Our Stories
Rooted in Rights tells authentic, accessible stories to challenge stigma and redefine narratives around disability, mental health and chronic illness.
- Activism and Advocacy
- Autism and Neurodiversity
- Community Building
- Community Living
- Criminal Justice
- Cultural Commentary
- Disability History and Culture
- Disability Vote
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- Storytellers
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Shaping Awards Season, One Disabled Story at a Time
It’s awards season again. Oh wait, nevermind… Just as the climate crisis makes spring feel like winter and summer feel like “The End Times,” the writers’ strike, the actors’ strike, and years of a global pandemic have shifted the …
I’m a Virgo: Black Autistic Youth Deserve Representation, Too
Being a Black autistic kid felt like there were thousands of eyes watching me. There were the eyes of my allegedly well-meaning mother, afraid to let me out of her sight. There were the eyes of other people’s parents, …
What My Joints Tell Me
CONTENT NOTE: unintentional and drastic weight loss (due to health issues), medical food restriction (not dieting), brief mention of self-harm (cutting) . . . . . . . . . . . . Summer in North Carolina is hot …
A Community Reflection on Disability Pride Month
The way that individual people connect to their disability—whether it’s mental, physical, learning, or developmental; chronic and/or dynamic; congenital or acquired—is complex. We live in a society that was not created with disabled people in mind. It’s evident every time …
Mass Incarceration’s Dystopia Gets Even Worse: Harvesting Organs and Co-Opting Radical Language
Content warning: incarceration, enslavement, white supremacy, experimentation on adults and children, family separation, death from medical neglect, medical industrial complex, prison industrial complex, trauma, state violence In 1949, an incarcerated white man in Sing-Sing Correctional Facility named Louis Boy…
For Us, By Us: Chronicling Disability Representation in Media
“I’ve got a great story for you! It’s about my life as a disabled person. It’s never been made, and I think it would be something great that you could make to show the world what it’s like to be …
More Than a Product Update: Closed Captions Require Care and Responsibility for True Accessibility
“What are those things in your ears?” As a child, that question would resurface every year as new classmates arrived and a new school year began. I’d explain I was hard of hearing and “those things” were hearing aids.…
Substandard of Care: Accommodations in Healthcare
You can listen to an audio version of this essay here. As told to Editor-in-Chief Denarii Grace Rooted in Rights would like to acknowledge that this essay is the product of a collaborative effort between the storyteller…