Thursday, November 21, 2024
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM, Eastern
Online via Zoom
Accessibility:
ASL interpretation and live captioning will be provided. Additional accommodations may be requested during the registration process.
About the 2024 Disability Culture Summit
As contemporary technology's intersection with disability is reshaping the landscape of accessibility, empowerment, and inclusion, advances in these fields are revolutionizing the way disabled people interact with the world, promoting a more inclusive future where barriers are minimized and potential is maximized.
Please join us for CUNY SPS's inaugural Disability Culture Summit, which will feature individuals specializing in the arts, athletics, and technology to discuss these innovations and challenges. The Summit poses the broad question: How do intersections in technology across disability culture successfully address ableism and increase diversity and inclusion?
Jerron Herman
Performer/Director
Ryan Martin
Director of Inclusive and Adaptive Sports, CUNY Athletics
Ryan was recognized as the 2022 College Coach of the Year by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC). The CUNY Adaptive Sports program is the only intercollegiate adaptive sports program on the East coast. The program has been in existence for three years and competes in the intercollegiate division of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA).
Originally, Ryan attended Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) on a wheelchair basketball scholarship. He went on to graduate with a degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Sociology and a minor in Pre-Law. Following graduation, he moved to Madrid, Spain to pursue a career in wheelchair basketball. He would go on to spend 10 seasons in Europe: eight in Spain and two seasons in France. The European leagues represent the only place to play professional wheelchair basketball. During this time Ryan began promoting and advocating for inclusive sports and helping athletes with disabilities live independent and fulfilling lives through speaking engagements and camps.
While playing professionally in Europe, Ryan began to prepare for life after basketball. He founded his own non-profit, the Ryan Martin Foundation (RMF), where he is currently the Executive Director. RMF’s mission is to help youth and adult athletes with disabilities live independent, impassioned, productive, and full lives through sports training, mentoring, and education. Since 2007, RMF has run youth-based wheelchair programs in domestically in Connecticut, and internationally in Madrid, Spain.
Today, Ryan's work continues through supporting wheelchair basketball for youth with disabilities and doing consulting work around best practices of inclusion for individuals with disabilities. In 2014, Ryan was recognized as a member of the “40 under 40” class by Connecticut Magazine for his work in the non-profit sector. In 2018, Ryan was recognized once again as member of the “40 Under 40” class for his work in the non-profit space by the Hartford Business Journal. Ryan was named as the Junior Celtics Coach of the Year in 2020 for his work in growing junior wheelchair basketball in the region.
Seeking to expand his education further, Ryan returned to school and in 2024 completed a master's degree in Disability Studies at the CUNY School of Professional Studies.
Most recently, Ryan served as the President of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) and helps oversee the USA High Performance Program which includes the Men’s and Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Paralympic Teams. In that role, Ryan manages key relationship with NWBA stakeholders such as USOPC and Toyota. He also serves as the Vice President of the 21st Century Tolland Fund, which has supported athletes and athletic programs in the state of Connecticut for over forty years.
Leroy F. Moore, Jr.
Founder, Krip-Hop Nation
Moore’s publications include Black Disabled Ancestors (2020), the graphic novel Krip-Hop Vol. 1 (2019), the children’s book Black Disabled Art History 101 (2017), and the spoken word CD and chapbook Black Disabled Man with a Big Mouth and Hi I.Q. He writes a regular column titled “Illin-N-Chillin” for POOR Magazine. He is a leading activist regarding police brutality and wrongful incarceration of people with disabilities.
Ashley Shew, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Science, Technology, and Society, Virginia Tech
Ashley’s past work has been in philosophy of technology with particular interest in technological knowledge, animal studies, and emerging technologies. She is a current co-editor-in-chief (with Kirk Besmer) of Techné, the journal of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. She is sole author of Technological Knowledge and Animal Constructions (2017) and co-editor of three philosophy of technology volumes: Spaces for the Future (with Joe Pitt, 2017), Feedback Loops (with Andrew Garnar, 2020), and Reimagining Philosophy and Technology, Reinventing Ihde (with Glen Miller, 2020).
Shew believes in cross-disciplinary, cross-disability, and public-facing scholarship: she has written for IEEE Technology & Society, Nursing Clio, Nature, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed. She is a grateful participant with her local disability advocacy and activist community in the Disability Alliance and Caucus at Virginia Tech and the New River Valley Disability Resource Center.
At Virginia Tech, Shew participates as a faculty member in the STS PhD program, Medicine & Society minor, and Disability Studies minor; she’s also the current director of the Bioethics graduate certificate, and a longtime executive committee member with the Integrative Graduate Education Program on Regenerative Medicine.
Hosts/Moderators
Andrew Marcum, Ph.D.
Academic Director and Distinguished Lecturer for Disability Studies,
CUNY School of Professional Studies
Dr. Marcum is a former dissertation research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and a former Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access at the University at Buffalo. He is the recipient of numerous academic and community awards including a Bilinski Foundation Dissertation Writing Fellowship and the Voice Buffalo Community Commitment Award. He has been recognized by the New York State Senate and the Erie County, NY Office for People with Disabilities for his advocacy and work in support of self-advocacy and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Dr. Marcum holds certificates in Disability Awareness Training and Sexuality Education for Youth with Disabilities. His scholarly publications include "Rethinking the American 'Dream' Home: The Disability Rights Movement and the Cultural Politics of Accessible Housing in the United States," in Disabling Domesticity. Edited by Michael A. Rembis. New York: Palgrave/McMillan, December 2016, "'Free Our People': A Disability Studies Perspective on Wellbeing," in Wellbeing as a Multi-Dimensional Concept: Understanding Connections between Culture, Community, and Health. Edited by Janet Page-Reeves. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019, and "Exposing Sexual Ableism: A Review of Already Doing It: Intellectual Disability and Sexual Agency by Michael Gill." Disability Studies Quarterly, Fall 2015.
Brian Le Lay, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, CUNY School of Professional Studies
In one ongoing project, Dr. Le Lay examines institutional arrangements that both enable and constrain disability-inclusive work. The project draws on interviews with university-based advocates for disability inclusion, including teachers, researchers, administrators, and practitioners. The focus includes aspects such as learning management systems, training programs, policies, committees, and communities of practice.
Dr. Le Lay has presented his individual and collaborative research at conferences such as the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Design of Communication; the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Symposium; the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine; and the National Communication Association.
As a teacher (and forever student) of critical disability studies, Dr. Le Lay strives to equip current and aspiring change-makers with the professional development practices, systems thinking tools, and communicative strategies needed to build cross-functional coalitions and transform organizational structures.
Prior to joining the CUNY SPS faculty, Dr. Le Lay taught courses in first-year writing, science communication, rhetoric and the media, technical writing, and visual rhetoric and document design. He earned a doctorate in Rhetoric, Scientific & Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
- Offers multiple undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Disability Studies and Disability Services in Higher Education (first degree programs of their kind in U.S.)
- Mission to develop leaders who will improve the lives of disabled people
- Students taught to think about disability in a social, cultural and political context
- Over 700 alumni across undergraduate and graduate programs
Disability Studies Programs
Disability Studies is an emerging academic field that explores disability from multiple
perspectives, including the social sciences, humanities, science, and the law. The CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS) offers fully accredited, leading-edge programs within Disability Studies, with courses available online. These programs are especially designed for higher education professionals, service provision employees, disability advocates, people with disabilities, parents, and researchers. Students have an opportunity to study with renowned CUNY faculty and expert practitioners, utilizing a multidisciplinary, ‘person-centered’ approach to explore disability and society. At the bachelor's level, students can focus their studies with a concentration in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities, Mental/Behavioral Health, or Interdisciplinary Disability Studies.
Disability Services in Higher Education Programs
The Disability Services in Higher Education programs give students the tools and skills needed to provide legally mandated accommodations to students with disabilities in higher education settings.
Developed with the participation of disability service office directors, lawyers familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008, assistive technology specialists, and educators, these programs ensure that graduates are prepared to assume significant responsibility for addressing disability issues on campuses. Credits earned through the Advanced Certificate courses may be applied toward the MS in Disability Services in Higher Education.