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Beyond the Chair:
The Podcast
Real talk. Real lives.
The medical system does a decent job of stabilizing people. It does a much harder job of preparing them for everything that comes after.
This podcast exists for the after. Beyond the Chair is a conversation — between people who have lived disability, loved someone through it, studied it, advocated for it, or are in the middle of navigating it right now. Each episode brings honesty that most settings don't allow and insights that don't come from textbooks.
It's not a clinical resource. It's a chair pulled up next to yours.
The Conversations That Need to Happen
There's no shortage of medical information about disability. What's harder to find is the real conversation — about identity, about belonging, about what it costs families, about what rebuilt a sense of purpose when everything else fell apart.
That's what Beyond the Chair goes after.
Hosted by Hector Del Valle, MSW — speaker, author, advocate, and someone who has been living with spinal cord injury since 1982 — every episode is a direct conversation with someone who has something real to say about life beyond disability. Not a performance. Not a highlight reel. The actual story.
Because that's what moves people. And that's what this community needs more of.
Guests Who Know This From the Inside
People who have been at it for decades and people who are newly injured. People who are thriving and people who are still working through it. All of them honest about what the road actually looks like.
Family & Caregivers
The people who love someone with a disability carry their own story — and it rarely gets told. This podcast makes space for that voice too, because the transition affects the whole family.
Authors & Storytellers
Writers from within the disability community who have put their experiences into print — and the insight they carry about what it means to turn personal pain into something that helps other people.
Advocates & Professionals
Social workers, case managers, peer specialists, and community leaders who are working inside the system to build better pathways. Their perspective bridges lived experience and institutional knowledge.
Leaders Changing the Landscape
People in housing, policy, faith communities, healthcare, and education who are working to close the gaps that still exist for people with disabilities. The conversations that matter at the decision-making level.
A Word From Hector
"I've been doing this long enough to know what the real questions are. Not the ones people ask in public — the ones they ask in private, at 2 in the morning, when they're trying to figure out if this life is still worth showing up for.
I've been there. And I've also been on the other side of it — where the purpose comes back, where the faith holds, where something good gets built out of something terrible.
That's what I want this podcast to be. Honest about both sides. Not just the triumph. The whole road.
Every guest I bring on has walked some version of this. Every conversation is an attempt to hand something useful to the person listening — whether that's hope, a strategy, a perspective, or just the relief of knowing they're not alone.
Pull up a chair. You belong in this conversation."
The Conversations That Need to Happen
If you're living with disability, working alongside the disability community, or building something that closes the gap between rehabilitation and real life — Hector wants to talk.
This isn't a mainstream media platform. It's a community-rooted conversation with an audience of survivors, families, and professionals who show up because they're invested in the work. Being a guest is also an opportunity to reach people you may not reach any other way.
If your organization is working in rehabilitation, disability services, accessible housing, peer support, or community transition — this podcast is a natural space to amplify that work.
Sponsorship and partnership opportunities support the continued production of the show while connecting your mission to a highly engaged, purpose-driven audience.
Find the Show Where You Listen
New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss a conversation.
Not Sure Where to Start? Start Here.
Browse recent episodes below, or connect directly if you have a question, a story, or a reason to be part of this conversation. Every episode is another thread in the same fabric — a community of people who refuse to let disability be the last word.