CORRECTION: The original version of this article contained the wrong title for The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival. Elon News Network regrets this error.
Students filled Whitley Auditorium on Thursday evening as the Liberal Arts Forum hosted Maysoon Zayid as the second speaker of its 2025 spring speaker series.
Zayid — a comedian, actress and disability activist living with cerebral palsy — spoke about a number of topics, ranging from her personal experiences to advice on how students can choose their identity.
Zayid spoke about living with her disability, disability rights and inclusion within the disabled community.
“Disability does not discriminate,” Zayid said. “We are the one group that you can join whether you want to or not, at any time. Disability does not care about your religion, your ethnicity, your economic class, your gender, or who you love.”
Sophomore Eden Perry, a member of the Liberal Arts Forum, said she pitched Zayid as a candidate because she had a personal connection with Zayid’s message.
“As a person with disabilities, I really wanted to bring her here for that disability,” Perry said. “Also, as a Palestinian woman, I thought it was also important to have her message as well.”
During her speech, Zayid mentioned how she is bicontinental and splits her time between living in New Jersey and living in a refugee camp in Bethlehem.
Zayid also focused on the representation of disabilities in the media. Zayid is the founder and co-executive producer of The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival. She has also written for Glamour Magazine and appeared on 60 Minutes and ABC news.
“To this day, Hollywood shuns disability,” Zayid said. “We're only allowed to have three storylines — either you can't love me because I'm disabled, heal me or kill me."
Liberal Arts Forum guest speaker Maysoon Zayid poses for the camera after halting the photographer who was walking away as her microphone was being switched out on March 27 during her show “Find Another Dream: An Evening of Comedy and Questions” in Whitley Auditorium. Zayid joked that she could be the next member of the Kardashian family.
She encouraged future filmmakers in the audience to be inclusive in representing the disabled community in film.
Zayid also emphasized the importance of recognizing invisible disabilities, which are physical, mental or neurological conditions that may not be immediately noticeable but can profoundly affect a person's daily life and capabilities. She encouraged students to talk about them.
“The reason we don't know how many people we have is because they're terrified to reveal their disabled status,” Zayid said. “It is becoming progressively scarier to be disabled in this country right now, which is why we need more positive images of disability than ever.”
On March 27, it was announced that the Administration for Community Living, which manages federal programs for older adults and people with disabilities, will be reorganized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.”
Toward the end of her speech, Zayid gave students advice on how to choose their own path.
“You get to choose who you want to be. Do not let the noise in this world tell you that you cannot be who you want to be,” Zayid said.