Encouraging, educating and empowering people with all abilities. Building healthier relationships. Together we can all make a difference!

Journeys. Your Story. Your Journey. Your Hope. 1st & 3rd Wednesday of the month 10 am

Focus: Entrepreneur

Liam R. Findlay

A photo of Liam R. Findlay

Liam enjoys a career in the design and storytelling of immersive themed attractions, employing energy and creativity to provide memorable guest experiences. He specialises in ideas development and preliminary design, with particular experience in puzzle escape rooms and edutainment. For AromaPrime, themed scenting company for attractions, he uses his design experience to guide venues in […]

Victoria Moore

Victoria Moore smiling wearing tap gloves.

Victoria is a master tap instructor with over 40 years of sharing her love, knowledge, and expertise of tap dancing in dance conventions coast to coast in the U.S., as well as studio, and private settings. In 2018, Victoria realized that tap dance was singularly exclusive to non-disabled dancers, leaving those with disabilities and any […]

Daniel Hodges

Daniel Hodges wearing a black suit and hat with a blue tie and goatee.

I have spent my entire life learning to thrive in a body that some consider to be deeply flawed. As someone who was born blind, and with a connective tissue disorder, I am well-acquainted with the low expectations encountered by those with disabilities. These experiences have ignited a fire in me to help create a […]

Adam David Jones

Adam David Jones smiling, wearing a black shirt.

I am a violence survivor and a small business owner. Since being attacked in Harrisburg, I have dedicated my life to preventing violence and helping others navigate the judicial system so they get their fair shake at justice. The man who attacked me was acquitted by a jury though caught covered in my blood with […]

Mark Blake

Mark Blake smiling, wearing a black shirt and black glasses.

Mark Blake is a 24 year old autistic man. He’s known that he was autistic since he was 11 but never knew what that truly meant for him and his life until much later. He has been involved in the neurodiversity sector since he was 18, when he started a lobbying non-profit organisation that campaigned […]

Kristin Parker

An image of Kristin Parker smiling.

Kristen Parker loves braille, and helping the visually impaired is her passion! She has over 10 years of experience as a braille transcriber and graphics artist.

Samantha Maxwell

A picture of Samantha Maxwell in her power wheelchair smiling in front of a table.

Samantha Maxwell has written about her own experiences of living with mild Cerebral Palsy, with the setbacks and discriminative language received during her life. The book, titled CP Isn’t Me, is part autobiographical and part factual, and aims at breaking the stigma associated with disability. Samantha, who lives in Wrexham, shows that disability is no […]

Nicole Smith

Meet Nicole, a passionate human dignity warrior with a background in Law and Public Policy and a successful career in Communications. For over a decade, she has been championing human rights domestically and internationally, leading impactful campaigns that secured the release of persecuted Christians worldwide. In 2020, Nicole faced a life-altering experience when her daughter […]

Lya Badgley

Lya Badgley smiling, wearing a black leather jacket and white/grey curly hair.

Lya was born in Yangon, Myanmar. The child of a political scientist and a multimedia artist, she grew up in a household that encouraged critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity.She moved to the Pacific Northwest in the eighties, becoming a part of the Seattle arts and music scene.In the nineties, Lya opened a restaurant in Myanmar, […]

Michael Hingson

Michael Hingson wearing an off-white dress shirt with a gold and blue patterned necktie. Michael is shown feeling the face of his yellow Labrador retriever, Roselle.

On September 11, 2001, a blind man escaped the World Trade Center by walking down 78 flights of stairs with his guide dog. Days later, America fell in love with Mike and Roselle and the special bond that helped them both survive one of the country’s darkest days. Immediately after the 9-11 tragedy, Michael was […]

Katie Mazeika

Katie Mazeika smiling.

Once upon a time, in Mrs. Hershner’s kindergarten art class, Katie Mazeika painted the perfect butterfly. Then she accidentally stuck her thumb in the middle of its right wing. To fix the problem, she stuck her other thumb in the other wing. Mrs. Hershner announced that Katie was a “Little Artist.” She decided to go […]

John Morris

John Morris sitting in his power wheelchair.

My name is John Morris. In the Fall of 2012, a car accident changed the course of my life. Severe burns laid claim to three of my limbs, making me a triple amputee. Shock, fear, anger, sadness, hopelessness. Yes, I grappled with all of those emotions. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. […]

Penny Melville-Brown

Penny Melville-Brown presenting a dish she baked in a black pin-striped apron and magenta sweater.

I’m a survivor. Life has been about overcoming disasters and discovering new opportunities. In my mid-20s, my fiancé of six years was killed in a car crash. I had to pick myself up and find a new direction. The Royal Navy was the answer for a superb career of over 20 years: one of eight […]

Katherine Yoder

Katherine Yoder smiling, wearing black glasses.

Katherine Yoder is a person with disabilities herself, and she has worked with people with disabilities in various capacities throughout her career, from direct care to investigating crimes against people with disabilities across the state of Ohio. This work revealed the glaring gaps in the different systems when a crime is committed against a person […]

Harout Markarian

Harout Markarian wearing a blue dress shirt and blue tie.

My name is Harout Markarian and I am the Founder of MARKBOTIX. I BELIEVE AN ACCESSIBLE WORLD is an inclusive world. My passion for engineering and robotics may have started in the aerospace and defense industry, but after watching my family experience the enormous challenges with disabilities, I found my purpose in creating accessible robotics. […]

Jennifer Soames

Jennifer Soames smiling.

Jennifer Soames is a traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivor and advocate, author, certified yoga instructor, nutritional consultant, and former licensed holistic health practitioner. She is passionate about helping those affected by TBI get the information, care and support they need to live their best life, even with a new normal. She understands firsthand the pain, […]

Dani Izzie

Dani Izzie smiling in her wheelchair with her twin girls.

In Dani’s words: “Hi, I’m Daniela, affectionately called Dani. ???? I live in rural Virginia with my husband, Rudy, and our twins. As a disabled woman, I hope this website will be a place where I can share not only my personal journey as it relates to being a wheelchair user and mother, but other […]

John Bramblitt

John Bramblitt smiling in front of some of his paintings.

John Bramblitt is an artist living in Denton Texas, his art has been sold in over one hundred and twenty countries and he has appeared internationally in print, TV and radio. He has appeared on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, ABC, NBC, FOX, Discovery Channel and BBC Radio and TV to name a few […]

Rosemarie Griffin

Rose Griffin smiling, wearing a green blouse.

I am a speech language pathologist and a board certified behavior analyst. I didn’t even know what a speech therapist was until I shadowed a fellow Ohio SLP in my freshman year at The University of Akron. I observed her work with a variety of clients working on articulation, functional communication training and language based […]

Fish Lee

Fish Lee smiling, with a grey and white beard in front of a tree

Fish is a Christ follower, husband, father, friend, artist, drummer. He is an artist living with Tourette’s syndrome, best known for his “Tourette’s Life” cartoons and T-Man & HyperStrike.

Diane Strand

Diane Strand smiling.

In 2014, Diane co-founded the nonprofit 501c3 JDS Creative Academy (JDSCA), which offers education,training & apprenticeship, programs in all disciplines of visual, performing and digital arts. As the executive director and producer at JDSCA, Diane has established a state approved apprenticeship, a Title 17 Vendored program with Inland Regional Center and VAPA approved K-12 creative […]