Learn about Alena Abraham and her podcast, which was inspired by her brother who lost his vision as a child, in the latest issue of “CATALYST” magazine.
Photo: Alena Abraham, PharmD ’24, with her brother, Shawn Abraham and their mother, Sherly Abraham.
Alena Abraham, PharmD ’24, launched a podcast as a University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP) student to help ensure that the stories of blind and visually impaired people are heard.
Abraham was inspired to start her podcast, “Unseen Potential,” by her brother, Shawn Abraham, who lost his vision when he was 6 years old.
“I saw firsthand the challenges and access barriers he faced due to his blindness,” she said. “As we pursued our education and careers, I noticed significant differences in the resources and opportunities available to me, a sighted person, compared to those accessible to him. Shawn often had to navigate systems that were not designed for him. He had to deal with inaccessible textbooks in the classroom and employment discrimination in the hiring process. It was frustrating.”
Abraham, who is now a global regulatory affairs and regulatory affairs international fellow at Merck in New Jersey, hopes her podcast helps to raise awareness.
“I wish for the podcast to serve as a platform for the blind and visually impaired community to tell their stories,” she said. “I hope that these stories can be a beneficial resource to other blind students and raise awareness among the general public about the experiences of disabled people.”
The podcast, which has 10 episodes to date, has featured guests from around the country — including college students and recent graduates — who discuss their experiences. Shawn Abraham was the first guest and talked about being a political science major at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, from which he graduated in May 2024, and his experiences in the workplace.
“For employers, it would be great if disability inclusion were something that they thought about and learned about a little more, making things accessible in their hiring practices, in the software they use, and just having it as a consideration,” he said during the podcast.
Shawn Abraham said in an interview that while he was hesitant at first about his sister doing the podcast, he thinks she has done a good job telling the stories of blind and visually impaired people and has learned a lot through the process.
“I’m happy to see both of us talk about these topics more, because growing up, it was definitely a big part of our life, my disability and the perceptions that society had about it, but it’s not something that we talked about,” he said. “I was in advocacy spaces a lot where I did get to discuss those topics, but Alena was not necessarily. So this has been a good process for us, because she’s learning about those topics.”
Read more about Alena Abraham and her podcast here.
You can read the Fall 2024 issue of CATALYST magazine, which highlights the School of Dentistry's efforts to provide dentures to seniors through a grant program; Mary Maldarelli, a fellow in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and 2019 School of Medicine graduate using her musical talents to create a therapeutic healing environment; Taofeek K. Owonikoko, MD, PhD, the new executive director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center; and much, much more!