New podcast series highlights disability-related stories and experiences

Adjusting the Sails: A podcast for parents, caregivers and providers of people with disabilities

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

The West Virginia University Center for Excellence Disabilities (CED) has launched a new podcast series that will allow a glimpse into the stories, experiences and challenges of living with a disability in West Virginia. The new series, “Adjusting the Sails,” is another platform for disability-related topics to be discussed and allows families and caregivers to share their stories.

“People can feel very alone and isolated when living with a disability or caring for someone with special health care needs. To hear stories of others who have been on a similar journey breaks down those walls and can be very empowering for families,” said Courtney Ringstaff, MSW, LGSW, the host of the podcast and program manager of the Paths for Parents program at the CED.

The podcast will feature guest speakers, panelists and a variety of service providers to offer education and training to the listener. The first episode allows Tina Crook, a mother and parent network specialist at the CED, to share her journey with her son, Daylin, who acquired a brain injury at the age of 13 leaving him with significant left frontal lobe damage. Tina shares words of wisdom and hope from a parent’s perspective, how she felt during the most difficult years of her life and celebrates Daylin’s accomplishments in his life and recovery now.  Future episodes include “Picky versus selective eating,” “Hippotherapy and Equine Horsemanship,” and “Disability Myth-busters: A first-person perspective.”

The podcast episodes are available on Spotify, Audible, IHeart Radio and soon will be on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by the CED, the series is supported by grants from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Office of Maternal, Child, and Family Health/Children with Special Health Care Needs Program and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Maternal and Child Health Bureau.