October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Throughout this month, we're working to educate our team on disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of our own workers with disabilities.

Videos to Watch: 

Films and TV Series to Watch: 

  • TCM Movie Marathon 

  • Speechless (series, 2016-2019) 

  • ReelAbilities Film Festival – Archive of Movies  

Podcasts to Subscribe To: 

Articles to Read: 

Books to Read: 

Organizations to Follow on Social Media: 

  • National Black Disability Coalition | Facebook 
  • National Coalition of Latinx with Disabilities | Facebook | Twitter  
  • Asians and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California | Facebook   

Learning Resources 

Accessibility Resources 

  • The "Be My Eyes" app connects you with a global community of volunteers and company representatives who are ready at a moment’s notice to help you see – to lend their eyesight and support with everyday tasks. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/be-my-eyes/id905177575  

  • Tools that can help you find an accessible color palette for your designs:  

  1. Color Safe: http://colorsafe.co/ 

  2. WebAIM’s Contrast Checker: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/   

Intersectionality  

Acknowledging the work of disability advocates who are also members of other minority communities. 

Fannie Lou Hamer 

Fannie Lou Hamer is a well-recognized civil rights activist and organizer for voting rights. Her work centered on elevating the rights of Black voters and women, particularly across the state of Mississippi. Hamer had polio as a child and later became physically disabled due to a severe beating in a Mississippi jail. 

April Dunn  

April Dunn was born with FAS and cerebral palsy in 1986. She advocated for students with disabilities in Louisiana, working as chair of the Louisiana Developmental Disabilities Council (LDDC) . In 2017, she became a staffer at the Governor's Office of Disabilities Affairs.  

On March 28, 2020, April Dunn passed away due to complications from COVID-19, at age 34. In June 2020, Gov Edwards of Louisiana signed a bill in honor of April Dunn.  

Kay Ulanday Barrett 

Kay Ulanday Barrett is an award-winning Filipinx American queer poet and educator who grew up in Chicago. Disabled by a violent attack, Ulanday Barrett walks with the use of a cane.  Their work explores the intersection of race, disability and LGBTQ status and has been published in Vogue Magazine, , The Huffington Post, and PBS News Hou., among others. 

In 2013, Ulanday Barrett was honored as  18 Million Rising's Filipino American History Month Hero and Trans 100's 100 Most Amazing Transgender People in the U.S. 

Dr. Victor Pineda 

Victor Pineda gradually lost the ability to walk between the ages of 2-5. He migrated from Venezuela to California during grade school. Pineda attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate. 

Upon completion of his undergraduate degree, Dr. Pineda felt it was his duty to follow in the steps of his disability champion predecessors and continued his education to ultimately obtain a B.A. in Political Economy, a B.S. in Business Administration, a master’s degree in City Regional Planning and a doctoral degree in Urban Planning. It was during his time in graduate school that Pineda became the youngest government delegate to participate in the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

Alice Wong 

A self-described a self-described “wheelchair-using, hell-raising disabled Asian American woman,” Wong founded the Disability Visibility Project. Wong was a 2013 Presidential appointee to the National Council on Disability. 

INSIGHTS

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