there is something uniquely powerful about showing up in person.

Being physically present changes the dynamic. It allows for longer conversations, follow-up questions, nuance, and relationship-building. It creates space for context that cannot always be conveyed in a subject line or a scripted call. When families, advocates, and researchers sit across from legislators and staff, policy stops being abstract. It becomes human, immediate, and accountable.

In-person advocacy also signals seriousness. It communicates that the issues being raised are not theoretical concerns, but lived realities worth time, attention, and legislative action.

What Preparation Really Looks Like

Preparing for an event like this involves far more than knowing your personal story—though that story matters deeply!

It means:

• Reviewing current and proposed legislation

• Understanding how disability and autism policy intersects with education, healthcare, and funding structures

• Identifying gaps between policy intent and real-world outcomes

• Developing clear, research-informed talking points

• Creating concise leave-behind materials that can be referenced after the meeting ends

Preparation allows advocacy to move beyond urgency alone. It enables conversations that are specific, grounded, and actionable.

From Meetings to Meaningful Impact

Policy change rarely happens in a single meeting. But policy direction often does.

When advocates arrive informed and organized, they shape how issues are understood, framed, and prioritized. They influence what staff take back to their teams, what questions legislators begin to ask, and what considerations surface during committee discussions and drafting sessions.

Prepared advocacy helps move conversations from “this is a problem” to “this is how the system could work better.”

That shift matters.

Why I Keep Doing This Work

My participation in Disability and Autism Days is rooted in both lived experience and research. As a parent navigating high-support autism systems and as a student of anthropology, I am deeply aware that families do not exist in isolation. We are shaped by institutions, policies, cultural expectations, and access—or lack thereof—to resources.

Showing up, prepared and intentional, is one way to push those systems toward greater accountability and equity.

Advocacy is not about being the loudest voice in the room. It is about being a steady, informed presence. It's showing up, understanding the terrain, respecting the process, and refusing to let families be reduced to only statistics or talking points.

I go to Tallahassee carrying stories, data, and responsibility. And I go believing that thoughtful, sustained advocacy—especially when done in community—can and does move policy forward.