Disability as a Creative, Ingenious, and Interesting Force
As part of its Doing a World of Good Campaign, the AIChE Foundation helped support and develop the institute's first Disability Unity Convocation. The purpose of this event is to raise awareness within the AIChE community regarding the needs and contributions of people with disabilities, and AIChE members with disabilities in particular.
Dr. Catherine Kudlick, a historian from San Francisco University, was invited to AIChE's 2016 Annual Meeting in San Francisco to take part in a the event.
I've devoted my life to pushing thinking around disability as a creative, ingenious, interesting force.
- Catherine Kudlick
Dr. Kudlick sat down with past AIChE president Bill Byers to talk about her experiences as a person with vision impairment and give recommendations on how professional societies can be more inclusive of people with disabilities.
In her video interview, she talks about how, at first, she was in denial of her disability but then embraced it and utilized it to solve problems and look at information differently than others. When asked how to make professional societies more accessible to people with disabilities, Catherine suggested integrating disability throughout an organization's offerings, including making conferences friendlier to people with disabilities.
The Disability Unity Convocation is made possible by the AIChE's Foundation's Doing a World of Good Campaign.
Imagine what all of us can do.
A Remarkable Year of Empowering Good
In 2016, the AIChE Foundation advanced its mission to make the world a better and safer place through chemical engineering. Thanks to our generous supporters we are demonstrating our dedication to doing
a world of good.