Happy Tuesday all!
We are continuing our celebration of Black History Month and the Black Disability activists who have fought to expand the rights of people with disabilities.
Today we celebrate the celebrate the life and ongoing work of Morénike Giwa Onaiwu (she/they) global advocate, public speaker, writer, educator, researcher, and mom. Morénike is a disabled non-binary woman of color who identifies as neurodiverse and autistic. They are currently a professor at Rice University.
They have served on the boards of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN), the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, and more. They have received many awards and have been invited to speak at the White House and United Nations Headquarters. In addition, they also co-edited the first anthology of Autistic people of color, All the Weight of Our Dreams: On Living Racialized Autism, in addition to other books. They also participated in the United Nations Panel on Empowering Women & Girls with Autism.
Passionate about human rights and education, Giwa Onaiwu has said she is “here to open minds and to open hearts; to fill minds and to fill hearts; to change minds and to change hearts. That’s why I do what I do.”
I am so grateful to all of the activists we are celebrating this month. I hope that some of you will choose to follow in their footsteps and continue the work of changing the world for the better for disabled people.
Have a great week,
Karen Nielson
DRC Director