News

Los Angeles, California, June 22, 2020 – Delivering a closing keynote during the first session of the RespectAbility Lab for Entertainment Professionals the 30 participants and five-member programmatic team, Cheryl Bedford shared her tips on how to turn fear into action.

“We fight together, and we fight all -isms, and at the very same moment in time,” Bedford said, sharing that while the nonprofit she founded, Women of Color Unite, focuses on the inclusion and advancement of women of color that they “leave no marginalized groups behind.” [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., June 21 – Throughout National LGBTQ+ Pride Month (June), the LGBTQ+ community has been reflecting on the ongoing struggle to secure, protect and expand their rights. The LGBTQ+ community and the disability community intersect in significant ways. According to a study published in 2012, fully 36 percent of women in the LGBTQ+ community and 30 percent of men in the community also self-identify as persons with disabilities. Digging deeper shows that 26 percent of gay men, 40 of bisexual men disclosed having a disability as did 36 percent of lesbians and 36 percent of bisexual women.

Identifying the full scope of the LGTBQ+ community remains a significant challenge due to continuing fears about disclosure and stigmas that remains a painful fact of life in many parts of the United States and the world. Estimates prepared in 2018 by Gallup put the total number of LGBTQIA Americans at approximately 11 million individuals. Further work done in 2019 by the Movement Advancement Project (MAP) and the Center for American Progress estimated that nearly 5 million LGBTQ+ people live with some form of disabilities. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, June 19, 2020 – “Your experience as a person with a disability adds value to your team,” deaf film executive Delbert Whetter told the 30 participants and five-member programmatic team of RespectAbility’s Summer Lab for Entertainment Professionals with Disabilities.

Whetter, a RespectAbility board member, has been the head of business affairs for digital, wireless and entertainment providers. He has been involved in projects such as MGM’s Igor (2008), Magnolia Picture’s Hero of Color City (2014), and Cinedigm’s Bunyan and Babe (2017). Currently, he is executive producing the upcoming animated feature film, Pierre the Pigeon-Hawk and producing the live-action narrative feature, Flash Before the Bang based on the true story of an all-deaf track team from a deaf school that won the state championship. Prior to his coming to work in the film industry, he earned a law degree from George Washington University Law School and an MBA from Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, June 18 – Announced on the first day of RespectAbility’s Summer Lab, RespectAbility’s Vice President of Communications Lauren Appelbaum was announced as a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award in partnership with Propper Daley’s A Day of Unreasonable Conversation for this innovative Lab program.

“Our goal is to support creators who are fighting to break down barriers to access and representation, and to erase limits on the type of stories we tell, who gets to tell them, and how,” explained Greg Propper, President of Propper Daley and Founder of A Day of Unreasonable Conversation. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, June 17, 2020 – John Lawson is a man who wears quite a few hats: he is an award-winning writer and director, he has acted in notable shows such as Law and Order: SVU, American Horror Story: Freakshow and Switched At Birth, and is a certified pilot and scuba instructor. And those are just a few of his many accomplishments.

Speaking to the 30 participants and five-member programmatic team of RespectAbility’s Summer Lab, Lawson began his talk with the story of being forced to accept his disability. He lost both of his hands in an electrical accident that occurred while he was working. Even though he lost what most of us consider vital body parts, Lawson referred to two quotes that helped him process an inevitable new chapter of his life: [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, June 16, 2020 – The 2020 RespectAbility Summer Lab kicked off with an informative keynote on navigating film industry politics and virtual networking tips with activist Whitney Davis. Davis’ talk emphasized themes of self-worth, career-growth and deeply rooted issues within big-name corporations. She offered tips from her own experience growing from a Page to becoming an executive for CBS.

“Something I wish I’d known early in my career is: don’t be afraid to use your voice,” Davis told the 30 participants and five-member programmatic team of the Lab. “Using one’s voice and knowing that you bring something special into every room that you walk into—which has nothing to do with the outward appearance or ability or disability—but just who you are as a person, and being confident in. That is all the executive presence you need.” [continue reading…]

Platinum Seal allows donors and stakeholders to focus on progress and results

Rockville, Maryland, June 14 – RespectAbility, a diverse, disability-led nonprofit organization whose mission is to fight stigmas and advance opportunities so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community, today earned the 2020 Platinum Seal of Transparency, the highest level of recognition offered by GuideStar, a service of Candid. By sharing metrics that highlight progress RespectAbility is making toward its mission, the organization is helping donors move beyond simplistic ways of nonprofit evaluation such as overhead ratios.

“In accordance with our long-held belief in being transparent about our work, we are excited to convey our organization’s results in a user-friendly and highly visual manner,” said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, Founder of RespectAbility. “By updating our GuideStar Nonprofit Profile to remain at the Platinum level, we are continuing to share a wealth of up-to-date organizational metrics with our supporters as well as GuideStar’s immense online audience, which includes stakeholders, donors, grantmakers, our peers and the media.” [continue reading…]

Sponsors include Cast & Crew, Comcast NBCUniversal, Final Draft, Fox Corporation, Murray/Reese Foundation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, ViacomCBS and The Walt Disney Company

Summer Lab 2019 participants at The Walt Disney Studios. Credit: Jeff Maynard

Los Angeles, California, June 11 – After unprecedented competition from around the world, 30 individuals have been accepted into RespectAbility’s second annual Lab for Entertainment Professionals. This 5-week, 15-session virtual summer Lab series for talented people with disabilities interested in – and with experience in – development, production and post-production, including careers as writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, animators and other production roles, will take place June 16 – July 16, 2020. Participants include diverse people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health and other disabilities.

“This program continues building the talent pipeline of young and mid-career professionals with disabilities working behind the scenes while also enabling hundreds of studio executives to learn about the talents and benefits of hiring people with disabilities,” said Program Director Lauren Appelbaum, RespectAbility’s Vice President, Communications who leads RespectAbility’s Hollywood Inclusion efforts and authored the nonprofit’s Hollywood Disability Inclusion Toolkit. “While we will not be on location at studios this year like in 2019, we are thankful for all the studios that will be virtually hosting us beginning on June 16.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, June 10 – A coalition of more than 40 Jewish organizations, led by the disability nonprofit RespectAbility, is pleased to announce a new Jewish Disability Access & Inclusion Training Series. This seven-part series, which will run virtually from June 23 through August 11 is a collective offering to the Jewish world so Jewish organizations can welcome, respect and include people with disabilities from all backgrounds in the important work that they do.

Jewish organizations partnering in the series include the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), Reconstructing Judaism, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, Jewish Women International (JWI) and dozens of others. Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of JFNA said, “We will have reached a major milestone in Jewish community building when we no longer need to identify ways to remove barriers to participation.” [continue reading…]