Enabling Disabled Expressions Multimedia Anthology
Executive Director Jessica King launched a multimedia anthology project in Spring 2024 with the mentorship of Dr. Crystal Yin Lie at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).
Newly diagnosed as autistic, she recognized that while her university offered many resources for marginalized students, conversations around disability remain limited, uncomfortable, and misinformed. Faculty and staff training in accessibility is optional and unpaid, the students' right to accommodations are buried in many syllabi, and students registered with the Bob Murphy Access Center (BMAC) endure awkward conversations with unsupportive and uninformed instructors. While Governor Newsom's AB 2821 bill passed in Fall 2024 to mandate training on the legalities of accommodations for faculty and staff, efforts must still be made to increase disability culture and equity across CSU universities.
Launched in Spring 2024, the purpose of Enabling Disabled Expressions: A Multimedia Anthology of Disability Narratives strived to amend this social justice issue and increase communal acceptance of BMAC students in all academic spaces, recognizing the diversity of disability across all populations. The inaugural issue was successful with the publication of ten individual contributors, including a disability-centered student organization. The inaugural issue is preserved through WDDA and will remain free and accessible for everyone on this webpage.
This accomplishment inspired the production of a second issue and, with Jessica's graduation as an undergraduate student from CSULB, the launch of a CSU-/UC-wide publication through WDDA in the following academic year.
For the Spring 2025 issue: All students enrolled in BMAC are eligible and encouraged to submit their own works for potential publication. Submissions should focus on the life of a disabled person; examples of thematic elements include disabilities, health, medicine, diagnoses, (in)accessibility, ableism, etc. All genres–including photography, art, poetry, nonfiction, etc.– are welcomed for consideration, as there are no restrictions to creative expression.
The submission form for the Spring 2025 was distributed in the BMAC newsletter on Monday, April 14th, 2025. The deadline to complete the submission form is Friday, May 9th, 2025.