Benita McKerry’s job at the Native American Disability Law Center mostly involves driving to far-off parts of the Navajo Nation, an area larger than the size of West Virginia, and checking in on the reservation’s group homes and facilities for people with disabilities. The Diné woman rarely listens to music or podcasts on these drives, instead soaking up the miles by reflecting on the countless kids and adults she’s come to know.

She recounts her charges easily. A 63-year-old woman whose face lights up whenever McKerry visits. Eight men gathered around the box of donuts she brought. A 32-year-old woman in a wheelchair who has a mild intellectual disability, who often tells her, “I want to get out of this facility. I want to work. I want to get my own place.”

McKerry has cultivated these

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