In 2019, while recovering from an assault connected to my work representing the disability community, I began a disability-rights campaign that led to the City of Springfield issuing its first-ever Epilepsy Awareness Month Proclamation in 2020. I hold the original, signed and sealed copy. It was a historic moment for epilepsy awareness and for every resident living with seizures.

More than 8,000 people in Massachusetts live with epilepsy.
They deserve visibility, dignity, and accurate public history.

But in the years that followed, the City issued new epilepsy proclamations that quietly omitted the origin of the campaign. The disability advocate who created the movement — the person who brought epilepsy awareness to Springfield — was erased from the public record.

This erasure mirrors what tenants have experienced with the Springfield Housing Authority: retaliation, denial of accommodations, unsafe conditions, and the suppression of truthful public records. In 2024, SHA publicly blamed its federal “troubled” rating on outdated software, but tenants know the problems run much deeper.

My epilepsy advocacy is part of the same civil-rights story, a long pattern of ignoring or silencing disabled voices in Springfield.
The same city that once acknowledged disability advocacy later ignored my medical needs, dismissed my complaints, and made my life harder simply because I spoke up.

This is the heart of my fight today:
It’s not only about housing.
It’s about what happens when a disabled person raises their voice — and the system pushes back.

My epilepsy advocacy and my housing case are part of one continuous story: standing up for disability rights in a city that often refuses to listen, and facing punishment for telling the truth.

I’m asking for change because no one should be erased for trying to help their community, and no disabled resident should ever face retaliation for speaking up.