{"id":15911,"date":"2025-01-30T11:42:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T19:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/wilkinson\/2025\/01\/30\/from-our-eyes-ed-roberts-day-roxanne-varzi-leads-thoughtful-conversation-on-disability-rights\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T21:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:50:31","slug":"from-our-eyes-ed-roberts-day-roxanne-varzi-leads-thoughtful-conversation-on-disability-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/2025\/01\/30\/from-our-eyes-ed-roberts-day-roxanne-varzi-leads-thoughtful-conversation-on-disability-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"From Our Eyes: Ed Roberts Day – Roxanne Varzi Leads Thoughtful Conversation on Disability Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Dr. Roxanne Varzi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This edition of From Our Eyes features Akpa Arinzechukwu (\u201825 MFA Creative Writing<\/a>). Arinzechukwu attended the 6<\/i>th<\/i> Annual Ed Roberts Day at Chapman University, celebrating the late trailblazing advocate for disability rights, also known as the \u201cFather of Independent Living\u201d. Speaking at the event was Dr. Roxanne Varzi, author of Death in a Nutshell<\/a>, a story about a smart anthropology graduate student who is dyslexic with ADHD.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cMy disability is my superpower,\u201d says Alex, the protagonist of Roxanne Varzi\u2019s Death in a Nutshell<\/i>. Here, in Agyros Forum 209A, on Ed Roberts Day, January 23rd (the birthday of the disability rights activist, Mr. Day), are students, faculty, and community members, listening and taking notes. Some students are in attendance as part of a class, and some are here because they care about disability rights, perhaps because they want to be better policymakers or community members.<\/p>\n

I am here to find out my role in taking affirmative action regarding disability discourses and accommodation. As a Graduate Student Instructor of Rhetoric and Composition, I aim to understand how to support students who come to me for certain accommodations and seek better ways of structuring my curriculum to fit every participant.\"\"<\/p>\n

Thinking about this, I sit in the front row with Dr. Varzi\u2019s husband, who\u2019s audio-recording the event just like me. No words were exchanged between us except the occasional nod to acknowledge our presence in the room. Dr. Varzi, who shares anecdotes about realizing being dyslexic quite later in life and nurturing her son, who is diagnosed with ADHD, does so with ease and whimsy, inviting participants to take part in the discourse and discusses making a shift of ideas about disability from deficit to strength. These ideas serve as a gateway to addressing certain concerns of mine. How should AI be used? How do we address disability? How do we live with it? What can we do as a community?<\/p>\n

Though not directly asked, Dr. Varzi\u2019s responses provide a great insight into the issues. She advocates discussing the subject in places one would unlikely expect to encounter it. Her novel, a whodunit, is an example of such a place to talk about disability.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to advocate in places where people aren\u2019t going to look for things,\u201d said Dr. Varzi.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In response to my question about inclusiveness, she advises me not to work alone. This makes our gathering unique \u2014 that all of us are leaving, thinking of ways to honor the legacy of Ed Roberts, the founder of the Independent-Living Movement.<\/p>\n

Bradley Carol (\u201826 Psychology), one of the students in attendance, praises Dr. Varzi for advocating for reframing disability from a deficit to a strength model. However, he\u2019s hoping events, such as this one, will inspire instructors to consider accessibility when assigning readings and classwork.<\/p>\n

As an advocate of multimodal pedagogy, Dr. Varzi explained how this approach can benefit students with different learning or classroom needs. When I expressed my concern about implementing multimodality in the classroom, she encouraged me to take advantage of AI, which can be good for assistive learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith your permission,\u201d she says. \u201cA student could record a session and have it transcribed automatically [on their gadgets]. And if you provide them access to the e-copy of a book, their app could read them out loud. Show them where to get help, and you\u2019ll have done your job.\u201d<\/em> <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is what I will continue to think about as I plan my classes in the future.<\/p>\n

(Pictured above: Ed Roberts. Photo from Found SF<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This edition of From Our Eyes features Akpa Arinzechukwu (\u201825 MFA Creative Writing). Arinzechukwu attended the 6th Annual Ed Roberts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":15916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"Akpa Arinzechukwu (\u201825 MFA Creative Writing)","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2750,5,2631],"tags":[3753,3754,3755,3756,2904],"class_list":["post-15911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-interdisciplinary-minors","category-news","category-wilkinson-college","tag-death-in-a-nutshell","tag-dr-roxanne-varzi","tag-ed-roberts-day","tag-father-of-independent-living","tag-from-our-eyes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17456,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911\/revisions\/17456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}