About

In a land to the west called San Francisco, a cyborg named SFDirewolf, known to many as Alice Wong, was cooking up her latest plan to assure Disability Visibility.

It began with an email:

Email from Alice Wong to Cheryl Green and Thomas Reid. Hey Cheryl and Thomas, How are you two doing? I wanted to ask if you two have any interest in partnering together in creating a disabled podcaster hub. It could be a website with a list of podcasts by disabled people with resources, links, videos, tutorials, online events/chats, whatever you two think a podcast hub by us/for us should look like. You two are wonderful humans and perfect for this project. This would be something you could start next year--there's no rush. If this is of interest, maybe after talking it over between you two we can set up a time to meet online? I can answer more questions. Alice

Cheryl Green and Thomas Reid are two long-time disabled podcasters who separately have been mentoring disabled folks wanting support to start their podcasts. So it wasn’t a shock when they responded to Alice’s email with great enthusiasm:

Email from Thomas Reid to Cheryl Green and Alice Wong. Wow! Alice, this is fantastic. Thank you so much for considering me. Plus the opportunity to work with Cheryl is always great and welcomed. Ironically, I was just contacted yesterday by a disabled person looking for information on starting a podcast. I think Cheryl and I can meet and then yes, let’s all get on a call and discuss. This is very exciting. Again, thank you and looking forward to this. Best, t

The three met and agreed this was definitely needed. Cheryl and Thomas accepted the assignment and headed into their own virtual lab.

Email from Alice Wong to Cheryl Green and Thomas Reid. Hi Cheryl and Thomas, I'm so excited that you two got a chance to talk and draft some plans for this project. Alice. PS, Thomas, just a warning-Cheryl and I make cat noises in our meetings and emails so get ready!!

Who We Are

Before Cheryl and Thomas were invited to join forces for the uniting of d/Deaf and disabled podcasters, they were both separately making their own audio and transcripts! Check out:

Big thanks to our d/Deaf and disabled consultants and contributors: Arowana for our name; Jessica Oddi for logo and website design; Sofia Webster for branding; and Myles de Bastion for ASL video design.

The POD Access Philosophy

Disability touches everything from culture, to economy, to climate. Disability isn’t a specialty topic, but instead is an essential lens for telling stories.

We believe disability is:

  • Self-determined
  • Intersectional
  • Empowered
  • Interdependent

POD Access offers aspiring, beginning, and established d/Deaf and disabled podcasters an approachable, easy-going experience to build community, learn about podcasting, and grow an audience. We respect access needs and are led by a disabled team. POD Access’s guiding principles were developed by this guy, the PODCat.

RouRou, the PODCat
RouRou, the PODCat, is a fuzzy cat with long black and seal fur, super-long white whiskers, and pale green eyes. He sits on a table with white fabric draped everywhere because he’s a professional model at a photo shoot. PODCat leans forward ever so slightly, like he’s considering pouncing at the camera. His tail is captured mid-flick, resting across an open laptop. On the screen, a logo for POD Access with “pod” in pale blue and “access” in white. Each letter of “pod” has an icon inside it, sound waves in the P, a person’s eye in the O, and a lines for a written transcript in the D.