Tuesday, October 15, 2024 from 4:00 – 5:30pm
Symphony Room, Gordon Dining and Event Center (770 W Dayton St, Madison, WI 53706)
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 Al Nemec, the Digital Accessibility Program Manager, and Jenn Streator, Disability Program Coordinator & Employee Accommodation Specialist. And the panel will feature Rebekah Taussig and UW-Madison students, faculty, and staff.
Virtual Zoom livestream:
https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/99035460738
Meeting ID: 990 3546 0738
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: Al Nemec (he/him) serves as the Digital Accessibility Program Manager at the Center for User Experience, where his passion for inclusive web design and digital accessibility shines through. With a rich background as an experienced web designer and developer, Al is dedicated to ensuring digital platforms are accessible to all users, embodying the Center’s commitment to excellence in user experience. His expertise and leadership in the field drive the development of more accessible, user-friendly digital environments.
Panel Moderator: Jenn Streator (she/her), Disability Program Coordinator | Accommodation Specialist.
Jenn joined the Employee Disability Resources Office in July 2018 as an Employee Accommodation Specialist. She works with employees and applicants with disabilities who are seeking reasonable accommodations. She provides direct support to Divisional Disability Representatives during the interactive process and ensures the university complies with various state and federal disability employment laws. She loves the variety that each day brings, enjoys the ability to be creative and try new things, and values the relationships she’s built across the university during her time in the role. This role has been a perfect mix of advocacy, ‘boots on the ground’ work, and program development for Jenn. Previously, she worked at non-profits who supported people with disabilities, their families, and community. Jenn recently graduated from UW-Stout’s Rehabilitation Counseling master’s degree program. In any bits of spare time that allow, she loves going on outdoor adventures with her husband and young children.
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: Lisa Forrest.
Hello, I am the current Chair of the Committee on Disability, Access, and Inclusion (CDAI). My pronouns are she, her, hers. I have gray hair and wear glasses. I am a professor of veterinary radiology and radiation oncology in the Department of Surgical Sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine, working as a clinician and teaching veterinary students, interns, and residents. I’ve been at UW since 1992 and living with multiple sclerosis since 1995. The committee works to raise awareness of barriers for people with disabilities on our campus.
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: Rebekah Taussig, visiting 2024-2025 Go Big Read author.