Day Al-Mohamed
Day Al-Mohamed currently serves as the Director of Disability Policy at the White House. Prior to that, she led the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s premier safety and health management recognition program - the Voluntary Protection Programs. For more than fifteen years, Al-Mohamed’s career has focused on disability policy in a variety of legislative and programmatic arenas including health and healthcare, education, technology accessibility, immigration, racial and ethnic justice, and international development. Outside of her policy work, Al-Mohamed is an award-winning filmmaker and author. She is one of four founders of FWD-Doc (Documentary Filmmakers with Disabilities) and a proud member of US Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 054-24-01. Al-Mohamed lives in Washington DC with her wife, N.R. Brown and her guide dog, Gamma.
Full Interview:
Interview Transcription:
SPEAKERS
Molly Joyce, Day Al-Mohamed
Molly Joyce 00:00
What is access for you?
Day Al-Mohamed 00:07
What is access for me, I think when you think about it as a word, the idea is you should be able to have something the same as someone else, you should be able to go somewhere the same as someone else. So, it's it's kind of a broad word. And we use it as both a noun and a verb at the same time. If you think about it, you have access or you access, get access, or you're accessing something, it's, it's kind of neat in that way. So, I guess, for me, it is kind of that in that it's in..it is an opportunity. How about that? That's probably the easiest way to define it.
Molly Joyce 00:48
I love that, what is care for you.
Day Al-Mohamed 00:55
Ah, there's a lot of these are both noun and verb words you notice. I think when we talk about heavy care, I tend to thinking about it in the verb form, right? Care, it's something that you are you actively do for another person, or for something you are passionate about? Or a cause? And so I guess, is this an action? That is engagement that you are emotionally engaged with whatever that thing, or person Or event is. Let me know if I'm too short on something.
Molly Joyce 01:47
No, no, this is great. Nice to have. What is control for you?
Day Al-Mohamed 01:53
You really like these don't you?
Molly Joyce 01:57
I like like dichotomy in our kind of, either.
Day Al-Mohamed 02:05
So the word control, I think most of the time when people hear it has an immediate negative connotation, right? The idea is if something is controlled, that is the opposite of being free. At the same time, we don't like our world a bit spinning madly and chaotic. So control would intimate that it offers focus and structure and organization. So in many ways control can be a positive. But it's it's one of those words, like I said, the immediate is the negative because you see taken to the extreme, where, as part of reason, I think it's associated so much as the opposite of freedom insofar as, as too much control the ideas, there's a lack of choice, there's a lack of freedom. There's, there's no longer the I because it's overcome by what's you say controlled by a number of things, usually, what is expected by what is preferred. And I guess that would be that, that negative side of it. So I guess it's the the idea of structure in some ways, it can be seen as control. I think the only, the only reason I think it leads very much from a negative point is because unless the word self control, the word self is in front of it, in an intimate sense from an outside source, rather than being internally initiated. I feel very philosophical at this moment.
Molly Joyce 03:35
For me, that's like the part I'll say the point which is just curious, what you know is gonna come up. What is weakness for you?
Day Al-Mohamed 03:51
I think weakness is one of those words that I have trouble defining, insofar as it is often defined. For me, and actually, most people find weaknesses defined for them by somebody outside, and the end of the becoming internalized, I am weak because I couldn't do x. I'm weak because I gave in and did why I'm weak because I have this limitation, or I'm unable to do this other thing. And the question becomes, do you even need to or should you do that? It's like that old story about the, the fish and birds and and it was it measuring, if you're gonna fish for how well it climbs a tree. It's gonna always think it's, it's weak. And the fact is that like it was never intended to be that or it's not playing to it right. So I think that's weakness is something I tend to struggle with is a word because I think part of it is is is nobody is going to be great at all things. No thing is successful and perfect. So it means they are going to be partial one. stronger and when is when is weaker? Let's use that word or less proficient. And I guess the important part is to recognize that there's a balance in there. And finding, finding out where where it isn't that it's okay sometimes.
Molly Joyce 05:18
What is strenght for you?
Day Al-Mohamed 05:23
So strength. Strength is knowing who you are, what you do, how well you do and choosing to live in that. Right? I think that's probably the easiest, simplest kind of definition. I'm like, I am this person. And I do these things. I believe this and setting that kind of confidence. And maybe that's the things what a start start is confidence. Yeah, credit, we've seen that misplaced confidence, like, Oh, dude, he's such a jerk. At the same time, I think there's something about I'm giving you an anecdote about strike, and why I think that's a part of confidence. So one of the most amazing women I ever met, her name is Stacy, she's a nurse. She's a rather large woman, actually. And, and we were on a dating scene, and you'd only see her around doing the same kind of single thing. But here's the difference between mousy me And her as long as human right? We have all these societal beliefs about what a larger woman should look like. And, and there's clearly a lot of denigration, and a lot of fat phobia and things like that. But she would walk into the room with this confidence, and that she was the most amazing, most beautiful person that walked in there. And it was just this attitude and personality. And the thing is, everybody did turn and look at, wow. And that, to me was strength, just the strength of our own conviction actually shapes the world around her to where, okay, this woman had plenty of dates. And people are like, Oh, she's a pretty lady. And, and like I said, large women we know, I said yet that confidence impacted. Like I said, change the world around her. And and to me that, that is strength.
Molly Joyce 07:38
This is the kind of controversial question, so feel free to skip if you like, what is cure for you?
Day Al-Mohamed 07:50
I don't know like leather. I'm gonna take on that when it comes down to it. Yeah, it's, yeah, if you hear me it's gonna be a disability context. And I'm like, gonna think on that a little bit.
Molly Joyce 08:11
What is interdependence for you? So interdependence, I think is the recognition that nobody succeeds alone. Interdependence is a belief system that in many ways has been erased from American society. We've been told the stories about rags to riches, we've been told about pull yourself up by your bootstraps, we've been told about individual accountability. And the fact is that that's not true. Nobody makes it on their own. Nobody is successful. Nobody gets by. The only way to be successful and in truth was to be happy, is that kind of interdependence you get when you engage with other human beings, right? We know how terrible it is to keep human beings or animals in societies isolated and alone. And what kinds of terrible things it does. So interdependence is that reliance that we have back and forth that exchange we have not just for physical need but also emotional need is the fact that it's not I it's never I it is always we....Wow, okay. Yeah. Nothing else will work I'm done. Anything else i say is gonna be Stupid, you're happy to know now you're happy to welcome to skip the rest. So excited to like score these Okay, this is the last one. And then we can if you want, we can go back to the other one. But it's totally fine. If not, what is assumption for you?
Day Al-Mohamed 10:15
So assumption is where we go, when we don't bother to look, right, we always talk about look, before we leap, don't jump to assumptions. And the idea is, it's like you're skipping a space getting to where you think the end actually is. But it means you never bothered to look, sometimes when they go with your gut, you make the leap. And guess what, you could be correct. And that's amazing. And there are times you make that leap. And but because you didn't look that you had it from that frying pan into the fire, I love these frog analogies. And what happens is, you end up missing out all this space in between and what was in there, right? Because you made this leap. And if it's wrong, if it's wrong, then you ended up somewhere. And it's not correct. And the thing is, you're moving forward with this incorrect assumption with this incorrect idea. And it's flawed intelligence. Right? It's bad data, which means everything you do from that point on, in some ways is corrupted. Right. And that's such a harsh word. At the same time, it's so very true, especially when you talk about how it impacts people. Right? So your corruption and how it connects with other people means how you treat them, how you talk to them, how you engage with them, what you have even to offer them, even if it's done with the best of intentions, is wrong. And there's nothing good, really that can come from that. Not until that initial assumption, you have to go back and fix it. And that means actually going back and looking at the gap. And going back and looking at where you made that jump and kind of fix. And we always know it's always harder to go backwards and try to fix something.