Disability Visibility Alice Wong: Disability Activist, Media Maker, Consultant

Surprise! This is a bonus episode talking about disability rights and the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (also known as the ADA). I recently spoke with Conchita Hernandez Legorreta (@Conchitahdz) for an upcoming conversation on immigration and Conchita had some really important thoughts about disability rights, leadership and the ADA. Here is a short excerpt from my interview with Conchita. You can look forward to more in episode 90.

Hospitals across the country have reached full capacity and utilizing crisis standards of care, guidelines used when there is a shortage of resources and care. Today’s episode is about healthcare allocation in the time of COVID with Britney Wilson (@labelleverite), a civil rights attorney with the National Center for Law and Economic Justice. This center, along with three other disability rights organizations, filed a class action complaint in October 2020 against the state of New York. The lawsuit alleges discrimination in a current state plan that would ration ventilators and allow hospitals to reallocate ventilators from people who use them in the community. Britney will talk about her role in the case and how the case came about, how these existing guidelines are ableist and harm disabled people, and the goals are from the lawsuit. Please note we talked in November 2020 and I included a short update at the end of the episode. Disability Visibility is a production of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to recording, amplifying, and sharing disability media and culture. Text transcripts and links for each episode are available at: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/podcast-2/ Twitter: @DisVisibility Support this podcast: patreon.com/DVP

Today’s episode features an interview with Johnnie Jae (@johnniejae) who is from the Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw tribes of Oklahoma. Johnnie is a journalist, organizer, creator, and futurist and the founder of A Tribe Called Geek, an award-winning media platform for Indigenous Geek Culture and STEM, and #Indigenerds4Hope, a suicide prevention initiative designed to educate, encourage, and empower Native youth. Johnnie will talk about her experiences accessing healthcare and staying safe as an immunocompromised person, the pandemic’s impact on disabled Indigenous, the systemic inequalities facing Indigenous communities, and the movement to remove racist imagery and terms in popular culture. Please note there will be discussions about hospitalization, genocide, settler colonialism, medical racism, racist mascots. Disability Visibility is a production of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to recording, amplifying, and sharing disability media and culture. Text transcripts and links for each episode are available at: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/podcast-2/ Twitter: @DisVisibility Support this podcast: patreon.com/DVP

Today’s episode features an interview with Jen White-Johnson (@jtknoxroxs), an Afro-Latina disabled artist, photographer, educator, and designer. Jen is also an Assistant Professor of Visual Communication at Bowie State University. Jen will talk about how being the parent of a neurodivergent Black son politicized her and her work in the midst of racist violence and police brutality this year. You’ll hear her describe one of several graphics she created this year that features the raised solidarity fist in black with an infinity sign at the wrist with the words Black Disabled Lives Matter below. You can find more of Jen’s work on her website at https://jenwhitejohnson.com/. Please note this interview contains mentions of antiblackness, violence, and police brutality. Disability Visibility is a production of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to recording, amplifying, and sharing disability media and culture. Text transcripts and links for each episode are available at: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/podcast-2/ Twitter: @DisVisibility Support this podcast: patreon.com/DVP

Today’s episode features an interview with Emily Ackerman (@EmilyEAckerman), a doctoral candidate in chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh and a disabled activist. Emily will talk about how she got into chemical engineering, her advice for disabled students who want to be scientists, her experiences last year on campus with a delivery robot, and the importance of accessibility in the design and development of technology. Disability Visibility is a production of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to recording, amplifying, and sharing disability media and culture. Text transcripts and links for each episode are available at: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/podcast-2/ Twitter: @DisVisibility Support this podcast: patreon.com/DVP

Today I get a chance to talk with Conchita Hernandez Legorreta (@Conchitahdz) about her experiences as a disabled immigrant. Conchita was born in Mexico and grew up in California. She advocates for the rights of blind children and their parents in the public-school setting in the United States and abroad. Conchita is the founder and Chair of METAS which stands for Mentoring Engaging and Teaching All Students, a non-profit organization that trains educators in Latin America that work with blind, low vision students and other disabilities. She’s also a co-founder of the National Coalition of Latinx with Disabilities that seeks to amplify the voices of disabled Latinx in the disability rights movement. Currently, Conchita works as a Blind and Low Vision Specialist for the state of Maryland. For more after this episode check out another short interview I did with Conchita for the podcast about the 30th anniversary of the ADA which is episode 82a. So. Much. Good. Stuff. Disability Visibility is a production of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to recording, amplifying, and sharing disability media and culture. Text transcripts and links for each episode are available at: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/podcast-2/ Twitter: @DisVisibility Support this podcast: patreon.com/DVP