Disability Visibility Project

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This is a graphic illustration by Haley Brown with a bright cobalt blue background. There are black lungs filled with dark gray puffy clouds. In the left lung is a yellow canary bird with a red eye in a mid-flight attack pose. In the right lung there is a red circle. Around the lungs there is clear white tubing that is entwined. Above this graphic the white text reads: #SuckYouPhilips

Posted 1 week ago DVP Blog Posts and Essays

Update on Philips CPAP, BiPAP, and Ventilator Recall

In the summer of 2021, Philips Respironics issued a recall notification of a number of their CPAP, BiPap, and ventilators in the United States. A group of disabled people impacted … Continue Reading Update on Philips CPAP, BiPAP, and Ventilator Recall

Graphic with a pale blue background with an illustration of a megaphone in black on the left side. On the right, black text: High-Risk Pandemic Stories: A Syllabus, 2020-21, DisabilityVisibilityProject.com

Posted 2 weeks ago DVP Blog Posts and Essays

High-Risk Pandemic Stories: A Syllabus

Since March 2020 I have been collecting strands of disabled wisdom about the pandemic and trying to gather, weave, and share them. Disabled, fat, older, poor, immunocompromised, and chronically ill … Continue Reading High-Risk Pandemic Stories: A Syllabus

Graphic in red with starburst designs on the left and right. In the center in large sized text: 2021, below in smaller sized font in white: Disability Visibility Project Year in Review

Posted 2 weeks ago DVP Blog Posts and Essays

DVP: 2021 Year in Review

Happy New Year! Better late than never, am I right? 2021 was SOME year. Too many expletives cannot adequately express my frustration and concern right now. I hope you are … Continue Reading DVP: 2021 Year in Review

Petra and Neil are sitting side-by-side in their wheelchairs in or just outside a building in Honolulu. Petra, a smiling woman with short hair and glasses, is wearing a bright yellow top and wearing a lei as she gazes at Neil, to her left. Neil, a man with short hair and a beard, both dark with some gray mixed in, is wearing a white shirt and a lei, and gazing mischievously toward Petra. Courtesy of Petra Kuppers.

Posted 2 weeks ago Guest Blog Posts

Reading Storms, Embracing Life: A Remembrance of Neil Marcus

Reading Storms, Embracing Life: A Remembrance of Neil Marcus Steven E. Brown “I’m a human bridge in a moment of time, spanning as far and as relevant as … Continue Reading Reading Storms, Embracing Life: A Remembrance of Neil Marcus

Image Description: A light-skinned woman of Brazilian heritage is standing outside and smiling at the camera. Her eyes twinkle at you, framed by dark and bold eyebrows. Her dark brown hair is pushed back by a pair of sunglasses, tendrils of hair fanning out around her face. Tactile Description: Cristina Hartmann has small, smooth hands that move deliberately and precisely, often punctuating her thoughts with a wry pinky wriggle-laugh. Her most distinctive tactile feature is her hair, soft and coconut-scented, which she keeps pulled back into a twist. She leans comfortably to the side as she chats with someone, always a bit askew.

Posted 2 months ago Guest Blog Posts

Why We Need to Stop Making Movies about Helen Keller

Helen Keller’s Shadow: Why We Need to Stop Making Movies about Helen Keller Cristina Hartmann I had my first run-in with Helen Keller when I was 11. My … Continue Reading Why We Need to Stop Making Movies about Helen Keller

Graphic with a black background featuring a photo of Rachel, a white femme-presenting person sits in front of a pride flag. She has brown shoulder-length hair, and is wearing bronze earrings, black clothing, and black rimmed glasses. A little red piece of wood dangles from a thin silver necklace chain around her neck. She is sitting on a grey couch and rests her chin in one hand with one elbow on her knee. She grins slightly at the camera.

Posted 2 months ago Guest Blog Posts

Reflecting on My Experiences as a Homeless Youth with Disabilities

Youth Homelessness, Disability and Institutionalization: Reflecting on My Experiences as a Homeless Youth with Disabilities this National Runaway Prevention Month Rachel Litchman Content notes: sexual abuse, violence, trauma, … Continue Reading Reflecting on My Experiences as a Homeless Youth with Disabilities

Posted 2 months ago Guest Blog Posts

How CBT Harmed Me: The Interview That the New York Times Erased

How CBT Harmed Me: The Interview That the New York Times Erased Alana Saltz In August, I was contacted by a reporter writing an article for the New York … Continue Reading How CBT Harmed Me: The Interview That the New York Times Erased

Graphic with a black background and a photo of Maya-Camille Broussard, a young Black woman with curly black hair who is wearing gold hoop earrings. She is wearing a bright red top with ruffled short sleeves and a denim apron. She is holding a white ceramic cake stand with a pie that has a golden crust.

Posted 3 months ago DVP Blog Posts and Essays

Interview with Maya-Camille Broussard

I love pies and any kind of baked goods. Below is my interview with Maya-Camille Broussard, the founder and creator of Justice of the Pies, a bakery based in Chicago. … Continue Reading Interview with Maya-Camille Broussard

[left] Book jacket designed by Angela Carlino of DISABILITY VISIBILITY: 17 First-Person Stories for Today adapted for young readers edited by Alice Wong. The cover has thin vertical gray lines with overlapping geometric shapes in green, blue, magenta, yellow and purple. [right] Photo of Alice Wong, an Asian American disabled woman with a mask over her nose attached to a tube for her ventilator. She is in a power wheelchair and wearing a gray sweatshirt with a tiger and leopard-print red and black pants. Behind her are bamboo trees. Credit: Eddie Hernandez Photography

Posted October 26, 2021 DVP News and Events

Disability Visibility anthology for young readers

I’m delighted to share my new anthology adapted for young readers, DISABILITY VISIBILITY: 17 First-Person Stories for Today, available now from Delacorte Press. This book has 17 edited pieces from … Continue Reading Disability Visibility anthology for young readers

$Graphic with a leaf green background. Left: A white woman with short hair and an occluded cataract on her right eye wearing purple hearing aids and a pearl necklace, looking with raised eyebrows at camera between trees. Photo credit: Lis Mitchell, 2021. Right: Cover image of Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism by Elsa Sjunneson. From the letter “I” in “BEING,” the color of Elsa’s cataract refracts in a rainbow-colored prismatic effect over a dark background. “Deafblind” is emphasized with light.$

Posted October 24, 2021 DVP Blog Posts and Essays

Q&A with Elsa Sjunneson

Congratulations on your first memoir, Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman’s Fight to End Ableism, available October 26, 2021 from Simon and Schuster! How are you feeling right now in … Continue Reading Q&A with Elsa Sjunneson

Marilyn Golden [left] in her manual wheelchair with brown curly hair, wire rimmed glasses, purple shirt, conference name tag, a briefcase in her lap, seated next to Diane Coleman [right] in her motorized wheelchair with gray and blond bobbed hair, wire rimmed glasses, blue patterned dress with white sweater, tapestry shoulder bag and slim briefcase to her side. Both are smiling and leaning toward each other. The year is 2014.

Posted October 24, 2021 Guest Blog Posts

Marilyn Golden: An Unforgettable Legacy of Wisdom, Dedication, and Results

Marilyn Golden: An Unforgettable Legacy of Wisdom, Dedication, and Results Diane Coleman There’s been an incredible, powerfully moving and profoundly deserved outpouring of love and gratitude for Marilyn … Continue Reading Marilyn Golden: An Unforgettable Legacy of Wisdom, Dedication, and Results

Text reads “Andraea LaVant in conversation with Dr. Keisha Blain. November 3rd, 2021, 5:00-6:00pm EST. Live captioning & ASL.” Below are headshots of Andraea LaVant, a Black woman seated in a motorized wheelchair wearing cateye glasses, and Dr. Blain, a Black woman wearing black framed rectangular glasses. Centered is the cover for the book “Until I Am Free”, featuring a photo of Fannie Lou Hamer.

Posted October 24, 2021 DVP News and Events

3 Online events celebrating the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer

The Disability & Intersectionality Summit and the Disability Visibility Project invite you to a series of three free online conversations about the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer, a … Continue Reading 3 Online events celebrating the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer

Graphic with a black background with a photo of a Black female with dark brown complexion, close cropped black hair, wearing a wide smile, clear plastic glass frames and sweater with a geometric pattern in eggplant, sky blue, white and light peach colors.

Posted October 13, 2021 Guest Blog Posts

Accessibility and the Lack Thereof in the Film Industry

Accessibility and the Lack Thereof in the Film Industry Carolyn Hinds Being a Black woman means there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t worry that … Continue Reading Accessibility and the Lack Thereof in the Film Industry

Aubrie on a film set in front of a green screen and with a boom mic pointed at her. She wears a teal blouse, white lace skirt, and black glasses. She rides a power wheelchair.

Posted October 12, 2021 Guest Blog Posts

20 Questions for Disability-Inclusive Employers

20 Questions for Disability-Inclusive Employers Aubrie Lee We deserve better We deserve the best We deserve to get out of bed We deserve to rest We deserve to work … Continue Reading 20 Questions for Disability-Inclusive Employers

Graphic with a light purple background with a photo of a middle aged mixed race Sri Lankan, Irish and Romani femme, diagonially, in front of a wild river with lots of rocks. Leah has violet, brown and silver curly hair, peachy tan sand colored skin and red lipstick (Stila Stay All Day lipstick in Beso, aka "the lipstick AOC wears.") Their clothes are mostly not visible except for a blue denim vest. You can see their sleeve of tattoos, including cosmos flowers, a motherwort plant and letters in Tamil. They are smiling with bashful pride and satisfaction."

Posted October 3, 2021 Guest Blog Posts

How Disabled Mutual Aid Is Different Than Abled Mutual Aid

“We were maybe not going to save the world, but we were going to save each other.¹”: How Disabled Mutual Aid Is Different Than Abled Mutual Aid Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha … Continue Reading How Disabled Mutual Aid Is Different Than Abled Mutual Aid

A white woman, Emily, with blonde, shoulder-length hair sits in a black wheelchair. She is short of stature. She is wearing a pink short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans with brown wedge heels. The ground is partially cement, partially wood. There is a brick wall behind her.

Posted September 28, 2021 DVP Blog Posts and Essays

Q&A with Emily Voorde

Disabled people belong everywhere and it was exciting to several disabled people appointed to key positions in the Biden administration. Below is an interview with Emily Voorde, a person I … Continue Reading Q&A with Emily Voorde