Dot defined community as “people who are interested in similar ideas, movements, activities, getting together to do something.” Participation was a huge piece of this for Dot. Through her disability advocacy work, she formulated a definition of participation over and against the idea of isolation, the “the opposite of living in an oasis.” Participation in a community involves “some level of interactions with those that reside in your community” and can manifest in any way – formal, informal, or organized, but indicate “some familiarity in interaction.”

FRAP provided an opportunity for people to be in community, but also to participate in that community. These possibility is what first brought Dot to FRAP, but it is also what incited her desire to continue in her participation.