Gabrielle Peters has called ableism the rebar of our economic, political, social and cultural system. The histories of ableism and racism are interwoven and as the late Mel Beggs said, “There is ableism somewhere at the heart of your oppression, no matter what your oppression might be.”

This session will begin with an overview of the history of Modern Western Ableism and the history of disability activism. In addition to providing an overview of key concepts such as crip theory, disability justice and radical accessibility, participants will learn what it means to apply an intersectional disability lens to issues they will determine at the time of registration such as housing, environmental policy, urban planning, extreme weather preparation, policing, and carceral care.

This session will feature a range of disabled presenters and facilitators with varied lived experiences and intersecting identities. This process involves unlearning as well as learning.

Poverty, institutionalization, eugenics, and other acts of violence will be discussed but participants will be given the opportunity to opt out by muting and turning captions off during these segments.

Live captioning and ASL interpretation will be available.

“Too many new learnings to count. This was, hands down, my absolute favourite session of the entire conference. The incomparable wisdom and lived experience of Gabrielle, her riveting presentation, and the unbelievably detailed graphics she presented are some of the best lecture work on disability I’ve ever had the privilege of learning from”- Anonymous Participant

Schedule

Sunday, October 3

10:00 – 1:30 PT (including a 20 minute break)

1:30 – 2:30 PT (lunch break)

2:30 – 4:30 PT (including a 20 minute break)

Lead Partner

Ecosystem Partners

Virtual Gathering

This event will take place on Zoom, a video conferencing tool. You may download the application for free. You will also need a device with speakers, microphone, video, and internet connection. You may test your Zoom connection in advance. A short tutorial for Zoom etiquette will be provided at the beginning of the event.

Recordings

A portion of the session will be recorded for registered participants to review content as a tool to deepen their learning.  Please note that not all segments will be recorded in order to support a container of trust and sharing.

Terms & Conditions

You may find our terms & conditions here.

Image Descriptions

Currently the platform we use does not have image caption functionality. We are working with our web developer to correct this. Here are descriptions for the images used on this page:

Program Image: Five disabled people of colour with canes, prosthetic legs, and a wheelchair sit on a rooftop deck, laughing and sharing stories. Greenery and city high-rises are visible in the background. From Disabled and Here.

Gabrille Peters Presenter Image: Cross-stitch of wheelchair on blue background.

Sarah Jama Presenter Image: Sarah facing the viewer while sitting in a wheelchair in front of a white background.

Spring Hawes Presenter Image: Close up of Spring Hawes’ face looking away from the viewer, smiling, with a white background in the back.

Q Presenter Image: Q is sitting in a wheelchair with a raised fist in the air and a smile on their face. Q is sitting in front of a brick wall with roadsigns in the background.

Rabbit Richards Presenter Image: Double daylight exposure of Rabbit amidst orange flowers. They are wearing a denim button down and a cowbone necklace, with their short hair twisted and shaved over the ears.

Pamela Hope Presenter Image: Pamela is standing in a brightly lit hallway, wearing thin-rimmed glasses and has long auburn curly hair.

Iva Cheung Presenter Image: A cartoon in black ink on a white background of a stick figure with long, straight, dark hair and glasses, looking straight ahead.