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ADA 30 In Color

Graphic with a white background and at the top is a row of colorful paint in rainbow colors dripping down. Text in black at the bottom reads #ADA30InColor
Graphic with a white background and at the top is a row of colorful paint in rainbow colors dripping down. Text in black at the bottom reads #ADA30InColor

#ADA30InColor: a series of original essays on the past, present, and future of disability rights and justice by disabled BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) writers. Published and edited by Alice Wong, Disability Visibility Project. Project Coordinator, Andraéa LaVant. Plain language summaries, Finn Gardiner. Audio narration, Alejandra Ospina. For more, read this article about our 7/26 online event by Hari Srinivasan for the Daily Cal and check out the video below (text transcript).

 

“ADA 30: No Justice for Disabled Native People”

Jen Deerinwater

 

“#BlackAutisticJoy in ADA 30”

Timotheus Gordon, Jr.

 

“Building Bridges as A Disabled Korean Immigrant”

Miso Kwak

 

“We Must Reimagine Ourselves”

Allison Masangkay

 

“Missing Step”

Reyma McCoy McDeid

 

“The Future Liberation of Disability Movements”

Valerie Novack

 

“They can take away the Mosque, but they’ll never take my faith”

Noor Pervez

 

“The burden and consequences of self-advocacy for disabled BIPOC”

Aparna R.

 

“After 30 Years the ADA Leaves People with Psychiatric Disabilities Behind”

Héctor M. Ramirez

 

“We Change, We Wait”

Lia Seth

 

“Decolonization as a Strategy for Accommodating Disabilities”

Rachel Setzer

 

“SixPointSeventyFive (6.75)”

Teefloetry

 

“How the ADA Gave Birth to a Black Sexpert”

Robin Wilson-Beattie

 

#ADA30InColor TEAM

 

Finn Gardiner, Plain Language Summaries

Photo of Finn Gardiner, a bald black man in his 30s wearing glasses and a red and grey sweater. 
Photo of Finn Gardiner, a bald black man in his 30s wearing glasses and a red and grey sweater.

Finn Gardiner is a disability rights advocate with interests in educational equity, intersectional justice, comparative policy, and inclusive technology. He holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Tufts University. He also recently finished a fellowship in Leadership and Education on Neurodevelopmental and Developmental Disabilities—LEND—at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s E.K. Shriver Center.

He is currently the Communications Specialist at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University. Throughout his work, Finn combines disability advocacy, policy analysis and research, and written and visual communications through policy briefs, original reports and white papers, and contributions to research projects. His research and advocacy interests include education and employment for autistic adults, comparative disability policy, inclusive technology, LGBTQ cultural competency, and policy that takes into account the intersections between disability, race, LGBTQ identities, class, and other experiences.

Twitter: @phineasfrogg

 

Andraéa LaVant, ‎Project Coordinator and President & Chief Inclusion Specialist, ‎LaVant Consulting, Inc.

Black woman in a power chair wearing a sleeveless dress with a floral print in bright colors. Her eyeglass frame is cat-eye shaped black and teal. She is smiling and looking slightly away from the camera.
Black woman in a power chair wearing a sleeveless dress with a floral print in bright colors. Her eyeglass frame is cat-eye shaped black and teal. She is smiling and looking slightly away from the camera.

Andraéa LaVant is a passionate disability inclusion/communications consultant with over a decade of experience building, supporting, and managing national and local initiatives to effect positive, sustainable change for people with disabilities across the nation.

Website: http://lavantconsultinginc.com/

Twitter: @andraealavant

Alejandra Ospina, Audio Narration

Alejandra is a light-skinned Latina woman with close cropped dark hair. In a close-up selfie, she wears a headset with a microphone, glasses with narrow black frames, and a short-sleeved, light blue shirt where the first part of a quote by Lydia X. Z. Brown is visible: YOU ARE NOT A BURDEN.
Alejandra is a light-skinned Latina woman with close cropped dark hair. In a close-up selfie, she wears a headset with a microphone, glasses with narrow black frames, and a short-sleeved, light blue shirt where the first part of a quote by Lydia X. Z. Brown is visible: YOU ARE NOT A BURDEN.

Alejandra Ospina is a first-generation native New Yorker and full-time wheelchair user whose family has roots in Colombia. She has been active for several years in various advocacy and performance projects online, locally and beyond, and also works as a media access provider, creating closed captions and audio descriptions.  Always glad to be a part of formative works to share with new audiences, she has previously collaborated as a vocalist, actor, dancer, and/or accessibility provider with organizations such as Heidi Latsky Dance, Infinity Dance Theater, ZCO/Dance Project, Kinetic Light, the Queens Theatre, HiGlass Entertainment, and others.

Website: superaleja.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/superaleja

Twitter: @superaleja

Alice Wong, Editor and Publisher, Disability Visibility Project

Photo of an Asian American woman in a power chair. She is wearing an orange-red jacket and black pants. She is wearing a mask over her nose attached to a gray tube and bright red lip color. Her hands are resting over her joystick. Photo credit: Eddie Hernandez Photography
Photo of an Asian American woman in a power chair. She is wearing an orange-red jacket and black pants. She is wearing a mask over her nose attached to a gray tube and bright red lip color. Her hands are resting over her joystick. Photo credit: Eddie Hernandez Photography

Alice Wong (she/her) is a disabled activist, media maker, and consultant. She is the Founder and Director of the Disability Visibility Project (DVP), an online community dedicated to creating, sharing and amplifying disability media and culture created in 2014. Currently, Alice is the Editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century, an anthology of essays by disabled people, available now (June 30, 2020) by Vintage Books.

Twitter: @SFdirewolf / @DisVisibility

 

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