News

Candis Welch, Ms. Wheelchair California 2023

We’re joined today by Ms. Wheelchair California 2023 Candis Welch. Much more than a beauty queen, Candis is on a mission to bring equitable inclusion to all communities. In our interview, about her work as an advocate, her advice for disabled people pursing a college education, and her favorite disability representation on TV.

At 18 months, Candice was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. This is a genetic muscular disability that affects the central nervous system. She has her B.A. in Journalism with an emphasis in Public Relations and a minor in Psychology. She also has her master’s in public administration from California State University, Northridge. She recently attended Cornell University where she received a certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She is an advocate for the disabled community and serves on multiple committees to bring awareness to the public on what the disability community experiences and needs.

Click here to listen to the interview and/or read the transcript.

Voters Sue 3 Alabama Counties for Failure to Provide Accessible Absentee Voting Methods

Today, we turn to Alabama, where people with disabilities are suing three counties in that state for failure to provide an absentee voting option that is fully accessible for blind voters and other voters with disabilities. The lawsuit, filed earlier this month by four individuals and the National Federation of the Blind of Alabama, alleges that the counties are violating the rights of blind voters and other voters with disabilities by failing to provide them with accessible means to mark and return their absentee ballots.

We’re joined by two guests. Dr. Eric Peebles is one of the named plaintiffs in this Alabama lawsuit. He currently serves as executive director of Accessible Alabama, an organization that works to increase accessible housing options in communities for people with disabilities and those facing growing limitations as they age. He has a PhD in rehabilitation from Auburn University. Eric has spastic cerebral palsy because of an oxygen deprivation during birth. This trauma has severely limited his motor skills to the point of functional quadriplegia.

We’re also joined by Bill Van Der Pol, senior trial counsel at the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program. Bill is one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the absentee voting lawsuit.

Click here to listen to the interview and/or read the transcript.

2022 Berkeley City Council Candidate Michai Freeman

We are joined today by Michai Freeman, a Systems Change Advocate at the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, California. When she was young, Michai developed a neuromuscular disease. Originally from New York, she spent her formative years in Brooklyn and had to be bussed to a community two hours away from her home to attend a school for the disabled. At that time, in the 1970s, children with disabilities were not admitted to the school closest to her home.

In 1989, Michai came to California to attend the University of California Berkeley. She studied abroad for a year in Egypt and then received her master’s in Holistic Studies with a specialization in nutrition from John F. Kennedy University. She ran for Berkeley City Council in 2022. While she did not win in that election, she continues to advocate for the disabled in her communities.

Click here to listen to the broadcast version of this interview and/or read the transcript.

Jennifer Gasner’s ‘Unexpected Life’ with Friedreich’s Ataxia

We are joined today by author Jennifer Gasner. At the tender age of 17, Jennifer was diagnosed with Friedreich’s Ataxia, a rare progressive neuromuscular disease. In her new book, My Unexpected Life: Finding Balance Beyond My Diagnosis, she delves into what it was like to start college with this new diagnosis and how she initially coped with her changing body. Turning to alcohol and getting involved in a toxic relationship were ways she could escape what she was feeling inside. Through a friendship with the hit singer songwriter Dave Matthews, Jennifer realized that even though her life had taken an unexpected turn and she was now a wheelchair user, her life was not over.

Click here to listen to the broadcast version of this interview and/or read the transcript.

Embodied Inclusion with Andrew Golibersuch

Today, we’re joined by Andrew Golibersuch, an artist, activist, dancer, and founder of Embodied Inclusion, a project designed to help organizations, communities, and institutions become more inclusive and welcoming to all. In our interview, Andrew shares his journey as a disabled dancer and how his experiences in dance led him to create his Embodied Inclusion workshops, where participants learn what each of us needs to feel comfortable inhabiting space with themselves and others. Andrew is a mental health counselor and art therapist based in western Massachusetts.

Click here to listen to the broadcast version of this interview and/or read the transcript.

Greg Marshall’s Discovery of His ‘Leg’

Today, we’re joined by someone who has had cerebral palsy since he was born, but no one ever told him that he had CP or even that he had a disability. It was not until Greg Marshall was in his early thirties and applying for private health insurance for the first time that he learned, through a review of childhood medical records, that he actually had cerebral palsy. Up until that point, he just thought he had tight tendons, which was the line his parents used to explain why his feet and legs didn’t work like other kids his age.

Click here to listen to the broadcast version of this interview and/or read the transcript.

The audio and transcript of an extended version of our interview with Greg Marshall is available here.

Read More “Disability Rap – July 3, 2023”

Life with a Traumatic Brain Injury

Here at FREED we’ve recently restarted our Traumatic Brain Injury program, and while providing those services and supports in the community, we began hearing more and more stories about life with a TBI. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, 1 in 60 Americans are living with a permanent brain injury, and 2.8 million TBIs occur every year in the United States alone, and while there are common experiences among those living with TBI, we know – like all disabilities – their journeys are as unique as the people living them.

Today we are joined by Barb Foy and Calvina McEndree, who both live with TBIs to share their experiences of having a TBI, how it shapes their present and their outlook on the future.

Click here to listen to the show and/or read the transcript.

Ryan Prior on the Covid-19 ‘Long Haul’

As the death toll from Covid-19 quickly rose throughout the United States and around the world in early 2020, many health officials, politicians, and media personalities had one clear message about those who contracted Covid-19: For those who didn’t die from the infection, it would be a simple respiratory illness and patients would fully recover in a matter of weeks. But for millions of people around the world, they didn’t fully recover after contracting SARS-Co-V-2; their symptoms lasted for months or years, often with no signs of easing up. This was not well understood by the medical community, and so it was patients who banded together, often online, to support each other and raise awareness of a condition that they themselves termed, “Long Covid.”

This is the subject of a new book by our guest today, Ryan Prior. In The Long Haul: Solving the Puzzle of the Pandemic’s Long Haulers and How They Are Changing Healthcare Forever, Ryan documents the journey that people with Long Covid embarked on to advocate for recognition and understanding of this new condition in the medical community. He also shows how that advocacy was influenced heavily by those with another condition called myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS. Writing from personal experience as someone who developed ME/CFS in high school, Ryan presents the similarities between ME and Long Covid, how they are both generally misunderstood by the medical profession, and how patients themselves were often on the front lines of understanding their own conditions and educating their doctors. He also connects these patient-led movements to the Disability Rights Movement of the 1970s and 80s and continuing today, and encourages the movements to unite around common goals.

Ryan Prior is currently a journalist-in-residence at The Century Foundation. He has been a health and science writer for CNN since 2015 and has also written for The Guardian, the Daily Beast, USA Today, STAT News, and Business Insider.

Click here to listen to the show and/or read the transcript.

Self-Acceptance and Inclusion: A National Disability Awareness Month Special

We mark National Disability Awareness Month by chatting with our FREED colleagues about the journey of self-acceptance as people with disabilities and the pride they feel as part of the disability community. Our guests share what it means to have disability pride in a world where we are still fighting for awareness and inclusion, and they discuss the importance of people with disabilities supporting each other. We’re joined by Brian Snyder, FREED’s Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Lindsay Wells, our Information and Referral Specialist, and Jennique Lee, the Program Manager for our Yuba City office. We also mark the passing of legendary disability rights activist Judy Heumann, who died on Saturday at the age of 75.

Click here to listen to the show and/or read the transcript.