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Webinar: “RespectAbility 2018 National Jewish Disability Inclusion Survey”

Featuring Special Guests Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, RespectAbility President and Meagan Buren, RespectAbility Pollster

Read the webinar transcript
Download the accessible PowerPoint
Watch the webinar on YouTube with live embedded captions


Our speakers were RespectAbility’s President Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi and its Pollster, Meaghan Buren. Mizrahi is a national leader in disability advocacy. Buren is a pollster who has led multiple national polls on a variety of topics, including disability and Jewish issues.

The survey was fielded July–September 2018 and includes 4,061 respondents; 2,570 are Jewish, 559 of whom are Jews with disabilities. This survey was made possible by the financial support of The Genesis Prize Foundation, which worked with the Jewish Funders Network to conduct the Breaking Barriers Initiative, created to honor Itzhak Perlman, 2016 Genesis Prize Laureate and world-renowned violinist and activist for people with disabilities. Ahuva and Aaron Orlofsky of the ORLO Fund, and the Beverly Foundation matched that support. The overwhelming response to the survey would not have been possible without the partnership of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, UJA–Federation of New York, Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the LA Jewish JournalNew York Jewish Week’s New Normal and JTA.

Meet the Author

Lauren Appelbaum

Lauren Appelbaum is the VP, Communications and Entertainment & News Media, of RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so all people with disabilities can fully participate in every aspect of community. As an individual with an acquired nonvisible disability – Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy – she works at the intersection of disability, employment, Hollywood and politics. She regularly conducts trainings on the why and how to be more inclusive and accessible for entertainment executives throughout the industry. Appelbaum partners with studios, production companies and writers’ rooms to create equitable and accessible opportunities to increase the number of people with lived disability experience throughout the overall story-telling process. These initiatives increase diverse and authentic representation of disabled people on screen, leading to systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities. She has consulted on more than 100 TV episodes and films with A&E, Bunim-Murray Productions, NBCUniversal, Netflix, ViacomCBS, and The Walt Disney Company, among others. She represents RespectAbility on the CAA Full Story Initiative Advisory Council, Disney+ Content Advisory Council, MTV Entertainment Group Culture Code and Sundance Institute’s Allied Organization Initiative. She is the author of The Hollywood Disability Inclusion Toolkit and the creator of an innovative Lab Program for entertainment professionals with disabilities working in development, production and post-production. She is a recipient of the 2020 Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award for this Lab. To reach her, email LaurenA@RespectAbility.org.

2 comments… add one
  • Anonymous Oct 15, 2018, 2:30 pm

    Will this webinar include captions and/or American Sign Language interpretation? Thanks!

    • Lauren Appelbaum Oct 18, 2018, 12:39 pm

      All of our webinars include live captioning.

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