Colorblind: Meet you at the Corner of Intersectionality - A Chat with Katherine Perez

It was pretty darn amazing to connect with Katherine Perez, another phenomenal woman of color, and one of the 2017 recipients of the Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award. Katherine is an advocate, law school graduate, and she will soon have her PhD! During our phone call, we discussed advocacy fatigue, accommodations for law students with psychiatric disabilities, self-advocacy challenges, and more. Thank you Katherine for speaking with me, and I eagerly look forward to your future work.

From AAPD: Katherine Perez is a scholar and activist from La Mirada, California. She graduated from UCLA School of Law in 2013 and is currently a PhD Candidate in Disability Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her scholarship engages critical legal and historical analyses of disability laws and policies. She presents on various topics including the Disability Rights Movement (DRM) and is interested in building bridges between Latinx and disability organizations as the DRM progresses. Prior to law school, Katherine served in the Peace Corps in Peru and as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Fellow in Washington, DC.

She is the proud granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and openly identifies as having a psychiatric disability. Katherine believes it is time that we shut down the stigma, recognize, accept, and celebrate difference. As a disabled advocate, she also challenges the community to think about how racism and ableism function together to oppress disabled people of color.





The mission of the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities is to work toward a society in which the human rights of Latinxs with disabilities are upheld and all their intersecting identities embraced. Katherine founded the coalition with a group of professionals and scholars across the nation who are committed to celebrating and empowering Latinxs with disabilities and their allies through community building, advocacy, protection of rights, resources, and education. As a new organization, they have organized several efforts including their upcoming second annual conference and a national research study that will take place in various cities across the U.S. in 2017.


Music Credit: Archie Smith