Our Stories

Rooted in Rights tells authentic, accessible stories to challenge stigma and redefine narratives around disability, mental health and chronic illness.

An assortment of medical instruments and personal effects, including pill bottles, needles, and socks, surround an empty white stool on a white background.

What’s In A Pair of Socks?

CONTENT NOTE: blood work, medical trauma, emetophobia, medical ableism I sat on the hard metal gurney, watching my legs shake underneath the torn forest green scrubs. I tried to count my breaths, my ears throbbing from the cacophony of emergency …

Rooted in Rights 2023 and Beyond

Hello Rooted in Rights followers, contributors, and supporters! This is Allexa, the Director of Rooted in Rights (RiR), reaching out to you all to let you know of some changes to expect from RiR and some exciting things happening now!…

A dark-haired person stands at or near the top of a mountain range. Facing with their back to the camera, they're wearing a tan backpack as they hold up a very large map toward the sky to examine the map. They're surrounded by greenery and a cloudy sky.

A Newbie’s Guide to Traveling While Autistic

Like many late-diagnosed adults, finding out that I’m autistic was a relief. Suddenly, somehow, everything in my life made sense. Overnight, I had a name for that out-of-place feeling I’d had since I was a child. Finally, I belonged somewhere.…

Against a bright yellow background, a small pile of earbud headphones, in different colors, is tangled up together.

Tangled: Exploring the Overlapping Symptoms of ADHD and Trauma

CONTENT NOTE: discussion of domestic/child abuse . . . . . . . . . Hypervigilance, trouble focusing, dissociating, trouble maintaining relationships. These are only some of the common symptoms that overlap between ADHD and the effects of trauma. …

Close up of three hands. An elder's hand lays between the hands of a younger person's two hands. All three fair-skinned hands rest on the younger adult's lap.

A Life Worth Living: An Elegy For My Mother

CONTENT NOTE: discussion of systemic ableism, death, end-of-life care, and euthanasia My mother and I were always a team. When my Girl Scout troop had a roller skating party, my mom strapped skates to my feet, took hold of …

The “Imperative of Efficiency” and The Importance of Interdependence

“The experience of illness is one of dependency, and the social mores of our day regard dependency as weakness.” — New York Times review of Megan O’Rourke’s The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness The Starbucks iced green tea and …

Ask to Vax!

COVID-19 Vaccines for Youth with Disabilities #AskToVax

DREDF, YO! Disabled & Proud, and Rooted in Rights have joined together to help disabled California Youth learn more about COVID-19 vaccines for children aged five and up. Children and youth with underlying

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Outdoors. A tree surrounded by green grass is seen from the tree top down to its complex roots. The roots are surrounded by soil because they're all underground.

Getting to The Roots: Why Does Subminimum Wage Persist?

In 2018, the National Council on Disabilities reported that people with disabilities in the U.S. have decreased chances of finding work. In addition, the report found that disabled workers often work for subminimum wage, low wages, and under substandard employment …

A fair-skinned, dark-haired person holds a megaphone to their mouth. They're joined by out-of-focus protestors in the background.

It Doesn’t Get Better: Online Activism and TMAU Awareness

A parent with the odor-related medical condition trimethylaminuria (TMAU) recently drew attention to an episode of the NetFlix series Word Party titled “The Search for the Stink Monster.” It reportedly teaches children “You’re never stinky as long as you have …