Alicia Ciocca (she/her/ella), is white and Latina, with Puerto Rican and Italian heritage. Alicia has been an educator in the NYC Department of Education for over 10 years, teaching students with disabilities. Recently, she left to start her own inclusive education coaching practice to bring Disabilities Studies in Education into the classroom. Alicia focuses on embedding disability identity, history, and culture into curricula, and fostering environments where children experience joy, pride in their identities, and success in learning through educator development and systems level change. In this episode, Alicia shares about the history of disability rights and disability justice, which requires a shift from thinking about disability as a problem with an individual, to a more informed understanding that society has not historically been built with disabled, or neurodivergent folks in mind. The issue is a problem with our spaces, mindsets, and with society more broadly. Not a problem with disabled people. Throughout the episode, we talk about access, inclusivity, and equity, through an intersectional lens. Alicia aptly points out that if we don’t have supportive, inclusive ways to talk about disability, then a culture of shame is created. Language conveys power, but how we use language also creates possibility. How we use language in our day-to-day lives creates the conditions, cultures, and world we want to live in. If we care about the people in our lives, our families, our communities, who share different identities, and want to be together, then that means uplifting the perspectives of Disabled and Neurodivergent folks and thinking about how to make our spaces inclusive. Resources that Alicia recommends: , edited by Alice Wong, as well as her The 10 Principles of Disability Justice (as outlined by ), and their Disability Justice primer, Emily Ladau’s book, You can find Alicia at her website: https://www.aliciaciocca.com — My music is written and recorded by the Kingston High All Stars in Wellington, New Zealand. My graphics, illustrations, and website are designed and maintained by MaggsyMayCo, in Waterloo, Ontario.
