Catarina Rivera
Transform disability inclusion with Catarina Rivera, speaker and Blindish Latina founder. Catarina works with organizations to implement accessibility strategies and DEI initiatives, delivering powerful insights from her intersectional perspective as a Latiné woman with Usher Syndrome.
New York, United States
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Catarina founded Blindish Latina, a platform challenging disability stigmas through storytelling, advocacy, and education. She has over 14 years of experience in educational institutions and nonprofit organisations, specialising in program development, team management, capacity building, community organising, engagement, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
As a Latiné woman with lifelong disabilities, Catarina offers a profound understanding of intersectionality in disability discussions. She wore hearing aids from a young age but was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome at 17, which includes progressive vision loss due to retinitis pigmentosa and hearing disability.
Catarina's disability journey evolved through stages: Denial, Acceptance, Self-Advocacy, and Public Advocacy. She understands the complexities of having a nonapparent disability and the societal changes she experienced after using a white cane. She now embraces disability pride and feels empowered by sharing her story.
Bilingual in English and Spanish, Catarina's family is Cuban and Puerto Rican. She is a first-generation American on one side and second-generation on the other. Catarina shares her expertise and lived experience with disability, focusing on disability awareness, inclusion, digital inclusion, intersectionality, accessibility, allyship, and advocacy.
Topics, Sessions And Talks
Perfect for Disability Pride Month, Latine/x Heritage Month, and National Disability Employment Awareness Month, in this session, Catarina Rivera addresses the intersectionality of identity within diversity through her personal storytelling approach. This session is typically delivered as a fireside chat.
In this session, Catarina Rivera focuses on demystifying disability and equipping employees with foundational understandings of disability, including appropriate language to use for disability and how to prevent microaggressions. All participants will learn that disability is not a bad word!
In this informative training session, Catarina Rivera helps you be able to name and define ableism, including examples, and to understand the historical context of ableism in our society. Your team will also learn how ableism shows up in the common language we use and will receive recommendations for concrete actions that can address ableism in the workplace.
In this session, Catarina Rivera teaches managers and leaders the benefits of inclusion, why disability inclusion is so important, and best practices for inclusion. Managers and leaders will learn how to respond appropriately and supportively to disability disclosure.
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Not necessarily. While the speakers listed on our website may not have worked with PepTalk in the past, they are recognized professionals in the industry and known to engage in similar events and engagements. We work with a wide variety of speaker agents and talent agencies to ensure we have the best selection of speakers, hosts, comedians and entertainers available.
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We work with speakers across a variety of fee ranges, giving you the flexibility to choose someone who fits your event's needs. Virtual keynote fees in the UK and Europe typically start at £2,000, while in-person top-tier speakers can reach £25,000. In the US, virtual in-person fees range from $5,000 to over $100,000, depending on the speaker and format, such as after-dinner talks, conference keynotes, Q&As, or podcasts. Comedians generally start at £1,500 or $2,000 for a 20-minute set.
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