Disable Activists to Follow
For 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, DWS and other Yukon organizations working to prevent violence are creating spaces for learning more about how GBV works and what prevention can look like.
You are not alone. You deserve support.
As we have tough convos about violence and abuse, please take care of yourself. You are the expert in your life and know best how to take care - whether it’s reaching out to loved one, being on the land, taking time for yourself, or connecting with resources.
Want to help to prevent violence? Sign up for the two FREE workshops DWS is offering on December 6th and 7th. More information and sign-up here.
Image description: Blog banner that has text “Disabled Activists to Follow, dawsonwomensshelter.com, @DWS_EndViolence”. Background is a photo of colourul northern lights.
December 3rd is the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. (July is also Disability Pride Month!)
We’ve already started unlearning ableism and a big part of that is listening to disabled folks. Here’s who’s doing more than just inspiring us!
Mia Mingus
Instagram: @mia.mingus
Twitter: @miamingus
Website: leavingevidence.wordpress.com
Mia Mingus is a writer, educator and trainer for transformative justice and disability justice. She is a queer physically disabled korean transracial and transnational adoptee raised in the Caribbean. She works for community, interdependence and home for all of us, not just some of us, and longs for a world where disabled children can live free of violence, with dignity and love. As her work for liberation evolves and deepens, her roots remain firmly planted in ending sexual violence.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Instagram: @Leahlakshmiwrites
Twitter: @thellpsx
Website: brownstargirl.org
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (she/they) is a queer, autistic and disabled nonbinary femme writer, disability and transformative justice movement worker, curator and educator of Burgher/Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma ascent. The author or co-editor of ten books, they are a 2020-2021 Disability Futures Fellow and a longtime performer with the disability justice collective Sins Invalid.
Alice WOng
Instagram: @alicatsamurai
Twitter: @SFdirewolf
Website: disabilityvisibility.org
Alice Wong (she/her) is a disabled activist, writer, editor, media maker, and consultant. Alice is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture.
Imani Barbarin
Instagram: @crutches_and_spice
Twitter: @Imani_Barbarin
Website: crutchesandspice.com
A graduate of Eastern Univerity with a degree in Creative Writing and a minor in French from the Sorbonne, Imani Barbarin writes from the perspective of a black woman with Cerebral Palsy. She specializes in blogging, science fiction and memoir. Ironically, she did not like the idea of writing this mini-bio.
Keah Brown
Instagram: @Keah_Maria
Twitter: @Keah_Maria
Website: keahbrown.com
Keah Brown is a journalist, author, studying actress, and screenwriter. She is the creator of #DisabledAndCute.
Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire UK, And The New York Times, among other publications. She is currently cowriting a musical and jumping into the film and tv space.
Vilissa Thompson
Instagram: @VilissaThompson
Twitter: @VilissaThompson
Vilissa Thompson is a senior fellow at American Progress. She is one of the preeminent thought leaders within the disability community focusing on racial and gender justice issues.
In 2016, she launched #DisabilityTooWhite, a hashtag that offered an important critique of media coverage, community leadership, and public policy that centered whiteness, as opposed to those who are most affected by the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism. The hashtag and presentations about it at national conferences have initiated important conversations at both a federal and grassroots levels for disabled leaders of color trying to find their space in movement work. This led to Thompson’s construction of the groundbreaking Black Disabled Woman Syllabus, an online and continually growing tool that has been cited as a critical addition to current discussions of women’s health, carceral reform, body positivity, and mental health. As a member of the National Association of Black Social Workers, Thompson continues to educate her peers in the social work field to look beyond the medical model of disability. Thompson received her B.A. in psychology and her master’s degree in social work from Winthrop University.
Emily Ladau
Instagram: @EmilyLadau
Twitter: @emily_ladau
I’m a native of Long Island, New York, where I graduated with a B.A. in English from Adelphi University in 2013. In 2017, I was named one of Adelphi’s 10 Under 10 Young Alumni and I now have the honor of serving on Adelphi’s Board of Trustees. In 2018, I was selected for the American Association of People with Disabilities’ Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award. In 2022, the Jewish Federations of North America and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism honored me with their Disability Advocate of the Year Award, and the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities honored me with the Frieda Zames Advocacy Award.
I provide communications and social media strategy consulting as well as editorial services for multiple disability-related organizations and initiatives. I’m the Digital Content and Community Manager for the Disability & Philanthropy Forum. Previously, I served as the founding Editor in Chief of the Rooted in Rights Blog. And, I co-host The Accessible Stall Podcast with one of my best friends, Kyle Khachadurian.
My first book, Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be An Ally, was published by Ten Speed Press in September 2021. I’m proud to be represented by Laura Lee Mattingly at Present Perfect Literary and by Kaley Baron at the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau.
- From emilyladau.com
Talia A. Lewis
Instgram: @talialewis
Twitter: @talilalewis
Talila A. Lewis (no gender pronouns; use Talila or "TL" instead of using pronouns) is an abolitionist community lawyer, educator, and organizer whose work reveals and addresses the inextricable links between ableism, racism, classism, and all forms of systemic oppression and structural inequity. Recognized as a 2015 White House Champion of Change and one of Pacific Standard Magazine's Top 30 Thinkers Under 30, Lewis engineers innovative and intersectional social justice efforts that address grave interconnected injustices within education, medical, and legal systems that have gone unaddressed for generations. Lewis's advocacy primarily focuses on harm and violence reduction and interruption, advocacy with people affected by incarceration/institutionalization, and abolition of all forms of incarceration/institutionalization.
As one of the only people in the nation working to correct and prevent wrongful convictions of deaf/disabled people, Lewis regularly presents and trains on this and related topics. As the creator of the only national database of deaf/blind/disabled people, Lewis advocates with and for hundreds of disabled defendants, incarcerated, and returned people and their loved ones. Lewis co-founded and serves as volunteer director of HEARD (HEARD), a cross-disability abolitionist organization works to end ableism, racism, capitalism, and all other forms of oppression and violence. As a founding member of the Harriet Tubman Collective and the co-creator of Disability Solidarity praxis, Lewis spent most of 2017 and all of 2018 traveling the "United States," to exchange knowledge with multiply-marginalized communities; visit incarcerated deaf/disabled people; and bake for "love, life & liberation" under the moniker Sweet Solidarity.
Nyle Dimarco
Instagram: @nyledimarco
Twitter: @NyleDiMarco
Advocate, producer, actor, and model Nyle DiMarco has been breaking down barriers and winning over audiences since 2014, when he was a fan favorite on cycle 22 of America’s Next Top Model and became the second male winner and first Deaf contestant on the series. He founded The Nyle DiMarco Foundation, which focuses on bilingual education and aims to improve access to accurate information about early language acquisition. He lives in Washington, DC.
Molly Burke
Instagram: @MollyBurkeOfficial
Twitter: @MollyBOfficial
Website: mollyburkeofficial.com
Molly Jane Lucy Burke is a Canadian YouTube personality and motivational speaker whose eponymous channel has more than 2 million subscribers. Burke was diagnosed at age four with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition which causes loss of vision. She lost most of her sight at age 14.Molly Jane Lucy Burke is a Canadian YouTube personality and motivational speaker whose eponymous channel has more than 2 million subscribers. Burke was diagnosed at age four with retinitis pigmentosa, a condition which causes loss of vision. She lost most of her sight at age 14.
Devon Price
Instagram: @DrDevonPrice
Twitter: @DrDevonPrice
Website: devonprice.medium.com
Devon Price, PhD, is a social psychologist, professor, and author of the acclaimed book, Unmasking Autism. As a proud autistic person and transgender man, his writings reflect both his personal experiences and his published research, which have appeared in journals such as the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and the Journal of Positive Psychology. Devon’s writings have appeared in outlets such as the Financial Times, HuffPost, Slate, Jacobin, Business Insider, LitHub, and on PBS and NPR. He lives in Chicago, where he serves as an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies.
Oliver Quincy
Instagram: @myautisticsoul
Facebook: @MyAutisticSoul
Oliver creates fabulous informational posts about autism that really help create community.
And finally…
@chronicallycandidmemes on Instagtram
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