Student’s resolution adopted by South Dakota Senate, passed by House

Senior Makena Schultz, an Augustana student in the Augie Access program, knows how it feels to be told she isn’t as capable as others. She doesn’t want anyone to feel the way she’s felt.

Wanting to make a change for those with differing abilities in South Dakota, Schultz decided to take the issue to the state Senate and House of Representatives. Both the Senate and House passed the resolution in February 2024, and it will be signed by Gov. Larry Rhoden in the coming months.

Schultz first started her journey to the South Dakota capitol in fall 2023 when she began her internship at Special Olympics of South Dakota. Around that time, Schultz began learning about the importance of inclusive language for people with differing abilities.

During the 2024 spring semester, Schultz and Special Olympics’s Office Manager Lane Riedel began working together on pamphlets that would educate readers on person-first language.

“Our abilities do not define who we are or what we can achieve, nor should they dictate if we are heard,” Riedel said.

Person-first language — Mallorie Schultz, Makena’s sister, explained — is about putting the person before the label. Because individuals have many labels, putting the person first shows that having a differing ability is only one part of someone, not the whole.

In the spring of 2024, Makena Schultz also reached out to a family friend, Sen. Casey Crabtree, about the importance of using person-first language and using “differently abled” in lieu of “disabled.”

Makena Schultz broke it down: “Dis-” means “not” or “opposite of.” When someone says “disabled person,” she said, they are really saying “a person with no ability.”

“It makes me sad and depressed, and I don’t feel able,” Makena Schultz said, tearing up.

Makena Schultz and Sen. Crabtree began seriously discussing bringing the issue to the South Dakota State Senate and House of Representatives floors this past spring and summer.

Come fall 2024, Makena Schultz joined Partners in Policymaking, a group which aims to “engage and empower individuals with developmental disabilities, parents, and families” and to “foster productive partnerships between policymakers and individuals needing and using services,” according to its website. 

Once a month, Mallorie Schultz said, the program takes its members to the South Dakota capitol in Pierre, South Dakota, to discuss how the government works and how laws are made. There, alongside Sen. Crabtree, Makena Schultz networked with representatives and senators about their resolution.

Sen. Crabtree and Steve Watkins, president and CEO of LifeScape — a non-profit organization that “provides a wide range of services for children and adults who have disabilities and medical rehabilitation needs” — finalized the resolution that was eventually presented on the House and Senate floors.

As Makena Schultz began preparing to stand in front of the South Dakota Health and Human Services Committee, her team at the Special Olympics Unify Center surprised her and her family with purple t-shirts, reading “Forget the label I am Able” in support of her resolution.

“[Makena] sent the picture to me, and I started tearing up because it was just so sweet,” Mallorie Schultz said. “It’s a very overwhelming feeling of like, ‘Wow, we are so loved.’”

At the Senate Health and Human Services Committee meeting on Feb. 12, Makena Schultz spoke in favor of the resolution. The committee voted in favor 5–0. The following day, the resolution was proposed to the South Dakota Senate, which voted in favor of the resolution 35–0. On Feb. 20, the resolution went to the House floor where it needed 36 up-votes in order to get the resolution to the Governor’s desk. In the end, the House passed the resolution 54–16.

Makena Schultz has felt the support from her family, friends, co-workers and South Dakota legislature through her journey to the House and Senate floors and back.

“I feel special,” Makena Schultz said with a grin.

Makena and Mallorie Schultz hope that the resolution will ensure that future laws affecting people with differing abilities will use inclusive language in order to amplify the abilities of those who are so often told they don’t have a voice.

“Practically, this means that when laws or regulations are drafted or revised, there will be a conscious effort [by lawmakers] to use person-first language—shifting the way the government communicates and reinforcing respect for individuals with disabilities in official discourse,” Rep. Kadyn Wittman said about the resolution.

Augie Access Program Coordinator Catherine Davis said it is as important as ever to lift up the voices of people with differing abilities. In the past, advocates have spoken on behalf of those with differing abilities, but it is essential that they can speak up for themselves too, Davis said.

“Looking at the disability movement over time, the reason why we have the laws we have now is because people had their voices heard,” Davis said. “So giving people with differing abilities a voice, in a space to be able to share their story, I think it’s really important, and that’s how change happens.”

Makena Schultz hopes her work will spread throughout the community: at Augustana, in Sioux Falls and throughout the state. She doesn’t believe in the word “can’t” either, Riedel said.

“I do know this about Makena: She may be differently abled, but she is most definitely able,” Riedel wrote in an email. “Makena will succeed at anything that she puts her mind to, and she will continue to make a difference each and every day.”