Disability equipments

Many thanks to the Cache Interagency Council for coming to visit us this week. We loved sharing with you about some of our many programs that impact the community!

Mark your calendar!

Join us on Monday, November 17th, from 3:30 PM to 10:00 PM at Texas Roadhouse in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for a night of great food and giving back!

When you show the flyer, see our bio for flyer link, 10% of your total food purchase will be donated to Rare by Design. Your support helps us continue our mission to raise awareness about inclusion, representation, and the important conversations surrounding disabilities and rare diseases.

Bring everyone - your friends, family, and your appetite! The more, the merrier, and the greater the impact!

Location:



4307 W. Empire Place

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Together, let's enjoy great food, give back, and make a difference!





Roadhouse

DRC is hosting an important 3-part webinar series on Medicaid changes to break down who will be affected by these changes, when they are going to take place, and which law is causing each change. Please join us if you are a person with a disability in California or their circle of support, we want you to know about these upcoming changes to Medicaid.

The second part of this webinar series is next to take place! You can learn more and register for one or both of the webinars remaining in this series at the link in bio.

Medicaid Changes Part 2: How Federal Medicaid Changes Will Affect Californians with Mental Health Disabilities, co-hosted with Cal Voices When: Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 11:00am-12:00pm PT

Medicaid Changes Part 3: How Federal Medicaid Changes Affect Californians with I/DD When: Monday, November 17, 2025 at 5:30pm-6:30pm PT

ASL and Spanish Interpreting provided for this event.

Each October, we celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) and Disability Awareness Month, honoring the valuable contributions that students, faculty, and staff with disabilities bring to our community. As the birthplace of the disability rights movement, UC Berkeley continues to champion inclusion and equal opportunities for all, upholding its proud legacy of advocacy and accessibility." -UC Berkeley

This includes bringing awareness to disabled workers, and advocating for our community. less

calhhs San Diego has received $174,710,285 in Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP) funding to support behavioral health infrastructure projects and $24.597 million through the Community Care Expansion (CCE) program to create 65 new beds/housing units serving individuals who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Through the CCE Preservation program, San Diego was awarded nearly $16,610,764 to support existing licensed adult and older adult care facilities serving applicants and recipients of SSI/SSP or CAPI, who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. To date, San Diego has contracted with 9 facilities to preserve 502 beds. less

DRC's Public Policy Intern and fierce hard of hearing national advocate Tremmel Watson recently traveled to the Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA) Convention in Denver, Colorado. There, Tremmel had the opportunity to meet Howard Rosenblum, who is currently running for the U.S. House to represent Illinois's 9th Congressional District. Rosenblum is aiming to become the first Deaf member of Congress. It was a great chance for the two to meet and connect!



DeafenedAdults

California has a special election on November 4th! Because 1 in 4 adults in California have a disability (CA DHCS), make sure to be aware what accessibility looks like for in-person voting, what legal protections defend accessible voting, and which local polling locations will be open! so important to make civic participation accessible to all!!

ucbdisabilityculture We are happy to welcome you our Disability Celebration Space!

Part 1: 3-4 PM Hybrid - Join us for a conversation about disability worth, celebrate disability culture, and share your thoughts, feelings, rage, grief, etc.

in community

Part 2: 4 - 6 PM In-person - Let's create a disability pride flag together, embedded with our messages.

This event will be a disability-centered space, but it is open to all!

Refreshments and art supplies provided.

RSVP via link in bio.

Image description: Flyer titled "Disability Celebration Space." Event is on Wednesday, November 12, from 3-6 PM at the Disability Cultural Community Center, Hearst Field Annex D-25. It has two parts: Part 1 (3-4 PM) is a hybrid discussion about disability worth and disabled culture with community speakers. Part 2 (4-6 PM) is a collaborative arts and crafts session to create a disability pride flag and decompress in a disability-centered space. The flyer notes the event is disability-centered but open to all. Refreshments and art supplies will be provided.

RSVP is requested via QR code. Hosted by Senator Yang and the Disability Cultural Community Center.

Disability justice begins where inclusion ends.

If you're autistic and say, "I'm not disabled," we need to talk.

Because that distance you're keeping? It's not safety, it's assimilation that will cost you and all of us long term.

For years, I avoided the word disabled. I thought it would shrink me, limit me, define me. But accepting my disabled identity didn't make me smaller.

It freed me.

It gave language to:

→ The burnout I couldn't explain

→ The sensory overload others dismissed

→ Why I could teach inclusion yet collapse under its design

Here's what I learned:

Disability isn't the opposite of capability.

It's context, the reminder that we're disabled by inaccessible environments, not by broken bodies.

We can't keep rebranding survival as empowerment while leaving behind those who can't mask.
✊🏽Liberation begins with language. When you name yourself factually as disabled, you remove the power of those who weaponize the term against you and make others see you and provide the support we all deserve.

We are not failed versions of normal. We are proof that normal was never the goal.

In my new essay "If You're Autistic, You Are Disabled," I unpack:

The myth of "autistic but not disabled"

How internalised ableism costs us community

Why both social and medical models of disability matter

The eugenic roots of functioning labels

How race and privilege shape who gets believed and diagnosed

This is the conversation we're still avoiding.

Read it here: If You're Autistic, You Are Disabled (comment "ableism")

Audio version available for subscribers

by Lindsay Adam's

Save this. Share it with someone who needs it.

Let's dismantle ableism together.

Join 7,000+ readers at The Lovette Jallow Perspective

Become a paid subscriber for exclusive essays, audio, and my upcoming weekly self-care series for neurodivergent people

Inclusion is more than access-it's belonging.

It's when classrooms, offices and communities make space for everyone's story. Small changes lead to big impact. Let's build environments where every person can thrive.

What's one small way you've seen inclusion in action?

How do you help make people feel they belong?

Share in the comments your answers. We'd love to hear from you!



Matters

Representation reshapes how society sees disability and rare disease. It replaces pity with pride, stereotypes with strength, and isolation with connection. Together, we can tell a new story-one of inclusion, equity and hope.

What word would you use to describe the disability and rare disease community?

How can we continue changing the narrative together?

Share in the comments your answers. We'd love to hear from you!

TheNarrative