Advocate Profile: Travis Rivas

D: What is your favorite way to pass time? T: I love hanging out in old comic book shops, looking through back issues and building my collection of old issues of X-Men.

D: Who is Travis? T: Hi, my name is Travis. I'm a preschool teacher by day and a comic book writer by night. I have a congenital limb difference called TAR syndrome and my goal is to incorporate characters with limb differences/ disabilities in my comics writing work. I also edit a comics anthology called Super-Abled Comics (@abledsuper) which is a comics anthology about disabled superheroes from disabled creators.

D: What gets your fired up about the disability movement? T: I love seeing individuals of all abilities coming together and sharing the stories of our journeys, as well as seeing more disabled individuals realizing their own power as they realize there's a greater community out there and seeing the culture that arises out of that.

D: What is your advocacy platform? T: Right now it's the comic books that I publish through my studio, Accidental Aliens (@accidentalaliens), like Unstoppable Cherub or Super-Abled Comics, but would like to explore other writing avenues in the future.

D: What barriers or challenges do you face in this movement? T: I think the biggest challenge is realizing that a movement doesn't always have a single direction and that individuals within the movement can come into conflict and struggle with figuring out what the right way to go in is.

D: What do you want those who do not identify with disability to know? T: Disability is the only minority, that I can think of that, that anyone, regardless of age or health, can found themselves a part of at any moment. So the movement is just as much about advocating for individuals outside of the community as well as inside of it.

D: Who was the person/role model who inspired you to look into disability advocacy? Why/how did they inspire you? T: It started with attending my first Lucky Fin Project (@lucky_fin_project) weekend last year, so probably Molly Stapelman (@mollystapes) and all the work she's done for the community, but honestly my biggest influence have been conversations with Sarah Tuberty and how even in our disagreements she makes me reconsider and re-solidify my beliefs on advocacy.

D: When people look at you/up to you, what do you hope they see? T: Hopefully they're not looking at me and instead are reading and enjoying the comics that I make.

D: What are your next steps? T: Next up is releasing Super-Abled Comics in time for Lucky Fin Project Weekend this July and then the week afterwards is San Diego Comic-Con where my studio and I will be selling our comics and artwork. I'll also being doing several panels while I'm there including one about disability representation in pop culture and media.

How do we follow you?! https://accidentalaliens.com/

@rivastravis

@abledsuper

@accidentaliens

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