 Before we begin DJW you want to open up with a land and labor acknowledgement. We take a moment to acknowledge all indigenous and first people of the land in space, in which we leave and breathe for our community at Highland College, we recognize that we are on stolen and occupied Duwamish Coast Salish. Muckleshoot and Puyallup lands and we want to thank all relations and tribes today as we prepare to hold space as a community. We recognize that all of us are joining this conversation from different locations through zoom, and so let us acknowledge the indigenous and first people of the land in spaces in which you currently occupy. Further, we respectfully acknowledge the enslaved people, primarily of African descent who provided exploited labor on which this country was built, with little to no recognition. Today, we are in debt to their labor and labor of many black and brown bodies that continue to work in the shadows for our collective benefit. Now I would like to introduce Georgia Peary for introduction of our, oh no, I'm sorry, it's Doris Martinez for opening our week. Thank you so much, Geo. Good morning, Highline. My name is Doris Martinez, she heard her pronouns and I serve as a director for Center for Cultural and Inclusive Excellence. Welcome to the second annual Disability Justice Week. In partnership with Access Services, Disability Justice Week is a programming series that centralizes the intersectionality of a disability experience through a disability justice framework that addresses systemic oppression and amplifies the voices of particularly marginalized communities for collective liberation. This week is a labor of love, and our committee has been hard at work since July to curate a week that really does embody the essence of disability joy in mindset of unapologetic liberation, which is this year's theme. Thank you to our incredible committee this year. Thank y'all so much. We'd love to give a special thank you to Kevin Fernandez, Jenny Sandler, Noah Lindborg, who by the way designed our incredible graphics for Disability Justice Week. Noah, Jeff Xiao, Tatiana Masiuk, Georgia Peary, Geo Mark Panello, Edwina Fui, and Beatriz Vera for making this week possible. And also to our sponsors, of course, Center for Leadership and Service, our family, Access Services, and of course, Center for Cultural Inclusive Excellence. And now I would like to introduce the host of today's program, Georgia Peary, who will introduce our featured presentation. Enjoy everyone. Thank you Doris. So hi Highland family, my name is Georgia Peary and I use she her pronouns. I am the club's program leadership advisor within the Center for Leadership and Service here at Highland College. This morning, I have the pleasure of introducing you all to our keynote speaker, who was also a huge influence on our theme this year, disability joy, a mindset of unapologetic liberation. Timotheus TJ Gordon Jr. is a passionate, multi talented autistic self advocate from Chicago, Illinois. He uses writing, photography, blogging, social media and critiques on the representation of disabled people in arts and entertainment to illustrate the intersections of race and disability and community inclusion, especially when it comes to sexuality, higher education, media representation and self advocacy. Gordon is the creator of the Black Autist, a blog that focuses on autism, autism awareness and acceptance in the African diaspora. His writing appears in ethnic studies review, all the weight of our dreams on living racialized autism and ADA 30 in color. Gordon has appeared on the code of the Freaks documentary as one of the interviewees who critiques representation of characters with disabilities in film. Additionally, Gordon is a researcher at the Institute on Disability and Human Development and a co-founder of the Chicago Land Disabled People of Color Coalition, also known as Chicago Land DPOCC. Through both organizations, he promotes inclusion and disability acceptance in communities of color through creating workshops on inclusion and providing safe spaces for disabled people of color to advocate for themselves and others in disability communities. Gordon is a member of the Harriet Tubman Collective, a collective of Black, Deaf and Disabled organizers, community builders, activists, dreamers and lovers striving for radical inclusion and collective liberation. So with that, please highlight joining me and welcoming Timotheus to the virtual stage. Here I am. Good morning everyone. Good afternoon. My name is Timotheus Gordon Jr., also known as TJ Gordon. And today I will present creating an inclusive and equitable post-pandemic future as the keynote for not only today but also the first keynote for disability justice week. First and foremost, I'd like to thank you all for being here and to highlight in college, to highlight in college, I'm sorry. Thank you for this opportunity to speak today. I'm glad to be honest with you all. This is my first time, actually, as they say in baseball, leading off or being the first person to bat. It can be scary because, you know, the lead off person sets the tone for everybody else. So just pray that I can set the tone for the rest of this week. So, here are my goals for this presentation. Let's say it'll be six parts to it. I will start out with quotes of the day, which ties into my presentation about inclusive and equitable futures for the disability community. And then I'll like to give a little review on life before 2020. And then talk about that year that brought hail to a lot of people, especially the disability community for lots of reasons. But then I will look on to the future and be joyful by imagining life after the pandemic as a disabled person, not only talking about the opportunity to express your disability joy and pride, but also opportunities that may be out there to empower yourself and others. I will also talk about the barriers to entering that world. Some may be a foreseen others that still exists from the previous worlds. And lastly, I will give a few tidbits on how to make the future inclusive and equitable for everyone. So before I start, I'd like to give you all a short introduction on myself and also two inscriptions on myself as well. So for those who are watching me right now, I am a African American male wearing a headset glasses, and a red shirt. I am also wearing locks. And I'm the background is basically an office. If you are looking at the slide. I see basically my younger self. The same African American male saying complexion which is tan, but longer locks and wearing a black shirt. And what that person is doing right now is a ticking pose for lack of better terms. So about TJ. I am currently a research associate at the Institute on disability and human development at University of Illinois at Chicago, also known as USC. What I do as a researcher is to give presentations and create trainings on including people with disabilities into the community, especially communities of color. As well as talk about the intercession of race and autism, which is the disability I identified with the most. Along with J. Jim Pock. I am also a co founder of Chicago land disabled people of color coalition or Chicago land epoch. Under the department I work for. It is a group of disabled people of color in the Chicago land area that promote who promotes disability justice, disability rights, disability pride. And acceptance in communities of color throughout the Chicago land area. In addition to being in those two positions, I'm also a writer. I, as Georgia mentioned, I am a blogger for the black artists, where I'll talk about autism disability and race a lot on that platform. I wrote an essay that is part of the 8830 and color anthology called Black Autistic Joy. And lastly, I know somebody who's watching want me to say this, and I'm proud of it anyways, I am a father to two kids. A God daughter named Lauren and a son named Othello, but deal for short. With that being said, we'll get into the meat of the presentation. I want to start by reading you all three quotes. I personally think that could tie into the presentation, considering it is all about building a better future for the disability community. I'll start out with the first one. This is why reading representations of disability as simultaneously metaphor and materiality is so essential. Disability escalates between abstraction and material meanings due to social history. From the author of Body Minds Reimagined, Sammy Schalk. Here's a quote from Janelle Monet. Android is a new form of the other. But you could parallel the other to so many different types of people. Even if you don't consider yourself to be the other. One point in time. I'll show you felt like that. The last quote is from one of my favorite writers, which she was into Afrofeuturism. All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The reason that I chose all three of these quotes is this, when creating any future, the future is not only how it impacts other people, but also how it impacts you as well. So it's the saying for every action there is a reaction or consequence. Whatever you do to change the future, or to create a future is going to affect everybody, including the person making the change or addition or subtraction themselves. From historical standpoint, I use Schalk's quote to illustrate the importance of looking into our past to examine what's going on now, and how to create a future from there. You can't separate the past, the present and the future, because what's been discussed or represented in the past, especially when it comes to disability and intersectionality, still plays out in today's world, but it can also be useful to imagine a world beyond what we live in now. As far as the Janelle Monay quote, with disability and intersectionality in play, we could be like androids. We may not fit into every community. We may be outcast, but we can also be trendsetters in other places as well. So I think all of us in a room are like androids. We may be outcast in some of our circles, but we also doing great things. We are trendsetters. We are revered in other circles. So a part of creating a future is recognizing that you'll be outcast and praised at the same time. So let's go back at least let's rewind to two years ago, two years before the pandemic or even let's say, um, February of 2020. What was like, what was life like before the pandemic before the civil unrest in 2020, you will say in some regards, it was like any other day stuff went on as usual like family dinners, holiday celebrations, sporting events, movie dates, work, everything going on as usual with little to no interruption. There's also the thing where for some people they didn't really care about public health so we didn't worry about washing our hands or using sanitizer as much or raising concerns about the cleanliness of public transportation as much, or why it's good to give people space sometimes especially if a person is sick. We didn't think about that as much in 2019 or even early 2020. For some of us. In that time period, we'll adjourn ourselves, or we may have just floating every in our everyday lives just chilling, or we may have been struggling with finances health, fit it in. Or any of the isms in a world like racism, sexism, ableism, etc. Don't forget that we also had a president before Biden. Name Donald Trump. For today's purposes. This is little to do with the president himself for more to do of the era of Donald Trump where the oppressed are not only being attacked. But is out in the open for everybody to see we haven't seen. A avert showing of that attack, probably since the civil rights era, where you can see violence, the presidents, all on the media, all in the newspaper, or TV, and now social media. Then we get to early 2020, where things took the time for the worst. First off, you have the prank, the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, Gigi Bryant, and the other passengers that within itself was a huge tragedy. The fact that the crash involved the legendary Kobe Bryant, a Hall of Famer, and the closest thing that we have to Michael Jordan is even more devastating. Yet at the same time, we are reminded that races still exist when a reporter for CNN use an N word to describe the Lakers. According to her, she mixed up Nix with Lakers, but the damage is done. She still use an N word to describe Kobe's team. That word in the connotation still exists. When we get to March of this year, no March of 2020. If you live in Chicago, or in other places, let's say late February, you have the COVID-19 pandemic brewing in the United States and worldwide. The spread was so rampant that life as we know it was at a standstill. Cities, towns and countries will shut down under a quarantine. People dying of COVID-19. People are not getting access to healthcare, especially the disability community. When they have COVID-19, or there is no resources for caregivers that could help protect their loved ones from COVID-19. Add that to the increased exposure of racism, ableism and other isms I mentioned before in the Trump era. Add also the response to the police violence towards Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Not just in rallying for those victims and their families, but also rallying against. And you've probably seen civil unrest in many places in the United States. It was pretty much like as a civil war was about to brew again. And to end the 2020, to end 2020, we have the historical presidential election and that aftermath where we had to wait days for the results. Many people, more people than ever before voted remotely. And then once the results came in, there was unrest in that regard. So 2020 has been a very stressful year for many of us. But with anything, we could go nowhere but up. And I strongly believe we are going up. There is a life after the pandemic for disabled people, especially disabled people of color, or disabled people in other marginalized communities. For starters, I think disability identity is on the rise. It's really on the rise, not just in a person identifying high as such and I am disabled, I have a disability, I'm a person with disability. There's also the instance that there's no longer just one way to have a disability experience. It's becoming like a spectrum, just like autism is a spectrum. Not one experience, but a array of experiences is so is empowering to have a physical disability. Intellectual or developmental disability, you can be no divergent. You can have lived experiences with behavioral and mental health. Your story still valid because it falls under the umbrella of disability is becoming no longer physically disabled versus invisible disabilities. Or people with chronic illnesses anymore to tie into the spectrum of disability widening. There's also the fact, no, there's also the notion that intersectionality of disability is becoming more prevalent. Disability is no longer a white thing only. Or for cis male or cis women only. Disability happens in black communities, in Latinx communities, in Asian communities, in LGBT plus communities. It can happen in the Christian church, it can happen in the synagogue. It can happen in mosque. It's everywhere. And disability is tied into many parts of your lives. It ties into your ethnic and racial identity, what you believe in, what gender you identify with, your marital or relationship status. It's all probably ties into your life, some way or another. Which further makes the spectrum of disability experiences a wide spectrum. There's also more opportunities to talk about your experience as a disabled person. You could blog, you could talk about it in your social media. You could join self advocacy groups or create self advocacy campaigns. You could write a book on your experiences. You could even make a movie about your experiences. In the meantime, there's more people like us on screen. There's more autistic people or at least people representing autistic people on screen. There's more representations of disabilities on screen or in the media where we could connect more with the disability community than before. And again, it's not just a white face as a disabled person, but there's black faces as an African American or people African descent, Native American, on and on and on. With the increased exposure to disability identity and joy of being a disabled person. As far as the joy of the experience of identifying as a disabled person, there's also opportunities. You can make more money at home. You can work from home now in your nine to five job, or you can be an entrepreneur. There's companies, there's schools, there's other entities, actively looking for disabled people to be a part of their organization. They also want their input. They want our input so that we can make their place more equitable and accessible. They are even paying us. They are paying us now. Some of us. I don't know if we had the opportunity years before the pandemic. Everything more than now. You can follow your passions in the post-pandemic world. You can get married to whoever you want. Many people, heteronormative, LGBT plus type marriages, you could live as a single person if you want to. You could enjoy your passions because people are taking accommodations more seriously now. And those accommodations can help you enjoy life as a disabled person in this world we created right now. We have the adaptive technology and tools to help you enjoy life. We are creating laws that are more inclusive to the disability community so that we in the disability community could enjoy life and live out our dreams. There is a push federally to not only increase the amount of SSI payments but also to eliminate the marriage penalty. If it went that past, that means you can still get benefits while you are married. Ain't that awesome? Isn't that awesome that we are in a world with many possibilities? Speaking of which, our communities that we live in are more willing to include the disability community. Like our schools, our churches, our workplace, even our families. They want us in. They ask us how can we include you, whether it's physical access or navigating mental health or language choice. Despite the contrary, people are listening to us. People want us to succeed. We're facing some barriers, however, quite a few barriers and making that dream a reality. For instance, there's still internalized racism and ableism in our community. We still harbor the pains of being stifled by racism and ableism and other forms of oppression before and during the pandemic and we still carry it on to the world we build it right now. We still get personal reminders why we're not good enough because our bodies or our race and we take it in but we also let it out to other people by how we process the pain we go through because people do not accept our intersectional identities. Or this disability in general. In some of the communities we are part of, they are looking to erase disability and race from our narratives. People think that you cannot combine all issues in one. You got to pick one thing. Or people may think, oh, racism does not exist anymore. There's no such thing as race or disability. Of course, there's inaccessibility, the ongoing barrier, the never ending barrier. How to challenge communities that still refuses to accommodate or struggle to accommodate all people with disabilities. I must admit, our laws need to be updated to fit the growing world of the disability community. We need to be more inclusive to the disability community. Whether there's laws that need to be made or laws that need to be updated or even repealed. ADA is a prime example of a law that needs to be updated. Yes, it is a federal mandate for public places to ensure the access of people with disabilities. But what about churches or private entities as well? Or how can ADA address intersectionality? And that's where updating ADA and other legislation comes into handy to address our growing world, our ever-albobbing world in the disability community. And because of what went on in 2020 and before that, there's still an active attack on the marginalized groups. And this is why I also mentioned in the beginning that this is not singly a former president's doing. As a matter of fact, I don't think it's a former presidential administration's doing. It's just the effects from a growing number of people who are fed up with the changing world and the inclusion of all people. Thus, those attacks. So that's really the reaction to building an inclusive and equitable future for people with disabilities after COVID-19 and the civil unrest. But luckily, it's not all bad. And in fact, we have the tools to make the future inclusive. Not just you as a disabled person, but also allies like you could be a part of making that world as well. It's a team effort. Here's some ways that I think you could make that world possible for the disability community. Number one thing in any thing. Listen to the voices of the people. Listen to the voices of disabled people. There are the experts. They will let you know what's going on before anybody else because they live it every single day. Opinions matter. Our opinions matter. Also support disabled people in their futures. If you have the money to support us in our dreams, great. If not, link us up with resources that could help us get to where we need to go. And that also means you have to respect our paths. Also, it may be different from yours. And that made bump heads. But at the same time, as long as they get to their destination, it is okay at the end. It's all about supporting their dream. And not forcing them to live out yours. To all the media connoisseurs and people working in the media industry. It is important to increase respectable and meaningful representation of the spectrums of disability, especially in media arts and entertainment. So, in that regard, it's not only creating more sitcoms, movies, stories about the disability community, but also get more people in that community involved as actors, writers, producers, artists, musicians, etc. The more representation of us, the more motivation we could get in creating a positive future for the disability community. Give us disabled people a chance to see independently or independently. Just give us a chance. Even if that means we need help accommodations. That's fine, but just give us a shot. That's all we need. And lastly, find ways to make any activity, job, building or anything in your community accessible and inclusive to everyone who is interested. This also called a universal design where you create things in everybody in mind. So, think of people in pregnancy. Think of the elderly, think of children, think of people with disabilities, including physical disabilities or people who have a sensory overload. Think of ways to make sure that everybody is included in the experience of whatever you're building or providing. This is all I have for creating an inclusive and equitable world post-pandemic. What is on the screen right now is ways you can follow more of my works. You can follow the Institute on Disability and Heal Development on their website. We are doing many, many great things in the disability community from research to advocacy. I think it's a great place to check out the marriage between research, advocacy, and the disability community. There's also information on Chicagoland Deepak, my black artist of social media handles, and my professional social media handles. I also posted links to my essay on Black artistic joy on this industry station, as well as my review of Shalk's work, Body Minds Reimagine on that too. If you'd like an access copy of my slides afterwards to get the information, let me know and we can find a way to email it to you. But otherwise, that is all I have for today. Thank you all so much for coming and attending these presentations. And I hope your rest of your day goes well. And I hope that not only you learn a lot from me, but also you'll learn a lot from the speakers to come for this week. All right, you all, have a great day. And thank you once again. Thank you to Mothius. Highline, please show your love in the chat for our speaker today. Thank you so much for all of those amazing words and your message. Highline family, now we are going to take an intermission and we are going to return at 12 noon for a Q&A session with Timothy, and so please use the Q&A feature at the bottom of your screen to submit your question. And also understand that if you have to leave the session, maybe you need to go to a class, obviously your students first, please go to class. So please fill out our feedback form, which is going to be posted in the chat by one of our moderators soon. So we will be back here at 12 noon, please go get a snack, take care of yourself, and submit some questions in the Q&A. And our ZJ will be playing some music for us in the meantime. So see you all back at 12. Welcome back, Highline family. I hope that was a good break. We are going to get started with our Q&A session. So I am hello to my co-host Geo, the other GP, and we are going to just get started with some questions that have been submitted for our speaker, Mothius. And so we have some really good questions and please feel free to keep submitting them while we are asking using that Q&A feature at the bottom. So I will get us started. So, Mothius, there is a question in the Q&A that says, you mentioned that the ADA is in need of some updating. What kind of changes to the ADA do you think are needed that would incorporate intersectionality? That's a very good question, very good question. From a first glance, you will assume that it's inclusive just by the definition of disability that's frame of saying anything that prevents you from participating in everyday life or, I wouldn't say prevent you, but greatly impacts how you participate in everyday life. However, what if you want to address disabilities that are caused by trauma? Trauma from state institutions have been harmful to certain people, especially disabled people of color or those outside of the cis male world. How can we address disability in gender violence? And those who acquire disabilities from that. So I think what I mean by updating the ADA is to expand the definition of disability that could fit not only the technical definition of disability, but also how disability could be acquired and affects people of color and also to keep in mind of the cultural competency or the cultural things surrounding disability too, as well. Alright, thank you. Your next question is, you have done a lot of work around critiquing the representation of disability in media and film. What are some good, accurate and genuine examples of people with disability in media and film? Depends on your definition of genuine and accurate. I think that's up to you. That's like, as they say in art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So it depends on your definition of genuine and accurate, I guess. But as far as good examples of disability resuscitation, in my opinion, I will say definitely look into the documentary called Mudderball. It follows the journey of the wheelchair ruby of liquid teams in the early 2000s. You're not going to really get pity out of that video, but you will mainly get, oh, they're just athletes, just like everybody else. They men just like everybody else pursuing the typical cis male stuff. They happen to use wheelchairs. I also like this Netflix series called Love on the Spectrum, where you get to see examples of autistic people falling in love. It is not just cis male, cis female, but also many possibilities too. From the racial side of things to even the LGBT plus side of things too. Awesome. So kind of along with that, this question is more about music and representation of people with disabilities. But what music groups do you know or listen to that have musicians in them with disabilities? Oh, yeah, that's a good question. In fact, you'll be surprised that some of the stuff that you listen to actually have musicians with disabilities already. This never, either they came out later, or they already came out about it, about their disability if people didn't pay attention. So classic example. Miles Davis. Miles Davis. He had a sickle cell. Also, even in today's standpoint. I think one of the musician, one of the rappers from the young age twins has a disability. If I'm not mistaken, I think a physical disability. There's a lot of examples and don't forget for the people who lives with the Queen. He had a disability to a chronic illness called AIDS. So I, to be honest, I think there's people already doing music on the disability of side of things. At least mainstream wise, it's just a matter of fighting those who probably says, I'm disabled in some form. However, there is a movement out there called Crip Hop created by Leroy Moore, where he promotes hip hop from disabled artists, locally and nationally too, as well. So I will say, if you're familiar with music, especially if you're like hip hop, go follow the Crip Hop Nation. By the way, it's Crip Hop with a K, not a C, reason being because if you say the C, you'll probably confuse it with the gang. And I want you all to get shot. Right. Thank you. This one is pertaining. Your next question is pertaining more in education. Can you talk about some ways the higher education community can more intentionally elevate and center the voices and needs of the disability community and intersections. Absolutely. As a matter of fact, one thing to do that is creating spaces where disabled people could not only get what they need academically, but also creating spaces to where they can share cultural knowledge within their community and outside the community also create spaces where they can enjoy the college experience and create a recruiting program that celebrates the talents of the disabled person, especially if it's someone with IDD and create the academic program or whatnot around that as opposed to trying to assimilate that person into quote unquote normal way of enjoying the college experience. There are some programs out there where you could get the college experience still you can get a certificate. If you want to, you could take college course courses, you could live on campus, you could even be a part of campus rec programs that are adaptive or tailor specifically for the disability community. So it goes back to I guess universal design as far as how can the college experience could be beneficial to everyone, especially for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and even those who may need more accommodations if they have a physical disability too. I know I think Syracuse has a program like that. There's also one in Kansas City and UIC is currently about to start a co-op program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities where they could get a certificate, take course courses and get the experience of going to college without with the tools they need. And they'll have to conform to the neurotypical way of doing things. That makes sense. No, it does. And actually I want to point out that Jenny put in the chat. Also because she knows she oversees this program we have a program like that here it's called the Achieve Program. So that was a great answer. Thanks for that. I think along those lines there was a question in the chat and it goes along with another Q&A question. Can you define what IDD is for the audience? Yes, yes I will. So IDD is the elemental and intellectual disability. We often put that in a group instead of separate things because one person may have both. For instance, they may be autistic person or person with Down syndrome that may also have an intellectual disability as well. We can also put learning disability in that category as well. So it's basically the range of intellectual or developmental disability you may acquire or have. That's just a better term. Awesome. Thank you. And then the other part was there was a question in the Q&A. Can you define ADA for the audience? Yes, ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. That became law in 1990. It's been 31 years. Keep the questions coming. Use the Q&A feature if you have any questions. But my question personally for Timothy is who is your role model growing up? Walter Sweetness Payton is my role model and Michael Jordan sports wise because you know Michael Jordan would do whatever it takes to win. Also found out later in life that he has ADHD. That explains why he has an obsession to win because he had all that energy to do it. Walter Payton, he's like an epitome of perseverance, whether it's fighting from injuries, doing whatever it takes to help his team win, even when his team were horrible at the time, or fighting essentially cancer. He's an epitome of toughness and perseverance, but he also had a loving kind heart too. So I like the just position of Payton's personality and I also admire Donna Williams. She is the author of Nobody Nowhere. Her book came out around the same time as Temple Grandin. However, I think my personal difference between Temple Grandin and Donna Williams. Donna Williams describes her artistic experience in a colorful, playful way, whereas Temple Grandin is very technical. I appreciate the technicals sometimes, but as a arts person, writing person, I'm more into metaphors and deep descriptions. And Donna Williams' work expressed that deep description of what it's like to be autistic. Awesome. Okay, we have another question in the Q&A. So this comes from, I believe, a faculty member at Highline. So as an engineer, I've worked with white counterparts undiagnosed on the autism spectrum, but they get labeled as quirky geniuses. I've yet to see that label on brown peers on the spectrum. Now that I'm in education, I've had a couple of young black and Hispanic brilliant men in my class that I've suspected were on the spectrum yet undiagnosed. What resources can I point them to other than on campus? They've resisted on campus resources because of the lack of people who look like them. I think first and foremost, I glad that you mentioned about the under diagnosis or lack thereof autism with people of color. Part of it is because there's not as many resources in their community as white communities. And actually, it seems like private entities or universities are usually the big providers when it comes to getting diagnosed, and also getting interventions or support groups. That's something to keep in mind. With that being said, if they are looking for a diagnosis, I will mostly use a Chicago reference because I'm familiar with Chicago side of things. I don't say go with a refer them to a place that not only does well in diagnosing autism and other disabilities in a new diversity family, but also a place that understands the cultural aspects of people coming in as well. That's very important because that can also play a role in how they, how they live a life of an autistic person because we have to understand an experience from a white autistic person and the experience of a black or brown autistic person is very different. Not only because the diagnosis itself, but also the cultural aspects as well. So I think it's very important to provide or send that person to a resources that can understand both things. Or you can also encourage the person to self-diagnose as well. I think self-diagnosing disability could be just as valid as getting an official diagnosis as long as they have the information to understand what autism is correct. I wouldn't say correct, but accurate information. Right. Your next question is how do you handle self care and what are you doing in this environment to maintain balance. Hmm. What am I doing for self care. It's a maintain balance in this chaotic world. That's why I created the hashtag artistic lack joy, because part of that is self care by either making take top videos of things I like to do, or things I enjoy, whether it's by kids, sports, hanging out with loved ones and friends. That's the show. This is my fun of, oh yes, take top videos. Yes, yes, yes. But not only showing, you know, the things that I enjoy, but also a form of healing to remind myself, I need to set to myself again. These are things that make me feel good and proud. Those moments. So I like making social media posts and take top videos as well as looking at interesting ones. I also am a very avid sports jock. I love watching football. I love talking about sports and culture. I like to participate in sports. What the hell I get a chance. So I guess part of it is do the things that you love and enjoy as part of self care. It doesn't have to be prescribed like taking medicine. I prefer for you to take a shower bath, but you don't have to follow the mode of what is usually described as self care. Self care is pretty much just do the things that you enjoy and make you feel better as long as it doesn't cause harm to yourself and others. Thanks for that. Kind of along with that, I have also a question. It might be our last one unless we have some more come into the Q&A, but as a person in academia, and you say you relate the most to having autism. What's with some advice that you have for students that are on the spectrum or students with disabilities navigating hybrid work and hybrid school. That's a good question. And unfortunately, I was a student before the pandemic happened. So on the student side, I can't really express how to cope with transition. I have the presentations in classes before during the pandemic and even right now in hybrid situations. So I guess one of the things is trusting in the students to trust in their abilities and how they like to learn and to express to the teachers how they able to attain information. If that means I personally would rather interact with the class than to go online or have online classes. So if that means you have to talk to the professor about coming to class in a social distance environment, or go even higher to the college dean to express a way you can take in person classes so be it. Or maybe, maybe you like online classes but you want to connect with the students you're not able to because of it is being hybrid. I think that could be something to work out with your teacher or the dean of your college but it causes be a moment to use creative ways to connect with the students as well. If you want to connect with students physically, whether you can ask your classmate, hey, can I study with you in person in a comfortable, safe place, like a library or something. Or indicate that we can change emails or numbers so that we could connect with your fellow students and to even ask for help if you're struggling a set of things. Theodore you mentioned there needs to be a person with the contact information for people with disabilities to give them resources. Absolutely, I think we definitely need colleges and organizations in general who provide services to add like a resource section, even a brief one for resources that can help them. I agree. And might have I answered the ongoing question about when was I diagnosed. I will carry answering this one. Sorry about that. No, yeah, if you feel comfortable, go ahead. Yes. So, you can say I got diagnosed twice. First time was in 1990. I was two and a half years old. But because of the little knowledge we had with autism, especially in black communities. I was technically labeled as a person with a severe communication disorder with slight retardation. Yes, you heard it correctly. Sight retardation. But as I go from the school system. It was always autistic like, but not because they thought I wasn't autistic, but because I found out. Autistic like sounds nicer to parents than autistic, because the native connotations of autism in the 90s, at least. But I already knew the down in my family knew that I was autistic, regardless. It wasn't until 2015 as an adult that I got diagnosed again. I got diagnosed and my results came out as autistic person on the autism spectrum, or they will say on the mild side of autism. So that comes to show how much we came from the days of not knowing what autism is and just guessing. The diagnosis to making a accurate diagnosis and getting more resources. And this is from this is for adults. Imagine kids getting the help they did not help but getting the resource they need now. Alright, I think this might be the last question for you to this before Georgia closes. How can we assist our students without making them feel marginalized or set apart, especially when some of our students are uncomfortable with using their voice to ask questions. Repeat the question how can we assist our students without making them feel marginalized or set apart, especially when some of our students on a comfortable using their voice to ask questions. That is a great question. That is a great question. I'll come. I'll definitely come back to you on that one. However, I would say that I guess with us making sure the assistant know making sure that students feel like they are being heard. But I think part of it is creating an environment where they can ask the tough questions they could come with the tough questions, especially when it comes to navigating education from a cultural standpoint, and also for a standpoint with a person disability. If you're not able to provide that for your students is okay because you can also if you know somebody who could. And it's open and accepting. I can refer the student to that resource that resource could be a resource center, a disability cultural center. It could be a advocacy group support group, or even a group for people with disabilities within a culture. Thank you so much to Matthias Highland family if you could show your love in the chat. This concludes our presentation today so thank you so much for your words of wisdom to Matthias. I know the students had a really great time they learned a lot from you.