Welcome

Rob Michalko said, blindness isn't the end of sight but a different way of existing. Rather than having lost a part of his self, he is existing in his wholeness. When I was 16, after my first surgery, I had to make room for pain. In this new way of existing, I came with something extra, something that I checked in with before leaving the house, no, wait, before getting up, no wait, before just, before. When you take your first breath in the morning, it's there, a scream or a

My badges are fading, Badges of honor, The least of all that I could show for the battle; My scars. Slowly erasing them, through mornings and nights, diligently rubbing cocoa butter, emu oil, shea butter, breaking down the scar tissue, breaking down the scars, and slowly erasing my badges of honor. If I wanted to show them off, why did I also try to hide them? If they're gone, will people know what I've been through? Does it matter if they do? Battle, we talked about battle,

x-ray of my spine with grade 4 spondylolisthesis What broke down... The idea that I can be like them. I want to stand in, But my body forces me to stand out. Ignore. As much as I can. As much as is possible. It's not possible. No, try harder. But I don't bend. I can't fit myself into their mold, As hard as I try to hold, My body already broke. What grew instead... I don't take for granted, The ability to move. And yet I know I'm my body, and more. Identify with the I that is

This world was made for people who have stamina People who can hop on a train, stand up for 30 minutes, then run up a flight of stairs, walk five blocks, work all day, and do it in record time, because, by the way, you are being timed. And repeat the whole process again. People who put their spirit and needs aside to just continue producing, and for what? Not for people who have tingling in their feet or who have pain so intense it feels like fire from head to toe - and by t

This space is a system - do you integrate me into the system, or, do you integrate the system to me? When I enter into it with my accommodation, the whole space shifts, the whole system shifts. Yet, accommodations have been applied in an isolated way.

Analyzing the experience of employees with disabilities as it relates to the leaders conflict style and the organizational conflict culture. Within an organization, a supervisor’s actions impact accessibility, perhaps even more than the human resources department (HR). Here’s one of my latest experiences trying to get accommodations which demonstrates this. I first went to HR with my Doctor's letter explaining the accommodations that I needed due to my neuropathic pain and sp

An overview of conflict resolution theories as applied to workplace accommodation requests. Although we may want to believe it’s not...

Communications Theory - Coordinated Management of Meaning's impact on workplace accommodations, mediation, and negotiation.

Organizational structures that support accommodations preserve embodied feminine wisdom of disability.

Insights provided through the Critical Post Modern Framework of Organizational Power.

What may not be understood, is that we live a life of advocating for ourselves. Any support we have is because we, as individuals, spent at least double or triple the amount of time of the support, advocating - 300% times the force to get the need. And the advocating doesn't stop there. Every single interaction involves an explanation. You were gonna leave me behind, didn’t even blink an eye. I had to kick, scream, and cry to get you to see me. It’s a full time job on top o

The 2020 move to remote opened a world of possibilities for me.

W. Barnett Pearce reminds us that through the act of communicating, certain words imply a set of actions that must be coordinated with...

"Pain medication so you can do life our way," But what does the pain have to say, does it need to be erased, Does it have a message, A soul of its own, A wisdom, a teaching, a wish to find a home, How does it transform, through methods of honoring and speaking to it, When we see it, there is so much we learn. What are we missing when we don't take the time to stop and listen? Can we take the time when we're rushed, pressured and pushed to keep up? Pain; does it have a soul

Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) techniques can be used to facilitate shared meaning of disability and accessibility. Coordinated...

Allen McNair Exit 47 (2022) Purchase here Defining 'disability' Current debates within the Disability Studies community on how to define...

The importance of elevating the voices of the disabled in rural Guatemala through qualitative research. Disability studies can be...

Social movements and activism as a method to reach for power in a world content with sidelining us. Untitled, 2023 Alex Becerra, Arts of...