The Intersectional Realities of Being a Black Woman in Anti-Ablest Work
Chelsea Osei
Chelsea Osei, a Black woman presenting in front of a dimly lit white wall. Osei is wearing red over the ear headphones that sits on top of a decorative purple headwrap. She also has on a decorative-velour styled matching purple shirt, with braided hair that can be seen on the left shoulder.
Unless indicated otherwise, the written descriptions were done by Nicholas Goberdhan from the Access-In-The-Making Lab, and the voiceovers were done by Jamilah Dei-Sharpe from the Respond to Crisis Team. Image descriptions are constructed based on how the participants identified themselves in their videos and in consultation with the AIM LAB. If you would like to make changes to any part of the description, please do not hesitate to email us at info@respondtocrisis.com.
The Intersectional Realities of Being a Black Woman in Anti-Ablest Work
with Chelsea Osei
Chelsea Osei is an instructor at the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University and a speech language pathologist at Summit School.
In this video
Themes
Disability justice
Intersectionality
Osei also identifies as an able-bodied, cis-queer Black woman and a first-generation Canadian of Ghanaian descent.
In this video, she discusses how to apply an intersectional framework to disability studies in order to circumvent the added constraints disabled peoples face to mobility and health care when they are racialized, gender nonbinary or otherwise marginalized.
To overcome the oppressive consequences of ableism, she urges educators to think about scenarios specific to their profession and add an intersectional framework. She stresses that this is not a “check-box” solution but an ongoing journey to shift the narrative around racialized disabled people’s experiences.
Taking action
Apply an intersectional framework to your pedagogy in order to become aware of the ableist notions within your field.
Understand that anti-oppressive work is not a check box; it is an ongoing journey to shift the narrative.
Understand how power imbalances impact service delivery.