Green Mountain Disability Stories is a series of conversations about disability and inclusion, by and with Vermonters with disabilities, and their family members, educators, and medical professionals.
Each month, we sit down with some of our favorite people and talk about current issues in disability advocacy. Each episode runs between 30 and 60 minutes, and each one is currently available on our YouTube channel.
In this episode, we're excited to welcome Michele Streeter to the show.
Michele is mom to Ocean and April Streeter, two siblings you met in Episode 20. Michele talks about what it's been like to provide support and guidance for a child with a disability as they navigate the transition to adulthood, post-secondary education, and independent living.
Michele is also a Family Resource Consultant for the Vermont I-Team.
Ocean Streeter lives in Hyde Park, Vermont, with cerebral palsy (CP) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). And in this episode, Ocean talks with her sibling, April Streeter, about academic accommodations, independent living, self-advocacy, and the road Ocean's currently on to becoming a published author.
Rachel Cronin is the assistant director of the UVM Center on Disability & Community Inclusion, and in this episode of Green Mountain Disability Stories, she interviews Persephone Ringgenberg, a self-advocate and artist living in Vermont. They talk art, legislative support for disabilities funding, and whether or not to eat the gluten-free desserts.
In this episode of Green Mountain Disability Stories, we welcome Dr. Sefakor Komabu-Pomeyie back to the podcast. She sits down with CDCI executive director Jesse Suter to talk about her brand new memoir: "I'm Able: A Woman's Advice for Disability Change Agents".
The memoir covers Dr Komabu-Pomeyie's life as a child in Ghana, where she contracted polio and lost the use of her legs, but took heart from her mother's unwavering support, faith, and love, all the way through to her current life in Vermont, where she has earned a PhD from the University of Vermont and is now a lecturer in UVM Disability Studies.
"I'm just like everyone else, and able to contribute to the world in my own way. Treat me like a peer, because I want to grow and learn and contribute to life just like everyone else does, I just have to do it in my own way with my processing and my disability."
Dr. Winnie Looby, director of the UVM Graduate Certificate in Disability Studies, connects with disability self-advocate and researcher Nicole Villemaire. Nicole has been working in Dr. Looby's Disability Studies courses as a teaching assistant, and she shares what that experience has been like, along with more of her own story as a passionate self-advocate.
We make the Green Mountain Disability Stories podcast with Zoom videoconferencing software, Blue Yeti microphones, Rode wireless microphones, Adobe Audition and the help of the Howe Library Media Lab. The music for the show is "Waves Are Only Beautiful When They Break", by Seong June, licensed by Audio Library Plus.
The show is produced by Audrey Homan, with technical audio assistance from Adam Repash.
