Family
From parenting, to caregiving, to understanding who we are, these pieces focus on navigating family dynamics and disability.
Disabled People Have the Right to Raise Children
I didn’t see many families like mine growing up. All my childhood friends’ parents had cars and could drive. My mom was visually impaired and had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. She was the first person to teach me that I shouldn’t be …
Engaging in Politics as a Disabled Person: an Interview with Carrie Ann Lucas
Across the country, people are energized and politically engaged in response to the current political climate. Before you know it, midterm elections will take place next year across the United States. During these elections, it’s important to remember that local …
Homeschooling Should Be an Option for Disabled Students, But Not the Only Option
When I was in middle school, I begged my mother to homeschool me. I was struggling with the curriculum — I needed to be more challenged and more accommodated at the same time — and I was being bullied by…
How Having a Disabled Mom Helped Shape My Identity as a Disabled Woman
I grew up with a disabled mom. It meant that we didn’t have a car, because my mom was visually impaired and couldn’t drive. We walked to the grocery store weekly, took the bus to doctor’s appointments and the mall,…
Mom and daughter take on stigma against Down syndrome
Despite significant progress in civil rights for people with disabilities, society can still perpetuate harmful stigmas and stereotypes against people with Down syndrome. This past April, a mother and daughter took on those stigmas in a heartfelt video. Lily is…
A Mother’s Day message from Emily and Ellen Ladau
Emily and Ellen Ladau share their mother-daughter story in this new Rooted in Rights "Storytellers" video. Both Emily and Ellen have physical disabilities and use wheelchairs.
Family of young man with Down syndrome awarded $150K in defamation case
In a first-of-its kind ruling, a federal jury has awarded $150,000 in damages to a family whose son with Down syndrome was mocked and defamed online. In 2004, Adam Holland, a then-17-year-old, attended the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, a Nashville-based…
Mom adopts three-legged puppy to build daughter’s confidence
It is hard to know what to do or how to react when aspects of our lives do not fit into the boxes society tells us they should. One Australian mom, however, had the perfect reaction. When Brooke Hodgson’s daughter,…