A Penn student just got a seat at the table on disability policy in Pennsylvania \u2014 and he\u2019s the only undergraduate in the room.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro appointed College and Wharton senior Yaduraj Choudhary to the newly minted Advisory Commission on People with Disabilities. Choudhary is the youngest of the group\u2019s 28 members.<\/p>\n
Formed on July 8 by an executive order<\/a>, the commission seeks to expand protections for Pennsylvanians with disabilities and autism. The body recommends policy changes, works with governmental agencies, and serves as a resource for people with disabilities and their families.<\/p>\n \u201cFar too often, decisions have been made about people with disabilities, but not with them,\u201d Shapiro said<\/a> while announcing the appointments. Each term will last for two years.<\/p>\n For Choudhary, the appointment is a chance to bring a younger perspective he says is often missing from the decision-making process across the state.<\/p>\n Get the DP delivered straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\n As part of the Education, Youth, and Transitions work group, Choudhary said he hopes to educate people about disabilities and connect others with resources and training.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of youth are more comfortable raising their issues through someone of a similar age,\u201d Choudhary said in an interview, clarifying that he was speaking in his individual capacity. \u201cI want to be the person who helps bring these youth voices to the table \u2014\u00a0to the governing table\u00a0\u2014 places where they\u2019re not normally found.\u201d<\/p>\n In the near future, Choudhary plans to reach out to disability groups on campus, in Philadelphia, and across the state, including the Disabled Coalition at Penn.<\/p>\n Josie Badger, the commission\u2019s executive director, said that youth engagement was exactly what the body sought from Choudhary\u2019s appointment. She added that the commission\u2019s 28 members are meant to reflect the range of Pennsylvanians with disabilities, and that Choudhary fills a role the group had prioritized.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to ensure that the voice of our next leaders are involved now, sharing what they\u2019re going through, so that we do it better next time,\u201d Badger said in an interview.<\/p>\n The full commission meets quarterly, while three topic-based groups \u2014 on physical and mental health, community integration and inclusion, and education and youth development \u2014 meet monthly to set priorities and identify barriers. Badger\u2019s role as executive director, she said, is to act as the \u201cmiddle person\u201d between the commission, the governor\u2019s office, and state departments.<\/p>\n Choudhary\u2019s path to the commission was shaped by his own experience with disability. Born with hearing loss, he underwent five surgeries on both ears, often missing school to recover. The turning point came in sixth grade, when he began wearing a hearing aid and noticed how his classmates treated him differently.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one would ask me if I\u2019m blind if I walk in wearing glasses,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if I walked in wearing a hearing aid, kids were asking all sorts of things: \u2018Are you deaf? What\u2019s going on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n This experience convinced Choudhary that most of the stigma traced back to a lack of understanding. In 2020, while he was in ninth grade, Choudhary founded a nonprofit called 3 Tiny Bones<\/a>. The organization\u2019s name refers to the ossicles in the ear, the three smallest bones in the human body.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThose were actually the bones I don\u2019t have anymore in my ears, because they weren\u2019t really present or fully formed because of the hearing loss,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Over the past six years, 3 Tiny Bones has grown its reach, running programs in schools and libraries, publishing explainers on the science of hearing, and pushing for legislation that expands sign language funding and requires hearing loss to be taught in health classes.<\/p>\n The work groups are still finalizing their priorities, which the commission will vote on at its fall board meeting, Badger said. One initiative already underway is a Disability Mentoring Day<\/a> on Oct. 7 near the state Capitol, where roughly two dozen young people with disabilities will \u201chave opportunities to meet professionals and state government leaders.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Choudhary said his appointment marks a distinct next step in his advocacy \u2014 extending beyond local or online outreach. For him, the commission offers an opportunity to defend disability rights in a more tangible way.<\/p>\n What has not changed, however, is the question that has driven Choudhary since sixth grade: \u201cHow can I make sure that if there is a kid with hearing loss or any disability, they\u2019re not treated any differently for it \u2014\u00a0that people understand they\u2019re still, at their core, a person?\u201d<\/p>\n Senior reporter Riana Mahtani covers national politics and can be reached at mahtani@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies political science. Follow her on X @Riana_Mahtani<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Penn student just got a seat at the table on disability policy in Pennsylvania \u2014 and he\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-290645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}