Radicalized Citizenship with Carol Blessing

There’s a term too often neglected in conversations about disability: citizen. This is a core guiding principle of the Citizen-Centered Leadership Development (CCLD) Community of Practice, Carol Blessing’s innovative 15-week course for service providers that work with people with disabilities. In this episode, Genia Stephen talks to Carol about her CCLD program and her concept of radicalized citizenship. Carol explains how the social model of disability, which is often held up as the gold standard for disability service delivery, is insufficient because it doesn’t recognize the notion of participatory citizenship for people with disabilities. Systemic change won’t make any difference until service providers start thinking about people with disabilities as social citizens and working to build real relationships with them.