The Dandelion Shift: Seeing the Ability in Disability | Laura Whitaker | TEDxUGA

In this talk, Laura Whitaker encourages us to view difference as ability, not disability. Laura Whitaker is the executive director of Extra Special People, a Watkinsville-based nonprofit that runs year-round programs and summer camps for more than 400 individuals of all abilities and their families in the Northeast Georgia area. She began as a volunteer at ESP in 2003, and when the founder tragically passed in 2006, Whitaker was chosen to be the executive director at just 19 years old. Whitaker earned her bachelor’s in Collaborative Special Education and her master’s in Adapted Curriculum Classic Autism at the University of Georgia, and she has received many honors for her leadership, including the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40, Georgia Trend’s 40 Under 40, UGA 40 Under 40, Bulldog 100, and Leadership Georgia. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx