Disability and the American Past: Disability Activism in Massachusetts and Nationwide

This panel highlights the decades of work of activists in the disability rights movement both in Massachusetts and nationally. Colin Killick will discuss recent advocacy for better standards of care during Covid and more affordable housing for people with disabilities in Massachusetts. Cheryl Cumings will describe of the founding of Our Space Our Place, an organization that prepares blind youth for adulthood. Maria Palacios and Lydia X.Z. Brown will represent a national perspective, with Maria sharing her experience as a disabled poet and performer with Sins Invalid, and Lydia leading the discussion, as an author, educator, advocate, and founder of the Autistic People of Color Fund. The conversation will touch on the panelists’ history, current issues of advocacy, and look to the future as they imagine the next steps and possibilities for disability activism.