Summary
A January deep dive into words and how they nourish us — in the new year and beyond.
👋 Happy new year and welcome to the January 2025 issue of The Latest!
🪴 Growing Together One Question at a Time
This quote by Rainer Maria Rilke has long anchored my love for good questions and how they help us become even better versions of who we are:
“I want to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” — Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
What better way to explore questions than with your colleagues and friends?
So pull up a chair and come with an open heart and mind. Here are some discussion starters to try over your next cuppa coffee or tea (in person or on zoom!):
- What is a story that you carry with you about disability (it can be a true story, fiction, movie, book, television show)? Why does this stay with you?
- What figures of speech or turns of phrase related to disability – or maybe jokes – have you heard or used? What’s the underlying meaning to the way language about disability is used?
- Where do you see accessibility as part of the design of your home, school, workplace, or community? Where is it missing?
If you enjoy these kinds of questions and connecting with others, grab your copy of the Official Workbook for Disability Is Human, complete with individual and group exercises that deepen your thinking around disability, ableism, and accessibility.
🌟 Making the List!
Disability Is Human made its way onto several recommended reading lists over the holidays and at the start of the new year. I’m so humbled and grateful!
- Alice Wong and the Disability Visibility Project 2025 kick off book giveaway
- Accessibility Book Club annual reading list selection for October, 2025
- Disabled by Society Holiday Book Reading List
- ProFound survey book giveaway
The Disability Is Human book and official workbook are also selections for several teams as they plan out their 2025 professional development.
This is my biggest dream – for teams to build capacity and connect in a meaningful way through the stories and insights that they share using these resources.
🎒Back to School…with Mid-year Opportunities!
It’s a new year but for many students and educators, we are halfway through the academic year.
The beauty of this fresh start is that we can bring new energy and perspectives to our classrooms and learning environments.
- What kind of adjustments did you make during your break?
Maybe you thought about a creative way to present a challenging concept.
Maybe you found a great video, artwork, music, or other way to bring the arts into your classroom.
Maybe you want to start the spring semester (or winter quarter) by building new connections between you and your students (and with each other).
Maybe you’re concerned about a student, and are thinking of ways to support them through some tough times.
Maybe you’re thinking about your own wellness, and how to sustain the long drive that is ahead between now and the end of term.
I encourage all of our educators (and students!) to reset, renew, and re-engage with intention as you go back to the classroom this month.
- For some simple accessibility strategies check out the 9 tips for educators on how to make access easy at the National Disability Center for Student Success.
✍️ From the Editor’s Desk…
Words, words, words. I care so very much about words and how they can be used to build people up, break down myths, and bring us to a place of greater understanding.
As we do more writing in our fields, especially as an academic, there are many opportunities to serve in support roles as an editor of journal, books, and organization communications. These opportunities are a part of my daily life.
I also spent significant time and care providing feedback to graduate students and junior faculty in their research papers, grant proposals, and job applications.
Here’s what I’ve noticed about writing during my time as an editor across these spaces:
- Outlines can be helpful… but people use them differently.
Some writers do better with an outline to follow from the start of their writing process. They think from a top-down perspective, and like to follow a road map as they work through their ideas. This is especially helpful if staying on track is a challenge for the writer.
But this is not true for everyone.
Other writers do better with a “brain dump” approach of everything on their mind, getting it out before putting a shape to the emerging themes. This is more of a bottom-up approach, allowing for more creativity in the beginning and adding structure later on in the process.
- Bringing in the personal is scary. And impactful.
Academics are so conditioned to be “objective” and to leave personal story and narrative out of their writing. We are trained to offer analysis of ideas and data, not personal anecdotes and stories.
And yet this approach leaves the reader behind, and often the writer as well.
What to do?
- Where possible, use first person language. Instead of the “passive tense” approach, where guidelines allow, use “I” and “we” in ways that allow you to claim ownership of your ideas. This will also challenge you to truly believe in what you say.
- Include a positionality statement even when it is optional. Whether through a bio at the end of an article or a formal section in a research article, a positionality statement provides people with information about who you are, what you bring to the writing, and why you are writing this piece, at this time.
- Finally, be sure to include examples in your writing that you can relate to. Even if they are not about yourself, per se, examples that are authentic bring that texture to your writing that makes it truly your own.
AI can be a useful tool, but it cannot replace the value of working through ideas.
A large percentage of the papers students submit in my class are written, at least in part, with AI. I’ve come to accept that as part of the modern teaching landscape, for better or for worse. Heck, I use Claude.ai for specific purposes in my own writing!
That said, it’s hard for me to edit or provide feedback for a paragraph that is written by AI because I don’t know where the generated text ends and where the author’s lens begins.
AI does the job of writing – sometimes – but at what cost? When we write we face the challenge of putting a nascent thought into words for public view. Going through that experience makes us all richer for it.
This also goes back to bringing the personal into your writing. Even with AI as a brainstorming tool, there are many ways we can bring our own selves and creativity into the final writing process.
📚 Hot Off the Press: I am co-editor of a new book series!
Coming soon: Critical Deaf Series from Brill Publishers.
Together with our passionate leader, Dr. Ana L. Cruz, this book series brings together influential, transdisciplinary research, examining deaf ways of being and knowing to offer fresh insights into how deaf experiences shape our world.
The first book, “Culture, Deafness & Music: Critical Pedagogy and a Path to Social Justice”, is due out this spring.
Interested in submitting an idea? See the website for details.
💡 Disabled Creator Call Out
A disabled creator spotlight is featured in every chapter of my book – a key part of how we share stories and connect people to the disabled experience. This month’s new Creator Call Out is spotlighted on: Imani Barbarin!
Imani Barbarin is a force to be reckoned with. I saw her present on zoom during the pandemic – her words and insights were a salve in what were really tough times – even more so for disabled people. Her videos are a great wake up call on what we can each do to be more accountable and informed.
I follow her on instagram at @crutches_and_spice – I hope you will too!
🙏 And Finally…
For me, 2025 is the start of a long road back to wellness. I’m grateful to be on this side of the holiday season after a major (hopefully) life altering surgery. If you’re also working on healing and building back strength, know I am thinking of you and we’re in this together!
PS: Want to help spread the word? Here are three things you can do today:
- Forward this newsletter to a colleague or friend.
- Contact me with your recommendations for future Disabled Creator Call Outs.
- If you’ve read Disability Is Human, leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or on your favorite online platform! Thank you so much!