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Many older Americans shun an identity that could bring helpful accommodations, improve care and provide community.

Anjali Forber-Pratt was already an accomplished disability advocate, researcher, and Paralympic medalist when she received the American Association of People with Disabilities’ Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leaders Award in 2012. She has gone on to transform the field of disability research from both inside and outside the federal government.
One of Forber-Pratt’s first experiences with disability advocacy was filing a lawsuit against her high school for disability discrimination. She ended up settling the case in the spring of her senior year, but she knew her lawsuit would lead to lasting change.

As she grew up navigating life in a wheelchair, Anjali Forber-Pratt encountered obstacles both in the physical world and in other people’s mindsets.

“As a young child going through public schooling and so forth, I was constantly faced not only with physical inaccessibility, in terms of accessing spaces, but also attitudinal inaccessibility,” she said.

It’s gratifying when policymakers #LISTEN! On November 21, 2022, CommunicationFIRST submitted comments to the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) in response to the agency’s forthcoming 2024-2029 Long-Range Plan....

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On November 21, 2022, CommunicationFIRST submitted comments to the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR)... Read more: https://communicationfirst.org/when-agencies-listen/

I am a brown, disabled, adopted woman who acquired transverse myelitis as an infant, and I use a manual wheelchair. My experiences growing up with these identities shaped those I developed later—who I am as a person, researcher, and activist.

Dr. Anjali Forber-Pratt, who holds three degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been appointed by the White House as the administration's new Director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).

For many parents, one of the biggest worries is that their kid is being picked on. And unfortunately, that concern isn't unwarranted: In 2017, almost one in three 6th-graders reported being bullied at school.

For some reason, the presence of disability generates a feeling of awkwardness in many individuals. I see and experience this every day. I could be strolling down a wide sidewalk in my wheelchair, and people will loudly and dramatically move to the other side—or even cross the road to avoid me!