CMCL Interview: Kadin McElwain

00:00:00:08 - 00:00:29:03
Julie Sowash
Welcome back to Changing Minds Changing Lives podcast. My name is Julie Sowash. I am one of the founders and strategic advisor for Disability Solutions and the host of this amazing podcast, where I get to have conversations with really incredible people in our community, from around the world. And today I'm actually excited to welcome a fellow midwesterner from Ohio, if I'm remembering correctly, Kadin McElwain to the show.

00:00:29:03 - 00:00:50:08
Julie Sowash
He is an autism activist, a public speaker, a journalist, and a contributor at the Autism Digest, which I'm sure is not doing him nearly just any justice. But I do want to welcome Kadin into the show today. Kadin, welcome and tell us a little bit about yourself. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Have you pretty much sums it up.

00:00:50:08 - 00:01:20:04
Kadin McElwain
I'm a public speaker, writer and activist, a contributor for Autism Digest. In fact, after this interview I’ll be interviewing someone for their YouTube channel. You know, Angelo Santabarbara, who's an autism advocate as well, and who's actually a state representative in New York. Oh, wow. I was diagnosed when I was two years old and because of the stigma surrounding autism around that time, which was 2006, I'm about to be 21 this year.

00:01:20:05 - 00:01:45:14
Kadin McElwain
My capabilities were questioned due to society's ignorance of autism, but thanks to a very supportive and set of parents who support me, still, even to this day, I was able to prove people wrong. Graduate high school early during the pandemic, while working two jobs, both fast food jobs to be exact. And I'm a college junior currently with five consecutive Dean's list about to have number six come May.

00:01:46:00 - 00:02:17:07
Julie Sowash
Wow. So I didn't do very well on your accomplishments then. That's, That's incredible. That's incredible. So you are a junior in college. What are you studying? I'm a communications major currently, but I'm wanting to minor in technology and technology. And you have a YouTube channel? I have a YouTube channel for the public speaking stuff I do and any mock speeches I do, but, mainly do interviews for, Autism Digest YouTube channel.

00:02:17:08 - 00:02:41:05
Julie Sowash
Okay, so tell me how you got started in advocacy. Was it just something that was naturally part of your your demeanor and your personality the whole time, or did you get started later in your high school or college education? I officially started my advocacy work with a class project in my freshman year of college, you got that part right.

00:02:41:06 - 00:03:11:06
Kadin McElwain
The assignment was to think of a way to help the community and act upon it. So my group and I decided on a go fund me for the Autism Society of America. We raised over $1,000 for it, and I had the chance to do a lot of cool stuff. Getting into the paper, winning a contest with the project that the school was having, and I connected with a regular advocacy partner in my community, Michael Zurn, who's the treasurer of my county, and we shout out to him.

00:03:11:08 - 00:03:31:01
Kadin McElwain
But I thought, and this is typical with my generation, the TikTok generation, my group really wasn't into the project. They only want to do it to get the prize money we got. So I ended up doing the majority of the work, and I noticed that we don't take autism seriously enough in this country, especially when it comes to adult resources.

00:03:31:02 - 00:03:56:08
Kadin McElwain
So as the saying goes, one thing led to another, and look where I'm at now. Oh no, that's that's amazing. So can you elaborate a little bit on what you just said in that we don't take autism seriously in this country especially? I think what you said is critically important for adults living with autism. It can absolutely have I think we think it's serious.

00:03:56:08 - 00:04:20:02
Kadin McElwain
But the problem is, at 18 autistic individuals, especially in the United States, end up with nothing or even worse, having to jump through hoops to get the resources that they need. I know for sure one thing I was trying to get was Social Security and Medicare, but those are completely gone forever, [At time of recording (04/2025), these programs have not been eliminated] and you have to provide proof of diagnosis to get them any way.

00:04:20:03 - 00:04:49:11
Kadin McElwain
It's honestly my opinion that once you're diagnosed at, say, two years old, three years old, you shouldn't be questioned about that again. And actually, even in school, your capabilities are questioned. I remember a time particularly, and I tell this in almost every media appearance I do, where my IEP or Individualized Education Plan was cut completely without my parent's consent, and my parents had to fight long and hard to get that implemented again.

00:04:49:12 - 00:05:15:09
Kadin McElwain
So they just took your IEP away all together. Yeah. And middle school. The reason they gave was that I was doing well academically. So they assumed I didn't need that when as I’m sure you know, being in this field for as long as you were, that's not how autism works. It's more so social, emotional communication. Yeah. Absolutely. So you know, and I think you you raise a really good point.

00:05:15:09 - 00:05:40:10
Julie Sowash
Two things that I just want to make sure our audience who hasn't heard this on this podcast before, take away is one that when you are a young person who is diagnosed with a disability, in this case autism, you have a set of services that kind of follow you along until you what we call in the in the industry is age out of those services, basically you become an adult, you turn 18.

00:05:40:11 - 00:06:02:14
Julie Sowash
What I think a lot of people don't know is that when you turn 18, you have to start with an entirely different set of systems. And to your point, none of those actually follow you along into adulthood. It's like a almost like a clean break from this kid to a whole new person. Once you turn 18. Yeah, exactly.

00:06:03:02 - 00:06:31:01
Julie Sowash
And then, you know, with school pre or post-secondary. So middle school, high school, you had an IEP, which is a plan that helps people, students with disabilities, make sure that they get access to the services or accommodations that they need and in the most simple terms, and correct me anywhere here if you want to, but. Right now, we're living in, I think, for Americans with disabilities, autistic Americans, a pretty scary time.

00:06:31:01 - 00:06:58:02
Julie Sowash
And if we start even at the cuts at the Department of Education and the appointment of a secretary and Linda McMahon, who quite frankly didn't even know what I.D.E.A. was, when she was interviewed on Fox News. Tell me what what your thoughts are on how the cuts at the Department of Education are going to impact, people with disabilities, students with disabilities.

00:06:58:03 - 00:07:22:02
Julie Sowash
Given you're pretty young, you still know what it was like to be there at that point. You have it's going to be disastrous. I worry for those kiddos. Especially the younger generation. I’m lucky enough that I was in the time where it was common knowledge that such and such student might need a little extra help in the class room.

00:07:22:03 - 00:07:49:12
Kadin McElwain
Nowadays, we have people who are oh so overly psychotic and ignorant that they're willing to make horrible decisions that impact everyone, not just special needs students, but everyone, both physically and emotionally. And as soon as Trump was elected, I made it clear on my Facebook page that no matter what happens, I'm going to continue to advocate for this cause that's how much I believe in it.

00:07:49:14 - 00:08:11:06
Julie Sowash
Honestly. What are they going to do, beat me up? Yeah. And I, I mean, I think you just gave me so much to unpack there. You know, with if we stick with the Department of Education and then I want to talk more about using your voice. You know, the cuts at the Department of Education are going to significantly harm students with disabilities and their families.

00:08:11:06 - 00:08:39:10
Julie Sowash
And you made such a critical point when you said you were lucky. Because even though you just pointed out several challenges that you had going through the education system, you have incredible parents. You're a self-advocate, you had the right resources around you, but you still hit barriers that you needed supports with. So I.D.E.A. provided some of those supports, your parents provided some of those supports.

00:08:39:11 - 00:09:18:12
Julie Sowash
And now what we're seeing is with all the cuts to education as well as the the elimination of the Civil Rights office within the Department of Education, really all of those protections and all of those, quite frankly. Right, that we have as people with disabilities, as students with disabilities, being not stripped away but functionally eliminated because we're taking away resources and we're taking away the people who would otherwise enforce those civil rights for students with disabilities through the Department of Ed.

00:09:18:13 - 00:09:57:04
Julie Sowash
Yeah, exactly. And, you know, I, I will say then, if we talk about using our voices, I think a lot of us and I will say that this has certainly crossed my mind, are getting more fearful now about continuing to identify as people with disabilities, both online and in person, if our disabilities are not obvious. Tell me why you felt like it was important for you to take that stand, during, you know, January when the administration changed that you're not going to be silenced.

00:09:57:05 - 00:10:28:07
Kadin McElwain
Because I’ve worked too hard to stand by and watch chaos unfold, and that will probably cover this. One of the first things I get and and that aspect was I wrote a piece about the RFK thing. Because society needs to hear from actual autistic people, not people with degrees, not people in fancy suits, not people with brain worms, actual autistic people, and those who lived those experiences.

00:10:28:09 - 00:10:54:10
Kadin McElwain
So tell me. Tell me about that. Tell me about the article and how you related to are now health and Human Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr. In that piece. Of course, I didn't just denounce the theory because it's knowledge that that theory, which I'm sure you know about, has been proven as snake oil healed and rubbish

00:10:54:10 - 00:11:23:06
Kadin McElwain
time and time again for centuries now, way before my time, I've made a clear article that RFK Jr is a huge hypocrite. He has no right to talk about autism the way he does when his own family has their own history with the disorder. Rosemary Kennedy specifically. Yeah. So and just in case listeners, viewers, you don't know, what what we are referring to.

00:11:23:06 - 00:12:03:08
Julie Sowash
So, for a long time, there was a false information in the world that said, autism was directly related to vaccines. That information has been disproven. The doctor who did that, doctor air quotes, was was disproven, debunked and that is false. So vaccines do not cause autism. And Robert Kennedy has made a lot of money off peddling these types of lies and conspiracy theories to.

00:12:03:08 - 00:12:39:00
Julie Sowash
And that's helped promote what we see now in Texas, which is a giant measles outbreak. Because parents are still choosing not to vaccinate their children. Now, what you mentioned, I think just after that is something that's been a really compelling. Story interest. I don't know exactly the right way to say it of mine. So Rosemary Kennedy, a sister to John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy, tell me a little bit more about our tell our audience a little bit more about Rosemary Kennedy.

00:12:39:02 - 00:13:07:11
Kadin McElwain
Absolutely. She had an intellectual disability. Most likely autism. Based on what I read and some of her mannerisms, she had. Her family, I’ll give them credit, tried hard to gather the proper resources, but after having a lobotomy, that Joe Kennedy senior got her behind his wife's back just to protect her political limits. Rosemary was never the same.

00:13:07:11 - 00:13:34:04
Kadin McElwain
And she ended up dying in her group home, alone. Yeah, yeah, I was actually just refreshing my myself on the Rosemary Kennedy story this morning. So a lot of us have never even heard of Rosemary Kennedy. In fact, I said to my husband, getting ready for this interview, I was telling him I was excited to chat with you and that you had brought up Rosemary Kennedy with with Ashley in our pre-record.

00:13:34:08 - 00:14:14:09
Julie Sowash
And he said, “Who is Rosemary Kennedy?” And so I got to tell him that story, a beautiful, vivacious young woman who lived with a disability, whatever that disability was, we don't really know. Developmental autism. And she was hidden away from the world, when she became an adult. And then eventually, around the age of 23, was lobotomized, which, terrifyingly enough, not only didn't cure her as it was, supposed to do that snake oil at the time, but it actually led to,

00:14:14:10 - 00:14:35:14
Julie Sowash
Physical disabilities, the loss of her ability to speak. And then she was hidden away and not even allowed visitors until after her parents both passed away in, in the 1980s. So really, to me, and I would love to hear your opinion, what that says to me is

00:14:36:01 - 00:15:17:02
Julie Sowash
hat because of I, I won't even give any credit to the time, but because of what Joe Kennedy did to protect his families reputations, credibility and political prowess, they hid away a perfectly capable child who happened to have a disability and then traumatized her physically and then pretended she didn't exist. That has to have, in my thought process, really influenced the way that now the head of our health and Human services thinks about people with disabilities in general, I absolutely agree.

00:15:17:02 - 00:15:43:03
Kadin McElwain
I’ll give the Kennedys credit, though they have tried to correct that wrong. I think one of them founded the Special Olympics. And if RFK Jr didn't spew, autism conspiracy theories? I'd actually agree with him because I do agree that this country should be healthier. We shouldn't be eating fast food and putting all these preservatives in our meals.

00:15:43:06 - 00:16:09:02
Kadin McElwain
I myself have been able to kick energy drinks. I used to consume those when I was a teenager, sometimes five a day, with the most being 12 in 1 sitting. Oh my gosh, I'd have to rethink how unhealthy they were. I've cut back on them and now I do one a month, maybe two. If I have a test coming up?

00:16:09:03 - 00:16:33:13
Kadin McElwain
If RFK Jr was a good person and didn't spew autism, hatred, I would say he has a good point about making this country healthy, but his mouth gets him in trouble. That's what my parents always say. Yeah, yeah. I say that as a mom a lot, too. Yeah. I mean, yes, I, I certainly think that we could and should be.

00:16:33:13 - 00:17:06:01
Julie Sowash
I live in Europe a lot of the year, and I know how different I feel just based on my diet there versus my diet here. And I absolutely agree with that, but how? But we can't really give any credit to someone who would spew things that he knows because his children are vaccinated, that are are untruths, that are are falsities and conspiracy theories in order to monetize on people's fears.

00:17:06:02 - 00:17:54:01
Julie Sowash
Yeah, exactly. That honestly makes things even worse. I didn't even know he was monetizing that snake oil until you just told me. Yeah, it's, it's it's a long history. I'll share a few things with you, when we hang up. So, last but not least, as we've covered a lot of ground this week, and we've been able to provide some political, some real life context to the things that we see, the political things that we see on the news, how this is going to impact children with disabilities, with Linda McMahon at the head of the Department of Education, how we've reduced resources and support through this, how we're returning money to the states,

00:17:54:02 - 00:18:36:07
Julie Sowash
without guarantees that we're going to have civil rights protections for our students in universities or in high school, elementary school and middle school and at university level. We now have a head of our health and human services that, not only continues to spew untrue autism related vaccine information, but actually has just recently hired a his mentor in this field, David Greer, back into the HHS to help review these now debunked studies and find try to find a link between autism and vaccines, even though we know that that's not true.

00:18:36:09 - 00:18:44:08
Julie Sowash
The last thing I just wanted to cover with you is we also have had.

00:18:44:09 - 00:19:17:03
Julie Sowash
A group of. Immigrants who have been living in this country and various status be, I will say deported. I will say unlawfully taken out of the country and put in a supermax prison in El Salvador without any due process. And as horrifying as that is, and how much it breaks my heart every single day, I also want to point out that one of these individuals also has a connection to our community that we know about.

00:19:17:04 - 00:19:47:03
Julie Sowash
So, and I'm not going to do him justice to his name, but neary, Jose Alvarado Borges, who is, been in the United States for quite some time, worked at a local deli. His family is fully here, was taken out of the United States and unlawfully taken to El Salvador because he had a autism tattoo, because his brother is a person who lives with autism.

00:19:47:03 - 00:20:20:00
Kadin McElwain
Any reaction to to that? I think it's outrageous. I have an autism tattoo myself also right here. Yeah. So and I haven't gotten arrested for it. Yeah. So however, that's pure ignorance on merit and or at least coincidental or that's racially motivated that it's most likely the latter. It's definitely a racial thing. if he was truly deported for having an autism tattoo.

00:20:20:01 - 00:20:55:08
Julie Sowash
Yeah. And they said that autism tattoo might be related to a gang. He had. I don't know how many gangs, but have autism tattoos. Thank you for clarifying that. I don't either. So anything that you would leave us with today that would help people in the community, better understand how to continue to advocate for people with autism, how to better understand all of this flood of information that's coming at us every day.

00:20:55:08 - 00:21:23:00
Kadin McElwain
And, and to decipher how it's going to impact our communities? Absolutely. I would say be open minded and be kind, not just about autism, but about any ethnic group, no matter the race, disability, gender, or orientation. They are amazing as is and just as capable as anyone else. And if you can't see that, then there's a problem with you,

00:21:23:00 - 00:21:47:14
Julie Sowash
not them. You're the ones missing out on a good person. Yeah, and a great, great friendships. Great relationships. I think that is the perfect place to wrap us up today. Kadin, if our listeners want to have you come and do some public speaking at their organization and want to learn more about the work that you do around advocacy or follow the Autism Digest, how do they get Ahold of you?

00:21:48:00 - 00:22:17:04
Kadin McElwain
You can follow me on Facebook, @KadinRonald, K A D I N R O N A L D. You can connect with me on LinkedIn @KadinRonaldMcElwain, K A D I N R O N A L D M C E L W A I N. And you can follow me on YouTube @KadinMcElwainI, K A D I N M C E L W A I N . Or if you want to watch my Autism Digest stuff, you can follow me on the Autism Digest YouTube page.

00:22:17:05 - 00:22:36:07
Julie Sowash
Awesome, amazing. So we'll share those links in the show notes, and on the YouTube channel when this comes out. Caden, thank you so much for joining us, having a conversation and helping our viewers understand some of the turmoil that we're experiencing and how it relates directly back to our community. Thanks for having me. Yeah, anytime.