11:30 – 12:30 “Nothing About Us Without Us”:
The History of the Disability Rights Movement
The History of the Disability Rights Movement

Moderator: Katherine Perez | PhD Candidate, UIC
Katherine Perez hails from La Mirada, California. She holds a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law and is currently a PhD candidate in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her scholarship analyzes disability laws and policies through critical legal and historical frameworks. Katherine has given several presentations on the Disability Rights Movement.
As a law student, Katherine re-engaged the Disability Law Society and was a leader in the La Raza Law Students Association. Before law school, Katherine was a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Fellow in Washington D.C. (2006-2007) and a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru (2008-2010). She currently serves as a REV UP Advisory Committee Member and as a Student Representative on the National Advisory Board of the National Center for College Students with Disabilities. She was honored to receive the 2017 American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD) Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award for her work as a co-founder of CNLD.
Katherine identifies as a Latina with mental disabilities and has a sister with intellectual disability. She runs Disability Rights Blog. Find her updates on Facebook and Twitter.
Katherine Perez hails from La Mirada, California. She holds a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law and is currently a PhD candidate in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her scholarship analyzes disability laws and policies through critical legal and historical frameworks. Katherine has given several presentations on the Disability Rights Movement.
As a law student, Katherine re-engaged the Disability Law Society and was a leader in the La Raza Law Students Association. Before law school, Katherine was a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Fellow in Washington D.C. (2006-2007) and a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru (2008-2010). She currently serves as a REV UP Advisory Committee Member and as a Student Representative on the National Advisory Board of the National Center for College Students with Disabilities. She was honored to receive the 2017 American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD) Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award for her work as a co-founder of CNLD.
Katherine identifies as a Latina with mental disabilities and has a sister with intellectual disability. She runs Disability Rights Blog. Find her updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Susan Henderson | Executive Director, DREDF
Susan Henderson has been with DREDF since 1997. In 2004, she started DREDF’s Foster Youth Resources for Education (FYRE) project to heighten awareness and protect the rights of children with disabilities in the child welfare system. She started DREDF’s Disability and Media Alliance Project (D-MAP) to address the misinformed disability coverage that undermines public policy and legal advances to coverage that raises public awareness and helps to end disability discrimination. She has worked internationally with other disability-led organizations to conduct workshops on disability and human rights in Bahrain, Columbia, Guam, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Tanzania and Uganda.
Susan worked for 13 years as part of the team that planned, designed and constructed the Ed Roberts Campus, a universally-designed building in Berkeley, CA. She currently serves as the president of its board. She has worked in non-profit and law firm management and finance for over 20 years and has an MBA and a BA in Anthropology.
Susan Henderson has been with DREDF since 1997. In 2004, she started DREDF’s Foster Youth Resources for Education (FYRE) project to heighten awareness and protect the rights of children with disabilities in the child welfare system. She started DREDF’s Disability and Media Alliance Project (D-MAP) to address the misinformed disability coverage that undermines public policy and legal advances to coverage that raises public awareness and helps to end disability discrimination. She has worked internationally with other disability-led organizations to conduct workshops on disability and human rights in Bahrain, Columbia, Guam, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Tanzania and Uganda.
Susan worked for 13 years as part of the team that planned, designed and constructed the Ed Roberts Campus, a universally-designed building in Berkeley, CA. She currently serves as the president of its board. She has worked in non-profit and law firm management and finance for over 20 years and has an MBA and a BA in Anthropology.

Lillian Gonzales Brown | Co-Founder, Institute on Disability Culture
Lillian Gonzales Brown has been on the cutting edge of various aspects of the disability rights movement such as Peer Support, Independent Living Skills, Sexuality, and Disability Culture. Gonzales Brown joined the Independent Living Movement in the 1970's at one of the world's first independent living centers: the Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, California. A member of the team which designed and implemented the country's original Independent Living Curriculum, she also worked with disabled people in a variety of direct services areas, such as Peer Support, Sexuality, Independent Living Skills Training, and goal planning.
A complementary background in the field of Sexuality and Disability began with training as a Disability Educator, then becoming an associate staff member, at the Sex and Disability Unit, University of California, San Francisco. Work in the field included community education, conference planning and presentations, lecturing at colleges and universities, continuing education for health professionals, and curriculum development for specific groups in the disabled community. Offering her services as a private consultant, Gonzales Brown contributed to the early development and implementation of sexuality curricula which advocated for rights to information, relationships and privacy for people with mental retardation.
Continuing to add to her expertise, Gonzales Brown worked as a Health Educator for Planned Parenthood, integrating a disability focus into staff trainings and community education. She worked for ten years on a voluntary basis for suicide prevention programs, doing crisis intervention and training of counselors.
During her tenure at CIL in Berkeley, and later at the World Institute on Disability, Gonzales Brown also developed individualized Peer Support and independent living skills training programs for international students and visitors. Having gained international recognition for her expertise in Peer Support, for the past decade she has been sought after to conduct trainings abroad on different aspects of the disability movement. She has taught courses in Europe, Latin America, New Zealand, Japan, and Scandinavia for various disability groups and newly forming independent living centers.
Lillian Gonzales Brown has been on the cutting edge of various aspects of the disability rights movement such as Peer Support, Independent Living Skills, Sexuality, and Disability Culture. Gonzales Brown joined the Independent Living Movement in the 1970's at one of the world's first independent living centers: the Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, California. A member of the team which designed and implemented the country's original Independent Living Curriculum, she also worked with disabled people in a variety of direct services areas, such as Peer Support, Sexuality, Independent Living Skills Training, and goal planning.
A complementary background in the field of Sexuality and Disability began with training as a Disability Educator, then becoming an associate staff member, at the Sex and Disability Unit, University of California, San Francisco. Work in the field included community education, conference planning and presentations, lecturing at colleges and universities, continuing education for health professionals, and curriculum development for specific groups in the disabled community. Offering her services as a private consultant, Gonzales Brown contributed to the early development and implementation of sexuality curricula which advocated for rights to information, relationships and privacy for people with mental retardation.
Continuing to add to her expertise, Gonzales Brown worked as a Health Educator for Planned Parenthood, integrating a disability focus into staff trainings and community education. She worked for ten years on a voluntary basis for suicide prevention programs, doing crisis intervention and training of counselors.
During her tenure at CIL in Berkeley, and later at the World Institute on Disability, Gonzales Brown also developed individualized Peer Support and independent living skills training programs for international students and visitors. Having gained international recognition for her expertise in Peer Support, for the past decade she has been sought after to conduct trainings abroad on different aspects of the disability movement. She has taught courses in Europe, Latin America, New Zealand, Japan, and Scandinavia for various disability groups and newly forming independent living centers.

Jorge Matos | Librarian, Hostos Community College
Jorge Matos Valldejuli is an Assistant Professor and Reference Librarian at Hostos Community College at The City University of New York (CUNY). He specializes in reference service and also provides support to the Accessibility Resource Center serving disabled students on campus. A former recipient of disability services within CUNY, his past experiences in Special Education as well as personal struggles with emotional health have influenced his interests in (not within) Disability Studies. Specifically, the intersections between race, gender and class within the field. But his work in the library field has also been crucial to his thinking on race and disabilities.
Formerly serving as reference librarian at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library & Archives at Hunter College, exposed him to historical materials linking Africana Studies and Latin American & Latin@ Studies. As such, his concerns lie in addressing the silences and neglect of disabled people within both fields. His current research project looks at the disregarded topic of race historically at the infamous mental institution, the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY. He holds a BA in Political Science from Hunter College-CUNY, an MLS from Queens College-CUNY and an MA in Modern European & Latin American History from The Graduate Center-CUNY. In addition, he’s a member of the Puerto Rican Studies Association, the Latina/o Studies Association, the Library Association of CUNY and the Association of College & Research Libraries. He is also involved with likeminded faculty in the CUNY Disability Scholars network.
Jorge is a co-founder of the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities.
Jorge Matos Valldejuli is an Assistant Professor and Reference Librarian at Hostos Community College at The City University of New York (CUNY). He specializes in reference service and also provides support to the Accessibility Resource Center serving disabled students on campus. A former recipient of disability services within CUNY, his past experiences in Special Education as well as personal struggles with emotional health have influenced his interests in (not within) Disability Studies. Specifically, the intersections between race, gender and class within the field. But his work in the library field has also been crucial to his thinking on race and disabilities.
Formerly serving as reference librarian at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library & Archives at Hunter College, exposed him to historical materials linking Africana Studies and Latin American & Latin@ Studies. As such, his concerns lie in addressing the silences and neglect of disabled people within both fields. His current research project looks at the disregarded topic of race historically at the infamous mental institution, the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY. He holds a BA in Political Science from Hunter College-CUNY, an MLS from Queens College-CUNY and an MA in Modern European & Latin American History from The Graduate Center-CUNY. In addition, he’s a member of the Puerto Rican Studies Association, the Latina/o Studies Association, the Library Association of CUNY and the Association of College & Research Libraries. He is also involved with likeminded faculty in the CUNY Disability Scholars network.
Jorge is a co-founder of the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities.