Down to the Struts

Qudsiya sits down with Joe Shapiro, investigative correspondent for National Public Radio. Joe was one of the first journalists to cover the disability civil rights movement and the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In this episode, Qudsiya and Joe talk about how Joe came to cover disability issues, his observations about how the movement has evolved over time, and his perspectives o...

Welcome to Season 10 of Down to the Struts! To kick things off, Qudsiya sits down with the indomitable Chai Feldblum. Chai is a civil rights advocate and scholar. For nearly four decades, Chai has fought for the rights of LGBTQ and disability communities through legislative advocacy, teaching, scholarship, government service, and much more. She played an integral role in the drafting of the Americ...

Season 10 of Down to the Struts is headed your way. Qudsiya give listeners a sneak peek at the voices of the journalists, activists, scholars, and creators who will lead us in a deep dive into disability history and culture this season. We’re in double digits y’all! Make sure you’re subscribed and tuned in on April 29 for our first episode. Visit our website⁠ ⁠for ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ transcripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ .⁠⁠⁠...

We’ve reached the end of the road—no pun intended—with our final listener favorite from season 9, featuring Anna Zivarts, author of the exceptional book, “When Driving Is Not An Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency.” This one resonated with many of you who, like Qudsiya, cannot drive a car. As we shockingly learned from Anna in this episode, this is the case for a whopping 31 out of 100 Ameri...

We’ve arrived at our penultimate listener favorite from season 8. We called this one “Access: A love Story.” It was magical for Qudsiya to revisit the unforgettable day that she and her partner, also a Down to the Struts alum, Sean Collins, promised to love each other for the rest of their lives. They’ve been married for nearly two years now, and they’ve had their fair share of adventures since. B...

Here’s your favorite from Season 7. Qudsiya is a huge history nerd, and she had a blast unpacking blind history with Andrew Leland, author of the award-winning memoir,  The Country of the Blind . Andrew and Qudsiya explored blind culture, blind politics, and their own relationships with blindness. It was a great conversation—thanks to all of you for giving us a chance to revisit it. Visit our webs...

We’re recasting this listener favorite from Season 6. Qudsiya loves this conversation with human rights lawyer and disability justice champion, Haben Girma—author of the acclaimed memoir, “Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law.” Haben and Qudsiya talked about the concept of empowered interdependence. This is the idea that we all deserve to have access to the tools to define our own...

Welcome back to our series highlighting listener favorites over the last nine seasons. We’re on to your favorite from season 5. Qudsiya spoke to Jennifer Natalya Fink, author of the incredible book All Our Families: Disability Lineage and the Future of Kinship . The book opened up a fascinating conversation about how we think about disability within our own families, and how rethinking those famil...

In season 4, Qudsiya had the incredible opportunity to sit down with the legendary international disability rights advocate, Judy Heumann, before her passing on March 4, 2023. Now, almost two years later, her legacy lives on. As we continue the fight for disability rights, the memory of her struggle, and the struggle of so many others who fought, and continue to fight, for dignity, equal opportuni...

We hope you’re enjoying our past season rebroadcasts so far. It’s been fun to take this trip down memory lane to revisit some of the episodes that you all enjoyed the most. We’re on to season 3, and Qudsiya’s conversation with Lydia X. Z. Brown, a disability justice advocate and activist, who has dedicated their life and resources to combating injustice, oppression, and violence in all its forms....

Qudsiya is back with your listener favorite from Season 2—Designing Access for Disabled Students. Qudsiya spoke with Roger Ideishi about his efforts to challenge traditional approaches to occupational therapy by insisting that students with intellectual and developmental disabilities play a central role in shaping their own classroom experiences. Roger has also championed the inclusion of disabled...

As the team works on season 10, we wanted to bring you something extra special. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be recasting listener favorites from across all nine seasons of the podcast, highlighting one episode from each season that you, our listeners, particularly enjoyed. First up is season 1, “The Language of Disability” with disability studies scholar and activist, Sara Acevedo. Qudsiya often...

The team at Down to the Struts is thrilled to share the trailer for Season 4 of Contra*! This season,  Aimi Hamraie  and the  Critical Design Lab  share oral history interviews from the Remote Access Archives. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, they spoke with scholars and activists about mutual aid and pandemic times.  This season, they’ll be sharing some of these conversations. Aimi Hamraie,...

Check out the trailer for Pod Access, a brand new resource hub for Deaf and disabled podcasters from Cheryl Green and Thomas Reid. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Visit our website⁠ ⁠for transcripts .⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Subscribe to Qudsiya's Substack,  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Getting Down To It⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Support the team behind the podcast  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠with a donation⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us...

BONUS EPISODE: Qudsiya chats with Kayla Hamilton, the Bessie Award-winning dancer, educator and consultant. Her performance, choreographic and disability arts work has been presented by institutions across the US. In July 2024, Kayla announced the creation of  Circle O , a new cultural organization established by and for black disabled and other multiply marginalized creatives. In this episode, Ka...

In the Season 9 finale, Qudsiya sits down with a dear friend and a champion of equal employment opportunity for people with disabilities, Amir Rahimi. Amir and Qudsiya talked about Amir’s journey with blindness and employment, and how he uses stand up comedy to make sense of ableism. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our website⁠ ⁠for transcripts.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- Subscribe to Qudsiya's Substack,  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Qudsiya speaks with Marissa Ditkowsky, Disability Economic Justice counsel at the  National Partnership for Women and Families . Marissa and Qudsiya talk about the need to advance economic justice for disabled women, and the resources disabled women need to survive and thrive: from consumer protection to access to employment, to reproductive healthcare. And, they talk about what the National Partn...

Qudsiya sits down with retired DC Circuit Court Judge, David Tatel. Judge Tatel's recently released Book,  Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice , chronicles his experiences as a civil rights lawyer, a champion for access to justice, and a jurist on our nation's second highest court. In this conversation he discusses his book and his journey with vision loss, including the dog, Vixen,...

With just two weeks until the US election, access to the ballot has never been more important. But disabled people continue to face accessibility barriers when attempting to vote. This episode dives deep into the realm of voting access with Dessa Cosma and Kenia Flores of Detroit Disability Power. Dessa and Kenia walk Qudsiya through the process of conducting a polling place audit and how Detroit...

In this episode, Qudsiya will take you on a journey with one of her favorite adaptive sports organizations that prioritizes giving blind people access to the natural world. She joined the Metro Washington Association of Blind Athletes , affectionately known as MWABA, for a bike camping adventure along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Washington DC. Thanks to a grant from the Adventure Cycling Asso...

Welcome to season 9 of Down to the Struts! To kick off this season, Qudsiya sits down with Anna Zivarts, the author of  When Driving Is Not An Option: Steering Away From Car Dependency . Anna shares how she has helped to build a coalition of non-drivers to create more accessible communities where disabled people, older adults, children, and so many others can move freely without a car. She also of...

Down to the Struts is back September 24th! Listen to the trailer for a sneak peek at the questions Qudsiya will explore with our guests in season 9: Why is disabled humor so important? What would it look like to travel in a world that isn't designed with cars at the center? How can we ensure that disabled people have what they need to participate in our democracy? And how can we make sure that...

Over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing back some early episodes of Down to the Struts to get ready for season 9. This episode was first broadcast in July 2021, but with a key election just months away, it couldn't be more timely now. Qudsiya sits down with Lisa Schur and Doug Kruse, both professors at Rutgers University. They discuss their research on voting access for people with disa...

Over the next few weeks, we'll be bringing back some early episodes of Down to the Struts to get ready for season 9. This episode, originally broadcast in November 2020, dives into the world of adaptive sports, and specifically looks at Goalball, a sport designed for blind and visually impaired people. Qudsiya is an athlete herself, and in this episode interviews Karla Gilbride and Justin Chan...

Qudsiya shared her love of libraries with Emily Drabinski, the president of the American Library Association. They chatted about ALA's innovative Libraries Transforming Communities program, which is dedicated to providing libraries with the tools and resources they need to be more accessible for people with disabilities, and to enhancing the capacity of small and rural libraries to address the...