Closing Keynote: What is the middle ground between a curb cut and eugenics?
Presented by Ron Padrón
Date and Time
2025 Disability Summit
Date: Thursday, April 24
Time: 3:30-4:30p
Presentation Materials
Abstract
Title: What is the middle ground between a curb cut and eugenics?
Abstract: Contemporary political systems are built around the “fallacy of the middle ground” which posits that the best outcome inherently rests at the middle of two opposites. But when the opposites are having the resources you need to thrive and being erased from public life entirely, what is the compromise? This is the reality that disabled and chronically ill communities have navigated within neo-liberal politics since at least the mid-20th century, very often for much longer. In response to the increasing threats to our communities and reliance on “the middle” by our leaders, we must return to the same response that our forebears relied on to navigate their own unprecedented times: community building.
About the Speaker
Ron Padrón
Ron Padrón (he/him) is a queer, disabled activist who has worked in higher education for nearly two decades. Having spent much of his career working with at-risk student populations he now serves as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the College of Information at the University of Maryland. His work centers justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in course and curriculum development, to student services and shared governance. He has presented and published on inclusion, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and disability justice, in venues such as The Political Librarian, Including Disability, NACADA, and the UMN Global Accessibility Awareness Day conference. He serves as Co-Chair on the UMD President’s Commission for LGBTQ+ Issues; Director of Academic Involvement for the Including Disability Global Summit; Associate Editor for the Including Disability journal; and as an advocate and educator in the Maryland Initiative for Digital Accessibility.
