Emily Ladau

Emily Ladau is a passionate disability rights activist, writer, speaker, and digital communications consultant whose career began at the age of 10, when she appeared on several episodes of Sesame Street to educate children about her life with a physical disability.

A native of Long Island, New York, Emily graduated with a B.A. in English from Adelphi University in 2013. In 2017, she was named as one of Adelphi’s 10 Under 10 Young Alumni. She is dedicated to harnessing the powers of communication and social media as tools for people of all abilities to become informed and engaged about disability and social justice issues.

Emily works with Concepts, Inc. supporting key U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy initiatives. She is also the Editor in Chief of the Rooted in Rights Blog, a platform focused on disability rights issues. Additionally, Emily runs a business through which she both manages and provides consultation services regarding online presence and communications for disability-related organizations.

More about Emily’s work can be found on her website, Words I Wheel By, and her writing has been published on websites including The New York Times, SELF, Salon, Vice,and Huffington Post. Alongside her work as a writer, Emily has spoken before numerous audiences, ranging from a panel about the 25 anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act at the U.S. Department of Education, to the occupational therapy program at New York University.

Emily also serves on the board of the National Council on Independent Living, an organization dedicated to advancing the rights of the disability community.

All of Emily’s activism is driven by her firmbelief that if we want the world to be accessible to people with all types ofdisabilities, we must make ideas and concepts surrounding disability accessibleto the world.