Centering Disability with Katie Grennell

Welcome to Episode 136 of the Think UDL podcast: Centering Disability with Katie Grennell. Dr. Katie Grennell completed her PhD in American Studies from the University at Buffalo in 2016. Her dissertation, entitled The Making of the ‘Fame Monster’: Disability Aesthetics, Bodily Deviance and Celebrity Culture delved into the distinctions between deviance and normativity by analyzing representations of disability, bodily difference, and deviance in American popular music and popular culture of the late 20th and early 21st century. She has worked as an adjunct in the disciplines of history, American Studies, American popular music, and disability studies for 17 years at multiple institutions throughout Western New York. She currently works as an Accessibility Strategist at Anthology, supporting institutions using Ally. Her first book, Disability and Accessibility in the Music Classroom: An Instructor’s Guide (Routledge) was published September 1, 2022. In this conversation, I ask her about UDL in performance-based classrooms and how disability access has shaped her teaching. In addition, we discuss what disability culture teaches all of us and what her vision is for the future of inclusive education.