📌 Episode Summary:
In this After SLP Summit episode of Bright Conversations, host Shontaye Glover Jones reconnects with Angela Evenich, M.S., CCC-SLP to continue an important conversation sparked during Angela’s SLP Summit presentation, Anti-Ableist Care: A Disabled Clinician’s Perspective.

Angela, a speech-language pathologist with cerebral palsy, shares how her lived experience as a disabled person has shaped her clinical practice and deepened her understanding of what ethical, affirming care truly looks like. Together, Shontaye and Angela unpack how ableism shows up in therapy spaces, why language around disability matters, and how compliance-driven models can unintentionally cause harm.

Rather than offering a checklist of “right” and “wrong” practices, this episode invites listeners into a deeper mindset shift—one that centers disabled voices, challenges deficit-based goals, and encourages clinicians to reflect on whose comfort, expectations, and outcomes are prioritized in therapy.

👤 Guest Bio:
Angela Evenich, M.S., CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist and disability advocate who brings both professional expertise and lived experience to conversations about equity and inclusion in speech therapy. As a clinician with cerebral palsy, Angela is passionate about anti-ableist practice, affirming care, and creating therapy spaces that value autonomy, dignity, and authentic communication.

🗣️ Topics We Cover in This Episode:

• What anti-ableist care looks like in real clinical settings

• Why “disabled” is not a bad word and why language choices matter

• How compliance-based therapy models can conflict with affirming care

• Reframing goals away from normalization and toward functionality and autonomy

• The role of lived experience in ethical clinical decision-making

• Disability identity, terminology, and stigma in therapy spaces

📚 Learning Objectives: By listening to this episode, you’ll be able to:
✅ Define anti-ableist care within speech-language pathology
✅ Explain why disability-affirming language is essential to ethical practice
✅ Identify ways compliance-driven goals may unintentionally cause harm
✅ Reflect on how to prioritize autonomy, dignity, and meaningful outcomes in therapy

💬 Notable Takeaway:
Anti-ableist practice isn’t about memorizing a list of techniques. It’s about re-examining our assumptions, listening to disabled voices, and creating therapy spaces that value autonomy, dignity, and lived experience over compliance and normalization.

🔗 Listen & Learn:
SLP Summit is available now through February 6, 2026.
Register and learn more at www.bethebrightest.com

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