Through her TikTok account, Marcela Marañon–who advocates for global wheelchair access–provides motivational content for others living with disabilities. Read more here.
profile
Hall of Fame-bound Tamika Catchings and our conversation that affirmed everything
Tamika Catchings is headed to the basketball Hall of Fame and she uses hearing aids. ESPN reporter Dan Hajducky, who is also hearing impaired, shares reflections in this piece.
Read the full story here.
Disability rights leader Marca Bristo dies at 66
Marca Bristo, one of the most influential advocates for people with disabilities in the U.S., died on Sunday morning after a long battle with cancer. She was 66.
After becoming paralyzed in a diving accident at 23, Bristo dedicated her life to disability rights advocacy and worked tirelessly to secure legal protections and improve quality of life measures for people with disabilities.
Among her many achievements, Bristo played a significant role in getting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed. She also founded Access Living in Chicago, a nonprofit that promoted independent living, and in 1993 she was appointed by President Clinton to lead the National Council on Disability. She provided strategic leadership to the organization in that role until 2002.
Click here to read Marca Bristo’s full obituary in the New York Times.
Boxer Creates Class for People with Disabilities
Boxer Derry Matthews tells The Guardian why he started a boxing class for people with disabilities and why he wants it to catch on worldwide. The initiative was born out of a social media friendship. Read more
NYT Profile: Emmanuel Dongo in Liberia
The New York Times profiles a Liberian musician who uses a wheelchair and lives in a slum in Monrovia, the country’s capital city. Read more
TED Talk: Maysoon Zayid
Writer, actor and comedian Maysoon Zayid details her experience with disability, the media and more in her TED Talk. Find the talk here.
PBS Interviews Psychologist on Disability and Sex
PBS Newshour interviewed a psychologist on disability and sex. She says, “When you don’t see yourself in those magazines or part of those models, then you internalize that image and think that, OK, I guess I’m not sexy.” Read more
NCDJ Webinar Explores Writing about Disability
Tim McGuire, former Minneapolis Star Tribune editor who holds the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, is featured in a webinar hosted by the National Center on Disability and Journalism.
McGuire discusses his experiences writing and publishing his first book, “Some People Even Take Them Home: A Disabled Dad, a Down Syndrome Son, and Our Journey to Acceptance.” McGuire, a board member of the NCDJ, tells the story of his family, his own disability and that of his son Jason.
McGuire also answers questions about tips and best practices when reporting on people with disabilities, advising against taking an “oh-those-poor-people” approach that he says he has observed in a lot of disability reporting.
Instead, he suggests that reporters “exalt and respect” people with disabilities while also normalizing their triumphs and failures as they would anyone else.
Watch a recording and access the live captions here: https://connect.asu.edu/p4rkas0o96b/
Almost Dying, Always Living and Everything In Between
ESPN’s Impact 25 tells the stories of men and women who made a difference for women in sports over the past year. In this entry, Amy Purdy talks about her battle with bacterial meningitis that destroyed her hands and feet. Read more.
NPR
Accessible Designs Could Help Us All – But Only if Firms Bite
Columbia Law student Alex Blaszczuk demonstrates how accessible technology allows her to live a more independent life and enjoy many of the things she used to before a car accident left her paralyzed from the shoulders down.
In this NPR profile, Blaszczuk becomes a Google Glass explorer and is able to take pictures, find driving directions and take a camping trip with friends. Google is one of only a few big tech firms working to create accessible technologies for the disabled community. Read more.