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Looking for an inspirational story of disability, access, and heart? Then look no further than our latest episode with Dr. Anjali Forber-Pratt. Director of the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), an elite wheelchair racer, a Paralympic ambassador, public speaker, disability advocate, and former assistant professor at Vanderbilt University.

It’s 6 p.m. on a Friday, and Anjali Forber-Pratt takes in the majestic view of the sun setting against the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., from her new living room. As she closes her laptop, she feels a slobbery mouth pop up from underneath her desk and settle on her knee. With a soulful look, Kolton, Forber-Pratt’s black lab service dog, reminds her it is the end of their workday and the beginning of playtime.

I am a brown, disabled, adopted woman who acquired transverse myelitis as an infant, and I use a manual wheelchair. My experiences growing up with these identities shaped those I developed later—who I am as a person, researcher, and activist.

Dr. Anjali Forber-Pratt, who holds three degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has been appointed by the White House as the administration's new Director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).

For many parents, one of the biggest worries is that their kid is being picked on. And unfortunately, that concern isn't unwarranted: In 2017, almost one in three 6th-graders reported being bullied at school.

For some reason, the presence of disability generates a feeling of awkwardness in many individuals. I see and experience this every day. I could be strolling down a wide sidewalk in my wheelchair, and people will loudly and dramatically move to the other side—or even cross the road to avoid me!