Hollywood Inclusion

People with disabilities want to work, they have skills that they can bring to the table, and if given the chance at a position that fits their skills, they can excel. On A&E’s groundbreaking new series The Employables, premiering on May 15th, viewers will see these three facts come to life.

Each episode of The Employables will feature two people with disabilities who are trying to find jobs. The first episode features Jeff, an autistic man with a stutter, and James, a man with Tourettes. Their families are supportive of them, but they both want to be more independent. They have valuable skills but they just haven’t gotten the right opportunity.

One of the most important things that the show highlights is that both men have abilities that make them stand out from the crowd. Jeff and James meet with job coaches in the episode, and take comprehension tests with them. It turns out that Jeff would score better on a test on language comprehension than 91 out of 100 people. And according to his coach, James’ verbal comprehension is “off the charts.” Jeff and James are both given the advice to disclose their disabilities, because with the right accommodations, they could both be major assets to an employer.

“The Employables showcases some of the challenges that people with disabilities face in trying to find jobs and be independent,” said Lauren Appelbaum, RespectAbility’s VP of Communications. “Highly skilled candidates who could be major assets to the right employer are not being given a chance.” [continue reading…]

New York City, May 3, 2019 – This year’s nominations for the Tony Awards – a major award ceremony honoring Broadway shows and performers – broke new ground for the disability community when Ali Stroker became the first performer with a wheelchair to be nominated for a Tony Award. She is nominated for Best Featured Actress in a musical for her sexy take on Ado Annie in the groundbreaking revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! 

Stroker also has been nominated for the same category in the Drama Desk and Outer Circle Critic awards. She shares the nomination for Drama League’s highly competitive Distinguished Performance Award with Gregg Mozgala – from the Off Broadway hit Teenage Dick – who is the first performer with cerebral palsy to be nominated.

Stroker told the New York Times minutes after her Tony nomination, “This show exists for people to see things different. And to be able to do this role — and to be an actress in a wheelchair — it feels like I have arrived.” [continue reading…]

New York City, April 19 – To quote the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton: “History is happening in New York!” This season, Broadway has expanded its diversity to not just race or sexual orientation, but also disability.

After making their Broadway debuts in the 2015 revival of Spring Awakening (alongside Academy Award winner Marlee Matilin – who is deaf), Ali Stroker (Glee) and Russell Harvard (Fargo, Switched at Birth) return to Broadway this spring in Oklahoma and King Lear. Joining Harvard is John McGinty (The First Purge, Wonderstruck), who made his Broadway debut in 2017 in Children of a Lesser God. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, April 18 – Halfway through the seventh season of MasterChef Junior, some of the contestants are proving they are worthy contenders. One such young chef is 11-year-old Ivy, a Little Person who has achondroplasia, which causes an average sized torso with short limbs due to the lack of cartilage formation.

The season began with 24 children between the ages of eight and 13 who are competing for the title of Masterchef Junior and $100,000 in prize money. With just 12 contestants remaining, “Little Chef Ivy” continues to show the judges her exceptional cooking skills. Armed with her signature style – long braids topped with a fedora hat – Ivy is treated just like the other contestants, as she should be.

“You can do it!” Ivy has said. “If you put your mind to it, anything can happen, but also know your limits and that’s ok.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, April 15 – Tatiana Lee has been working on improving representation of disabilities in media for years through acting, modeling, blogging, and activism. Her latest project is a new short film called Head Trip, filmed and edited in one weekend as an entry for the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. The competition gives filmmakers — with and without disabilities — the opportunity to collaborate to tell unique stories that showcase disability in its many forms.

In Head Trip, Lee plays Zarah, who along with her friend Lex (Darrien London), bites off more than she can chew when playing a newly released virtual reality experience. Lee previously participated in the Disability Film Challenge in 2018 with a short film called Footloose, which won the award for Best Awareness Campaign.

This year was special for Lee because it was the first time she did her own project with her sister, Alice Felder, who directed the short film. “I’m glad I could do this with my family,” said Lee. [continue reading…]

Rockville, Maryland, April 15 – Emily Kranking has had an interest in filmmaking since she was a child. The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge gave her the opportunity to make her directing and writing debut. Her film, Saylor and Selena, tells the story of Saylor (Aidan), a girl with autism, and Selena (Addison), her imaginary friend – an alien, who is seeing Earth the first time.

The weekend-long competition gives filmmakers — with and without disabilities — the opportunity to collaborate to tell unique stories that showcase disability in its many forms. Kranking, an actress with hemiplegia cerebral palsy known for The Homecoming: A Musical (Nancy), was excited for the opportunity to challenge herself.

“Easterseals Disability Film Challenge showed me that you don’t need to be a professional to make movies,” she said. “It has really inspired me to write more short scripts and stories about characters with disabilities.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, April 12 – Today’s release of Netflix’s new series Special is earning widespread praise for its authentic depiction of gay disabled life. People who are LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities has been severely underrepresented in the media and the fact that the show’s creator, Ryan O’Connell, is a gay man with cerebral palsy is a reason to celebrate.

“Shows like Special are, pardon the pun, special. But they shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be so unusual to see someone with a disability who is also gay on screen, because there are plenty of people with disabilities in the LGBTQ+ community,” said Eric Ascher, RespectAbility’s Communications Associate who is both openly gay and on the autism spectrum.

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Broadway fans across the world traveled to dust off their tap shoes, put on their favorite costumes and sing along with their favorite show tunes with their Broadway idols for the annul BroadwayCon in January.

The panels were diverse as different panelists talked about actors, choreographers and playwrights—all with different ethnicities and gender orientations. Fortunately, people with disabilities were put on center stage on two panels about the importance of website accessibility and casting actors with disabilities. [continue reading…]

Film will be shown at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan’s ReelAbilities Film Festival in New York on April 2, 2019

Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements is a film starring individuals who are deaf, but do not call it a film just for people who are deaf. A breakout film appealing to a general audience, Moonlight Sonata explores in a sensory way how a deaf person experiences the world through sound design and music. Overall, the film, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, is a celebration of family.

A deeply personal portrait of three lives, Moonlight Sonata chronicles the discoveries that lie beyond loss: a deaf boy growing up, his deaf grandfather growing old, and Beethoven the year he was blindsided by deafness and wrote his iconic sonata.

Director and Producer Irene Taylor Brodsky entered into a development deal with HBO in 2007 and began creating assets. When Jonas, her young son who is deaf and an excellent pianist, wanted to learn the Moonlight Sonata, Brodsky realized she had her film’s narrative: “Beethoven’s loss and Jonas’ loss and what they gained from their deafness.”

“Their imperfection becomes their greatest asset,” Brodsky asserted. [continue reading…]