Perspectives with Condace Pressley
Sep 17, 2026 · 26 min · 12 segments
For families of children and young adults with communication and developmental needs, getting the right therapy can make an enormous difference. But getting access to that therapy and being able to…
Darius ThomasGuestLisa Elsie WatsonGuest
Condis PresleyHost
Darius, we're finding ourselves talking increasingly more about neurodiversity and inclusion.
Where do you think our communities have made real progress and in what ways do we continue to fall short?
I think our communities are learning the terminologies and we are straying away from just putting labels on people, but giving them the services that they need.
So in the African-American community, for example, we stray away from someone being diagnosed with something because it appears to the world that that person has a problem and potentially that they won't be successful.
We are reducing the stigma connected to disabilities, and I'm grateful for that.
There is no reason to why there's an age restriction on speech therapy services, for example.
In Georgia, Georgia Medicaid discontinues speech therapy services at 20 years and 11 months.
And they expect families to go out and get a waiver or find some other way to pay for services.
So imagine your kid who's been in speech therapy in middle school and high school.
And it's interesting to me and mind boggling that politicians and local officials, et cetera, have not found a way for services to continue until when a person needs Medicare, for example, or they have this severe disability that some other program will pay for.
at least the celebrities and their foundations do have a wonderful ability to draw attention to issues that may otherwise remain invisible, like how this arbitrary law needs changing.
How do we turn that attention into lasting change rather than a single moment of awareness or, you know, the one ribbon cutting or the multiple ribbon cuttings of the communication boards?
You know, one of the, in the early years, The foundation, Tammy and other passionate community members went to Washington and they were able to get a billion dollars in funding for this community, demonstrating the importance of investing the dollars and the time and the energy in really changing, as Darius was saying, the stigma around it and the challenge of supporting it to making it a discussion of how do we release their brilliance? How do we enhance the workforce so that their unique skills and abilities are valued and compensated for so that they can have powerful lives of dignity? We need the community to get involved with us, to join us in this charge to really create a different mindset where we invite them to share their genius and their beauty and their gifts with us.
Darius, we're finding ourselves talking increasingly more about neurodiversity and inclusion.
Where do you think our communities have made real progress and in what ways do we continue to fall short?
I think our communities are learning the terminologies and we are straying away from just putting labels on people, but giving them the services that they need.
So in the African-American community, for example, we stray away from someone being diagnosed with something because it appears to the world that that person has a problem and potentially that they won't be successful.
We are reducing the stigma connected to disabilities, and I'm grateful for that.
There is no reason to why there's an age restriction on speech therapy services, for example.
In Georgia, Georgia Medicaid discontinues speech therapy services at 20 years and 11 months.
And they expect families to go out and get a waiver or find some other way to pay for services.
So imagine your kid who's been in speech therapy in middle school and high school.
And it's interesting to me and mind boggling that politicians and local officials, et cetera, have not found a way for services to continue until when a person needs Medicare, for example, or they have this severe disability that some other program will pay for.
at least the celebrities and their foundations do have a wonderful ability to draw attention to issues that may otherwise remain invisible, like how this arbitrary law needs changing.
How do we turn that attention into lasting change rather than a single moment of awareness or, you know, the one ribbon cutting or the multiple ribbon cuttings of the communication boards?
You know, one of the, in the early years, The foundation, Tammy and other passionate community members went to Washington and they were able to get a billion dollars in funding for this community, demonstrating the importance of investing the dollars and the time and the energy in really changing, as Darius was saying, the stigma around it and the challenge of supporting it to making it a discussion of how do we release their brilliance? How do we enhance the workforce so that their unique skills and abilities are valued and compensated for so that they can have powerful lives of dignity? We need the community to get involved with us, to join us in this charge to really create a different mindset where we invite them to share their genius and their beauty and their gifts with us.
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