00:00:00THOMPSON:
00:01:00
Hello, my name is Mack Thompson, and today I am interviewing Kimberly Parsley
for the Disabled in Kentucky Oral History Project virtually over Zoom. The date
is June 9, 2022. Kimberly, I’m happy you’re here.
PARSLEY: Thank you. Thank you so much.
THOMPSON: Of course. To start things off, would you feel comfortable sharing a
little bit about yourself?
PARSLEY: Sure. I am--I’m Kimberly Parsley. I was born in Butler County here in
Kentucky. I’ve lived all my adult life in Warren County in Bowling Green. I went
to school at Western Kentucky University and met my husband there. We got
married after we graduated, and we just stayed in Bowling Green. I am blind due
to a very rare genetic disorder--
00:02:00
not one that anyone in my family had. It just--it’s called a new mutation when
it just pops up, and so we didn’t know to be watching for it. So I lost my sight
completely when I was fourteen, and I was mainstreamed at Butler County High
School, and then graduated from there, and then, like I said, I went to Western
and worked for a while. I worked in their University Relations department, and
then I quit work to raise my son. That would’ve been in 2008. And I--and then I
had a daughter in 2011, and about the time I was ready to go back into the
workforce when she started preschool,
00:03:00
I had another--the disease I have affects several areas of the body and I had to
have surgery on my spinal cord, which left me without the ability to use my left
hand. I had to relearn--I--my cognition was fine and I could speak fine, but I
had to relearn everything else, how to feed myself, how to walk. I had to
relearn everything, and that took--it took years. And about the time I felt
that--I never regained the use of my left hand. So I was a writer, so that meant
I couldn’t type on a keyboard, so that was hard--still haven’t completely
overcome that, figured out how to manage that. And then about the time I was
ready to go into the workforce again after that, I had another
00:04:00
surgery on my brain stem, which left me with profound balance problems, and at
that--that was in 2019, and at that point, I just decided, “Whatever I do is
going to be done from home.” (laughs) So--and then that gets us here. So I’m
working on a disability podcast through the Advocado Press, doing that for them
as a volunteer. They are the press that published the Disability Rag, a monthly
magazine from 1980 to 2004, which was a very influential publication for the
disabled community. So I’m proud to be working with them. Doing some other
volunteer things for the nonprofit group that supports people with the disease I
have, and then, of course, it is summer right now here in--so I am full-time
00:05:00
mothering. My kids are older. They’re ten and thirteen. But they still--you
know, they still need a lot. They still need and want my attention, and I’m
privileged to be able to stay home. I mean, I’d rather be working, obviously,
but I am privileged to be able to not have to struggle to find childcare for
them or leave them alone, so I’m at home with them. And that brings us up to
this very day, so.
THOMPSON: Thank you for sharing that. I guess, like, would you--well, I guess
first of all, would you say that, like, you identify as being disabled or having
a disability? Like, how do you self-describe your relationship to disability? Or
do you just, like, identify as being blind, or--what terms do you use?
PARSLEY: I mean, I identify fully as being blind. I am blind. I feel--
00:06:00
I mean, you know, some people prefer visually impaired, and that's fine. But for
me personally, I think a lot of people interpret visual impairment as meaning,
"having some sight," and I do not have any sight--not even light perception--so
being blind is just a more definitive way of describing. And I say I have
multiple disabilities now because not having one hand to use does--I mean, it is
limiting, and so that--I usually start out with blind because that's the real
biggy, and then I say, you know, multiple disabilities with the right hand and
the balance problems.
THOMPSON: Thank you for sharing that. And I was wondering as well, like, you
talked some about, like,
00:07:00
having children, and, of course, you spend a lot of time with them. I was
wondering if, like, your blindness has impacted your relationship to, like--with
your children in any way, if that's a question that you feel comfortable addressing.
PARSLEY: It--I--before I made the decision to have children, it worried me that
it would. But because I was blind when I had children--so I am the mother they
have always known. They did not even know that I was different until they were
probably four or five, and they didn't realize that I was different from other
moms until then, and by then, well, I'm just, you know, Mommy, so it didn't make
any difference. There is a book that I am featured in--
00:08:00
I'm one of many people featured in that was published last year called A
Celebration of Family: Stories of Parents with Disabilities, and it is about
parents and their--about people with disabilities and their parenting journey,
primarily from Kentucky. I think almost all of the stories are from
Kentucky--parents who are from Kentucky, with a wide range of physical
disabilities and cognitive differences. So it's a really great book, and I don't
just say that because I'm in it. But also I wish it was a resource that had been
available to me because I was terrified as a blind parent, and--but--I mean, my
children are great. They have more empathy, I think, because
00:09:00
they see my struggles. They understand my struggles. But then, you know, like,
one of the things I say in the book I referenced is my daughter said to me one
time, "Mommy, I'm--I really wish you could see," and I thought, "Oh no, here it
comes. We're going to--you know, we're going to have this conversation." And she
said, "That way you could see how cute I am."
THOMPSON: Oh. (laughs)
PARSLEY: And that's just--(laughs)--that's just how she is. That's just her
personality, and it--you know, she was also, like, little at the time, like,
seven, so, you know, when they're that age, it's pretty much all about them. I
mean, things are harder. My daughter really felt the need to test gravity at
every turn. She was always jumping off of things. I think--when I had two kids,
just going
00:10:00
outside to play was--it was--it's an exhausting thing because, you know, it's
like going back and forth because I can't see them, so I can't just stand in one
spot and look at them. So it's run to one kid, make sure that she hasn't climbed
onto the deck rail and is trying to jump off, go to the other kid, make sure he
hasn't fallen off the swing. You know, it's just back and forth, and it was
exhausting, and I feel like probably for about, I don't know, eight years there,
I was just living in a low-level panic attack pretty confidently. But they're
older now. You know, they can read. That was nice. They can read stuff to me.
When they identified colors, they could tell me what colors things are. You
know, so we--we're a very close family, lots of hugging and things, lots of
talking about things, so I think parenting is hard no matter--I mean, it's just
00:11:00
a really hard thing no matter what you're dealing with. Parenting is extremely
difficult. It's the most rewarding job, but it's also the hardest job.
THOMPSON: Thank you for sharing that. So how is--speaking of, like--how is
accessibility in, like, Bowling Green? Is the city accessible to you?
If--is--are there ways it could improve?
PARSLEY: I'm trying to think of any way that Bowling Green is accessible.
They're doing better with sidewalks, I think. Public transportation is
nonexistent here. I don't care what anyone tells you, there is no public
transportation here. There are some attempts at--
00:12:00
I don't know. There's been nothing that I found helpful in terms of public
transportation. I--maybe, I think, for people who have to go to medical
appointments and things. I think there may be things, you know--there's ways to
get an ambulance or--or to get a ride to medical appointments. I don't use that.
My husband and I just have to, you know—he--he has to work his schedule and use
a lot of his vacation days to take me to appointments. But no, no, I don't think
Bowling Green is accessible at all, and I love Bowling Green. Don't get me
wrong. I--I live particularly on a country road off a--kind of a main road, so,
you know, there are no sidewalks on the road
00:13:00
I live on, but it is a county road, and I--I’m aware of that. Still, I love it
here. I mean, I do love living here. It's beautiful. I'm fifteen minutes from,
you know, everything I need in Bowling Green, but yet, you know, there are deer
and turkey that walk through the backyard, so I feel like I have the best of all
worlds except accessibility. Sometimes places have Braille menus. Most times,
they don't. Honestly, I haven't gone out to eat because of the pandemic in so
long, I really haven't kept up with that kind of thing, so.
THOMPSON: So, like, you discussed some, like, medical institutions and, like,
transportation to them, but how, like--how are your experience with the institutions
00:14:00
themselves? Like, are they useful? Are they accessible? Like--
PARSLEY: No, I have--I say often that nothing makes me feel as disabled as going
to the doctor, and that's--be it here in Bowling Green, at Vanderbilt, where I
get my care, nothing makes me feel as disabled as going to the doctor. It is
a--it is a horrific establishment that we put people through. It is about
monetization and efficiency, and it is just a dreadful experience all the way
around. I have a fear of needles. I have to ask
00:15:00
to--I have to lay down or else I will pass out, and we have found this
out--(laughs)--the hard way many times. Sometimes I ask to be--I ask, "Is there
a room where I can go and lay down?" Some places don't have that. Or you get the
sense that you're being dramatic. You aren't believed. You are--or you're
putting someone out. You know, you're, "Oh, how--how dare you interrupt the flow
of people through this moneymaking operation by your bodily needs." Doctors
don't--I don't think most doctors, they aren't care--they don't care about the
whole person. It's--they care about their one little slice of your body. If it's
00:16:00
--if it’s an eye doctor, they're not interested in anything else that could be
going on at all, never mind that it took great lengths to get you just to your
eye doctor appointment. They're not going to address anything else, even at your
primary doctor. Most of the time, a primary doctor is simply a traffic cop to
send you onto a different doctor, which means trying to find another ride to
another appointment, or having, in my case, my husband take off another day from
work to take me to another doctor, who might well send me to a different doctor.
It is--I don't--I don’t know that I can say enough negative things about the
modern healthcare system. It is dreadful. It is horrible and it is expensive,
and our outcomes are truly abysmal.
THOMPSON: I'm sorry you've had those experiences.
00:17:00
So do--how about, like--I mean, you talked some about--earlier also you
mentioned, like, the COVID-19 pandemic a little bit, and I would love to know in
more detail, like, if you think that that's had impacts on you or, like, on the
broader disability community, and if you would feel comfortable sharing some of that?
PARSLEY: That's an interesting question, and I--I suspect people with different
disabilities will have different experiences. So I can only really speak to my
experience, just keeping in mind that it will be different for other people. As
a blind person in a--living in a town that does not have public transportation,
I am often
00:18:00
very isolated. When the COVID-19--the COVID pandemic hit, everyone was isolated,
and so things were done to bring people together. I mean, you know, two-plus
years in, we all hate Zoom now, but in the beginning, Zoom was a way that we
could communicate with people, and we found ways to do that. We found ways to
communicate with each other over--over Zoom, and we--you know, there was, like,
Happy Hour Zoom parties and, you know, all manner of things. So those were
things that I could participate in if I wanted to. You know, my--my kids did
school from home. That was, of course, not ideal, but it was possible, so--I can
get my groceries
00:19:00
delivered now. Two years ago, that was not a thing--I--I--I scoured the
Internet. I did everything to try to find how to get my groceries delivered. It
was not a thing that I could do. Now, it's done all the time. Lots of people
have their groceries delivered. That is a huge timesaver for me, and it's just a
hassle that I don't--I don’t have to deal with anymore. So that's been a
positive. Lots of pharmacies realized how they had to do better to fulfill their
role in the community, and how they weren't well-serving people with
disabilities because no one could get to the pharmacy, so they realized here
they--this was a burden they had been putting on--getting to the pharmacy was a
burden they had been putting on many people who were disabled or chronically ill,
00:20:00
but when it came time--when no one could get out to the pharmacy and--and no one
could get there, suddenly they can figure out how to manage to get people's
medications to them. So there has been definite benefits. I will tell you, in
the beginning, it was terrifying when--I believe they were called the most
vulnerabl,e where--and--and I'm not sure how much this actually happened or how
much of it was just fear-based, fear-based media about how healthcare workers
were having to decide who got care, and that was terrifying, because I felt like
as a blind woman with multiple disabilities, if I came in with COVID and needed
care, I felt like there was a real chance someone who was able-bodied would be given
00:21:00
that care over me, because the thinking would be that my life was less valuable
than someone who was whole. So I mean, that was very terrifying. I stayed
inside. We were very, very careful because of that. We--my family and I were
very careful. We did not interact with anyone for, you know, months because of
that fear. But, like I said, also some very positive things came out of the
pandemic that definitely make my life easier now.
THOMPSON: Do you feel like there's resources or, like, being--going to be taken
away or, like, are dwindling as, like, places start to open back up,
or--what--do you think that they're going to, like, stay, like, overall now that people
00:22:00
realize these are a need?
PARSLEY: No, I do worry that that is what will happen, because in a capitalist
society where everything is designed to make money, getting people into a store
where they will find more things that they want to buy, I feel like that will
override any other impulse. So yes, I do worry.
THOMPSON: Thank you for sharing that with me. So do you have any, like,
experience with social or government resources for people with disabilities?
PARSLEY: I'm sorry, could you ask that again?
THOMPSON: Sorry. Do you have any experience or, like--with, like, social and
government resources with people with disabilities--or for people with
disabilities, or is that
00:23:00
something you--
PARSLEY: Yes, I do. When I lost my sight, I--which was in 1990, my mom
contacted, just looking through the Yellow Pages--she found something called the
Department for the Blind. This was what it was called at the time. And so she
called them, and they were a huge help directing me to get the skills that I
would need. And after graduating from high school, I then became a client for
the Department for the Blind, which helped people who are blind to go on to get
postsecondary training. So they helped me get through college, helped me get the
equipment that I would need--I needed a computer at the time--and to help me get
the skills that I would
00:24:00
need, and that was a hugely positive experience. I cannot say enough good things
about people who work for the state in vocational rehabilitation, those kinds of
services. They--they, without exception, for me have been just wonderful people
who care about their jobs. They care about the people they serve. Same thing
at--I read a lot, of course, on audio, and the Kentucky Talking Book Library,
they are a wonderful organization. They care about the people they serve. So
I've had great experiences with them. More broadly, since
00:25:00
I do have a rare genetic disease, it was studied--it's being studied, I think,
still--at the National Institutes of Health. That experience was--it was vastly
different from the for-profit healthcare that I get now. It was much more
patient-centered, even though it was a research hospital, and, you know, the
broader idea of researching an illness is--I think their--their core goal, they
still--the emphasis was largely--not always, but largely on the individual, and
so that was definitely a positive experience that I had. Actually,
00:26:00
I had just gone--I started going to the NH when I was twenty years old and I'm
having terrible headaches. I was in college, and--that we found that I had a
massive brain tumor. Like, I believe they said golfball-sized. That was, you
know--try to find something to compare it to. They said it was golfball-sized.
So they talked me through getting from here--they talked to my mom through
getting me from here in Bowling Green, where they did not know how to treat this
kind of tumor, to Bethesda, Maryland, and really it saved my life. I mean, there
was no way. It--had I not just gone to them and known about this, I would not
have survived that brain tumor. So overall, I think people who work in services
for the disabled are just stellar people, doing
00:27:00
a great job. This thing--I don't think we do a good enough job telling people
how good these services are, how helpful it is. There are a lot of disabled
people out there, and if you're not disabled, just wait. You will be, either
temporarily from, like, a broken bone or, you know, recovering from a surgery or
being pregnant. We will all--we'll all get there at some point. So I just wish
there was more financial support given to these organizations for disabled
people, and I wish when people went to vote, they would keep that in mind. I
would say when I go to the zoo with my kids, I have to use a wheelchair because
of the balance problems. I just can't walk that
00:28:00
much. And so my husband pushes me in a wheelchair. There was a very nice man
who, you know, held back just so that he could hold the door for us to get
through this one place, and I had the thought, "How does he vote? He is such a
kind person to me individually. But we are all individuals, and do these people
who are doing individual kindnesses, do they vote in such a way to show how much
they care?" Because they do care. They do care. I wish that in terms of their
citizens--of all our citizenship, we showed that caring rather than just on an
individual level. That may have not been where you wanted that question to go.
Sorry about that.
THOMPSON: No, no, that was totally important information. Thank you for sharing
that. So
00:29:00
yeah. Obviously you wish--you want people to, like, vote, which is really
important and, like, vote with disability in mind. What else do you wish, like,
people that were able-bodied or just abled in general, like, knew about
disability? And what do you wish that they did, like, to support us, or--you
know, you can say that question however you want it. I fumbled that, but--(laughs)
PARSLEY: Yeah, no. You know, it's the kind of thing I'm not sure I think about
just because I'm just like everyone else, doing my day-to-day things. I--what do
I wish that people would keep in mind? Oh, I wish that they would keep in mind
that everything is political. I mean, people say
00:30:00
things like, "Oh, I don't want it to get political. I don't want to be--" But it
is all political because we have a government of and for the people, and--so
it's all about people. Politics is about people. Government is about people.
There is no robot in Washington. It is all--or Frankfort. It is all people. And
I wish--it's not like the weather, you know? And the economy, okay? It's not
like the weather. It's not just this amorphous force. It is people. And I wish
that people would be serious about reclaiming their power to make these changes,
to make life in America what we want it to be, because we can do that. I--and I
say that because I
00:31:00
think people overwhelmingly are good. One on one, people are good. They will
help. Americans are great people. Kentuckians are wonderful, wonderful people,
and they will help. I just wish that they knew how much power they had, that
they would reclaim their power to be good and to do the right thing. And in
terms of disability, I think it has to come back to healthcare. We have got to
do better. We've got to do better for ourselves. We've got to do better for our
children. It doesn't have to be as horrible as it is, and I know people are
afraid because you go to the doctor and, you know, you want--you're told you
have cancer. You want to be in America because
00:32:00
you feel like that's the best place, and I understand that. But it's not the
truth because our health outcomes are--(sighs)--well, if you're a white man,
you're probably in good shape, but if you're anything else, you should worry
because we're not getting great health outcomes for women, for minorities, for
disabled people, and we could do better. And I do think it's a system that may
need to be ground up, revamped, and that's hard to do in--that's hard to do. Is
there any--in terms of--what was your question again? I don't think I answered
your question fully.
THOMPSON: Well, you answered part of it. I just kind of, like, combined
questions more than I should've with that. I guess--
00:33:00
like, I did ask about, like, what you wish, like, people would, like--can
combine (??) what they do, but also, like, furthermore, what, like--like, what
do you wish people knew about blindness and with disability, like, just
extending upon what was already asked--that you already answered, I mean.
PARSLEY: I wish that people did understand that a disability is oftentimes not
just one thing. I mean, it can be. I mean, you can be blinded from an accident
or something. But you can be--you can become blind from retinitis pigmentosa,
which also affects your hearing. So--and, you know, like me. Yes, I am blind,
but I also have another disability. So what--one thing I wish that people did
know is, you know, don't be embarrassed
00:34:00
that you'll do the wrong thing or say the wrong thing. I trust that most people
come from a space of love and wanting to help, and I think so many times, they
don't, or they avoid people with disabilities because they just don't know how
to help and they're afraid that they will offend someone by doing or saying the
wrong thing, or they'll be embarrassed because of something they didn't know.
And I think--you know, personally as a blind person, I embarrass myself all the
time, just all the time, so that--you know, we're all in that. We all
embarrass--I promise any nondisabled person, you can't embarrass yourself more
than I embarrass myself all the time, so, you know, don't worry about that. And
00:35:00
you know, every person--every disabled person is different just like every
person is different, so, you know, just come to us from a space of compassion
and empathy, and you cannot go wrong there. If someone is offended by something
that someone said, well, that's their choice to be offended, and they're kind of
a jerk for that. That's not on you. That's on them--unless someone is being
purposely, you know, malicious or a jerk, and there are those people out there,
but that's a different thing.
THOMPSON: That's really important words of wisdom there. Thank you for sharing
that. And yeah, I think it is important--(laughs)--to, like, recognize that.
00:36:00
So we talked some with you about, like, people overall--or especially abled
people that are not disabled to know and do, but, like, for the more kind of,
like--what advice would you give someone who is losing their vision or recently
became blind, maybe, and is trying to, like, go through that process of, like,
understanding themselves in terms, or navigating the world?
PARSLEY: It's--I--it's--I think I would tell them it's hard. It's hard. Allow
yourself to feel what you feel. It's hard. It's doable. A wonderful life is out
there. Is it going to be a harder life? Yes, probably. Life is just not set up
for people who are disabled, unfortunately. And that's
00:37:00
something many disabled groups are pushing for. It's called the social model of
disability, which is, you know, we are all different. Society needs to
conform--society as a whole needs to conform to the fact that people are
different. We are--society is made of people, and we are all different--rather
than viewing disability as something that should be cured, because if you say
disability is something that should be cured, then a disabled person, therefore,
is a failure, and that is--that's some bullshit right there. But that's
something that we have to keep pushing for is that social model of disability.
I--and I do talk to people who are losing their sight or becoming disabled, and
it is hard, but it's easier now than it was thirty years ago. When I was in
college, I had to--(laughs)--I had a constitutional law class, and I believe it had
00:38:00
thirty-four cassette tapes, so if I needed to find a spot, I had to just pick a
tape at random and see what chapter I was on. And, I mean, you're talking thirty
minutes just to find the spot where I needed to be reading, so--I mean, and now
we have--you know, in our iPhones, we have the computers that we need on our
iPhones to be able to--or smartphones to get the book and go right to the place
we need to read. So I didn't do anything in college but study, really, just
nothing but study. It is hard, but it is doable, and that's--I--that is what I
would tell someone who is--that is what I tell people that I am talking to. And
it's okay also to have those feelings, and there are a lot of them. I mean,
there's anger. There's denial. There's frustration. You'll have all those
things, and you may have
00:39:00
all those things during a day. I--and--but also other people are going through
it too, and other people are also going through different terrible things, and
we just have to keep going forward. But give yourself the grace and the space to
make mistakes and to learn.
THOMPSON: That's a really important message. Thank you for sharing that. Is
there anything that I--that you'd like to talk about that we haven't discussed
yet or haven't discussed in enough detail yet?
PARSLEY: You know, there is something--and I'm not really sure what a box this
would fit into--but
00:40:00
when I lost my sight in the nineties, there was a push to mainstream all
disabled people, and what that meant was instead of going to a school for the
blind, I went to my public school--my local public school. And I'm not saying
that that was wrong. I'm not saying that's a wrong decision. But I do not have a
lot of the Braille reading skills that I'd like to have because that just
wasn't--and, now, part of that is because I didn't lose my sight until fourteen,
so when you--if you're--you lose your sight younger, you learn Braille either in
lieu of or along with your print reading, you'll be better at Braille. But I do
think Braille is important, and I think
00:41:00
some of those skills that one might learn at a school for the blind, I did learn
them eventually, but it took a lot, lot longer. It was a lot harder, and I think
that we need to--again, it is a--everyone's different. It's a choice for
everyone. But I don't think we should necessarily have a push to do things one
way, a one-size-fits-all approach to educating disabled kids. I think it needs
to be something that's looked at in terms of what the parents want and can
offer, what the school can and should offer, and what the needs and abilities of
the disabled student are. And again, this is not something I've--
00:42:00
I don't have a thesis here because I'm just realizing how much I--there were
some skills that I wish I had, like Braille, for--just for an example, that I
don't have. Disability is not a monolith. It's not a--everyone is different.
Every blind person is different, and I'd like for us to be allowed to be
different instead of, "Okay, this is how we handle blind kids." I'm not sure
that's a real cohesive--I'm not making an argument for anything. It's just
something I think we need to readdress as, you know, as we go forward with
people who are disabled.
THOMPSON: So are you saying that you feel like
00:43:00
the option should've been--like, more present, like, instead of pushing one way
or another? Like, empowering you to--like, when you were younger to, like, pick
up the options and have the benefits? Or, like, that you think, like, public
schools should have more resources put into that? Or do you feel like--
PARSLEY: Yeah.. Like I said, I'm not sure what argument I'm actually making.
It's just something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Yes, I
obviously--public schools should have more resources. In the nineties, when I
was growing up as a disabled person, it--the message that I got was, "Grow up as
a blind person, but be as nondisabled as person. Just pretend you're not
disabled," basically.
00:44:00
It was--that--it was, you know, earn, earn money, be a contributing member of
society, you know, as though money is the only way to contribute to society, but
that was definitely the message that was given then--and possibly still now--and
try not to be blind, you know? Work harder to be considered for half as much.
And it's not just--this is not--disabled people are not the only people who have
to deal with this, obviously. And I think because--once I had the multiple
disabilities happen, I personally felt some shame about being disabled that I
never should've had because I never got--from an institutional--like,
00:45:00
a societal standpoint, I never got the message that I was okay as I was. And I
hope we aren't still giving that message to our disabled kids because they are
okay as they are. Are they different? Yes, they're different. Are they worse?
God, no. God, no. So I think--the point that I'm making is that there is that
internalized ableism even when you are disabled, and I would like to see us
doing everything we can to turn that around, and I'm not sure, as a society, we
here are addressing that as well as we should.
THOMPSON:
00:46:00
Thank you.
PARSLEY: Does that clarify--
THOMPSON: --yeah, that definitely helps. Thank you for sharing that. So how
can--but like--I know that you mentioned, like, the book that you were a part
of. Are there any other things like that that you're involved with that you
would like to, like, mention or, like, just, like, stuff like that that--
PARSLEY: I would totally tell you about the podcast, but it's--we're just now
working on the first episode, so I have no idea how that's going to go. So
I--mainly just the book right now. Just, yeah, just the book. A Celebration of
Family: Stories of Parents with Disabilities, and it's put
00:47:00
out by the Advocado Press, and that's, like, Advocate--Advocado.
THOMPSON: And what's the podcast going to be called?
PARSLEY: Right now, it is tentatively called Demand and Disrupt: The Disability Podcast.
THOMPSON: That's really exciting.
PARSLEY: It is exciting. I'm learning a lot. They tell me that once you get
several podcasts under your belt, you'll go back and listen to your first one
and cringe, so I fully expect that to happen. I hope I get better at doing it.
But it's been exciting, exciting to talk to lots of people. So I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful.
THOMPSON: Is there anything else you'd like to add, like, about you?
PARSLEY: I don't think so. I mean, I think I--I think you've been pretty
thorough in your questions. You're talking to people with several--many
different kinds of disabilities, I assume,
00:48:00
right? That's--
THOMPSON: --yes.
PARSLEY: Okay, great. Great. No, I think that's--I think you've covered a lot of
things, so.
THOMPSON: Great. Well, I'm going to stop recording now, if that's okay.
PARSLEY: Yep, that's fine.
THOMPSON: All right. Thank you for talking with me.
[End of interview.]
� PAGE �17�
00:49:00