Our Stories
Rooted in Rights tells authentic, accessible stories to challenge stigma and redefine narratives around disability, mental health and chronic illness.
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Stop Blaming Autism for Capitalist and White Supremacist Violence
Content note: quotation of ableist slurs, discussion of white supremacy, mass violence, Holocaust, and eugenics In an interview with Talking Points Memo Albert Watkins, the lawyer for self-described “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley, who participated in the January 6th Capitol riots,…
Putting Respect on the Menu: On Being a Deaf Chef
Everyone has a gift or a purpose that puts a sparkle in their eyes, quickens their heartbeat a little, and wakes them up more excited to start the morning. We go about our daily activities with varied levels of anticipation…
Is Long COVID Leading to a Tipping Point in Attitudes Toward Chronic Illness?
Could long COVID spell the end of medical gaslighting? Let’s hope so. When Kathy Flaherty, a 53-year-old attorney and nonprofit executive director, got COVID-19 in March 2020, her friends said, “see you in two weeks.” Two weeks came and went,…
The Cultural Dynamics of Being Asian and Disabled
This year will mark 24 years of my life since becoming disabled. Through my work, my disability origin story is quite public. At the age of 9, I became disabled as a result of a car accident that also took …
We Can’t Let Our Guard (Or Our Masks) Down
Recently, I overheard my father telling my husband about how he had quit his gym membership because they were requiring people to wear a mask during workouts. His list of reasons as to why this was uncomfortable for him was…
Who Gets Left Behind When We Practice “Evidence-Based” Mental Health Care?
As a counselor just beginning my career, I remember entering the session on evidence-based care for school-age students with an open mind. Of course, I wanted every intervention I used in my counseling office to be based on evidence –…
Finding the ME in (ME)dicine
Content note: addresses mental health and mentions suicide Finding the ME in (ME)dicine. Means finding out where I got lost. Pinpointing where I was misguided to believe that my self worth and need for self care was less than that…
A Disabled Student’s Guide to Earning Teacher of the Year
Ask anyone on the street to recount a story from their school days, and you’ll probably be met with a range of topics from just how terrible cafeteria food is to the time they were bullied incessantly by an archenemy…