The Skillset Podcast #7: Clayton Copeland on the Importance of Accessibility

In this episode we talk with Clayton Copeland who is on the faculty of the iSchool at the University of South Carolina, and the director of the Laboratory for Leadership in Equity and Diversity. Copeland is an scholar, an educator and tireless and advocate for inclusion of the differently abled. In the interview she talks about how the very idea of disability is a social construct, pointing out that we don’t see folks wearing glasses as disabled. She also points out that the pandemic has shown in the most authentic way the struggles people with disabilities face every day—no access to restaurants and businesses, struggling with technology interfaces that change or were never intended for the current use, and feeling disconnected from communities. For Copeland, it all starts with empathy.