A Conversation with Kathy Martinez

Speakers

Description

In this episode, Dr. Peter Blanck speaks with Kathy Martinez, President and CEO of the organization Disability Rights Advocates and former Head of Disability and Accessibility Strategy for Wells Fargo Bank. They discuss the evolution of the disability rights movement from her perspective as a blind Latina woman. She describes the challenges of her personal experiences with two marginalized and intersecting identities and how they fit into the larger picture of the past, present, and future of the intersection of race, disability, and other identities.

Ms. Martinez explains that the current disability rights movement is more inclusive, and today’s activists understand that disability access is more complex than a wheelchair ramp. But she points out that more must be done, given that the population is aging and there are millions of people who are experiencing “Long COVID” and other disabilities that they never expected or that did not exist before the pandemic.

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• INTERACTIVE TRANSCRIPT: A Conversation with Kathy Martinez
  Web: bit.ly/martinez-transcript
• TRANSCRIPT DOWNLOAD: A Conversation with Kathy Martinez
• RESOURCES: A Conversation with Kathy Martinez Resources

Summary

• The evolution of the disability rights movement from her perspective as a blind Latina woman.
• The challenges of her personal experiences with two marginalized and intersecting identities and how they fit into the larger picture of the past, present, and future of the intersection of race, disability, and other identities.
• Martinez explains that the current disability rights movement is more inclusive, and today’s activists understand that disability access is more complex than a wheelchair ramp.
• But she points out that more must be done, given that the population is aging and there are millions of people who are experiencing “Long COVID” and other disabilities that they never expected or that did not exist before the pandemic.

About Kathy Martinez, Disability and accessibility strategy consultant and keynote speaker

Kathy Martinez was the president and CEO of Disability Rights Advocates, a nonprofit advancing equal rights for people with disabilities. She serves on the board of The American Association of People with Disabilities. Martinez is an expert in disability employment, including the emergence of disability as an essential component of workplace diversity and inclusion. She also speaks and writes on the importance of expectation in ensuring youth with disabilities grow up with an assumption of work.

Previously, she was senior vice president of disability and accessibility strategy for Wells Fargo. She is a former assistant secretary of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) for the U.S. Department of Labor. There, she launched grant programs such as Add Us In, which increased the ability of small businesses to hire people with disabilities.