Ollibean Think Tank

Ollibean Think Tank2012-06-27T10:32:21+00:00

Intersection of Law, Education and Civil Rights

As a deaf-blind student with very limited sight and hearing, Haben Girma '13 learned that you must be a self-advocate and come up with creative solutions to the problems you face. If that fails, she says, then the law can be a strong ally.

  • Photograph of lower part of jeans and multicolored plaid sneakers. The sneakers have mud on them and the person wearing them is standing on damp earth . There is green moss and foliage on the right side of the image and Ollibean logo in white. Ollibean logo is a circle composed of various shapes and sizes of equal signs and the word Ollibean.

Walk In My Shoes

I want you to walk in my shoes
Not because I want you to feel what it means
To be disabled
But because I want you to understand
How it feels to be excluded

I would like to see you

  • Ollibean Think Tank Amy Sequenzia Advocacy on turquoise and green background

Amy Sequenzia : Friendship and Respect

It is a mistaken idea that we, autistics, lack empathy. It is also a myth that we are not social. My friends and I, we understand and respect differences. And we understand that we all have a lot to contribute, in a diversity of manners.

  • Amy Sequenzia

Amy Sequenzia: Respect How I Choose to Speak

I type my words because I am non-speaking. One of my disabilities, or one characteristic of my disability, is that my body does not move like my brain wants.

That of course, includes my arm. And

  • woman reading a book in lounge chair with ocean in background

Ollibean Mama Spotlight

Connect and learn with other parents like Tonya who presume competence and celebrate their children for being exactly who they are. #allofakind

Bureaucrats

You look at me
But you don’t see me
You talk about me but not to me
You think you know all about me
But you deny my humanity
You think I don’t have wishes
You believe I don’t have plans
You

Krip-Hop Nation: Music, Advocacy and Education

"Where were the other people who looked like me as a Black disabled young man? With this continuous question of race and disability along with my love of poetry and music, I started to question the arena of music and performance around the representation of musicians with disabilities, especially disabled musicians of color." - Leroy F. Moore, Jr.

When Autistics Grade Other Autistics

“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree…”We know how functioning labels are not helpful, despite being largely used by neurotypicals. But some autistics also grade members of our community and I want to understand why.

  • ollibean think tank inclusion advocate. talk show host. human. Nicole Eredics

Top 3 FAQs About Inclusive Education

Parents naturally want what is best for their child, particularly when it comes to education. If a parent is not very familiar with inclusive education or had a child in an inclusive school, they have

Inclusive Education: It’s Great If You Can Get It

Inclusive schools need to become a reality for all students across the nation regardless of abilities, socio-economic background and geographic location. Unfortunately, many school districts do not see the inclusive classroom as the

  • Because we are all human beings and ‘disability’ does not define a person. And I hated social injustice and inequality from a very young age. I dislike ‘disability labels’ and I feel that children deserve something better than to be segregated and denied an equal education and a means of communication on grounds of disability. Richard Attfield activist. author. human.

Change Leader: Richard Attfield

Richard Attfield, a contributing author to "Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone", is passionate about the rights of children with disability labels to have equal access to education and communication supports.

  • Ollibean Think Tank Amy Sequenzia Advocacy on turquoise and green background

Ollibean Think Tank Member Amy Sequenzia

Amy Sequenzia is a poet and autistic self-advocate. Her writing is as beautiful and powerful as she is. She is an extraordinary voice in the disability rights community .

Go to Top