Thurs, Oct 30, 1:30-3:00. "Beyond the Imagined Normal: Disability, Pride, & Culture." The talk is open to the public.
Social Justice Leader to speak at Bellevue College
Lydia Brown to speak on topics of disability pride in a culture rooted in the medical model of disability, and how disability informs and works with other areas of identity
BELLEVUE, WASH. – Bellevue College will host noted Georgetown University social justice activist Lydia Brown on Thursday, Oct. 30 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the Bellevue College Carlson Theatre.
Brown’s presentation, “Beyond the imagined normal: disability, pride and culture,” will highlight how disability pride is possible in a social model of disability, as opposed to the medical model that most people in the U.S. grow up learning; what disability pride looks like in a society that doesn’t talk about disability the way it does other identities like race, ethnicity and gender; the concept of what is and isn’t ‘normal’ and who gets to create that concept.
The event is free and open to the public. Seating accommodations are available to those who need them and ASL interpreters will be available.
Brown’s work as an activist, public speaker, and writer focuses on violence against multiply-marginalized disabled people, such as LGBTQ+ (queer and trans), poor, undocumented, and people of color groups within the disability community. Her work has received extensive national news coverage. She was most recently recognized for her disability advocacy work as a Champion of Change by the White House on the twenty-third anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Bellevue College Disability Resource Center will host a reception with food and drinks to follow.
Support for this event comes from the Bellevue College Disability Resource Center, Office of Equity & Pluralism, Phi Theta Kappa, Associated Student Government, and Campus Activities Board.
For more information about this event, please contact AJ Duxbury, Assistant Director of the Bellevue College Disability Resource Center at (425) 564-2658 or aj.duxbury@bellevuecollege.edu.