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Trailblazers in Conversation with Ben Mattlin

Join LA County Librarian and Director, Dr. Skye Patrick, in conversation with journalist Ben Mattlin, author of Unbound: Notes from a Reluctant Disability Activist.

Born with spinal muscular atrophy, Ben’s experience with and involvement in the disability rights movement is both deeply personal and almost unintentional. He and Skye will explore the necessary creativity of the disability experience, what it means to see and be seen as a disabled person, and what it’s been like to live and experience the world on both sides of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.

Ben Mattlin is a Los Angeles-based senior writer for Financial Advisor magazine and the author, most recently, of Unbound: Notes from a Reluctant Disability Activist. His three previous books are Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World, In Sickness and In Health: Love, Disability, and a Quest to Understand the Perils and Pleasures of Interabled Romance, and Miracle Boy Grows Up: How the Disability Rights Revolution Saved My Sanity.

His work has appeared in Time, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Other credits include the Mark Taper Forum, Blonde and Brunette Productions, and the children's television program Biker Mice from Mars. (A complete list and links to clips can be found at BenMattlin.com.)

His writing about disability-related causes has also led to appearances on television, podcasts, and radio programs across the U.S., Canada, and the UK. Thanks to Zoom, he has lectured extensively to professional and university groups.

Born in New York City in 1962 with spinal muscular atrophy, he graduated from Harvard College in 1984 and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife of more than 35 years. They have two adult children, a cat, and a turtle.

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