Right before our end-of-the-month group trip to Maine and Boston we wanted to meet and speak with Nefertiti Matos Olivares, who describes herself as using her “voice” in the creation and narration of culturally competent audio description as a first-generation brown-skinned American woman, for another Disability Pride month chat on the podcast.

This week on Outlook we’re talking with Nefertiti (audio describer and member of The Social Audio Description Collective), whom we meet virtually for this recording and then in person soon after, about her work with Descriptive Video Works (Canadian company and North American leader in audio description) and about her independent work in the field..

Nefertiti tells us about low expectations within the crisscross of her specific intersectionalities, medical trauma and career change (scars and The Oscars), and having someone impartial in her life for some of these things along the way.

Reality being just that life happens (particularly when talking disability and chronic illness), we discuss the need for and value in going to therapy, possessing true empathy, and the things which are considered to be universal truths. We talk waiting lists and second times around with transplant as we discuss our similarities and differences in chronic illness conditions and experiences including something known as “sleepy kidney”, as we hear about Nef’s own transplant story,

This episode, recorded on July 15th, happens to be Brian’s transplant anniversary so we figure this could be a place of connection with this particular guest from which to begin the conversation, as Outlook isn’t all about blindness but about the intersections between disability, chronic illness, and everything else.

We four talk resilience like during episodes living with disability and chronic illness (whether it’s long Covid or kidney disease or blindness) and Surviving vs thriving (both emotionally and physically).

As we leave another Disability Pride July behind us - check out more about Nefertiti’s group, The Social Audio Description Collective for a more equity based group of audio description professionals:

https://socialaudiodescription.com/

And learn more about Descriptive Video Works:

https://descriptivevideoworks.com