Would you like to learn more about healthcare related disability and accessibility issues? Would you like to hear perspectives from disabled individuals as they discuss how their disability impacts their lives? The Disability Visibility podcast, hosted by Alice Wong, has one hundred episodes that center disabled individuals and activists who work to create a more accessible world.
If you are interested in listening to the podcast, Himmelfarb Library’s DEI Committee suggests starting with episodes 95 and 98. In episode 95, Alice Wong speaks with Dr. Justin Bullock, an African-American medical resident who wrote the New England Journal of Medicine article Suicide–Rewriting My Story. The episode’s conversation focuses on Dr. Bullock’s experiences with Bipolar Disorder, suicidality and his medical school and residency journey. Episode 98 is another conversation with UC Berkeley undergraduate student, Alena Morales. Morales shares her experiences with creating the Disability Cultural Center on Berkeley’s campus and what that process taught her about creating communities for disabled people.
Other episodes that may be of interest include episode 77: Mental Health Advocacy, episode 54: Disabled Scientists, episode 24: Disability Justice and Community Organizing, and episode 17: Invisible Disabilities. Additionally, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century features work from over 30 authors and is an alternative way to learn from disabled individuals.
If you listen to the suggested episodes and would like to hold a community discussion, the DEI Committee created a starting list of questions that may guide the conversation:
- Did this podcast change your perspective on disability? What surprised you?
- If you or someone you know has disabilities, what challenges have you/they faced?
- How does disability intersect with other identities such as race or sexual orientation?
- Are you aware of ways that GW accommodates students with disabilities? What else could be done?
- Dr. Bullock discusses his experience with bipolar disorder. Had you considered mental health issues as disabilities? In what ways are these disabilities similar to and different from a physical disability?
The Disability Visibility podcast is one part of the ongoing Disability Visibility project. To learn more about the podcast or the larger multimedia project, visit the project’s website at disabilityvisibilityproject.com. If there is a DEIA resource that you would like to share with the committee, please contact the current chair, Rachel Brill at rgbrill@gwu.edu.
