On the heels of the 35th anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Disability Pride Month, guest host Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford hosts a roundtable on the intersection of race, gender, and disability with Nicki Vander Meulen and Dr. Sami Schalk. They talk about disability and education, evaluate how Madison is doing in terms of accessibility, and discuss how to find pleasure in life. 

Last month Congress passed the budget reconciliation bill which includes dramatic cuts to Medicaid. Vander Meulen says that she’s trying to channel her energy into writing to elected officials and building resistance. She organized a protest against the bill because disability can impact anyone at any time in their life. In response to how this bill will impact higher education, Schalk predicts that more and more disabled people will get pushed out of higher ed. And she reminds listeners that there are a disproportionate number of disabled people in marginalized communities because of historic oppressions. 

They also talk about finding community with other queer and disabled people in Madison. Schalk says that it took time to come into a disability identity and that she’s learned from other disabled people along the way, such as how to use a cordless heating pad to combat chronic pain. Vander Meulen describes times when she was discriminated against because of her disability or policed for not having a more apparent disability. 

One way that folks can fight for the rights of the disabled is to fight for a living wage. Schalk encourages people to ask “Who does this benefit?” when confronted with excuses for not paying people well or supporting social services. 

Dr. Sami Schalk is a professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Her research focuses on race, gender & disability in contemporary American literature and culture. Dr. Schalk is the author of Bodyminds Reimagined: Disability, Race & Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction and Black Disability Politics, both available open access from Duke University Press. Her current project focuses on pleasure spaces for multiply marginalized people.

Nicki Vander Meulen is a juvenile attorney and member of the Madison Board of Education. When Nicki was elected in 2017, she became the first openly autistic school board member in the United States.

Featured image of the visually safe Disability Pride Flag via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).

The post Disability Activists Find Joy and Pleasure in Community appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.