Emily Mondschein, Executive Director at Gigi’s Playhouse Buffalo, joins us to talk about her urgent and trailblazing work in disability inclusion. She shares how her experiences as a special education teacher, and later, parent of a child with Down syndrome, led to her national advocacy work for equitable access to education for the Down syndrome community. In Part 1 of our 4-part interview, we discuss:
-How the fight against disability exclusion and misinformation begins during pregnancy, and what this reveals about the culture of obstetrics and women’s medicine;
-The ways that our limited understanding of multiple disabilities prevents us from providing effective supports to individuals with Down syndrome;
-Why access to education and literacy for the disability community is limited by a lack of educational models for true inclusion;
-Why discrimination against the Down syndrome community is also discrimination against the Autism, Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Blind and Low Vision, and other disability communities;
-How Gigi’s Playhouse, a dedicated space for the Down syndrome community, works as a bridge for improved community inclusion and disability awareness.
(See Episode Website link below for a transcript, YouTube episode with captioning, background information and links.)
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