Disability Deep Dive

Season Four of Disability Deep Dive premieres on November 5th, and here's a preview of what's coming:

• We catch up with Patrice Jetter and Garry Wickham from "Patrice: The Movie" to talk about their love story, the rules affecting their independence, and what they've been up to since the film.
• Deaf pilot and aspiring astronaut Sheila Xu takes us behind the scenes of the effort to make space travel accessible to everyone.
• And with author Keah Brown, filmmaker Julie Wyman, and documentary director Ted Passon, we explore the responsibility of telling disability stories, whether you're sharing your own experiences or helping tell someone else's.

Plus, we're introducing something brand new: The Reef! Short, five- to 10-minute interviews focused on one guest and one big question. We created it to make room for more voices, fresh ideas, and stories that deserve attention now, rather than waiting for another season.

Follow Disability Deep Dive wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss an episode. Or join us on YouTube to watch the conversations unfold. We've got a lot to explore together, and we can't wait to share it with you!

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YqYCgBZfvyE

Jodi and Keith present a special Disability Deep Dive episode recorded live at the 28th Annual Family Cafe expo floor, featuring short interviews with Florida disability organizations and noting ambient convention noise. Lana Smith describes Pyramid's adult day training program (five Florida locations) focused on arts, performing arts, life skills, and community connection, correcting the "daycare" misconception. Dawn Moore and Cherie Hall explain Disability Rights Florida's outreach and common inquiries (education, healthcare access, Medicaid, APD), referral resources, transportation barriers, and ways to contact DRF. Katie Kaiser and Rachel Long discuss major issues (transportation, housing, accessibility), local groups, trainings, and how to connect via flsans.org and social media. Danielle West Lane outlines SSA's Go Digital campaign and My Social Security account functions and access. Aaron Victoria explains DRF's PAIMI program and mental health rights. Betty Cadet shares FIL's self-pay adult services. Ann-Marie Orlando explains UF CARD supports and how to register for assistance.

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/INRjvz4emc4

For our final episode of Season 3, we interview documentary filmmaker Reid Davenport about his film "Life After," which revisits the 1983 case of Elizabeth Bouvia to examine ongoing debates about assisted dying, autonomy, and systemic abandonment of disabled people. Reid explains he was drawn to tensions between nondisabled and disabled progressives and to how media framed Bouvia's desire to die as caused by disability while ignoring factors like divorce, miscarriage, discrimination, isolation, poverty, and inadequate healthcare. He argues bodily autonomy is shaped by surrounding conditions and that people need the right and support to live as they choose before the right to die. The discussion highlights medical and state ableism, misjudgments about disabled quality of life, the need to center disabled voices, and concerns illustrated in the film about assisted suicide access in Canada amid poor support and care.

• Watch "Life After" on PBS Independent Lens: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/life-after/
• "Life After" website: https://www.lifeafterfilm.com/
• Reid Davenport's website: https://www.reiddavenport.com/

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HHWS6KTKcTU

Keith and Jodi interview Meier Galblum Haigh, Executive Director of Disability Culture Lab, about the summer streetwear collection "We're Still Here: Fashion Against Fascism," shaped by conversations with more than 40 disabled people and a North Star visioning process exploring what "winning" and liberation look like. Meier explains Disability Culture Lab's mission to build disabled-led communications infrastructure because "bad stories lead to bad policy," and describes themes behind the collection—interdependence and care, disabled leadership and power, disabled joy, and the harms of oppressive systems—along with tensions around non-disabled parents driving harmful narratives. The Deep Cut segment reviews Netflix's "All the Light We Cannot See" through a disability lens, discussing authentic casting of blind/low-vision actors, shortcomings in character depth and historical context of Nazi violence against disabled people, the value of audio description, and the need for agency, complexity, access, and disabled involvement behind the camera.

• Disability Culture Lab
  • Website: https://www.disabilityculturelab.org/
  • Instagram: https://instagram.com/disabilityculturelab
  • BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/disabilitylab.bsky.social
  • Store: https://shop.disabilityculturelab.org/

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DoefSSe9QW0

Hosts Keith and Jodi interview the married writing team behind the pen name Sebastian Grey about their debut novel, "Merry Band of Misfits," a heist story centering disabled characters as protagonists, including Vinnie, a man with Down syndrome, and his chosen family planning a bank heist to protect their home. They discuss their film/TV background, their goal to counter "inspirational side character" tropes, and why the heist genre highlights capability, moral ambiguity, and agency. The authors describe barriers in Hollywood and why they created their indie press, Bastion House, to control the message. They detail a Kirkus Review they call an "erasure" for centering the non-disabled brother Nicholas and mislabeling or omitting key disabilities, prompting them to speak publicly. In the "Deep Cut" segment, the hosts analyze the book's themes of autonomy, caregiving, ableism, community living, humor, and low expectations.

• Sebastian Grey: https://sebastiangreytheauthor.substack.com/
• Bastian House Publishing: https://bastianhousepublishing.com/
• Purchase "Merry Band of Misfits": https://books2read.com/merry-band-of-misfits

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/s_hsDxHf4gQ

Hosts Keith and Jodi interview Stephanie Woodward, CEO of Disability EmpowHer Network, an organization run by and for disabled girls and women to build leadership skills and confidence. Stephanie consults businesses on inclusion and shares disability-parenting misconceptions through social media while raising six kids, including one-year-old triplets. Woodward discusses disability rights protest as part of an advocacy cycle—"asking did not work"—and explains founding Disability EmpowHer Network after lacking disabled women role models and seeing barriers in education, employment, and leadership, emphasizing mentorship, community, and broader definitions of leadership (including self-advocacy in medical settings). In the Deep Cut, the hosts discuss CODA's portrayal of a Deaf family, Ruby's heavy burden of interpreting, access as a community responsibility, and the film's strengths and complications in centering a hearing protagonist.

• Disability EmpowHER Network: https://www.disabilityempowhernetwork.org/
• Instagram: @disabilityempowhernetwork and @wctriplets
• TikTok: @disability_empowher and @wctriplets
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/disability-empowher-network

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mSumRVieRjc

Hosts Keith and Jodi interview Nila Morton, a Black disabled woman, content creator, social worker, and disability advocate, about visibility, fashion, desire, sex education, and how ableism and racism shape who is seen as desirable or fully adult; she describes pushback for discussing relationships and sex, the need to normalize disability in public, and how she sets boundaries while educating others. The episode's Deep Cut reviews the documentary "Patrice: The Movie," about Patrice Jetter and Garry Wickham facing benefits rules that penalize marriage and cohabitation, including the SSI $2,000 savings limit, loss of benefits tied to fundraising, accessible transportation barriers, and the looming threat of institutionalization. The hosts connect the story to policy efforts like the Marriage Equality for Disabled Adults Act and related SSI reforms.

• Find Nila online: https://linktr.ee/NilaNMorton

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/y6Jck3rU5FI

On this episode of Disability Deep Dive, hosts Jodi and Keith interview Mark Miller, founder and CEO of Inclusion Impact Accessibility and a contributor to the W3C Accessibility Maturity Model, about what it means for state and local governments to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA and the implications of the DOJ Title II rule with an (now extended) April 24, 2027, deadline for entities serving 50,000+ people. Mark explains WCAG, common barriers across websites, documents, apps, videos, and kiosks; the inefficiency of retrofitting versus building accessibility into design, development, QA, and governance; and why overlays don't deliver "full compliance." The episode also discusses media representation, including CODA, Bridgerton, The Pitt, and a Deep Cut analysis of Todd Browning's 1932 film Freaks, weighing its historical visibility of disabled performers against harmful language, exploitation, and horror framing.

• Inclusion Impact Accessibility: https://inclusionimpact.co/
• Mark Miller: https://inclusionimpact.co/mark-miller/

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CdAXtUnGIeg

On this episode of Disability Deep Dive, hosts Keith and Jodi speak with Jhónelle Bean, a disability advocate and ASL interpreter with Tourette syndrome, about the BAFTA Film Awards incident in which John Davidson involuntarily shouted the N-word onstage and how the public response split between denying Tourette's realities and dismissing Black harm; Jhónelle explains common misconceptions, describes Tourette's as a neurological tic disorder with a spectrum of motor and vocal tics (including but not limited to coprolalia), and discusses intersectionality, including added risks for Black people with Tourette's around policing and disbelief. The conversation emphasizes listening to lived experience, empathy, and accountability for media decisions, including reported editing choices. In the Deep Cut segment, they revisit "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," noting outdated stereotypes and body-shaming, and discuss the film's shallow treatment of caregiving, grief, Arnie's disability portrayal, and Bonnie's dignity, including the ending's "convenient" resolution.

Jhónelle's social media:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Jhonelle_bean
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@Jhonelle_bean
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Jhonelle_Bean

Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vXbGfHYwW1k

In the first episode of Season 3 of Disability Deep Dive, hosts Keith and Jodi speak with Spencer West—author, motivational speaker, advocate, and content creator—about his book "Breaking Free: Stop Following Expectations and Start Following Yourself" and the pressures of external approval, anxiety, self-doubt, and authenticity. West shares how college and coming out as gay challenged the "North American Dream," how therapy, meditation, and life experience help him stay grounded online, and why disabled people don't have to be constant educators, emphasizing boundaries and consent. The conversation addresses ableism, access barriers, and harmful "inspiration" framing, along with navigating disability and dating. In the Deep Cut segment, Keith and Jodi discuss why "Breaking Free" is a practical, conversational memoir-guide with prompts, focused on small changes, redefining purpose, asking for help, community care, and celebrating simple joys.

• Spencer West's website - https://www.spencer2thewest.com
• Breaking Free: Stop Following Expectations and Start Following Yourself - https://www.spencer2thewest.com/books