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Rooted in Rights Blog

We’re here to challenge the status quo, pushing readers and writers alike to think beyond the tired tropes of disability. The Rooted in Rights Blog publishes pieces that share perspectives on disability, amplify key issues and ideas, and make it known loud and clear that disability rights are human rights.

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People with Physical Disabilities May Also Need Mental Health Supports, and That’s Okay

This is a story that I was almost afraid to tell. But the fact that I hesitated, that I worried about how it may be received by people that know me in “real life,” is the only reason that I…
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Inaccessible Phone Apps Can Put the Safety of Blind and Low-Vision Users in Jeopardy

Inaccessible apps can be a hassle for blind or low-vision people, especially if you use a screenreader like TalkBack for Android or VoiceOver for iPhone. As a blind person, inaccessible apps have prevented me from playing games on my phone …
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My Family’s Normalization of Pain Made Me Believe I Wasn’t Strong

My three little toes on the outer sides of my feet curl inward so that when I walk I sometimes step on them. They look like calloused half moons. The skin is red and blistered. My body has adapted to…
A photo of Haben Girma's book cover positioned over a background of piles of books.

Rooted in Rights Reviews – Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law

In her memoir Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law, Haben Girma welcomes readers into her world. “I like my deafblind world. It’s comfortable, familiar. It doesn’t feel small or limited,” she writes, and the memoir illustrates that. …
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Finding Space for Myself in a Social Justice Movement that Doesn’t Make Space for Me

Following the end of my writing fellowship with Rooted in Rights, I found myself thinking about why I advocate for the things I do. For as short a time as disability issues have been the primary focus of my writing …
Photo of parent and child Laura and Wren Reeve

Two Generations Reflect on Life Before and After the Americans with Disabilities Act

The following is a conversation about attitudes, access, and ableism before and after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) between Laura and Wren Reeve, mother and offspring, aged 48 and 19. Both have multiple chronic illnesses (between …
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Disability Justice Must Include All Marginalized Identities

When Rooted in Rights first accepted me for their inaugural Rooted in Writing Fellowship program last year, my reaction was one of pure disbelief. For all that I have struggled in my post-grad life to make writing a full-time career, …
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The Fact that IDEA Might be Fully Funded by 2023 Isn’t an Accomplishment. It’s a Disgrace.

In the 1955 Brown vs. the Board of Education case, the court stated: “Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments….It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today, it is a principal instrument…
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Pharmaceutical Sponsorship’s Threat to Dwarf Pride

Addressing disability pride in her book The Minority Body, Elizabeth Barnes writes, “the benefits of pride movements are not merely emotional or affective – what or how we feel. Pride movements also affect what we can know.” Her argument is…