Emily Ladau
A peach gradient background with navy text has “The D-30 Disability Impact List” at the top centered above “2022 Honoree” which is in between two laurels. The words “Emily Ladau she/her/hers United States” is to the left of a picture of Emily, which fills the right. Emily is a white woman who is wearing glasses and has curly brown hair pulled back halfway, with the rest framing her face. She is wearing a black dress dotted with red flowers and green leaves as she sits in a power wheelchair smiling at the camera. At the bottom, “Diversability, #D30DisList.” fills the left corner.
Emily Ladau (She/her/hers)
Disability rights activist and author of Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally
United States
Emily is a skilled advocate and storyteller whose warm, welcoming communication helps bridge gaps between nondisabled people and the disability community. Her work serves to educate in clear, relatable ways and she ensures that she is amplifying a range of disability experiences. She is always willing to meet people when they are on their journeys of learning about disability, and her passion has lit a fire in so many people to take action to become stronger allies to the disability community. She is a Jewish physically disabled woman who uses a wheelchair, and shares the same disability as her mother and her uncle. She recognizes that she holds both marginalization and privilege, and her commitment to uplifting and shining a spotlight on perspectives of people of multiple marginalized identities is clear in everything she does.
Emily had a book published in September 2021 by Penguin Random House called Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say and How to be an Ally. Over 20,000 copies have been sold since publication, and the book has served as a resource in classrooms, businesses, nonprofits, foundations, and federal entities. It has been a springboard for the author to facilitate open, honest conversations about the disability experience with groups ranging from small local book clubs to Netflix and Microsoft.
We asked Emily if she would like to add anything else to her accomplishments, she stated: “My disability advocacy career began at age 10, when I appeared on Sesame Street. https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Emily_Ladau”.