Brilliant and Resilient: Celebrating the Power of Disabled Women Activists

The JSMA is honored to present selections from this special touring exhibition, which features photographs and personal stories of women with different types of disabilities and representing different countries and cultures, all alumni of Mobility International USA’s (MIUSA) Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability.  The portraits and personal stories together foreground the impact these women are making in the fields of education, employment, policy and legislation, reproductive health, emergency response, HIV/AIDS, and violence prevention. The project honors the 1995 Beijing U.N. World Conference on Women, a historic event that ignited the international disabled women’s rights movement.

Founded in 1981, in Eugene, by Susan Sygall and Barbara Williams, MIUSA is dedicated to empowering people with disabilities to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development. For more than thirty years, MIUSA has developed an extensive network of 2,300+ alumni from 135+ countries who are working for the rights of people with disabilities.  Revenues from the exhibition and book sales support the next generation of emerging women leaders with disabilities to participate in MIUSA’s  leadership trainings.

The photos in the exhibition and book were contributed by Brian Lanker, Darcy Kiefel and Paola Gianturco. The Spanish translation accompanying the photographs was made possible by Palo Alto Software.