Celebrating Disability Pride + Triaging the U.S. with National Emergency
Sounds Like Impact: A newsletter for audio and action - Vol. 15
Welcome to Sounds Like Impact!
Today we have a guest curation from Carolyn Kiel, creator of Beyond 6 Seconds, a podcast featuring neurodiversity stories. And I interview Kate O’Connell and Ann Marie Awad of National Emergency podcast.
Did you know it’s Disability Pride month? I did and I’m happy to release this newsletter on National Disability Independence Day. I believe I’ve mentioned a podcast curation I created before related to the Netflix documentary Crip Camp. But I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I have disabilities, including a chronic illness and severe enough hearing loss that I wear hearing aids.
I’m not alone in having a disability, in fact, approximately 1 in 6 people in the world have a disability according to the World Health Organization, and the actual number of folks continues to grow with long COVID and worsening healthcare access.
I really encourage you to listen to the podcasts that Carolyn has curated (along with excellent calls-to-actions!), as well as learn more about the public health issues covered in the National Emergency interview. But first…
Announcements:
📢 You can still share your feedback with me about the newsletter through this anonymous survey until July 31st. Thank you to those who have filled it out so far and I look forward to checking out more responses!
🏆 If relevant, apply to the 2022-2023 Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability. Applications due August 1st.
🔁 If you missed last week’s guest curation from Jaime Albright, make sure to go back and also read the latest from Phil Lewis , which is an interview with Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation. Also, I recommend watching the HBO documentary series about Natalie and her sister-in-law’s work if you haven’t yet.
🙌 Keeping the faith: The population of lions and cheetahs in Kafue National Park in Zambia is rebounding after years of decline thanks to an innovative surveillance technique: tagged vultures!
Read more from Reasons to Be Cheerful.
🎧 #AudioForAction | Guest Curation by Carolyn Kiel
Celebrating Disability Pride & History
July 26th marks the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil right law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. Each July is celebrated as Disability Pride Month to commemorate the signing of this legislation, celebrate disability history and culture, reaffirm the right to participate in an accessible world, and discuss disability without shame or stigma. In honor of Disability Pride Month, this playlist features people with disabilities who talk about their life experiences, explore the intersections between disability and other marginalized identities, and honor disability activists who have fought to create a more accessible and equitable world.
Art Heals All Wounds, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder, The Love Story Behind the Making of the Film Crip Camp
Pam Uzzell talks with Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder, husband and wife creative team, about their work on the film "Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution," which shares the beauty, insight, and humor of one group of disabled young people at Camp Jened – many of whom became activists who led a disability rights revolution in the United States.
Always Looking Up, Dr. Sami Schalk On Black Disability Politics
Jillian Curwin talks with Dr. Schalk, Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, about what it means to come into one’s disabled identity, how the portrayal of certain identities in fiction can and do influence real life, where Black Disability Politics intersect and conflict with the mainstream white-dominant disability civil rights movement, and much more.
Beyond 6 Seconds, We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation with Eric Garcia
Carolyn Kiel interviews autistic journalist Eric Garcia, author of the book “We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation” about the evolution of the public’s perception of autism, why non-autistic voices have dominated the public conversation about autism, and how social media is helping autistic people share their experiences and advocate for their rights.
Power Not Pity, Gettin' Extra Blind Wit' It! feat. Thomas Reid
Bri M. talks with Thomas Reid, a blind advocate and podcasting maverick, about a range of issues from adjusting to blindness to the significance of being multiply marginalized in today's society.
The Politics of Disability, Pride Edition: Bridging the gap between the LGBTQIA+ community and the disabled/chronically ill community - Part 1
Mary Fashik sits down with RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Detox to discuss what it will take to bridge the gap between the LGBTQIA+ community and the disabled/chronically ill community, advocacy, anti-trans legislation, and more.
Follow Beyond 6 Seconds on Instagram and learn more from their website.
🚨 Calls to Action
Understand disability pride with these resources from VeryWellMind.com and The Valuable 500.
Read
“We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation” by Eric Garcia, an autistic journalist who examines how the public’s perceptions about autism have been shaped over time, and describes the diversity of autistic people’s lived experiences.
Watch disabled people tell their stories and challenge stereotypical portrayals of disability in the media!
Some great videos to start with are LISTEN: A short film made by and with nonspeaking autistic people, TEDx Talks by Stella Young and Ky Kennedy, and the Your Disabled Joy playlist on YouTube.
Learn what ableism is and how to challenge it.
Support non-profits led by disabled people, for disabled people, that advocate for accessibility, accommodations and autonomy, like CommunicationFIRST, Neuroclastic and Autistics Unmasked.
For the full list of Calls to Action curated by Carolyn Kiel, click here.
Additional CTAs from Ayo
Alice Wong, podcaster and disability advocate who founded the Disability Visibility Project could use financial support to help them with assisted living at home after time in the ICU in June. You can donate here.
My friend Michelle Marques recently started their own Substack, neurodivergent black girl. Check it out!
📣 Spotlight
Kate O’Connell is the co-host of Audible’s National Emergency podcast, and Ann Marie Awad is a producer on the show. I was excited to talk to Kate and Ann about making this podcast, some of the public health reporting they’ve navigated on and off the show, and how much of a rockstar co-host Nashia Williams is. Enjoy!
Snippet of the show summary ⬇️:
Racism. Violence. Poverty. Climate change. Poor sex education. The mental health crisis. We’ve seen every one of these public health issues walk through the doors of our ER. We want to help our country practice some preventative medicine and lighten the crushing burden ERs around the country are bearing.
Each episode, we talk with people who understand these national issues first-hand - patients, medical practitioners, and experts alike — and learn how we can each do our part to prevent these problems from claiming more lives. We talk about what happens when our national issues DO show up in the ER. We also laugh a lot — we’ve had to develop a sense of humor over the years to get us through the dark times.
That conversation about extreme weather related to climate change we talked about last week? Yeah, they cover that on the podcast too! Read on.
🌟 Classifieds
⏭ Coming Up
Next week we have a climate-related guest curation from Quinn Emmett of Important Not Important podcast. Stay tuned!
🤗 An act of joy: I celebrated a good friend’s bachelorette in Montreal this past weekend! One evening we stumbled upon a free circus show called Le Géant in an outdoor plaza. The show ends July 30th if you have a chance to pop by!
🙌 How to Support this Work
Sounds Like Impact is written and curated by Ayo Oti. Please consider several ways you can contribute to this important mission – providing a platform for social change through audio storytelling and calls to action for the change-maker that lives within all of us.
In addition to the Subscribe, Share, Like and Comment CTAs on this platform, there are other options: Donate | Give Feedback | Tell Me About Yourself | Advertise
This work is made possible by your support, however it comes. Thanks for being part of the community and reading this far. Take care!
i didn’t know you used hearing aids! thank you so much for sharing this with me.
Thank you for currating such an incredible newsletter! This topic could not be more important.