Laura Kiesel

The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges, but disability advocates are welcoming one societal shift that has huge benefits for many with accessibility needs: the ability to work from home.
As desk jobs went from in person to online during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kayle Hill’s prospects opened up as she took on a new telework position. Her previous employer was resistant to providing remote work accommodations, even though Ms. Hill could perform her administrative job better from home. ...

Running just under one and a half miles long and featuring a beautiful array of botanical gardens and art sculptures, the High Line — an elevated park in Manhattan — is a major recreational attraction to both tourists and native New Yorkers alike. Created in 2009 and inspired by the Promenade plantee in Paris, the final section of the High Line, known as "the Spur," was completed in 2019. Since then, annual visits to the High Line jumped from 5 million to 8 million people.
But despite its imm...

It was a sunny Friday morning in late July of this year when Jodi Sylvester, a wildlife photographer from central Massachusetts, drove into the Boston area to check in on a pair of juvenile bald eagles that often served as her subjects. The pair had recently fledged but were still sticking by their parental nest along the Mystic River.
When Sylvester arrived, she noticed one of the eaglets was acting strangely. She was perched on a low branch of a tree with her eyes closed and one of her talo...

Most of us know what a heatwave is or have experienced one if not many. Similar to a land-based heatwave, a marine heatwave marks a sustained period of time when the temperatures in a marine area are well above average.
How much above average? Typically 90%, although the exact percentage depends on the season. An official marine heatwave also must last a minimum of five consecutive days. Even if the temperature dips during a particular marine heatwave, it is considered part of the same heatwa...

Dogs are one of the most popular pets in the United States and are often referred to as “man’s best friend.” Unfortunately, some people may experience an allergic reaction to dogs. A dog’s dander, urine, and saliva can trigger allergy symptoms, which can include coughing, sneezing, and more.
Read more about dog allergies, symptoms, and treatment, and if certain breeds are more likely to cause allergies than others.
An Overview of Dog Allergies
Pet allergies affect 10%–20% of the world populat...

Central vision loss refers to either the sudden or gradual loss of central vision. It involves losing the details in a person’s vision and instead seeing one or more dark or blurry spots in their field of vision. These spots may grow in size or multiply over time.
This article will discuss central vision loss, its symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.
What Is Central Vision Loss?
In order to see, light must pass through the pupil, which is the small black dot in the center of our eyes. It is th...

Meetings that had mainly just consisted of the board members now had dozens of tenants attending remotely, calling attention to maintenance and access issues
Last year, I participated in the production of a multimedia piece by the Christian Science Monitor about how the COVID pandemic has actually opened up more work opportunities to many people in the disability community as it mainstreamed telecommuting in the job force.
As a disabled writer and reporter, I was brought onto the project as a...

NEW HAMPSHIRE—When I was first offered the opportunity to report on candidate events taking place in New Hampshire the week before the state’s primary, my first instinct was to offer an emphatic, “Yes!”
However, due to my disability—which includes a connective tissue disorder that makes it difficult to sit and (especially) stand for prolonged periods of time, leads to temperature sensitivity, and can cause severe drops in blood pressure followed by vertigo and lightheadedness—I had to serious...

“Although he might be willing to put on a show to save his hide, his views … are not likely to change in any meaningful way.”
The hype started slow that morning, the first Thursday in September.
By the end of that afternoon, word had spread. My local networks in Arlington were abuzz with the news: A pro-police rally sponsored by a group called America Backs the Blue was coming to town.
Even at that point, it was just the latest example of drama in our town that centered on the hurt feelings o...

Trolls, death threats, and constant harassment — the risky business of being a woman journalist in the social media era
“Feminist cunts should die.”
This was the subject of an email I received a year and a half ago. Wary but curious, I opened the message and confirmed that the feminist cunt in question was me.
I didn’t delete the message. Instead, I printed it out and brought it to my local police station, where they added it to a growing file that had started some months earlier, after I pub...

While women have made strides in media and publishing, it seems we’re still often subject to the whims of men
year and a half ago, in the wake of the tragic Las Vegas shootings, I was struck by a single idea: If mental illness is such a prominent culprit in the phenomenon of mass shootings — as so many politicians and media pundits claim it to be — where are all the female mass shooters? After all, we have mental illness too, in arguably much greater numbers than men (at least according to th...

Arlington’s attempt to mitigate a police department controversy causes more distress for some concerned residents
“It’s time we forget about ‘restraint,’ ‘measured responses,’ ‘procedural justice,’ ‘de-escalation,’ ‘stigma-reduction,’ and other feel-good BS … Let’s meet violence with violence and get the job done.”
These words weren’t tweeted by a random Twitter troll. Rather, they were published by a lieutenant at the Arlington Police Department last October as part of a series of columns pu...

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Two years ago, I was chewing a tortilla chip when I heard a loud crackle of bone and a distinct pop, followed by a shrill ringing in my ear. By the time I pushed my jaw back into position, the swelling had already started.
I had seriously sprained my jaw, a problem that my doctor attributed to Ehler-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disease that means I am defic...

The year is 1986, and I am around eight years old. I am sitting in my living room in Brooklyn watching Revenge of the Nerds with rapt attention. My mother is not around; perhaps she is passed out or out of the apartment altogether as she often was due to her retreat into the depths of her heroin addiction. I am alone watching this movie on a mainstream (non-cable) station during prime-time hours on a weeknight. Yet even among those who have the privilege of being raised with more present pare...

The doctor I’d emailed earlier that day agreed to a 20-minute phone call with me. He was known for performing a rare procedure I hoped might potentially restore some of the nerve function to my right leg, which had been compromised ever since I suffered severe herniation and cyst formation in several discs in my lumbar spine nearly three years prior. He quickly shot down that hope when I shared my other diagnoses, though, because I had too many other things going on in my body that would make...