To my filmmaker friends, please read, especially if you are at Sundance

By James LeBrecht
Founder and Lead Sound Designer
Berkeley Sound Artists

The Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker's lodge is located in a historical building where there is no elevator to take you to the lodge. I have been trying to convince the festival for well over 7 years to fix this issue.

The festival's best solution is this: "Sundance Institute works to make each of its venues physically accessible for all Festivalgoers. All Festival venues and theatres are ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible. For reservations or more information, contact Sundance Institute at (435) 658-3456.

The Filmmaker Lodge, housed in the Park City Elks Building, falls under historical preservation standards and does not have an elevator. However, Sundance Institute does have a Stair-Trac on site that meets ADA requirements. A 24-hour notice is needed and appreciated for patrons needing access to the Stair-Trac. For additional information on this, please contact Sundance Institute at (435) 658-3456"
 

 

Ouch! talk show 47 - January 2010 -

Ringing in the new decade with Adrian Mole author Sue Townsend
who has a long list of disabilities to her name.
Plus news with D-MAP's own Simon Minty, chat and music.
With Rob Crossan and Liz Carr.

[BBC Ouch! Podcast]

On November 17, 2009, Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Michael Enzi (R-WY) introduced a bill they named Rosa’s Law that would replace the phrase “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” in all Federal policy references (see the press release here).

This development follows the protests around the word “retard” repeated in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder and a campaign by the Special Olympics to get people to stop using “the R-word.” A few months earlier, in July 2009, Little People of America called on the Federal Communications Commission to ban use of the word “midget.”

The request followed an episode of Celebrity Apprentice on NBC, called "Jesse James and the Midgets," that LPA found demeaning. Language is political. And political correctness around words is not new. There have always been offensive epithets for ethnic groups and nonconforming individuals.

In September D-MAP took the next big step and as the current Chair of the Media Advisory Committee, I met with some major US news networks. For as long as I can remember, disability has rarely been seen as a subject that is cool and sexy; however, television and media are seen as cool and sexy. So the plan was to see how we can become compatible. Of course in my back pocket, so to speak, I know those who work in broadcasting, print and online media are human beings, affected by the same things as everyone, including disability. Getting the meetings wasn’t easy.

We decided D-MAP should start with the big players, the US national newspapers, news agencies, broadcasters, both television and radio. Of the 15 or so companies I approached, about eight have not replied--yet. However, enlightened organisations, creative ones (and ones where I’d been given a contact) did agree to meet.

The organization Autism Speaks has released a video entitled “I am Autism” purporting to show how autism devastates individuals and families. The video harmfully misrepresents autism and the autism community. Rather than asking for understanding, services or rights for people with autism, “I am Autism” attacks the dignity of people on the autism spectrum.

In the car listening to the radio this morning I was disappointed to hear talk show guest host, Norman Goldman, on the Ed Schultz Show, using words and phrases that perpetuate negative stereotypes and reinforce ignorant attitudes about people with psychiatric disabilities. Mr. Goldman is an attorney and describes himself as "progressive." Unfortunately, his attitudes about people with disabilities are incredibly regressive.

DREDF has released a new video which includes an interview with the Senator made around the Tenth Anniversary of the ADA in 2000. If you're a facebook member you can watch the entire 16 minute video without interruption. Or you can view it as a YouTube playlist:

On 7.15.09, the New York Times Magazine published Dr. Peter Singer's article on rationing health care in the US. Unfortunately, Singer's notion of rationing is based on the "worth" of individuals with disabilities when compared to those without disabilities. A NYT graphic accompanying the article was particularly worrying.

We established the Disability & Media Alliance Project (D-MAP) to work in alliance with the media industry to change inaccurate public perceptions of disability and replace them with informed and realistic stories and images. We want to broaden the range of popular ideas about disability to go beyond the usual suspects: condescending stares for tragic lives on the one extreme, and admiring awe for superhuman transcendence of obstacles on the other. People with disabilities are neither inspirational heroes nor social parasites, neither courageous underdogs nor charity cases. We are ordinary people with ordinary and highly varied lives. Like everyone else, we'd like to see our lives depicted in the news and in entertainment.