TITLE: Adoptees With Physical Disabilities

DESCRIPTION

In this month’s We the Experts Speaker Series, adoptees who experience physical disability will share their unique experiences and perspectives of their intersectional identities. Physical disability is a part of life that most humans deal with at some point, possibly from birth or due to aging, an accident, or a disease. Adoptees who experience disability are part of the wider community of adopted people, and yet their voices are often excluded or extinguished from adoption narratives. Join us as we listen and learn from members of our community whose identities occupy two or more marginalized spaces – as both adoptees and people experiencing physical disability.

Some topics to be discussed:

• What the adoption community should know about the experience of adoptees with physical disabilities

• Late discovery adoption and learning that birth siblings have the same diagnosis

• What it is like to live in disability isolation

• What it means to navigate multiple identities (physical disability amidst other diagnoses while also being an adoptee)

• The complications of not having access to medical records

PANELISTS

Carlos Mitchell (he/him)

Carlos is a gay Mexican-American transracial adoptee with a rare physical disability. He uses a power wheelchair. Born, raised, and currently living in the Los Angeles area, he was placed for adoption at birth, spending six months in a hospital and nearly five years in foster care before being adopted by a white Mormon family. He is actively involved in the local LGBT+ and disability communities.

Carlos wants to join this panel to give a voice to those who feel excluded from the adoptee dialogue.

M.C. Hudson-Franzese (she/her)

M.C. Hudson-Franzese was adopted via domestic adoption. She began presenting mysterious symptoms at age 11. Over two decades later, she was diagnosed with Dystonia and Ehler Danlos Syndrome. Her disability is dynamic (i.e., severity or impact changes daily).

She raises service dogs for other disabled individuals. M.C. is passionate about training therapy dogs for firefighters and police. She chose this path since experiencing first hand their support and caring attitudes during her medical emergencies.

For anonymity, M.C. writes and educates via a pseudonym: Lily C. Lane. She focuses on topics of chronic health, disability, adoption, biological reunion, grief, and how these themes are interwoven.

M.C. is looking forward to connecting with other adoptees with physical disabilities and to helping the able community better understand accessibility, disability culture, disabled joy, and more.

Maddy Ullman (she/her) A transracial adoptee from Hong Kong, Maddy Ullman is a disabled photographer, writer, and disability in film consultant based in Dallas, TX. Her lived experience with Cerebral palsy and diabetes fuels her storytelling. Maddy seeks to educate and create authentic disability representation in media.

Maddy is thrilled to discuss the challenges of the unique intersection that adoption and disability bring with the community.

Ryder Richard (they/he)

Ryder is a transgender adoptee that was adopted in 1994. His brother was adopted in 1997 by a separate family. He coaches and plays sledge hockey and founded an organization for trans athletes in April of 2024. He is honoured to be part of this panel to shed light on adoptees that are disabled.