South Carolina, USA
Vilissa Thompson is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) from Winnsboro, SC. Vilissa is the Founder & CEO of Ramp Your Voice!, an organization focused on promoting self-advocacy and strengthening empowerment among people with disabilities.
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Being a Disability Rights Consultant, Writer, & Advocate affords Vilissa the opportunity to become a prominent leader and expert in addressing and educating the public and political figures about the plight of people with disabilities, especially women of color with disabilities.
Her advocacy niches are: Intersectionality, Disabled Black Women/WoC, Racism/White Supremacy, Sexuality, Education, & Social Work's Problematic View of Disability
She has been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, NY Times, Buzzfeed, Bitch Media, Upworthy, Black Girl Nerds Podcast, Daily Beast, Daily Dot, and The Atlantic.
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She created the #DisabilityTooWhite viral hashtag that addressed the lack of diversity within the disability community, and how a lack of representation impacts disabled people of color and their ability to feel fully included and accepted within the community. Demanding that diverse disabled experiences be seen within media and the collective community is a mission for Vilissa’s advocacy focus, and she seeks to make this a permanent reality.
For Vilissa, being an advocate has afforded her the opportunity to share her life experiences as a disabled woman of color, as well as the tales from women she has encountered in her advocacy work. This ability led her to establish the Black Disabled Woman Syllabus, a resource that has garnered much attention and praise from those within academia and the disabled community about its focus on the experiences of a very underrepresented group.
Over the past few weeks, I have been approached by individuals who wanted to understand the Black disabled experience, particularly the plight of Black disabled women and why our struggles matter. (The inquiries picked up when I published my "Lemonade" post last week.) I noticed a pattern from those who asked of my knowledge and ...
Vilissa Thompson, Founder of @RampYourVoice, Writer, Consultant, Advocate, and Proud Woman of Color, tweeted #DisabilityTooWhite on 5/18/16 in response to the default whiteness of the disability community & media representation of disability in general. Disabled people of color spoke their truths.
In 2012, Vilissa Thompson received her masters degree in social work. As she was job searching, she started to blog about social work and disability. A year later she turned that blog into her own company when she founded Ramp Your Voice.
What do Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Mary Davidson have in common? They were all important Black historical figures who made incredible strides in our nation's ongoing struggle for human and civil rights, and they were all disabled. If you were surprised to learn that these women were disabled, you are not alone.
Being a Black disabled woman in America is a sheer act of defiance. What brought me to this statement was the gross amounts of ableism, racism, and misogynoir I witnessed and read last week during the coverage surrounding Korryn Gaines' encounter and death at the hands of the police.
Me Before You has been the main topic within the disability circles I am a part of for the past few weeks, and rightfully so. The depiction of disability within the film, which spurred from the book under the same title, is disturbing; the main character decides that death is a better choice to make ...
Segment 1: Book Riot Comics contributor Preeti Chhibber chats with us about her work in publishing and how women of color in comics and books provide a lot more value than you think. Host: Jamie Co-hosts: Caron and Tora Segment 2: Womanist Villissa Thompson is a disability advocate and consultant fighting for the rights of Black women with all disabilities.
Disability activist Vilissa Thompson talks with Shaun about intersectionality, representation, and the intense labor of trying not to fulfill stereotypes.
Easterseals has supported mentorship programs for decades; this year, we're celebrating our fifth year with Thrive, a community for young women with disabilities. Thrive focuses on different aspects of disability throughout the year, and this month, Thrive is talking with women about dating and disability etiquette.
More Than A Villain: Ivar the Boneless and Disability By Alice Wong I watch a LOT of television--the good, the bad, the ugly, the ableist, the superficial, and everything in between. I discovered the History Channel's original series Vikings through a friend on Twitter, @CaperWheelLady. We first connected as disabled people and fans of the...