Episode 1: Am I Disabled Enough?


An introduction to Incluse This! with host Sarah Kirwan and special guest Molly Bloom.
https://media.blubrry.com/incluse_this/content.blubrry.com/incluse_this/Final_Incluse_This_S1_E1_Am_I_Disabled_Enough.mp3
In this episode, host Sarah Kirwan and special guest Molly Bloom, dive into the question of being disabled enough. With lively discussion, the duo addresses this very real question in the context of identity, community, rights, culture, responsibility, empathy, care work, and legal structure. Am I Disabled Enough? gives listeners a glimpse into the very real personal struggle that people face when they try to answer this question.


QUICK LINKS

As language, perceptions and social mores change at a seemingly faster and faster rate, it is becoming increasingly difficult for communicators to figure out how to refer to people with disabilities. This style guide, developed by the National Center on Disability and Journalism at Arizona State University, is intended to help. It covers almost 200 words and terms commonly used when referring to disability.

OUR GUEST: Molly J Bloom, PhD


Molly has felt an affinity for and responsibility to the disability community since sustaining a life-changing injury as a teenager in 2006. Since then, she has co-founded the only women's wheelchair basketball team in California, completed a PhD drawing on anthropology and disability studies, and learned from her friends and peers that disability community always involves sharing knowledge, advocacy, and living joyfully. In her doctoral studies at UCLA, Molly brought together critical perspectives on race, class, and disability community.
Her research, funded by the National Science Foundation among other organizations, was recognized for its commitment to diversity when she was inducted into the Edward A. Bouchet Honor Society in 2018. She has authored publications on topics ranging from adaptive athletics, to disability in the Middle East, to Brazilian Sign Language. Recently, Molly has relocated to home of the American Disability Rights Movement, the Bay Area, where she is busy working as an Inclusive Design Researcher for Adobe and soaking in the activist milieu. She thrives on connection and collective growth and longs for the day when she can build joy in-person with her disabled kin.

TRANSCRIPT

Sarah Kirwan:
Hi, and welcome to Incluse This! I'm your host, Sarah Kirwan. And this is a movement for disability equity. Today, we're talking with Dr. Molly Bloom. A woman who wears many hats on this podcast, including contributor, producer, special guest, friend, and colleague. And we're talking about being disabled enough.
Dr. Molly Bloom has felt an affinity for and responsibility to the disability community since she sustained a life-changing injury as a teenager in 2006. Since then, she has co-founded the only women's wheelchair basketball team in California, completed a PhD drawing on anthropology and disability studies, and learned from her friends and peers that disability community always involves sharing knowledge, advocacy, and living joyfully.
In her doctoral studies at UCLA, Dr. Bloom brought together critical perspectives on race, class, and disability community. Her research funded by the National Science Foundation among other organizations was recognized for its commitment to diversity when she was included into the Edward A. Bouchet Honor Society in 2018.
Dr. Bloom has authored publications on topics ranging from adaptive athletics, to disability in the Middle East, to Brazilian sign language. She recently relocated to the home of the American disabi...