Tag: Vermont

Episode 6: Melissa Cronin & Rachel Cronin

Posted on by Audrey Homan

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

Posted on by Audrey Homan

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.”