About setting high expectations for youth with disabilities..

 “Being branded low [functioning] sets you up for low educational expectations, low societal expectations and gatekeeping from the get go, it sets you up for lifelong failure. No one willingly labels themselves as low, it is others doing so.” 

This insightful and important quote comes from none other than our Empowering a Future keynote speaker, Hari Srinivasan. 

Who is Hari? 

Hari Srinivasan is a minimally-speaking autistic at UC Berkeley majoring in psychology and minoring in Disability Studies. At Berkeley, he is lead instructor for a semester-long class on autism, is the first nonspeaking president of the student org, Spectrum at Cal, writes for the Daily Californian and is an RA at the university Psychology Labs as well as the UC Berkeley Disability Lab. Hari hopes to go onto grad school and pursue research that relates to the autism and disability space. He also enjoys music, watching pro sports in addition to learning tennis. He loves creative writing with some of his poems and other work winning awards including a National Award at Carnegie Hall. Hari is passionate about disability advocacy and is a board member of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and on the advisory board of ASA. Hari was featured on President Obama’s Instagram campaign on the 30th anniversary of ADA. 

Read Hari's latest article

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for Empowering a Future 2021! 

Registration closes at 9:00 a.m. on Monday, March 8. 

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