There are currently around 3 million active podcasts. Disability culture, arts, and politics, and health are becoming more common in mainstream media, but “disability, disabilities,” or “blind” in Apple Podcasts, for example, gives less than 60 results combined. Technology now makes podcasting from home more achievable, but the tools aren’t all accessible to aspiring and active podcasters. Barriers to entry include finding and learning accessible technology and platforms, providing accessibility for shows, and getting funding. There are a number of engaging podcasts from Deaf and disabled creators that broaden and deepen conversations but continue to face challenges growing audiences or sustaining the effort to create and promote their work. POD Access, funded by Alice Wong’s Disability Visibility Project and run by Thomas Reid and Cheryl Green, will launch in 2023, with a database of Deaf and disabled-made podcasts to help podcasters find audiences and each other. Content creators’ multifaceted identities will be foregrounded, and accessibility for each show will be front and center. POD Access will become a community-building platform to promote skill-sharing and cross-promotion and a hub for accessible learning resources. POD Access is not asking disabled people to compete in the non-disabled world and produce work at any cost to please non-disabled audiences. We celebrate interdependence and building sustainable practices so that we can take advantage of the potential of podcasting to make sure stories, experiences, and perspectives of empowered Deaf and disabled community reach beyond even where we imagine they could go.

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