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Blog with us!

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The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality invites your blog submissions.

General Submission Guidelines

  • We are looking for submissions about disability justice, healthcare, and community living inequities faced by people with disabilities and proposed solutions to make the services within these systems more equitable. We want posts that will educate, inform, empower, and challenge people to think in new ways.
  • We are open for submissions year-round.
  • Guest blog posts are usually between 500 and 1,000 words. Please include a short bio and a photograph with your submission.
  • The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality team may work with you to edit your blog. Our publication schedule varies. Please allow at least one week between submission and proposed publication date.
  • Authors and photographers have rights. Please credit others’ work in your submission and cite our blog if you republish.
  • Following publication, we will share your blog post via Facebook, Twitter, and our newsletter.

Accessibility

We are committed to accessibility. Please use alt-text and captions for images. Do your best to write in plain-language. We will only post videos that are captioned.

How to Submit

Send your 500-to 100-word posts with a suggested title wo leah.smith@cchmc.org. Include a brief bio, picture with image description, and social media accounts that you’d like to share.

Community of Practice- About Us

Posted on | by Leah Smith | Leave a Comment on Community of Practice- About Us
The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality. An Administration for Community Living Project of National Significance. Text included below image

The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality

Who We Are
We are a group of people with disabilities, family members of people with disabilities, professionals, and collaborators committed to learning and teaching about the interests, needs, and wants of people with marginalized identities and lived experiences of disabilities. Five partner organizations founded our Center.

What We Do
The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality identifies and works together to reduce inequities in healthcare, community living, and justice for people with disabilities. The Center: (1) amplifies the voices of people with disabilities, (2) creates materials to impact positive change, and (2) shares information with people with disabilities, their families, their communities, and policymakers.

How We Work
We convene a Community of Practice (CoP), which is a group of people collaborating to dismantle systems of ableism, racism, cisgenderism, and other forms of oppression. The Community of Practice will meet monthly and may work between some meetings to develop resources and tools. The Center is also home to the Changemakers Coalition, which supports the diversity of youth with disabilities working for a more equitable future.

How Can You Join
If you are interested in joining the CoP, e-mail Leah Smith at leah.smith@cchmc.org. To find out more about the Center, visit our website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

"Nothing was said if I wanted to have more kids. The blessing to give life was bestowed upon me by The Creator and this man stole it from me. I'll never get it back. Everything I have ever done has been illegal. This is the most money I've ever had legally. But look at what it took to get it." - Survivor of California's Forced and Involuntary Sterilization Program

An Attempt at Reparations: California’s Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Program

Posted on | by Leah Smith | Leave a Comment on An Attempt at Reparations: California’s Forced or Involuntary Sterilization Program

On January 1, 2022, the State of California launched a reparations program in an attempt to respond to its history of operating the largest eugenics/sterilization program in the country. From 1909 – 1979, 20,000 people were forcibly or involuntarily sterilized in the state of California.[1] However, providing reparations in the form of monetary compensation (approximately $25,000) to survivors has been complicated as the state tries to reconcile its past. 

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Two light and dark brown hands are on top of one another (one smaller than the other) with the red HIV ribbon hanging on the pointer finger of the top hand. Text reads: To truly eliminate the HIV virus we must address the intersectional systemic inequalities that have allowed the virus to continue to spread. These inequalities include: racism, incarceration, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, police violence, poverty,houselessness. These are all public health issues that disproportionately affect Black communities.

To Better Understand Intersectionality and Health Justice, Look to the Experiences of People Living With HIV

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By: Tyler Cochran, JD

Due to incredible, cutting edge advancements in antiretroviral therapies that treat HIV, and pre-exposure prophylactics that reduce transmission rates, people living with HIV have never been so able to exercise their sexual agency, bodily autonomy, and freedom to love. With each passing day, we endeavor to move towards the visions for our collective future imagined by visionaries such as Marsha P. Johnson and her contemporaries at organizations such as ACT UP— visions of liberation for all people living with HIV, and of a world that fully values the dignity, brilliance, and worth of those living with HIV who are most marginalized by racism, transphobia and homophobia, and poverty. 

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Orange background with a black and white image of Audio Lorde to the right. Text reads: There is no such thing as a single- issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives. Logo of The National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality at the bottom

Why Intersectionality Is An Essential Part of Public Health

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By Tracy Waller, Esq., MPH

Life-limiting inequities continue to persist in healthcare, community living and justice for people with disabilities.

The Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities (Center for Dignity) focused on the important work of addressing the inequities that persist for people with disabilities in healthcare and their perpetuation due to systemic ableism. 

Every person has their own unique and lived experiences. As poet Audre Lorde said, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”

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NIDILRR Awards Field Initiative Project Grant To the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities

Posted on | by Leah Smith | Leave a Comment on NIDILRR Awards Field Initiative Project Grant To the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities

For Immediate Release:
December 7, 2022

Contact: Leah Smith, Project Director
Leah.Smith@cchmc.org

The National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) has awarded the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCCEDD) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) a Field Initiative (FI) Project Grant to study the impacts of internalized, interpersonal, and systemic ableism in healthcare services and systems.

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Disability Led Coalition Awarded ACL Grant to Identify and Reduce Life-Limiting Inequities in Healthcare, Community Living, and Justice for People with Disabilities

Posted on | by Leah Smith | Leave a Comment on Disability Led Coalition Awarded ACL Grant to Identify and Reduce Life-Limiting Inequities in Healthcare, Community Living, and Justice for People with Disabilities

For Immediate Release:                                      
October 18, 2022.

Contact: Leah Smith, Associate Director
Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality      

                                                               

Disability Led Coalition Awarded ACL Grant to Identify and Reduce Life-Limiting Inequities in Healthcare, Community Living, and Justice for People with Disabilities
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Language Access Services to Eliminate Health Disparities and Achieve Health Equity for those with Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

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image of a woman with brown, curly, shoulder length hair. She is wearing a turquoise shirt and smiling at the camera.

Christina Eguizabal Love, Psy.D.
Director of Health and Language Access
Office for Health, Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity (O-HEID)
Pediatric Neuropsychologist
Kennedy Krieger Institute

In the United States, about 1 out of 5 people speak a language other than English at home,1 which equates to nearly 65 million individuals. Those with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) do not speak English as their primary language and have limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English.2 Providing language access means ensuring that individuals with LEP can communicate effectively to participate in and receive healthcare, an important component of culturally competent services.3 In fact, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and corresponding regulations, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), indicate that federal agencies and those receiving federal financial assistance are required to provide meaningful access to services for LEP individuals via trained interpreters, translation services, and more.

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Organization Aims to Address the Double Burden of Racism and Ableism within the Health Care System

Posted on | by Leah Smith | Leave a Comment on Organization Aims to Address the Double Burden of Racism and Ableism within the Health Care System

For Immediate Release:                                      
August 29, 2022

Contact:
Leah Smith, Project Coordinator

Organization Aims to Address the Double Burden of Racism and Ableism Within the Health Care System

Thanks to generous support from WITH Foundation, The Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities will expand upon its existing work by addressing racism and ableism within the U.S. healthcare system. 

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