The Future Is Sound

Accessibility with Olivia Meriano

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Olivia Meriano – or Liv – is a middle child.  Liv is dyslexic, one of her older sisters was born with Cerebral Palsy, and her two younger brothers have hearing loss. Olivia’s grandparents were born Deaf, so her mother grew up using American Sign Language as her first language, a skill that she brought into her own family as an adult. In today’s conversation, you’ll learn more about Olivia’s home and family life, her experience growing up in the Deaf community, and how this helped shaped her work as a speech pathologist.

 

Topics Discussed in Today’s Episode:

  • Who Olivia Meriano is and what she does 
  • The gene that Olivia may carry that causes hearing loss 
  • How the gene affects boys and girls 
  • What it was like for Olivia to grow up in the Deaf community 
  • The differences between Olivia’s experience and her mother’s experience 
  • Olivia’s sister and how she shaped Olivia’s choice to be a speech therapist 
  • How Olivia’s family talked about disabilities 
  • Olivia’s mother’s reaction to being told two of her children suffered from hearing loss 
  • What looking at disability through a medical lens can be like 
  • Olivia’s work with the Down Syndrome Resource Foundation 
  • Improv as a therapy tool 
  • A lesson learned from Olivia’s improv program 
  • Language to use and avoid around disabilities   

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    Resources:

    Register for the Partnership in Hearing community page here

    Olivia Meriano at the Down Syndrome Resource Foundation

    The Down Syndrome Resource Foundation  

    Five Moore Minutes with Shelley Moore 

    Instagram accounts:  

    @MsDeafQueen 

    @Shayleemansfield 

    @AdventuresInDeafEd 

    @Fidgets.and.Fries 

    @TheAutisticats 

    @crutches\_and\_spice  

    @AndrewGurza  

    @Zach.Anner 

    @disabilityreframed 

     

    The views, information or opinions expressed in this Podcast are solely the views of those guests and not those of Oticon Canada. While guests are invited to listen, listeners acknowledge that they are not being provided professional advice from the podcast or the guests.

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    The Future Is SoundBy Oticon Canada