91制片厂鈥檚 , will explore how disability awareness can be transformed into meaningful action
in classrooms and communities.
The free event will take place from 8:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, April 24, at the Wojcik Conference Center on 91制片厂鈥檚 campus, 1200 W. Algonquin Road, Palatine. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
The symposium will feature six workshops facilitated by community members, organizations and student clubs on topics including neurodiversity strategies in the classroom, rest as a form of resistance, and zine drawing and storytelling, while also exploring how disability intersects with race, gender and other identities.
The program will also include a student-led panel discussion and session on students with disabilities presented by 91制片厂鈥檚 Neurodiversity Alliance and Access and Disability Services (ADS) Success Club, as well as a keynote address by the award-winning Jen White-Johnson (pictured), an Afro-Latina disabled and neurodivergent artist and educator.
For the first time, students and school liaisons from partnering and in-district high schools that are part of 91制片厂鈥檚 Campus Awareness Program (CAP), a transition program that informs students about accommodations and programs available through 91制片厂鈥檚 Access and Disability Services, will attend the event.
The event is open to students, faculty, staff and the public. is required.
Interim Director of ADS Rebecca Ramirez-Malagon said she hopes attendees leave motivated to embrace disability culture and consider how they can move beyond accommodations toward advocacy and social justice.
鈥淭he fact that we have a disability symposium speaks to 91制片厂鈥檚 commitment to diversity, and I also think it speaks to our innovation,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he symposium is important because growth happens within the community, and there are new challenges that the disability community faces, so I think it鈥檚 important to keep faculty and staff current and informed. Knowing how to serve that population is critical to our students鈥� success.鈥�
Keynote speaker White-Johnson鈥檚 work explores the intersection of race, disability and motherhood. In 2020, she created the Black Disabled Lives Matter symbol, which was used at racial justice protests internationally. She also created KnoxRoxs, a limited-edition photo zine dedicated to her autistic son and to exploring joy as a form of resistance.
KnoxRoxs has been included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. A second edition titled KnoxRoxs: Autistic Joy, a Retrospective, was released in 2024.
鈥淚 feel like we鈥檙e doing [disability] culture a disservice when we feel like we can鈥檛 utilize creativity and expression; whether it鈥檚 poetry, theater, film, these are all of the things that help to define culture because they鈥檙e really beautiful universal languages,鈥� she said. 鈥淢oving beyond awareness means that you鈥檙e all in and that you鈥檙e not satisfied with just being aware that disability and folks who live in marginalized spaces exist. I call it disability wisdom, leaning on the fact that we are a thriving, joyful culture and that we鈥檝e existed in so many different spaces.鈥�