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After grappling with a lot of diversity, equity, and inclusion issues throughout the past few years, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes will return to television this Tuesday, January 10, 2023. While the majority of films and television shows do not include any disability inclusion, it is important to note that several disability-inclusive films and television series have been nominated.

One-in-four adults having a disability in the U.S. today, but the lack of representation – just 3.5 percent of characters on TV and 2.3 percent on film – means that millions of people are unable to see themselves in media today. This makes it so important that several of the nominations this year feature disabled individuals.

Of all the Best Picture nominees, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is the only film to include disability in the plot. Evelyn Wang, played by Michelle Yeoh, was confirmed by Daniel Kwan, one-half of the writer/director team “Daniels,” to have undiagnosed ADHD. Kwan set out to write a lead character with undiagnosed ADHD, which he felt would add to the external and internal chaos in the film. Through his research of ADHD traits, Kwan felt a sense of familiarity and ended up getting diagnosed with ADHD himself. [continue reading…]

Emily Tironi

Throughout my childhood education, I took my own short, wheelchair accessible bus to the school a town over from mine. My town’s school was less than a mile from my house, but they had refused to accommodate me. My mother fought tooth and nail, got a lawyer, and the local school ended up footing the bill to send me to the next town over. By the time I graduated, I knew I had my parents to thank for getting me an equal education and supports to live, but I did not comprehend all of the work of the generations of disabled people before me that had created this pathway. I think it was this experience that made me want to understand the societal aspects of disability and major in Disability Studies in college.

In college, I took a class in Disability History, and learned that the laws that protected people with disabilities were not just given; they were fought for by disabled activists. It made me realize the role disability history had played in my life. My education, medical care, and community supports were all a direct result of years of hard-fought activism.

When I started my Fellowship at RespectAbility, I pitched the idea of doing a social media series on disability history, because it is such an under-taught topic that is essential to understanding how to address the issues the disability community still faces today. I was so grateful to share Tom Olin’s and Anthony Tusler’s photographs in the series to help bring these important events to life. While at community college, I took the public bus for the first time, photographing the experience for my photography class. It was not until creating this project that I realized how ADAPT’s actions and Tom Olin documenting them allowed such a moment to occur. [continue reading…]

by Matan Koch and Lauren Appelbaum

Leah Daniels-Butler and Steven Tingus speaking at RespectAbility’s Capitol Hill Summit in Washington, D.C., in July 2017

RespectAbility honors the life of former Board of Advisors member Steven James Tingus, who passed last week at age 59, shortly after the premiere of his new film “Triggered” at the acclaimed Indie Night Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre. Tingus was hailed for his role and as a voice for social equality. He graced the stage thanking his co-producer and co-star Marcus Nel-Jamal Hamm for “walking the walk and talking the talk.”

A former Presidential appointee in charge of disability, aging, and health care research and policy, Tingus often called for making the business case for disability inclusion and served a term on RespectAbility’s Board of Advisors from 2016 – 2019. During his tenure, he participated in a series of PSA’s produced by RespectAbility to ensure philanthropists are inclusive of people with disabilities. [continue reading…]

Lois Curtis had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and developmental disabilities as a young woman, and by her late 20s she had spent more than half her life in state institutions. Isolated and angry, she chain-smoked to pass the time and prayed to God at night, asking to be rescued from the Georgia Regional Hospital in Atlanta.

Ms. Curtis’s prayer for freedom made its way to the Supreme Court. In Olmstead v. L.C. (1999) – Ms. Curtis was the “L.C.”— the Court decided “unjustified isolation” of a person with a disability is a form of discrimination under Title II of the ADA. The justices delivered a landmark ruling that gave people with disabilities the right to receive care and support services in their own homes and communities, not just in state institutions. This offered a legal framework for people with disabilities to secure the right to live, work, and study in their own communities, galvanizing the disability community by legally empowering the independent living movement. [continue reading…]

Having a disability in government has typically meant concealing, masking, or otherwise hiding any difference of mind or body on the campaign trail and in office. Franklin Delano Roosevelt remained paralyzed from the waist down after a bout of polio. Roosevelt used a wheelchair and leg braces for mobility, which he tried to conceal in public.

While government roles have been filled by people with disabilities before and after Roosevelt, people running for public office have rarely felt comfortable revealing their disability status. Thankfully, there are signs that this is starting to change. Only days prior to the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, John Fetterman had a stroke. Fetterman proceeded to win the Senate seat despite the public nature of his disability. He embraced the use of accommodations and used closed-captioning technology, which translates audio into text on a screen in real time. Additionally, the Chairman of RespectAbility’s Board of Directors and Los Angeles City Council District 4-elect, Ollie Cantos VII, described himself as “blind since birth” on his campaign website. [continue reading…]

As the U.S. celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month this year, two places with large Hispanic populations were dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters. Hurricane Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 18 and Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on September 28. According to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, people with disabilities have a greater risk of mortality and morbidity when a disaster hits.

CDC data shows that there are more than a million disabled adults in Puerto Rico, and more than three million disabled adults in Florida. What happens to them during natural disasters? The Global Alliance for Disaster Resource Acceleration (GADRA), a resource from the World Institute on Disability, surveyed organizations to find out. Every disability-led organization that responded believed organizations led by disabled people are left out of disaster relief funding, causing a lack of support for the population in times of great need. [continue reading…]

Joy St. Juste

“The reason I have such an intimate knowledge of Mexican history and culture is because of my having ADHD.”

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month, and for my fellow Mexicanos, “Feliz Día de la Independencia y Viva México.” Contrary to what you might have been led to believe, when it comes to Mexican holidays, Cinco de Mayo doesn’t even come close to bringing the level of exuberance and jubilation that Día de la Independencia or 16 de Septiembre does for the Mexican public.

For me, this holiday is usually a time of reflection on my identity as a Mexican-American, and how my relationship with my ancestors has led me to where I am today. Since this is my first year in my position at RespectAbility, I’m taking the opportunity to think about what it means to hold the layered identities of being Mexican-American and disabled. In fact, I recently came to the realization that the reason I have such an intimate knowledge of Mexican history and culture is because of my having ADHD. [continue reading…]

Lab alumni Shireen Alihaji (2019), Elisabeth Good (2020), Cashmere Jasmine (2021), Ru Kazi (2019), and Peter Lee (2022) shared their industry experiences and offered advice during the opening session of the 2022 virtual cohort of the RespectAbility Entertainment Lab.

Los Angeles, Aug. 19 – RespectAbility’s Entertainment Lab kicked off its latest 2022 virtual cohort earlier this week, welcoming eighteen individuals and one writing duo, from the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Australia. The Lab’s first session included a panel of recent Lab alumni who shared their industry experiences, offered advice to the participants, and discussed their most recent projects and endeavors.

Peter Lee

Peter Lee, a television writer who just completed the in-person version of the Lab earlier this summer. Lee described how RespectAbility’s guest speakers and industry panels helped him find unique consulting opportunities. “The execs that we met with really understood how valuable our perspectives and experiences are,” said Lee. Lee also shared his hope that the newest cohort make every effort to get to know each other and connect with professionals to build a lasting network. “I felt an immediate connection to everyone. They really understood what it meant to be disabled, and I didn’t realize how meaningful that would be to me.”

Shireen Alihaji

Shireen Alihaji is a filmmaker and alumna of the 2019 Lab. She spoke about how the Lab provided her with the opportunity to share her disability in an empowering way. Her film, Blue Veil, which Alihaji included on her Entertainment Lab application in 2019, is based on a personal narrative and was featured on both The Black List and the Cannes Screenplay List. “I felt like I was in a safe space, and I also learned how to talk about my project,” she shared. “The friendships I gained from this space were amazing and life-changing, some of which turned into collaborations,” Alihaji continued. In addition to her other accolades, Alihaji was selected for the Sundance Institute’s Latine Collab Scholarship this past year. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, Aug. 15 – To continue to ensure accessibility for disabled entertainment professionals, the RespectAbility Entertainment Lab will host a virtual cohort this year, building on the success of a virtual format begun during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eighteen individuals and one writing duo, from the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Australia, will participate in semiweekly meetings, presentations, and discussions throughout August and September with industry professionals and executives from partner studios, nonprofits, and production companies. In addition, they will have opportunities to workshop their materials for feedback from other cohort members.

RespectAbility, a diverse, disability-led nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities, piloted the Lab in 2019 in Los Angeles. The Lab went virtual in 2020 and 2021 before holding an in-person cohort in Los Angeles in June and July of this year. The virtual format in prior years proved so invaluable to participants and the entertainment industry that RespectAbility decided to continue its successful virtual Lab program. [continue reading…]