Advoating for her two build children and creating change in the world! with Kristin Smedley Artwork

The Different Ability® Podcast

Why am I different? Why do things have to be so difficult? Am I dumb? Why am I scared? Will it be this hard forever? Will I ever find the help I need to succeed? When will being different be accepted? Welcome to The Different Ability® Podcast where we will answer all of these questions and a whole lot more! Each week host Katey Fortun brings you tips and tricks on how to navigate being different, along with inspiring stories of guests that are living an amazing life having Different Abilities of their own. Parents and Educators of kids with Different Abilities share their stories to encourage others that they are not alone and we can all get through this together! Katey, who has dyslexia, shares her personal Different Ability stories to show you that being different is a gift, being different is amazing and using your Different Abilities, you too can create and live the life you have always dreamed about! Katey believes that everyone has Different Abilities and it's time to let our Different Abilities shine bright! You are amazing, you are important, you are strong, you are smart and the world needs you just the way you were made! Are you ready to be inspired and encouraged to be the person you were made to be, Different Abilities and all? We know you're ready, so come along, we are all in this together! "You can do anything you put your mind to, with a lot of hard work, determination and never giving up! It's not your disability, it's your Different Ability®!" - Katey

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The Different Ability® Podcast

Advoating for her two build children and creating change in the world! with Kristin Smedley

May 08, 2024 • Katey Fortun • Season 4 • Episode 163

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We go way back when she was a child, what she learned while playing softball and having her father as her coach, being an amazing teacher, to becoming a monther. After she had her first born child, 4 months in, she learned that her son was leagally blind. She shares her vulnerable, honest feelings finding that out. A few years later she had another son and he also was diagnoised legally blind and then not long after that she had a sighted daughter. She shares it all with us!

Kristin's Bio:
Kristin Smedley is the Mom of three children, two of which were born blind and are now thriving far beyond all grim expectations. Kristin is the Best Selling author of Thriving Blind: Stories of Real People Succeeding Without Sight and the award winning children's book, What I Can Be Is Up To Me. A recognized expert in the blindness and rare disease communities, Kristin won the highly regarded Champion of Hope Award, was named an Ambassador for the National Organization of Rare Disorders, and is a 2022 inductee into the Conwell-Egan Catholic Wall of Fame. Kristin is a popular, in demand speaker who has been invited to share her message internationally.

As CEO of a global patient organization, she coordinated legislation (H.R. #625) that became the first in US history to be submitted in Braille. Kristin spoke at the FDA to help achieve the first ever FDA approved gene therapy to treat an inherited retinal disease in the United States. Recently, the research her organization coordinated achieved a $1.25 Million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Her TEDx Talk, books and international summit change perceptions of blindness, and sparked a global movement, Thriving Blind Academy, that is solving the unemployment, literacy, and financial crisis in the blind the community.

Connect with Kristin:
Website: www.KristinSmedley.com
Instagram
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Twitter

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