Lydia X. Z. Brown: Self-Advocacy and Beyond. Interviews with Leaders of the Self-Advocacy Movement

Lydia X. Z. Brown is a lawyer, advocate, organizer, and writer whose work has focused on violence against disabled people in schools, institutions, prisons, and by police. They have especially worked to support disabled people at many margins, including people of color with disabilities and LGBTQ+ people with disabilities. They have worked to transform systems and change the culture through community organizing, public speaking and peer training, policy advocacy, and challenging status quo. Lydia is the lead editor along with Morénike Giwa Onaiwu and E. Ashkenazy of All the Weight of Our Dreams, the first-ever anthology by autistic people of color. They also designed and teach a course on disability and social movements at Tufts University as a Visiting Lecturer.

Lydia is also a founding board member of the Alliance for Citizen-Directed Supports, which advocates for all people with disabilities to have full community integration and control over their services. They are part of the Autism Women’s Network board and the National Disability Leadership Alliance’s task force on racism in disability advocacy. Additionally, Lydia has been Chairperson of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council from 2015 to 2017. Lydia has been honored by the White House, Washington Peace Center, National Council on Independent Living, and Disability Policy Consortium. Their work has been featured in numerous community, academic, and news media, and they blog at Autistic Hoya.