College Campus Tour
William was home for spring break, and he mentioned to Penny that he hadn’t actually seen where she goes to school. She gave us both a tour of her college…
COGNOSCENTI | The Trump administration’s rhetoric about disability diminishes us all
Grateful to write today for Cognoscenti/WBUR, Boston’s NPR station (read the full essay here): "The language we use and the stories we tell shape our behavior, writes Amy Julia Becker.…
Spread the Word to End the Word
To my knowledge, no one has ever called our daughter Penny by the most common slur used to demean people with intellectual disabilities, the r-word. I’m glad she hasn’t been…
Caring for Humans is Slow, Messy, and Beautiful
Our family relies on the provision of support from the government by way of education and therapies for our daughter Penny. If we were in a more vulnerable financial position,…
By Cloe Poisson
Advocacy: A Bridge to Belonging
A parent recently made a suggestion to me that I hadn’t ever thought of before. I was speaking about Reimagining Family Life with Disability and the importance of connecting to…
I Wish More Churches Would Love Their Neighbors Like This
Take delight in who you are (and/or in who your child is). Connect to community. Take the next step towards a good future. I had the chance to share this…
Why I don’t want to respond to President Trump’s baseless, inaccurate, and unjust accusations about who caused the plane crash into the Potomac
Yesterday, President Trump held a press conference where he suggested that the reason an army helicopter crashed into a passenger plane in Washington, D.C. was because of Diversity, Equity, and…
Photo by Bryan Johnson
Connect to Community | It Makes All the Difference!
Peter and I have often received praise for our parenting when people meet Penny, our daughter who has Down syndrome. That’s all very nice, but it’s clear to me that…
Cultivating Connection One Word at a Time
I once shared a post that included a story from someone who identified as a "person with autism." To respect their choice of words, I used the same term in…
S8 E9 | How to Talk About Disability with Carrie Hahn
Apple YouTube Spotify More! Is disability a tragedy? Are disabled people “inspiring”? The language we use often reveals our assumptions about disability. Carrie Hahn, a pediatric speech-language pathologist and mother,…
