Down to the Struts

The week before this episode’s release, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all charges in the murder of George Floyd, one of countless unarmed Black men who have been killed by police in the U.S. Floyd’s death sparked a global resurgence of Black Lives Matter action and discussion about police abolition. According to a study conducted by the Ruderman Family Foundation, between 2013 and 2015, half of police shootings involved disabled people. The conversation around policing and marginalized groups, and how to achieve justice for all, is wide-ranging, and far from over. We explore this and more in the Season 2 Finale of Down to the Struts. Tune in as Qudsiya is joined by Dara Baldwin, the Director of National Policy at the Center for Disability Rights. In their conversation, they discuss Dara’s activism and advocacy related to the experiences of Black disabled people in the criminal legal system. Dara shines a light on the challenges at the intersection of disability, race, and policing, and how we can chart a course forward towards the achievement of transformative justice for Black disabled lives.

Last year, as emergency rooms and intensive care units were filled to capacity due to COVID-19, physicians had to make very difficult decisions about how to distribute scarce resources. Patients and their families relied on physicians to make these decisions in an unbiased, clear manner. In this episode, we hear from Dr. Lisa Iezzoni, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who co-authored a recent study revealing alarming statistics about physician perceptions of patients with disabilities. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs, found that 82 percent of physicians surveyed believed that patients with disabilities have a lower quality of life than non-disabled patients. The study also found that less than half of the physicians surveyed believed and were confident that they could provide high-quality care to patients with disabilities. In their conversation, Qudsiya and Dr. Iezzoni discuss the findings of this study, what it tells us about our healthcare system, and the necessary solutions to ensure equitable access to health care for people with disabilities.

Continuing on the theme of disability and education from Episode 3, this episode features a conversation with disability civil rights activist Alan Holdsworth. Qudsiya and Alan dive into Alan's work as Director of Disability Equality in Education, a non-profit dedicated to eradicating disability stigma in schools. Listen to learn how and why disability should fit into the K-12 curricula, fighting disability stigma on college campuses, and the surprising number of U.S. presidents who have been disabled.

This episode of Down to the Struts takes us into the classroom, and to the crossroads of disability and education with Roger Ideishi, Director of Occupational Therapy and Professor of Health, Human Function, and Rehabilitation Sciences at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Qudsiya and Roger discuss breaking down barriers faced by disabled children, and how small design changes can build diverse educational environments with accessibility and adaptability in mind. We learn how practitioners, healthcare providers and educators can help students achieve their own goals, not those set by an ableist system.

From Zoom conferences to live-streamed concerts, the Covid-19 pandemic appears to have made much of our world more flexible. But does this mean it's more accessible? How do we critically design digital spaces to be truly accessible, during and beyond a global crisis? In this episode, Qudsiya discusses sociospatial thinking and critical design with Aimi Hamraie, Associate Professor of Medicine, Health, & Society at Vanderbilt University, and director of the Critical Design Lab.

How have U.S. immigration laws treated disabled people? How can disability law advance immigrants’ rights? Does immigration law itself create disability? In the premiere episode of Season 2, Qudsiya is joined by Katherine Pérez and Roxana Moussavian, who approach these complex webs from the perspective of disability law and immigration law.

In this season, host Qudsiya Naqui will be joined by even more wonderful guests to discuss topics like immigration, education, and much more, as they relate to disability. Listen in as Qudsiya and her guests explore intersectional problems to complex issues.

From the pandemic to civil rights protests, it’s no question the story of the past year has been told through breaking news headlines. Many of the stories shaping our world are powerfully told through image, with the help of photojournalists and everyday people with smartphones. But how do we make these very visual stories accessible to visually impaired news consumers? This is the topic of this special bonus episode of Down to the Struts. In this episode, Qudsiya sits down with Vox Editor Sean Collins. They talk about how images enhance the information in a news article, and break down the actual technology of how photo description, or "alt text,” works. As an example, Sean takes us through some images from the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of the summer, and discusses how he wrote the alt text to accompany them. Sean also shares some advice for journalists and others on writing quality alt text.

In the final episode of Season 1, Down to the Struts takes a journey into the arts world, offering an introduction to audio description and how to make the arts accessible to people with disabilities. Qudsiya and her guests also talk about what the pandemic has meant for accessibility and the arts. This episode is so full of important reflections and quotes, we wanted to bring it to you in two parts. Part 2 features Nicole Sardella, a certified audio describer who works with Art-Reach and other arts and culture organisations, and shares both her experience describing, as well as some tips.

In the final episode of Season 1, Down to the Struts takes a journey into the arts world, offering an introduction to audio description and how to make the arts accessible to people with disabilities. Qudsiya and her guests also talk about what the pandemic has meant for accessibility and the arts. This episode is so full of important reflections and quotes, we wanted to bring it to you in two parts. In Part 1, you’ll hear from Charlie Miller, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Art-Reach, a Philadelphia-based organization whose aim is to make arts and culture more accessible to people in the disability and low-income communities.