Categories
Ableism Disability Justice & Access Public Health & Policy

What Public Health Can Learn from Disability Justice

Blind community changed how I understood myself and my work in public health. In this lecture for Indiana University students, I explore ableism, access, autonomy, and what disability justice can teach our classrooms, clinics, and organizations.

Categories
Community & Advocacy Disability Justice & Access Public Health & Policy

Our Lives Cannot Wait: California’s Rehabilitation Waitlist and Blind Community Advocacy

California’s rehabilitation waitlist affects education, employment, health, and daily life. Watch our September 14 fireside conversation about Order of Selection, learn from blind advocates, and find ways to take action and support NFB of California.

Categories
Consent & Autonomy Disability Justice & Access Sexuality & Relationships

Love Is Blind: A Blind Sexologist on Attraction, Flirting, and Consent

Netflix’s Love Is Blind asks whether love can survive the reveal. As a blind sexologist, my question starts earlier: how do I know someone is interested if I cannot see them looking at me from across the room? Let’s talk about flirting, sexual ableism, consent, and what “blind” is really doing in that title.

Categories
Ableism Community & Advocacy Disability Justice & Access Public Health & Policy Public Record

When Ableism Becomes Policy: The Public Health Cost of Delayed Rehabilitation

Two DOR applications, no response, inaccessible government forms, and why disability service delays are a public health emergency. This post has three parts: the problem, my letter to Governor Newsom, and why I wrote it the way I did.

Categories
Ableism Consent & Autonomy Disability Justice & Access Public Health & Policy

Stop Touching Blind People. A blind public health professional is done being gentle about it.

Blind people are grabbed, steered, and redirected by strangers every single day, without consent. A blind public health professional explains why uninvited touch is a consent violation, what it actually does to us, and the one simple thing that helps: ask before you act.

Categories
Ableism Community & Advocacy Disability Justice & Access Public Health & Policy Public Record

LightHouse as Community Health Infrastructure: A Health Promotion Blueprint for Belonging, Blind-Positive Culture and Blind-Led Community Resilience

LightHouse is not only a provider of services to blind and low vision people, LightHouse is community health infrastructure. Its social model, blind-positive culture, community relationships, leadership pathways, and anti-ableism work are health promotion in action.

Categories
Sexuality & Relationships

Vulnerability Is Sexy. So Why Are We Shaming People for Finding It With AI?

What if emotional attachment to AI says less about technology and more about the ways people have learned that vulnerability is unsafe? This essay explores shame, human connection, and why curiosity may be a better response than ridicule.

Categories
Ableism Consent & Autonomy Disability Justice & Access Reproductive Justice Sexuality & Relationships

Video of my 2025 Carrie Buck Distinguished Fellowship

Reflecting on disability justice, reproductive autonomy, and the work to combat sexual ableism in our society.

Categories
Ableism Disability Justice & Access Public Health & Policy

Blindness Is Not the Public Health Crisis. Ableism Is.

Why I Wrote to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. About Accessibility, Public Health, and Structural Inequity

Categories
Ableism Community & Advocacy Disability Justice & Access Public Health & Policy Public Record

A Blind Public Health Professional Responds: Public Comment Section 504 Accessibility Delay 

On May 21, 2026, I submitted a public comment to the Department of Health and Human Services asking them to reconsider the Section 504 accessibility delay. Blindness is not the public health crisis. Ableism is.