Thought Leaders

David James Savarese

David James Savarese is an artful activist, poet, teacher and optimist. He uses artful activism to disrupt misassumptions about alternatively communicating people and to create connections where others see only divides. Those who know David as a public figure are more likely to know him as the founder of Listen2Us, as the co-producer and ... Read more

Marcie Roth

Marcie Roth is Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer for the World Institute on Disability, one of the first global disability rights organizations founded and continually led by people with disabilities. WID works to advance the rights and opportunities of over 1 billion people with disabilities worldwide, Active in the Independent Living movement since ... Read more

Matthew Wangeman

Matthew Wangeman has been a disability advocate and activist for over 30 years at the local, state and national level. He has a B.S. in Business Administration and a Master’s in City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. Matthew assisted in the development and implementation of the Disability Studies Minor at Northern ... Read more

Leroy Moore

Leroy F. Moore Jr., Founder of the Krip-Hop Nation. Since the 1990s, has written the column “Illin-N-Chillin” for POOR Magazine. Moore is one of the founding members of National Black Disability Coalition and activist around police brutality against people with disabilities.  Leroy has started and helped start organizations like Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization ... Read more

Netflix’s ‘The Healing Powers of Dude’ Sophie Kim and abilityE

Sophie Kim is a 13 year old junior high student. She sings in the school choir and enjoys spending time with her friends and her dog, Kiwi. Sophie’s life changed last year when she suddenly became a professional actress. Netflix decided to cast a young actress, who authentically uses a wheelchair, in one of ... Read more

Fern Field – Her Approach, a Winning Achievement

When “Maude’s Reunion” aired on February 21, 1977, none of us who worked on the show knew it would set off a domino effect that would change our industry’s perception of people with disabilities. And I, working as a first assistant to the executive producer, Rod Parker, certainly didn’t know it would launch a ... Read more