News

This Black History Month, the Michigan Elder Justice Initiative highlighted multiple Black disability and elder justice advocates: Youself Seegars, Travar Pettway, and Dr. Feranmi Okanlami.

Yuself Seegars is a disability advocate and the Board Chair of the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition. Yuself is fully engaged in the disability rights movement to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for people with disabilities. He has advanced issues of accessibility and safety in transportation, architecture, and the physical environment; equal opportunities in independent living, employment, education, and housing; and freedom from abuse, neglect, and violations of individual rights. Yuself is also a champion for people with physical disabilities and works to insure accessibility and safety to public areas such as city streets and public buildings and restrooms.

Travar Pettway is an advocate for Disability Rights Michigan who aims to challenge systems to help individuals. 

“In 1995, I was shot and paralyzed from the neck down. Now I use a ventilator to breathe and a wheelchair for mobility.

Living with significant physical challenges has given me a clear view of how critical access, accountability, and dignity truly are. I know what it means to navigate healthcare, government systems, and institutions that don’t always move with urgency. That experience didn’t discourage me — it sharpened me.

I advocate for individuals whose voices are often ignored. I push for results where processes fall short. I challenge systems to operate with a result-oriented mindset. And I refuse to accept that vulnerability should ever mean invisibility.

Advocacy isn’t something I do occasionally. It’s part of who I am. I believe strength can look like resilience. Leadership can look like service, and obstacles can become platforms.” -Travar Pettway

Dr. Oluwaferanmi Okanlami is the Director of Student Accessibility and Accommodation Services at University of Michigan, and a physician leader at UofM and UCLA. Some of his passions include medical student education and mentorship, and providing equitable access for people with disabilities, particularly involving access to physical and emotional health and wellness through adaptive sports and fitness opportunities.