Title:
Bridging Communities: WAWABILITY Celebrating 35 Years of the ADA
Subtitle:
Inside WAWABILITY with Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Transformation Through Advocacy
Transcript:
Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths.
Let’s go.
Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia. We are a podcast that likes to explore the power of possible, and today’s guest is blazing those trails for sure. I want to also make sure that I’m lifting up the beautiful Mandy David, who is our ASL interpreter, and she’s gonna be facilitating the conversation. I’m beyond excited yet again about another one of our amazing guests, the phenomenal Warren Wawa Snipe.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Nice to meet you and it’s an honor to be here.
Alycia Anderson: Nice to meet you too. He is an award-winning hip hop artist. Yep, that’s what I said. We have our first hip hop artist on the show. Check that box. He’s an actor. He’s an accessibility pioneer. He was born profoundly deaf. Wawa has redefined what it means to embrace ability. He has channeled his power through arts and becoming a well recognized performer, lighting up the stages from Super Bowl to the small screens.
Amazing. And our paths cross because he is the visionary of this amazing event that is about to happen in July. That’s called WAWABILITY, and it’s an event that’s amplifying and lifting up and celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. So powerful. They ask me to come speak and be a small part of this event.
I’m thrilled, but most of all today I am thrilled to meet Wawa. Thank you so much for coming on the show and enlightening our community. Welcome.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Thank you. I appreciate this. It’s an exciting time. It’s challenging, but at the same time it’s very exciting.
Alycia Anderson: It is so exciting. Okay, let’s dive in. I have so many questions for you. Hopefully we can get to them all. But I want to look backwards a little bit. Can we talk about the beginning? Can you share a little bit about your backstory, your journey that led you into music and ultimately down the path of advocacy?
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: I started. Entertainment world for almost 30 years now total. And I started as a dancer and dance company. We traveled around the world and then dance and acting at the same time. Then I picked up more involved with music since that. So within the entertainment world itself, that became my.
Daily thing. My life, my navigating it in my life. Before that, I didn’t know sign language until I got into college. So when I got into college, it became my second birth. From the hearing world, that’s where I was always the last person to know everything and everybody had to let me, or I was ignored or marginalized or oppressed.
And I came into the deaf culture and the deaf world and I was accepted. It didn’t matter for who I am, and they taught me signs and I was included. I wasn’t the last person to know anything that was going on, and I felt I belonged, but. I did feel belonging, but I just I only had a little bit of support, but I had so much more support in the deaf world and connected.
And also people at the same time were, they were like me. They were deaf and hard of hearing, and so we clicked so it aligned with the entertainment world. So I love it. And the other skills that I never knew I had before from dancing to creative and producing music to acting, and I just fell in love with it.
But, I wanted more and I wanted to see, the different opportunities, the different people with disabilities that they can do. I’ve seen them in time, so I meeting people and learning their struggles and learning their successes and learning, their wishes and their passions and what they had, and a network. I contacted a network that was really important for me because I wanted to be able to create this network. And I saw how, okay, I’m not the only person in the acting world fighting for access. And I see all the accomplishments. And I was like, oh, okay. Wow. So I knew it was a lot. So I’ve always wanted to see and have.
In my journey with all the stars and people with disabilities that are, they’re deaf or hearing it all together and just disability, traveling and showing our work. And the people, not disabled, go, wow, hey, they’re good and they have, and there’s more out there. But in that time they didn’t, there wasn’t much of networking or networks to help and meet people.
So what did I do? I wrote, and, I wrote everything down and just expanded and kept things in the back of my mind and kept putting things down and writing ’em down. And years later I, I was really itching to go to South by Southwest, was invited to go. And of course I was on a panel and they were presenting and we were talking about accessibility.
And then I saw. They were giving a workshop. A friend was giving a workshop on accessibility and music and it was a music festival. And I was like, wow. I, that’s what I wanna do, and that’s something I wanna do. So they explained to me, I was fascinated with that workshop. And so I got really excited and I was just really itching to do something in that year.
So I was like, okay. I have to do this. I, I have everything written down. I had my vision ready and so now I had enough network, for performance. ’cause I’ve traveled around and my, so my network became bigger and so I thought, okay, I can go ahead with it. So I decided to announce that I was planning to do it.
No one was really interested in oh, hey. Good idea. Yeah. Oh I’m in, it was just one person and her name is Ann Marie, and this is her sign name a m from, she’s the CEO of TDI. And it’s, oh, okay. So I think she said, I think you should go and I’ll help. And I was shocked. So since that point on, it’s, we’ve just been plugging along for three years now and I didn’t know who to, bring on board.
But as the time was going on, Anne Marie brought in a person and then we just brought in production company food, dog productions and so we kept, they kept bringing more people and so we still were expanding and it was a be we have a beautiful team. I. I couldn’t ask for anything better, period.
It is just the champ, and it’s not about us, but it’s for the people with disability and the community around the world. And so it’s time.
Alycia Anderson: One thing that, three things I actually wanna say with that was so beautiful. Number one, and I love where this began with you finding community within your community and signing, and that’s to me, what WAWABILITY is it’s our community coming together and supporting each other.
So I love it that you found that
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: exactly
Alycia Anderson: at that age of 20 or whatever that was. I then love that. You navigated your passion of performing in music and dance and had this goal to go to South by Southwest, because frankly, we all, I have that goal. That’s a great goal and you achieved it and you found there one of the things that inspires a lot of us as advocates, which is the relationship of our talent and technology and where that can take us, and it’s powerful. So it’s giving me the chills right now saying that for you. And then community comes back where you meet Anne-Marie, and that’s why you and I are connected because of Anne-Marie and meet.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Yes, that’s right.
Alycia Anderson: And meeting each other and coming together to lift up such an amazing event is like, it’s gotta be full circle for you.
So congratulations on persevering through that. Beautiful. Coming of age for you is what it sounds like to me. And that’s absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing that wonder. So wonderful.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Yes, it truly, thank you. But I couldn’t have done all this without my team. The team, including Mandy, she’s involved with it as well.
It just, three years up and down. But that’s called growing pains. You’re building something from scratch, from a dream to now becoming reality, and it takes work and it takes confidence and keep going. And so I, yeah, it was worth it. It’s worth it.
Alycia Anderson: So can we explain what WAWABILITY is like? Let’s dive in, let’s talk about the actual event. And do not leave out, I know all of the amazing, innovative accessibility experience that you’re gonna have for everyone. Can you tell us about this beautiful event that’s about to happen?
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Okay.
So first I want to explain the sign for WW ability. WAWABILITY. So myself, Wawa, this is my sign and I have a company called Wawa’s World and it that does music. Okay. And so the sign is Wawa, so you know the logo is a heart shape, is a logo. And at the top. We have all the little lines representing music going up and down right on our logo.
And then this is our sign WAWABILITY. So if you notice, it’s the four that represents people of different disabilities all around the world. Okay? So we’re making a heart Wawa and then spreading it out is the ability part. So as Wawa’s world, I tend to say show some love. Okay, so WAWABILITY, so now another word people might think, WAWABILITY.
Oh, your name. No, it’s not. It’s. It’s WAWABILITY represents the deaf culture. And some people, pronounce it as, their language deprived. And so for speech, and that’s fine. So many of us don’t care, but because the signing’s important, but we don’t care. When you say Wawa, it looks like wow.
It looks like wow. So Wawa, so it transformed into WAWABILITY as one word, and it becomes your superpower.
Alycia Anderson: Oh,
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: shining WAWABILITY.
Alycia Anderson: Oh, I love it.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: So just so for everyone, it’s everyone. Everyone can come, people with disability it only educated people are non-disabled until we’re buried.
No, we’re gonna continue educating that. Okay. So be proud why you’re doing it. Our power is to teach the why, because those people, the non-disabled will become us in the future. Yeah, they will. Where’s the resources for them? They might feel like they’re alone and maybe, paranoid and fearful.
And we, people with disabilities, we always are like, Hey, we’re here. We get it. Yeah. So you might be oppressed and you might be marginalized, but hey, we’re still here because we get it. So with all of we’re, what we’re doing. The technology innovations, the policies, the education, all of that together, it’s related with us.
We’re educating you and your children’s children and so forth. So our right, so now our celebration before the ADA, right? Many of us whew. Where was our successes? There was a lot of, before the ADA was even formed, right? And so during the ADA, we had more, successful people with disabilities and pushing, and making things successful and all of that.
But where was the spotlight for the anniversary for that? Where? Most of the time, oh, it’s great movies. We will have, we’ll talk about our struggles and we fight, and the oppression and all of that. Yes. But we haven’t seen anything related with our successes. And spotlighting that and showing what, who, people who helped us create the ADA Wow.
Thank you to them. That they fought for the ADA. It’s time, the time is now. So we had a time and space where we fight and struggle right now, but at the same time, we’re not gonna give up because we know, and we’re trying, we’re always gonna be here. And it’s really fun. Beau, it’s beautiful to see all of us coming together and collaborating that we’re not alone.
And the disabled community can see, oh, wheelchairs and the blind and the deaf, and all the different disabilities. But now we’re gonna come to DC all together and all feel welcome and all have access and all show, our shining moment for success.
So there’s so many opportunities that we’re doing, and Washington DC is where the hub and where the accessibility really started. So to really understand that 1.3, 1.4 billion people worldwide with disability. Only 16% of them have access.
Okay. That’s a small margin where most, where it’s more of the access. The USA, where it started was in Washington DC. So to circle back to, on the 35th anniversary and uplifting, it’s for you, it’s the total access, what does that look like? So many people don’t know, they can’t even understand it or imagine it, but can you imagine that 16%?
Now, 25% and it becomes 30%, 40%, 50%. So coming to WAWABILITY to learn. From you. Beautiful speech and explaining and expanding on what’s going on, and showing your talent and showing the innovations and the technology and all of that. People are not only in the USA will get it, but people around the world, because we’re bringing it to countries to help spread opening doors because right now there’s not enough doctors that help us.
We need more of that, people, they don’t know their rights, within the ADA, they’re just satisfied with the ADA, what they have right now, and they feel like maybe we need to increase more. This is the opportunity to do that. So it’s network, it’s building a network and the opportunity to reach out.
This is our time.
Alycia Anderson: Oh. You just give it the chills. Chills. And also this is our time. To celebrate. And I think that piece is setting you apart from the rest. Not to compare, but putting music on stage, dancers, all the entertainment to celebrate, to rejoice collectively instead of, to your point, always having to be in the space of advocating and like bringing the realities, the harsh realities of disability inclusion.
Is typically always at the forefront because it has to be from an educational standpoint to make any the needle move. But let’s celebrate together. Let’s dance and sing and party and enjoy life, and that is the thing that the world needs to see too, is to say representation of us. Joyful, happy, enjoying each other and living life just like everybody else, so I think that piece of your event is so cool and is the most amazing representation that you could give. Like, all these stories and advocacy that’s gonna come is so important and it’s so good. But that one next layer of let’s celebrate who we are unapologetically, let’s go, let’s do it.
So excited about that part.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: I. Be unapologetic for who you are. Whether you were born with a disability or it happened and hit later in life, you are not alone. You’re not. So right now, we have to make sure accessibility is there and it’s here, and to stay and increase it, make it better.
’cause I believe in 2030 or 2035. There’ll be more people with disabilities. So we need to have access ready for them. And 2030 is not that far off. It’s very close. So we already have disability. We know we’re go, we’re ready. Bring it on.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: So it’s a great time right now. But it starts with us who really are showing and telling people, Hey, this is what you need.
This is how you do this. This is how you improve. This is how you make things better for you and me.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: To create that door.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah. And I think it’s our representation of just the little things too. Like I just spoke in an event and one of the. At an all girls school event, and this girl with a disability came up to me afterwards.
I, and she told me that she was so afraid to grow up until today because she didn’t ever see this type of representation. And this is what you are going to be giving to the world, that we’ll be giving to the world together. And it’s those little nuggets of gold that. People who don’t have our platforms can then take and spread and become themselves.
So it’s just so amazing, honestly.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Yes. Growing up I thought I was alone.
Alycia Anderson: Me too.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Until a teacher told me, Hey, there’s other people like you. And I thought they were joking. Wow. I come in and I saw people were like me, and I was like, how many are out there? If we find them, we need to bring them.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Don’t leave them.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah. Yeah. So what is the 35th anniversary of ADA represent to you personally?
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: That’s a good question. One word, transformation. Transformation,
awareness. The transformation means people From here, I thought I just had to accept them. Closed in, there’s, I’m by myself and I’m oppressed by everyone around society, and I’m having to fight. Society to get what I need. And I’m hitting walls. I’m hitting walls everywhere I go, and I’m exhausted. And I’m exhausted from doing that.
But now there’s a door opening where I can walk in oh, I see I have rights. Oh, I can be a part of that. Oh, I can do that. There’s people like me. Oh. And education. Oh, okay. And then there’s laws and there’s rights for me. Okay. There are resources out there for me. So is that it? No, there’s more. So transformation is us.
Transformation of the mind, transformation of everything of your who you are, your being, your disability is your superpower. People ask you how, why, or anything, or how could you do that? Or what happened to you? Or why you, or why all this stuff? So it becomes your platform. Okay and then you explain this is what I do.
This is what happened to me. If you didn’t know, oh, we had this, and this. You can educate them and they become aware and you never know. It might happen to them or someone they know or love. They might lose their hearing, they might lose their sight. They might have diabetes, they might have neurodivergent you.
They could prepare for it. So people with disabilities, we fight. Yes. And the society just is sweeping it under the rug. You can’t sweep it under the rug anymore because it’s, we’re visible. Now we’re transforming what we show. And we’re like, oh, okay. Let’s work together. So it’s transformation.
Alycia Anderson: Transformation. I love that word so much. I’m gonna write it down, so don’t forget it. Maybe I’ll quote you in my speech. I love it. So
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: go ahead.
Alycia Anderson: I want you to pitch sponsorship hard for this event right now. How do we get involved? Go ahead, get, do your stretches. Get ready. Tell our community and the organizations that follow this podcast, how to support you, how to get involved, how to donate, how to lift this event up.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Okay. Ability, as I mentioned, it is your superpower. You are always welcome. The fun part of this is there’s people out there. That, that they think nothing’s ever gonna happen to them. They’re just walking around and they think they’re fine. Everything’s all good, and then one day it hits them, boom, they’re the whole world changed and they feel like, oh, there’s no one here for me.
Oh, we are we with disability, we’re here. We’ve been here. So some people, they don’t know where to go or their resources, where they are, where to find them, and why this happened to me. We don’t know why this happened to you, but we can tell you how to get your support that you need and where to go and what companies have resources that you need and how to provide your rights as well.
So many people don’t realize that. So WAWABILITY. We always need people to sponsor. Sponsorship is so important for us because, we work and people with disabilities we’re working and we’re trying to get through and there’s still people who are out there and they think, oh, there’s nothing available for them really.
Oh, but there is, there’s here. And you know that because of. All the 1.4 billion people with disability worldwide. We spend about $8 trillion a year on things that we need. $8 trillion. That’s a lot of money. I. So some of the things we buy that we need for our everyday life, they’re expensive and some of us have to work two, maybe three jobs, to be able to earn enough money to just be able to afford it.
For example, my cochlear implants, my battery alone, they’re to recharge. The battery is $85 and some people can’t afford that. Okay. So some don’t know where to go to get it. So imagine with the businesses that are creating the things for people with disabilities, okay? So there’s more people that get nowhere and then they could become aware and they’ll come to your companies.
Or maybe that the cost will go down too, maybe. So you know, any type of anything that can help, you know their business as well. They get the return on investment. And then for us as well. Accessibility is so important. I can’t stress that enough because it’s gonna hit all of us at one point. Some countries have some accessibility in areas for disability, people here and there, but America, wow.
It’s just a beautiful place to have. It’s here and ready and we’re still growing and we always have, room to improve. So we have so many people who help, wrote that, wrote the
a ADA law, and we are so grateful for them for creating that. We have so many people are fighting for accessibility, before many of us were even born.
Thank you to them. We have people who are still fighting for access and raising awareness and pushing that forward. So these people, to me, they’re heroes. But they’re the unsung heroes.
We wanna spotlight them and we want to recognize them and their work, and we want to recognize, what they’ve done over the years. And I want to thank them personally. And oh, so it’s. I’m getting goosebumps now. I’m so inspired, but I’m passionate and the time is now. And so this is a place where people are going back to, fighting for accessibility and they’re losing this, and they’re losing that, and they’re losing that.
It is time to have more than ever. We gotta partner together. Not just for that purpose, but to celebrate us. Yeah. So yeah, I, so sponsorships, leadership, we need more. Be bold. Tell people what you need. WAWABILITY. We want to be the hub and a safe space for people. For this community and a lot the artists are performing.
There’s lots of, showing their work and there’s musicians, there’s dancers, there’s Comedy Night, and there’s so much more. And so this year one for us we’re gonna continue it, but this is year one. So when we continue it, it’ll grow and keep growing and growing. So we want this to be a really safe space for people around the world going, I’m coming to WAWABILITY because I know it’s a safe place for me.
Ah, okay. It is a great opportunity. So again, what’s the total access look like to you? This WAWABILITY is a place that you’ll to find out.
Alycia Anderson: Oh, I’m so excited about that. I can’t wait.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: It is going to be fun. And like I said, I’m really excited and sometimes I wake up and I pitch myself like, Ooh, it’s a dream. And it’s, and it beca it was a dream and I put it down in notes and it’s here, it’s been a journey. People want it to be, the end. They just want the ending and it’s like they, they don’t wanna do much work, but.
The process and the journey that really is growth right there.
Alycia Anderson: Such an important reminder too for all of us that are hustling and growing and hustling and growing. That is a very important reminder. You’re so right.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Allies.
Yeah, we need to thank them. Yeah, thank them. Our allies, and I thank them a lot because they don’t realize, even though it’s subtle and they’re humble, they may think it’s nothing. But it’s a lot to us and to me personally. So I thank thank you Allies. I really cherish you,
but I wanted to say a funny story. My, my mom and my sister. Now they’re losing their hearing. And growing up, I was the only deaf person in my family. It was just me. I thought I was the only one. There were nobody else in my family. And then I graduated from college and I decided to learn more about the history of our, my family.
So I was the, the national archives. And so I went and I researched and I found that, oh, my grandfather’s side of the family, two brothers and a sister who were deaf. And I was like. I never knew that. And now I realize it’s inherited the deafness. So it just skipped a generation. But about 10 years ago, my mom, she’s Hey Warren, let me tell you something.
I’m gonna show you something. And she took her hearing aids out and took ’em off and showed ’em to me. And I was like, what? And she was like, yes. I’m losing my hearing. She was so proud of it. Okay, so then my sister, about three or four years ago, Wawa, look. Look, and she took hers out. She was a little, and I was like, Ugh.
And she’s yeah, look, I’m losing my hearing. So it was, they were okay with it. So I asked both of them and I said, okay. How do you feel? Because I was worried how they were gonna feel. I didn’t know, I was a little paranoid and they said, because of you and watching you grow up and go and just keep going.
It was like, oh, I feel oh, we could do it. No problem.
Alycia Anderson: Wow.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: If we didn’t have that, we’d be scared and we’d be paranoid, we wouldn’t know what to do. But because of you they were asking me questions, and they could ask questions, I could answer, and so they know. So now I’m trying to get them to learn sign language.
We’ll see wow when the time comes. But we, people with disabilities, our superpower is, we’re ready to explain. We’re here. We’re right here. We’re not afraid. We’re still welcoming people who are non-disabled to, Hey, if it happens to you we’re here to help you. So again, we’re educating. Now we’re educating America.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah, we are. Did we miss anything? Did we miss anything that is imperative for our community to know? Pre WAWABILITY, I, or anything about you personally? Anything.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: Some of you might think, oh, you know you’re a performer and you’re performing at the Super Bowl twice and you’re on TV and film and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I did the Super Bowl twice and it was such an honor. Wow. To be the, in the movie and all of that. But I’m still me.
If you want to make, be successful at anything, you have to act on it. You have to jump in and don’t be afraid. But it’s a process. It’s a journey. It wasn’t easy, and I had people make fun of me and laugh at me and make fun and put me down and marginalize me, and oppress me.
Even I still have that today. I get that today still, but I can’t let that get to me. There’s a lot of people with disability that do, they just, they can reflect and and we keep going and that’s the way that we can keep going. Sometimes we feel discouraged and depressed, but we know we’re not alone.
I’m just me. I am the type of person, I’m a humble person, but I wanted to let you know I’m a team player. I love people bringing people in and working together on something to grow because it helps us grow. And WAWABILITY is a team effort, so I could not have done it without the team. It just is awesome.
God gave me this and it was a mission that he gave me and I’ve done it. And it’s been developing and now it’s happening with the people in the community, giving back to the community. And we’re elevating the community and raising awareness. And I pray that we really make a strong impact to wake up the leaders and the policy makers and the educators, all of them, even people who are ENG engineers, all of that to create innovations.
The guide and educate them so they’ll know about accessibility. Even though there’s 35th anniversary of the ADA, that’s a great, but we still have room to improve. We still have work to do and it takes us all to do it. It’s not just one. So that’s just two or three. It takes all of us.
Alycia Anderson: You’re gonna make a huge impact for sure.
We’re gonna leave in the show notes, all of the links to connect with you to support WAWABILITY to attend, to sponsor, to get involved in any way that each of us possibly can. And before I thank you for being an excellent guest on the show. Very good. One of my favorites. I told you about our pushing forward.
You might have just said that, but can you leave a pushing forward moment, a little mantra, something to inspire our community to go out and reach their dreams like you. Is there something that you live by?
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: There’s two things. Great. I tend to show some love. One of my I I always say all the time, it shows some love ’cause I mean it.
This world needs it. It’s a crazy world, but we need to show some love. It doesn’t matter your background. Show some love. You never know who’s beside you. That’s really hurting. Second thing’s, a quote from Nelson Mandela, and this is his sign name and his quote. It’s impossible until it’s done.
Alycia Anderson: Yeah, I love that.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: So true. So true. So when people think, oh, this dream is too far, it’s impossible. Can’t do it, the key word is what? Act. Start somewhere and just keep going and g o. And the next thing you know, it could take a year, it could take a week, it could take a month, but the point is that vision becomes content right here.
So really start asking yourself how, instead of why me? Why this, why that? I can’t afford this. I can’t do that. I can’t change that mindset of how can I do this? How can I afford this? How can I make this happen? How? You’d be surprised how far you’ll get.
Alycia Anderson: I like it. The act of how I’m into it, so Good.
Thank you so much for giving me your time today. I know you’re so busy, but this was number one. So amazing to meet you. We’re gonna be besties. I know it. I can’t wait to meet you in DC and congratulate.
Warren “Wawa” Snipe: I can’t wait either.
Alycia Anderson: Congratulations on acting. Making your dreams come true for all of us. And Mandy, thank you so much for being a part of this show as well.
This has been pushing forward with Alycia and that is literally how Wawa, Mandy, and I roll. We will see you next time.