Saturday, October 12, 2024 from 2:00 – 3:00pm
Madison Public Library Central, Room 301 and 302 (201 W Mifflin St, Madison, WI 53703)
Join us for the 2024-2025 Go Big Read: Panel on Disability! In collaboration with the Go Big Read program, Madison Central Public Library is hosting a panel on disability and accessibility in the community. The panel will be moderated by the City of Madison’s Disability Rights & Services Specialist, Rebecca Hoyt. And the panel will have representation from the City of Madison’s Disability Rights Commission, Access to Independence, UW-Madison, and more.
Zoom Livestream Link: https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/91571538339
Meeting ID: 915 7153 8339
CART Captioning available at panel. Please email the UW-Madison Go Big Read Coordinator (bwillig@wisc.edu) with any other accommodation requestions or questions.
Panel Moderator: Rebecca Hoyt (she/her) is the City of Madison’s Disability Rights and Services Specialist. She is committed to celebrating diversity and representing the disability community with pride. Rebecca holds a Bachelor’s degree with a double concentration in sociology and psychology from Antioch University Los Angeles and a Certificate in Applied Disability Studies from California State University – Long Beach. She is currently attending California State University – Long Beach to obtain her Master’s in Public Policy and Administration. Prior to joining the City of Madison in 2022, she worked at Disability Rights California as a Senior Advocate for 14 years focusing on advancing educational and employment opportunities for people with disabilities through direct representation, coalition building, and policy advocacy. She currently works with Department of Civil Rights – Equity and Social Justice Division elevating disability access and inclusion in City programs and services and working closely with the Disability Rights Commission to ensure people with disabilities have representation in City government.
Panel Member: Brelynn Bille (she/her/hers) is a current Master of Public Affairs candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a bachelor’s degree in Community and Nonprofit Leadership. As a first-generation university student, having a disability on campus has introduced additional and unexpected barriers, bringing her to more routine activism in college. Partaking in activism independently and as a member of the Disability Cultural Center Coalition, Brelynn uses her knowledge and enjoyment of public policy as a vehicle for her work on campus. Through her work with the National Disability Mentoring Coalition, she has worked with a cohort to build a student activism guide for other universities to use to build these community spaces for disabled students. As an intern for the U.S. Department of State under the Special Advisor of International Disability Rights, Brelynn has helped with projects relating to areas all over the world, as well as a domestic roundtable of leaders in the technology industry to share strategies and resources that will expand digital accessibility.
Panel Member: Emmett Lockwood (he/they) is a senior at the University of Wisconsin – Madison majoring in Political Science and Gender and Women’s Studies with minors in American Indian and Indigenous Studies and the Integrated Studies of Science, Engineering, and Society. Lockwood is a Disability Justice practitioner and self-advocate passionate about public policy, critical access – especially in rural and indigenous communities. Lockwood was a member of the UW-Madison Disability Cultural Coalition, which successfully won a DCC on UW-Madison’s campus in 2023, and has served in various leadership roles at the Associated Students of Madison. Lockwood is a student researcher at both the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the University of Michigan where they conduct research around how capitalism has complicated legal definitions of disability and who is entitled to protection under the A.D.A., and in open source research methodologies in Disability Studies. Lockwood works on UW-Madison’s campus as a multiply disabled, queer and transgender student. Lockwood has also previously served as an intern for Senator Bernie Sanders, the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, LINK Houston, and the Department of Health Services for the State of Wisconsin.
Panel Member: Miso Kwak is a PhD student in Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Informed by her own lived experience as a blind student and educator, she is interested in better understanding how young disabled people think about and engage with disability identity and self-advocacy. In her spare time, Miso enjoys running, watching cooking shows, and playing and listening to music.
Panel Member: Nicki Vander Meulen is a 45 year old attorney, Wisconsin Disability Policy fellow, and a Madison Metropolitan School District School Board member. When Nicki was elected to the school board in 2017, she became the first openly autistic school board member in the United States. On the board she has fought to make MMSD more inclusive, reduce seclusion and restraint, and improve outcomes for all marginalized communities. Nicki has made it her mission in life to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.
Panel Member: Wendy Weiler is an accessibility advocate recognized for her work both nationally and throughout Wisconsin. Wendy was injured in a motor vehicle accident in 1990 and sustained a spinal cord injury. As a full-time wheelchair user, her passion for addressing the challenges and inequities faced by people with disabilities has driven her work as a disability and inclusion consultant for the past three decades. Wendy’s work includes All Wheels Up (to address inaccessible air travel), Access to Independence, Beyond Compliance Taskforce, the Wisconsin Arts Board Accessibility Committee, Madison Youth Choirs, among others. She holds degrees in biology and business, and earned a law degree from Marquette University. Wendy has held positions in business law & ethics education, travel & living cost consultancy, and technical science services.
As an avid adventurer and lifelong learner, Wendy enjoys traveling around the globe with her husband and two daughters. She resides in beautiful south central Wisconsin.