Full Speed AHEAD Podcast

Full Speed AHEAD: The quickest route from  research to practice is a new, monthly podcast from AHEAD that brings research to life through conversation, showcasing evidence-based practices to advance disability equity in postsecondary education and on your campus. New episodes are released mid-month.

Podcast Episodes

E5- Audio Descriptions with Thomas Reid

Episode 42 of Contra*
Feb. 19, 2026

Occasionally and unpredictably, the Full Speed AHEAD podcast will take the scenic route to introduce listeners to another podcast about disability. This month features an episode of Contra* with Thomas Reid, who chats with host Kelsie Acton about the promise of sound, audio description and race, and reimagining audio description to leverage the expertise of Blind people.

Many thanks to JPED author and Full Speed AHEAD guest, Julia Karpicz (episode 4), for recommending Contra*!

Featured resources

Critical Design Lab

Reid My Mind Radio, a podcast developed and hosted by Thomas Reid

Contra* is produced by the Critical Design Lab and is shared under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, share alike international 3.0 license.

Episode 4: “Disabled, Racially Minoritized, and Invisible”: The Intersectionality of Race and Disability in Higher Education: A Conversation with Co-editors
(41 mins)

Resources

With Daniel Blake, Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Dept. of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University; Julia Karpicz, Associate Director of Student Accessibility Services at Worcester State University; Kat Stephens-Peace, Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Dept. of Educational Leadership at Ball State University; and Gabriel Rodriguez Lemus, a doctoral candidate in Higher Education Leadership at the University of Texas Austin.
 
Featured: Disabled, Racially Minoritized, and Invisible: The Intersectionality of Race and Disability in Higher Education (2025). Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability 38(2).

Episode 3: Disability Services in Higher Education: An Insider’s Conversation (26m38s)

Resources

With Kirsten Behling, Associate Dean of Student Accessibility and Academic Resources at Tufts University, and Andrew Cioffi, Director of Disability Resources at Suffolk University.

Featured: Behling, K., Bellemore, E., Bibeau, L., Cioffi, A., and McNamee, B.  (2023). Disability Services in Higher Education: An Insider’s Guide. Temple University Press. 356 pp.

Episode 2: The New Accessibility: Disrupting the System for an Inclusive Future (29m10s)

Resources

With guests Katherine Aquino and Adam Lalor, Editors of The New Accessibility in Higher Education: Disrupting the System for An Inclusive Future. Oxford University Press, 2025. 464 pp.

Episode 1: Allyship and Building Alliances (19m42s)

Resources

With Dr. Joan Ostrove, Director of the Jan Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching and professor of Psychology at Macalester College

Featured: Ostrove, J. Kornfeld, M. and Ibrahim, M. (2019). Actors against Ableism? Qualities of Nondisabled Allies from the Perspective of People with Physical Disabilities. Journal of Social Psychology, 75(3). 924-42. 

AHEAD Podcast Logo: Full Speed AHEAD. The quickest route from research to practice!