Disability Justice Week

Tuesday, November 1, 2022

11:00am-12:30pm

Keynote: ChrisTiana ObeySumner

Program Title: From the Trailhead to the Mountaintop: Awareness, Advocacy, Activism (Keynote)

Building 7 (Turtle Building) or via Zoom

This keynote will center around the mountaintop vision of Disability Justice and the Ten Principals of the liberatory framework. We will talk about the trailhead of Disability Rights and what it means to embed the “risk, change, and growing pains” of achieving true Disability Justice and Liberation. The speaker will share stories from their personal and professional experience, and share calls to action that everyone can use. This keynote will serve as a foundation for the workshop to follow.

Thursday, November 3, 2022

1:30-3:00pm

Presenter: ChrisTiana ObeySumner

Workshop Title: From the Trailhead to the Mountaintop: Awareness, Advocacy, Activism 

Building 7 (Turtle Building)

This workshop will build upon the keynote of the same. This workshop will break down what scaling from the trailhead of disability rights to the mountaintop of disability justice would look like culturally, politically, in policies and procedures, and in change management. Participants will leave with some tools and strategies that can be used as soon as the workshop is over. The goal of the workshop is to lay out realistic expectations and liberatory strategies to achieve Disability Justice in academia and our society as a whole

Friday, November 4, 2022

11:00am-1:30pm

Facilitator: Dr. Tylir McKenzie

Film & Discussion: Rising Phoenix

Building 7 (Turtle Building)

Join us in watching the film Rising Phoenix, this focuses on “elite athletes and insiders reflect on the Paralympic Games and examine how they impact a global understanding of disability, diversity and excellence.” Dr. Tylir McKenzie will facilitate conversation about the film, snacks will be provided!

10:00-11:30am

Presenter: Diana Chao

Program Title: Dear Stranger

This presentation tells Diana’s personal story, from aspects of minority mental health like growing up below the poverty line with parents who didn’t speak English, to the power that even the smallest acts of kindness have had on her life. Incorporated within are strategies for maintaining mental wellbeing for ourselves and each other.

Diana Chao Zoom Link

3:00-4:30pm

Presenter: Dr. Paulina Abustan

Program Title: Queer Crip Pilipinx Dreaming with Dr. Paul/Leena/Paulina Abustan

Dr. Paul/Leena/Paulina Abustan (gender fluid, any pronoun) will share their Queer Crip Pilipinx K-12, higher education, and community scholar-activist-educator experiences. What does it mean to live and experience intersectional and decolonial Queer, Crip, and Pilipinx identities and issues? How is our existence and joy a form of activism and resistance? Learn more about Dr. Abustan’s life journey, education, activism, and research centering Queer Crip Pilipinx disability justice dream worlds of rest, care, and connection found within K-12, higher education, and community learning and activist spaces.

Paulina Abustan Zoom Link

11:00am-12:30pm

Presenter: Minda Dentler

Program Title: Iron Inspiration

As the first female wheelchair athlete to complete the Ironman World Championship after being paralyzed from the hips down by polio, Minda has overcome the impossible. Minda will share her incredible story which will impact and inspire you to conquer your own personal Ironman.

Minda Dentler Zoom Link

10:00am-11:30am

Facilitator: Tetyana Matsyuk

Program Title: Highline Student Panel

Come hear from the Highline College Achieve family about Highline’s role in their paths to joyful liberation.

Panelists:

Joey Beltran, Highline Achieve Alum

Austin Landon, Highline Achieve Alum

Julliannea Plummer, Achieve Alum and BAS student, Integrated Design

Mahad Dahir, Current Achieve student

Laneeka Hall, BAS student, Youth Development

Student Panel Zoom Link

Leah Katz-Hernandez is currently Communications Manager at the Office of the CEO, Microsoft. Previously, she spent a decade in the public sector. Leah Katz-Hernandez, who is deaf and uses sign language, first joined the Obama world as a campaign volunteer and worked in the Press Office of First Lady Michelle Obama before becoming the Senior Operations Coordinator for President Obama’s West Wing. She is a contributing author of the book West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House, and a current board member of American Association of People with Disabilities.

Leah Q&A Responses

Thriving With Your Mental Health: Be Part of the Conversation

10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Active Minds Zoom Link
Passcode:g5Acg&

Panel Discussion with Active Minds Club

A panel of students and faculty help build a community of support by sharing their experiences thriving with mental health despite challenges. Learn more about Active Minds, a new student-run club designed to change the conversation about mental health. Learn about ways faculty and staff can love and support students with these often invisible challenges.

Disability Visibility in the Time of COVID-19

4:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m.
Alice Wong Zoom Link
Passcode:C8$t6E

Conversation with Alice Wong

Join in a conversation with Alice Wong, Founder of the Disability Visibility Project, about her new book, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, available now by Vintage Books. They will talk about disability culture and stories, ableism during the coronavirus pandemic, and how accessibility is more important than ever.

Alice Wong (she/her) is a disabled activist, media maker, and consultant. She is the Founder and Director of the Disability Visibility Project®, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture created in 2014. Currently, Alice is the Editor of Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century, an anthology of essays by disabled people, available now (June 30, 2020) by Vintage Books. You can find her on Twitter: @SFdirewolf.

How to NOT Make Inspiration Porn (or How Rooted in Rights Does Media Advocacy)

11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Rooted In Rights Zoom Link
Passcode: 25+21v

Panel Discussion by Rooted in Rights

Join Creative Co-Directors Allexa Laycock and Clark Matthews, and Editor-in-Chief Emily Ladau to discuss how they create advocacy stories by and for the disability community through videos and blog posts. Enjoy the work of Rooted in Rights’ disabled storytellers and explore strategies that keep stories grounded in the agency and experience of the storyteller. We will discuss fun topics such as: Paying people! Making content accessible! Avoiding troublesome tropes! Connecting to larger movements! Come for the stories, stay for the accessible media making revolution.

Rooted in Rights is the media advocacy team at Disability Rights Washington. We are a crew of videomakers, writers, and creators with a delightful assortment of disabilities and perspectives. Find out more at www.RootedInRights.org.

Crip Camp

10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Viewing and Discussion Zoom Link

Film viewing and discussion

Join the Disability Justice Week (DJW) Committee for viewing of Crip Camp and engaging conversation as we conclude Highline College’s inaugural DJW!

You may also view Crip Camp before the event.

In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination, and institutionalization. Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp “for the handicapped” (a term no longer used) in the Catskills, exploded those confines. Jened was their freewheeling Utopia, a place with summertime sports, smoking, and make-out sessions awaiting everyone, and campers experienced liberation and full inclusion as human beings. Their bonds endured as many migrated West to Berkeley, California — a hotbed of activism where friends from Camp Jened realized that disruption, civil disobedience, and political participation could change the future for millions. Crip Camp is the story of one group of people and captures one moment in time. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other equally important stories from the Disability Rights Movement that have not yet received adequate attention.