This is a bio about me the total individual advocate this is what i submitted to the radio station. We are suppose to fine out more this coming Monday, and we are going to add my bio to this blog.

Biography of James Vigare

My name is James Vigare and I’m a total individual cause I’m my own person, I’m a very big advocate for the rights of the disabled.

I’m 56 years old  and have needed to use a  wheelchair all my life. I use an  electric wheelchair to get around all over the buildings at Becoming Independent.   Becoming Independent  is a place I go every day for people with disabilities.

My earliest advocacy work was in Marin County.   I was on the advisory committee to get the first disabled lifts on the buses. We also protested movies theaters, it was terrible, it made us all very angry. They would not let in people in wheelchairs in at all.  So we had a friend buy the tickets and we snuck in the back door after going down the back alley in the dark and the rain.  Once we got in there was no place to park wheelchairs so we had to be carried to a seat.  We also complained about curb cuts and public restrooms.

I’m partially blind but I’m on the computer constantly that’s how I keep up with the world and disability issues.  I’m a big advocate for helping other people that’s why I run my support group.  At Becoming Independent I’ve written letters to the governor and other politicians. I have also helped fund raise, lead board tours, participated in interviewing  new instructors and protested funding cuts to the disabled

I recently went to pizza and I could not get into the bathroom, we’ve got a long way to go.  Doing the radio program would help get these issues out to the public and  other disabled people in Santa Rosa.

Still waiting to get approval for the radio program so even if they say no I will still do the blog and maybe I'll do the radio program on my own.  I did a two part radio show about me  the "Total Individual Advocate",  it's gonna be two parts we broke it into two different programs.

I'm a member of Bookshare it's place you can get books online and have them read them out loud . It took us a year to get me into Bookshare, I had a million problems. It took me no time to get into the NFB-Newsline that was a piece of cake but it took a year to get into Bookshare. NFB-Newsline is a place where you can read news papers and magazines online with speech support.  I'm gonna look up articles about disability on NFB-Newsline

This blog is going be about my radio show which will be about disability, related topics and different issues. I will try to keep it current by interviewing people, that's what it's going to be about. I would like to make it like “Pushing Limits” but for the North Bay Area. We are going to interview me for the first episode.  I'm going interview people with disabilities after that. I’m going have a calendar of events, current events, services, rights issues, accessibility  and different things coming up in the legislature concerning people with disabilities.  I’m planning to have a radio show on KOWS RADIO OCCIDENTAL 107.3  or listen online http://24.130.65.159:8000/listen.m3u . And if this radio show doesn't work this blog will still be about the same issues.