Episode 71. Demystifying Disability with Emily Ladau

Emily Ladau is a passionate disability rights activist, writer, storyteller, and digital communications consultant whose career began at the age of 10, when she appeared on several episodes of Sesame Street to educate children about her life with a physical disability. Her writing has been published in outlets including The New York Times, SELF, Salon, Vice, and HuffPost. Her first book, Demystifying Disability, was published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in September 2021. Emily has spoken before numerous audiences, from the U.S. Department of Education to the United Nations. Central to all of her work is a focus on and harnessing the power of storytelling as a tool for people to become engaged in disability and social justice issues. Timeline of the podcast: 00:10 - 01:24  Intro 01:25 - 03:00  Emily Ladau’s background 03:05 - 05:02  Emily’s definition of disability and concept of ableism 05:03 - 08:00  Language of Disability 08:01 - 10:17  Language of Disability 10:25 - 13:40  Intersectionality as it relates to disability discussion 13:45 - 15:12  Role of parents 15:15 - 16:30  What is infantilization? 16:35 -17:37  Current concerns in the community? 17:40 -18:35  Closing Remarks Emily’s call to action: “Disability is not negative or shameful and allyship is action. This podcast was produced by Marsh Naidoo, Makendra Ezell, and Tanya Sierra. Melissa Mittelstaedt provided captioning and transcription at https://www.melissamitt.com/uaccess Link to transcript Related resources on the podcast and blog: https://www.raisingkellan.org/the-models-and-language-of-disability/