Category: Season 1

Episode 7: Hannah Gallivan and Kathryn Carroll

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On this episode of the podcast, we’re joined by Hannah Gallivan and Kathryn Carroll.

Hannah and Kathryn met through the Disability EmpowHER Network mentoring program. As part of the program, Hannah took on research into how to prepare for a disaster when you have a service animal; her research is now part of the Green Mountain Emergency Preparedness Guide. We talk about the EmpowHER Network, leadership and independence, and the value of mentors for people with disabilities, service animal accommodations, and making real world change. Plus accessibility in the theater!

Episode 6: Melissa Cronin & Rachel Cronin

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:43 — 76.4MB)

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“I think the biggest thing is for people who don’t understand disability, especially invisible disabilities, to try to listen to those who are struggling and take it upon yourself to learn, rather than saying ‘Oh yeah I have that too’.”

On this episode of the podcast, CDCI business manager Rachel Cronin sits down with her stepmother, Melissa Cronin, as they talk disability. Melissa Cronin is an author and journalist based in Vermont. Before she sustained a traumatic brain injury in 2003, she was also a neonatal intensive care nurse.

The two talk about struggling with the idea of who qualifies as “disabled”, especially when it comes to your own identity, along with Melissa’s experiences of having an invisible disability, and how that’s shaped her post-accident identity.

Episode 5: Ariana Cano and Bridget “Bird Diva” Butler

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:31 — 112.7MB)

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In this episode, Ariana Cano-Gomez from The Nature Conservancy of Vermont, talks with Bridget Butler, aka “Bird Diva.” Butler specializes in the art of “slow-birding”, or approaching birding in a way that prioritizes slowing down. They talk about how Butler’s slow-birding ideas touch on disability, race, and access to and love for Vermont’s wild places.

“Like something as simple as bathrooms: oh my gosh! I thought this place would be fine because it had a building and all of that. But it wasn’t: the doorways were too narrow, and the path from the parking to the main trail? There was like a big muddy dip! And I thought, ‘There’s no way that someone using a wheelchair could really navigate this.’ It just kind of blew my mind.”

Episode 4: Winnie Looby & Kinda Abujbarah

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:27 — 19.1MB)

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Dr. Winnie Looby and Dr. Kinda Abujbarah connect briefly about Dr. Abujbarah’s experience with cerebral palsy and how it led her to travel from Amman, Jordan, to the United States to pursue greater educational opportunities — and how COVID-19 has impacted opportunity at universities.

“I wrote my whole dissertation with a typist in another state. So, technology and being able to work remotely, I’ve been doing that since before COVID, but I thought COVID might open more opportunities for me to work remotely.”

Episode 3: Ming M. Canaday

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:36 — 61.5MB)

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Ming M. Canaday is a world traveler, podcaster, life coach, and entrepreneur. In this interview, we asked Ming about how her experience of living with a disability has informed how she approaches all those activities, and how exactly, her new app aims to help people with disabilities have better access to gas stations the world over.

Episode 2: Winnie Looby & Sefakor Komabu-Pomeyie

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:16 — 71.9MB)

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On this episode of CDCI Connects: a conversation between Dr. Winnie Looby and Dr. Sefakor Komabu-Pomeyie. Dr. Komabu-Pomeyie recounts her experience of disability, from contracting polio as a child in Ghana, to a tragic accident that impacted her mobility, and how the support of her mother and her faith helped position her to grasp hold of educational and entrepreneurship opportunities.

Episode 1: Pamela Cummings & Rachel Wright

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:40 — 118.4MB)

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In this episode of the podcast, renowned early intervention nurse / complex needs parent Rachel Wright joins Pamela Cummings, from the I-Team Early Intervention project.

They cover Wright’s journey from medical professional to mother, and specifically what she’s learned from being the mother of three sons, one of whom is a child with disabilities and complex needs. What can other parents learn about negotiating the journey through the medical jargon maze? And how can medical professionals be better partners to parents and other family members?