Edition 14 | Fall 2018
13 Editions Later…
Illustrations by Samantha D’Sa
Thirteen magazine editions later, we thought we had it figured out. What started as a small newsletter transformed into a glossy magazine brimming with stories––funny, informative and deeply personal, just like us. We expanded into video and grew our reach. We bought better equipment and software to accommodate our demand.
And just when we got comfortable, things changed.
Our content editor, Jennifer Longdon, went and got herself elected to the State House of Representatives in August. Back when we were tossing around the idea of a magazine, we recruited Jen who made it happen. No doubt she’ll use the same approach on the house floor.
Our interim content editor is a former intern, Keerthi Vedantam. We’d love to keep her but she has business in Washington D.C. next year.
We decided to expand into the region, and tell stories of disability throughout the Southwest. We sent our reporter and videographer Kade Garner to New Mexico to capture the beauty of rural life from the disability perspective. You’ll see two of his stories here.
We have also decided to take a closer look at some of our neighbors. Our employee spotlight changed from a Q&A to a moving story, courtesy of Matt Lively. We love learning more about the people who work so closely with the community we strive to cover.
Our artist from accounting, Samantha D’Sa, has provided us with a few illustrations (like our portraits). We’re always on the lookout to incorporate the invisible talents from our colleagues. Be on the lookout for more of her work in this and upcoming editions.
You might notice our design team has given the magazine a facelift too. We work hard on our stories and want to showcase them in their best light, so we felt it was time so we asked our mega-talented graphics team to do some magic. Our hope is that the layouts are clean and simple, yet make you curious.
As one of the few disability magazines in the Southwest, we’ll always strive to be better, innovative and unique. As a result, we’ve decided we’re okay with change.
Samantha D’Sa
Illustrator
L. Samantha “Sam” D’Sa is a design management major from ASU with a minor in business. She works as a billing and payroll processor for Ability360, but also enjoys watching, writing, reading, and drawing stories and characters with both traditional and digital media.
Read more by Samantha D’Sa.