Dismantling Barriers: a conversation about Ableism in Healthcare spaces

The Decolonization, Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression (DARAO) Committee of Western University at the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing will be hosting a speaker series and panel discussion on

Tuesday, December 5th, 2023 12PM – 1PM via Zoom

Topic: Weight Stigma: The Intersection of Body Bias and Ableism
Speaker: Zoey Leyland, PhD

Zoe Leyland is the Coordinator, of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Decolonization, and Accessibility (EDIDA) and Interprofessional Education (IPE) in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western. She previously completed a postdoctoral fellowship where her primary work focused on weight stigma. Her PhD in Health Professional Education explored the lived experience of participating in pain education for healthcare learners. She has extensive experience in health education and her work is primarily qualitative. She is passionate about creating a culture of empathy in health education, EDIDA, knowledge translation, and lifelong learning. She takes an embodied approach to weight stigma given her own size and the health inequities she has endured.

Topic: Disability Justice in Sport and Events
Speaker: Laura Misener, PhD

Laura Misener's research focuses on how sport and events can be used as instruments of social change, with an emphasis on how sport for persons with a disability can positively impact community accessibility and social inclusion. Her research program is interdisciplinary in nature and pushes the traditional boundaries of her field to emphasize the importance of critical scholarship for innovation. Her work emphasizes safe sport practices through good governance, strategic policymaking, and an emphasis on human rights and social justice. She serves as a research and policy advisor to a number of disability sport organizations focused on broadening the role of sport in positive social outcomes.

Topic: Disability Justice and Futures of Care in Health Professional Education
Speaker: Elizabeth Mohler, ABD

Elizabeth Mohler (ABD) is a doctoral candidate at Western and holds a 4-year SSHRC fellowship. Her work discourses and practices within Direct Funding shape how disabled persons access services, and in what ways service users resist and negotiate these discourses.
Elizabeth runs a consulting business where she helps companies develop accessibility plans under the Accessible Canada Act and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Elizabeth brings a human approach to activism, and her work includes sitting on the Canadian Institute of Health Research External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism; co-authoring a book on accessibility in the sciences; and, presenting for large and small groups on accessibility and inclusion within higher education.

The event is free, but you must register in advance to attend.