Welcome back to another episode of Asian Lifing! For many Asian American growing up, disability was something that was always shamed or judged upon. There were many stigma around this. In addition, media and representations have not been authentically portraying disability representations and as result, we never had much of a role model or influenced to look up to. We did not have resources or awareness of the disability network or community out there or were exposed to them because it was never really talked about. Even if our parents knew, they wouldn’t understand or would opt to not address it due to the fear, shame, and guilt influenced by the cultural upbringing they grew up with. Since then, times had changed and opportunities to address our cultural upbringing and embracing who we are and our uniqueness became more available. It is up to us to redefine this narrative and share our story to empower and uplift one another. I'm excited to have my awesome boss and friend, the Entertainment Outreach Program Manager at RespectAbility, Vanni Le (@vanni.pack) joining me on this episode as we discussed neurodiversity, our respective late diagnosis with autism (Dennis) and adhd (Vanni) and how our upbringing affected us, disability representations, and our advocacy work at RespectAbility.

Come join us in this fun and engaging conversations about disability and our experiences as Asian Americans! Please remember to rate, review, follow, and subscribe on apple podcast, iTunes, and on all the podcast platforms out there, and feel free to reach out to me with feedback, questions, or if interested in being a guest! :)

Contact Vanni:

Instagram: @vanni.pack

RespectAbility: @respecttheability https://www.respectability.org/

Contact Dennis:

Email: dennistran18@gmail.com Instagram: @denvtran

Asian Lifing -Instagram: @asianlifing

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