This week’s Shabbat Smile, written by the talented Jon Polin, will show you how Israel is expanding its life-enhancing technologies and success as a global leader in accessibility.

On the heels of impressive strides in public policy and rehabilitative care, technology is now poised to be the third rung to catapult Israel to be the world leader in accessibility. As Howard Blas covered in the June 13, 2019 Shabbat Smile, last month’s Access Israel “Future of Accessibility” conference gathered leaders from major US cities and 22 countries looking to Israel for policy and planning inspiration. (If the 3000 year old Old City of Jerusalem is now accessible, what excuse do modern cities have?) And in rehabilitative care, Israeli facilities from Sheba Medical Center to Beit Issie Shapiro to ALYN and many others are pioneering new therapy techniques that regularly draw global visitors to learn the latest and greatest in the world of therapies. 

Now, the emerging Israeli assistive technology ecosystem is ready to service increasing global demand. (The World Health Organization says that globally, more than 1 billion people need one or more assistive products, as people with disabilities are the world’s largest minority group.) Why will Israel soon be the world leader in assistive technology? [continue reading…]

Credit: Access Israel/Howard Blas

This week’s Shabbat Smile was written by Howard Blas about a recent Access Israel conference.

Yuval Wenger knows a thing or two about accessibility and inclusion in Israel—and he has been sharing it with Israel and the international community for over two decades. As Founder and President of Access Israel, the NGO that promotes accessibility in Israel, he spoke at its recent international conference.

Yuval depicted Israel’s transformation in accessibility through his family’s own story: he grew up with a father in a wheelchair, and later became a wheelchair user himself. As a child, Yuval simply accepted the fact that he and his siblings would have to help their father navigate the inaccessible world of Israel. This sometimes meant carrying him to get places. [continue reading…]

Watch When We Walk with Human Rights Watch Film Club on Jan. 25, 2020

UPDATE: Los Angeles, Jan. 23, 2020 – A special screening of When We Walk, followed by a Q&A and panel discussion, will occur on Sunday, Jan. 26 in Santa Monica, California. All attendees are invited to stay after the screening for a Q&A followed by a cocktail reception with Human Rights Watch Disability Rights Division Senior Researcher & Advocate Carlos Ríos-Espinosa and Award-Winning Actor, Model, and RespectAbility’s Hollywood Inclusionist Tatiana Lee, moderated by Disability Rights Activist, Vix Jensen. The screening is presented by the Human Rights Watch Film Club in partnership with the Motion Picture & Television Fund, Media Access Awards, and RespectAbility. To purchase tickets, please follow the link: https://hrwwhenwewalk.bpt.me.

New York City, June 13, 2019 – In his latest documentary, When We Walk, award-winning producer Jason DaSilva captures his personal life living with multiple sclerosis, from the toll it takes on his marriage to the challenges in accessing adequate medical care through the U.S. Medicaid system. This documentary feature will premiere in New York City at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival on June 14 and 18.

When We Walk is DaSilva’s sequel to his masterpiece, When I Walk, which detailed his multiple sclerosis diagnosis, with his wife, Alice, by his side. This documentary premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won Best Canadian Feature at the Hot Docs in 2013 and an Emmy Award in 2015. [continue reading…]

New York City, June 10 – “This award is for every kid who is watching tonight who has a disability, who has a limitation or a challenge who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena,” actress Ali Stroker said from the stage of the Tony Awards. “You are!”

Stroker made history at the Tony Awards by becoming the first person who uses a wheelchair to win a Tony. Winning Best Featured Actress in a musical for her sexy take on Ado Annie in the groundbreaking revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, Stroker showed how actors with disabilities can successfully play characters not originally written as having a disability.

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

This week’s Shabbat Smile is written by Adam Fishbein, a self-advocate and RespectAbility Fellow.

My religious school experience at Congregation Kol Ami in Elkins Park, PA had its ups and downs. As a child with multiple disabilities that made it difficult, and often disruptive, for me to function in a classroom environment, my parents initially had to push the synagogue to accept my differences and adapt to them. They would have constant meetings with the religious school director about my disruptive behavior and how to handle it. Then, in third grade, the then-new cantor at my synagogue, Rebecca Schwartz, started a student choir. She drew me in through her welcoming spirit and love for music. I found instantaneous inspiration. Sunday choir rehearsal became my favorite time of the week. I loved the process of learning, practicing and, eventually, singing Jewish music at Friday night Shabbat services. I found the focus I lacked in secular and religious school. I found acceptance from my fellow choir members. I found something I was good at and, most importantly, I found the voice that would shape my future.

Meanwhile, my parents and religious school staff worked diligently to adapt the religious school curriculum to my needs. While the student choir had opened the door to my synagogue, my fifth grade (and favorite) religious school teacher, Roz Holtzman, led me further inside during sixth and seventh grade, through my one-on-one instruction and Bar Mitzvah prep. This flexibility and reduced-distraction environment allowed me to learn more effectively and become a Bar Mitzvah at the end of seventh grade, despite my increasing behavioral challenges in adolescence with Tourette Syndrome Repeated Anger-Generated Episodes (RAGEs) at home and school. [continue reading…]

Pavarotti is the new Ron Howard documentary about Luciano Pavarotti, one of the most famous Italian opera singers of our time who sold more than 100 million records before his death from pancreatic cancer in 2007. The film showcases his early years, his philanthropy, and of course, his extraordinary talent, powerful music and his immense impact on the world. It is sure to captivate audiences worldwide when it opens in cinemas this Friday, June 7th.

But what is notable about the film from a disability perspective is that it is truly accessible to blind and low vision audiences, thanks to an audio description track from Michele Spitz. According to Spitz’s company website, Woman of Her Word, audio description tracks serve “as a visual description of key elements, essentially painting a picture with words to supplement the existing visual media.” And according to Spitz, “Pavarotti was my most costly and labor intensive audio description film project to produce thus far in my library of AD work of 56 films over the past six years.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, June 5 – This season on America’s Got Talent, we already have seen two acts with disabilities audition. On the season premiere, autistic blind singer Kodi Lee earned the golden buzzer from Gabrielle Union, skipping straight to the live shows. In the second audition episode, Ryan Niemiller, a comedian with a disability in both arms, made it through to the next round with a standing ovation and four enthusiastic yeses. Both acts were extremely talented, but the differences in how they were presented is a great case study in how to accurately and positively portray people with disabilities.

Ryan Niemiller immediately won over the audience with his quip “So, obviously I have a disability. I think the technical term for it is being very handsome.”

“When I was growing up, there was nobody that looked like me on television,” Niemiller said to Simon Cowell about what he wants to do with the platform. “I want people to be able to look at what I’m doing.”

Niemiller’s plug for representation was important for viewers to hear. Although one in five Americans have a disability, among regular characters on primetime TV in the 2018-2019 season, only 2.1 percent have disabilities. [continue reading…]

Adam Fishbein, a National Leadership Fellow at RespectAbility, has Tourette Syndrome, one of the disabilities highlighted in A&E’s new show The Employables. 

Rockville, Maryland, June 5 – The entertainment industry recently has made meaningful progress in the accurate representation of people with disabilities in TV shows. Accurately portraying and including people with disabilities on screen is not just the right thing to do, it also makes sense economically – given that the disability market is valued at more than $1 trillion according to Nielsen Research.

One of the latest additions to this trend is A&E’s The Employables. Each episode in this docuseries follows two unemployed individuals in their job search–one with Tourette Syndrome (TS) and one on the Autism spectrum. Through interviews with the individual, their family, and potential employers, The Employables effectively displays the struggles of the job search for people with disabilities. 

“I went from being on the dean’s list to becoming academically disqualified,” said James, a 35-year-old with TS in the first episode. “But it’s what we got. It’s the cards you’re dealt so you play the hand you have.”

However, The Employables also showcases the unique skills and talents of each individual and how these traits can benefit their employers as much as–and often more than–people without disabilities. For example, medical professionals conduct IQ testing. Each subject consistently scores above-average for traits such as perceptual reasoning, creativity and verbal comprehension. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, June 5 – When Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez)’s son Mateo is having difficulty reading, his teacher suggests testing, saying it “could be a learning disability, sensory processing disorder, ADHD, dyslexia or could be nothing at all.”

Ultimately, Mateo, who is six, is diagnosed with ADHD in last week’s episode of The CW’s Jane the Virgin. His doctor explains that Mateo “struggles with both inattention and impulsivity” and that his “executive functions are somewhat impaired, which is why tasks are not completed and he has trouble self-regulating. It’s just harder for Mateo to focus and prioritize than other kids.”

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a brain disorder that is characterized by an individual’s consistent inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. While everyone experiences these symptoms at one point or another, what classifies these behaviors under ADHD is when it begins to affect normal day-to-day functioning and/or development. ADHD is typically diagnosed in children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 6.4 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD in the United States – 11 percent of children ages four to 17. ADHD Predominantly Inattentive Type, also known as ADD, is a type of ADHD that does not involve hyperactivity. People with ADD may have trouble finishing tasks or following directions and might be easily distracted. But the symptoms are generally less noticeable for ADD than ADHD, and as a result many people with ADD are unfortunately overlooked. [continue reading…]