Birdability Birders: Conversations about Birding with Access Challenges. Episode 6: Paul Miller.

Birdability and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) are co-hosting an online interview series aiming to promote accessibility, inclusion, and representation within the birding community.

Throughout the series, interviewees will discuss their experience with birding, what everyday life is like living with their disability or other health concern, and what they need from the birding community and birding locations for them to feel welcome, included, and able to access birding locations.

The sixth episode will feature Paul Miller (he/him). Paul has had FSHD since birth, and now uses a power wheelchair to get around. (FSHD – facioscapulohumeral dystrophy – is a slowly progressive condition which results in the weakening of muscles in the face, shoulders and arms.) When he started birding his difficulty using his hands and arms meant that special adaptive birding equipment was needed to support, move and focus his binoculars and scope. This equipment didn’t exist, so he built some himself! He a Birdability Captain and chair of the Accessibility Committee at Sacramento Audubon, and is passionate about sharing his inventions to help others overcome obstacles.

Closed captions and an American Sign Language interpreter will be provided. The series is free to attend, but registration is required. Register to attend the sixth episode here.

This is the final episode of this series. You can read more about the series and access recorded interviews with previous guests here.