February 7th Speaker Marks Jewish Disability Awareness Month

Berwyn's Congregation Or Shalom is marking Jewish Disability Awareness & Inclusion Month (JDAIM) - a unified national initiative to raise disability awareness and support efforts to foster inclusion within the Jewish community - with a guest speaker on Friday, February 7.

Alanna Raffel of Whole Community Inclusion, an initiative supported by the Jewish Special Needs Consortium of Greater Philadelphia, will speak after Friday night Shabbat services at about 8:15 pm.

Raffel is an occupational therapist and accessibility consultant. She graduated from the University of Maryland with dual degrees in Psychology and Dance and from Thomas Jefferson University with a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy. She has worked as an occupational therapist in acute rehab, early intervention ages 3 to 5, outpatient, and school-based settings.

Congregation Or Shalom's February speaker has facilitated accessibility in a variety of ways including autism-friendly Broadway performances in New York City, open captioning at People's Light in Malvern, and organization mapping events to collect data on physical accessibility.

Her company, Access Point, strives to increase inclusion in Philadelphia and beyond by advocating for access, creating solutions, and promoting awareness of accessible opportunities for people with disabilities and their friends and family.