Archives

Episode: Navigating Life: Thoughts on education, ableism, and advocac
Created: June 26, 2018
Duration: 35 minutes and 30 seconds
Overview: Tyrese Alleyne-Davis is currently a graduating senior at the Henry Viscardi School in Long Island, NY. He has triplegic cerebral palsy which requires him to use a wheelchair. For the past 10 years, he has been a public speaker, giving keynote addresses for many children’s organizations such as the Starlight Children’s Foundation, S.K.I.P. of NY, New Alternatives for Children, and INCLUDEnyc. Earlier this year, he had the distinct pleasure of addressing legislators in Albany, NY advocating for 4201 State Funded Schools. Additionally, Tyrese has had the opportunity to address the Black Law Student Association at Harvard Law School and speak at Columbia University’s Disability Caucus. Last summer, Tyrese was one of twenty high school students chosen out of 500 applicants to intern at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

Academically, Tyrese has soared, being inducted into the National Juniors Honor Society and receiving multiple college scholarships from CACNY, The Options Center, and the Henry Viscardi School. In the fall, he will be attending NYU on a full scholarship and intends to study communications and sociology. Tyrese has dreams of becoming an advocacy lawyer, concentrating on elevating the rights of the disabled community.

Episode: Vilissa Thompson, LMSW – Black Disability, Disabled Women of Color, Empowerment, Advocacy (Ep. 8)
Created: August 6, 2018
Duration: 33 minutes and 53 seconds
Overview: In this episode, I talk with Vilissa Thompson, founder and leader of Ramp Your Voice!, a self-advocacy and empowerment movement for people with disabilities. We discuss Vilissa’s work to educate social workers, educators, and medical professionals about being helpful, rather than harmful, to disabled people, especially disabled women of color. Vilissa explains how the intersection of racism and ableism negatively impact this population and she shares steps that people can take to educate themselves to be allies and advocates for change. She also shares about creating the hashtag #DisabilityTooWhite and the Black Disabled Woman Syllabus. I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Episode: Talking Ableism, Hashtag Appropriation and Rom-Coms with Keah Brown
Created: April 13, 2018
Duration: 59 minutes and 50 seconds
Overview: On this week’s podcast, Ana sat down with writer, journalist and disability rights activist Keah Brown for a difficult conversation about the erasure of disability, ableism, and much more. The jumping off point for their discussion is a piece Keah wrote about loving romantic comedies even though they perpetuate an ideal body image to which she can aspire but never achieve. However, she also noted that since writing the piece two years ago, her thoughts on body positivity and self-love have evolved. 

Episode: Accessibility and the American Disability Act (Ep. 18)
Created: February 11, 2018
Duration: 36 minutes and 18 seconds
Overview: Today’s episode is about accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act with Lia Seth and Dara Baldwin. Lia shares her experiences navigating public spaces as person with an invisible disability and a recent experience at a music venue that shows what accessibility should be all about. Dara, a disability rights policy analyst, gives an overview of HR 620, the ADA Education & Reform Act of 2017, and what’s at stake for the disability community. Please note: The status of the bill has changed since the recording of Dara’s interview. 

Episode: Invisible Disabilities (Ep. 17)
Created: January 29, 2018
Duration: 31 minutes and 20 seconds
Overview: Today’s episode is about invisible disabilities with Tiffany Peterson and Linda Williams. Tiffany and Linda share their lived experiences as women with invisible disabilities, the misconceptions about invisible disabilities, and the need for language and symbols about disability that we can all identify with such as iridescent amoebas giving side-eye (listen to find out more). 

Episode: Ableism
Created: February 6, 2017
Duration: 1 hour, 19 minutes, 48 seconds
Overview: This episode is all about ableism–the conscious and unconscious ways that people tend to discriminate against disabled people. Ginny Owens joined us to talk about her experiences as a blind muscian living and working in Nashville. Heather Avis told us about her children with Down syndrome, and how people respond to them. Michele in NYC shared her perspective as a queer, intersectional, disabled activist.