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Grant will be leveraged to achieve goals of new strategic plan

logos for the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and RespectAbilityLos Angeles, December 2 – RespectAbility, a diverse disability-led nonprofit organization that fights stigmas and advances opportunities so all people with disabilities can fully participate in every aspect of community, is thrilled to announce a $1 million dollar donation from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. The funds will be leveraged through an existing 1-1 matching campaign to enable RespectAbility to achieve the paradigm-shifting goals of its new strategic plan. The plan is a bold, forward-looking, and visionary five-year roadmap to shatter old paradigms by engaging in a multifaceted approach to remove physical, programmatic, and attitudinal barriers to full societal participation by people with all types of disabilities.

“As we look to the future to envision the full scope of what is truly possible for people with disabilities, we are deeply grateful to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation for its $1 million dollar investment, which will enable us to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said Ollie Cantos, the recently-elected Chairman of RespectAbility’s Board of Directors. Cantos, who is blind himself, is a civil rights attorney who shared recognition as ABC News Persons of the Week with his adopted triplets who also are blind when they broke barriers by becoming Eagle Scouts. “When philanthropy, individuals, organizations, private sector companies, and government agencies at all levels come together to achieve concrete and measurable outcomes that truly matter, everyone benefits.” [continue reading…]

Headshot of Jennifer Mizrahi, smiling and facing the camera wearing a red blazer color photo

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi

Washington, D.C., December 2 – RespectAbility Founder and CEO Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a serial social-impact entrepreneur who is a pioneer in the area of disability advocacy and impactful leadership, announced publicly today she will transition from the organization she co-founded. The hope is to identify her successor by early 2022, with Mizrahi staying up until June 2022 to support a successful transition.

Mizrahi officially informed RespectAbility’s Board of Directors in July, and the board convened a search committee co-chaired by RespectAbility’s Vice-Chair Randall Duchesneau and Treasurer Linda Burger. On the committee’s recommendation, the Board hired David Hinsley Cheng of DHC Search to launch a nationwide search for Mizrahi’s successor.

RespectAbility is a diverse, disability-led nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities, and advances policies and practices that empower people with disabilities to have a better future. RespectAbility shifts narratives and creates progress by centering people with lived disability experience in leadership roles, ensuring authentic representation in entertainment and news media, advancing successful public policy, and pushing for faith-based and other inclusion. [continue reading…]

head shot of Lauren wearing an orange blazer, smiling and facing the camera color photo

Lauren Appelbaum

Los Angeles, Nov. 24 – In March 2018 I was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), now classified as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), which is a form of chronic pain that usually affects an arm or a leg. With just 200,000 people in the U.S. diagnosed with CRPS in the U.S., most people have not heard of CRPS, which is classified as a “rare disease” with no cure. Therefore, the month of November is CRPS Awareness month.

Since acquiring this disability, I have had the privilege of creating pipeline programming for nearly 100 other disabled individuals. During the 2021 RespectAbility Entertainment Lab for Disabled Entertainment Professionals, we were pleased to have award-winning independent film director and editor Jennifer Valdes as one of 30 Lab Fellows. Like me, Valdes is living with CRPS.

“I used to feel that living life with complex regional pain syndrome wasn’t a life worth living,” she said. “I devalued myself as a human. I felt ashamed of my disability. Disclosing it felt like I was revealing a big secret. I felt isolated and alone. Living with a disability is not the life I planned for, but It’s the only one that I have.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, Nov. 24 – November is Native American Heritage Month, or as it is commonly referred to, American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. It is important to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of Native people, including those who also are members of the disability community.

Alaqua Cox smiling in a photo studio. Alaqua has a prosthetic leg.

Alaqua Cox

Actress Alaqua Cox exemplifies this intersection. Marvel Studios’ latest episodic series Hawkeye premiered November 24 on Disney+, featuring Cox as Maya Lopez, who is the second deaf character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition to being deaf and an amputee, Cox is Native American (Menominee and Mohican Nation).

“I believe kids deserve to see inclusivity and accurate representation,” Cox said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “It will make kids with all types of cultures and disabilities feel like our dreams can break free from limitations.”

RespectAbility’s Senior Entertainment Media Associate Tatiana Lee, who is a disabled woman of color with Native American heritage who also is an actress, international model and activist, pursued a career in the entertainment industry because she did not see herself reflected on screen. At RespectAbility, Lee is the lead consultant on various TV and film projects and conducts training for studios and production companies including NBCUniversal, Netflix, and The Walt Disney Company, and assists with RespectAbility’s Lab for Entertainment Professionals with Disabilities.

“I went through many struggles of sense of self and identity because I didn’t see myself represented,” Lee said. “You feel like an outcast, a unicorn, but sometimes not always in a good way. I try to embrace the unicorn thing, but other times it feels isolating.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, CA, Nov. 21 – Stacie de Armas, Senior Vice President of Diverse Consumer Insights & Initiatives, DEI Practice at Nielsen has joined the Board of Advisors at RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization that fights stigmas and advances opportunities so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community. Since joining Nielsen in 1998, de Armas has held a variety of senior roles at the company and began her current role in July 2020. Nielsen is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Together with RespectAbility, de Armas and Nielsen will soon unveil groundbreaking research regarding disability representation in film and more.

“We’re so thankful for both Stacie and Nielsen’s dedication to the disability community and inclusion overall,” says Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, President of RespectAbility. “For so long, the disability market has been historically overlooked in terms of consumer insights and research. But with experts like Stacie leading the charge, we’re excited to have even more concrete data to support our work in fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities around the world.” [continue reading…]

Survey of 2,321 from Jewish community shows progress from 2018-2021, while identifying areas in need of continued improvement

Full Data from Jewish Respondents Available Online Now

Rockville, Maryland, Nov. 17 – A major new survey of 2,321 Jewish individuals fielded by RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization that fights stigmas and advances opportunities so people with disabilities can participate fully in all aspects of community, demonstrates that Jewish communal organizations are making strong progress toward building a more inclusive community for people with physical, sensory, mental health and other disabilities. At the same time, the survey identified substantially higher poverty rates, as well as a strong desire to work, among this highly educated population.

The new study showed that 65 percent of Jewish respondents felt the Jewish community was “better” at “including people with disabilities” compared to five years ago. Only one percent felt the community was doing “worse.”

“More and more Jewish institutions now understand that we are a stronger community when we are welcoming, diverse, and respect one another,” said RespectAbility Founder Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, who is dyslexic, has ADHD and knows what it means to parent a child with multiple disabilities. “However, at the same time, there is a gap where the rubber meets the road as nondisabled Jews feel more has been accomplished in comparison to how Jews with disabilities themselves feel. Indeed, hundreds of Jews with disabilities and their loved ones shared specific and sometimes truly painful examples of when they were unable to participate in Jewish communities due to lack of access and inclusion.” [continue reading…]

Karen Horne smiling headshot

Karen Horne

Los Angeles, CA, Nov. 14 – Karen Horne, Senior Vice President of Equity and Inclusion at WarnerMedia has joined the board of advisors at RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization that fights stigmas and advances opportunities so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community. Bringing more than 20 years of entertainment industry experience, Horne has been recognized as a Diversity and Inclusion pioneer and pipeline builder. This expertise closely aligns with RespectAbility’s mission to strengthen a diverse talent pipeline of people with disabilities through a number of different leadership development programs, such as their Summer Lab for Entertainment Professionals with Disabilities, currently in its third year.​

“We’re thrilled to welcome Karen to our board of advisors” says Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, President of RespectAbility. “Her expertise in entertainment and inclusive talent development is unmatched, and we are excited to continue working together to create programs that will tap even further into the disability community that has historically been excluded from so many areas of the entertainment industry.” [continue reading…]

Nicole Olarsch smiling headshot

Nicole Olarsch

My Jewish experience was challenging in college. Something I was once so passionate about and looked forward to on a weekly basis slowly started to become something I dreaded. Due to the nature of my disabilities, the traditional ways of doing Jewish activities and prayers didn’t work for me. To be more specific, Friday night Shabbat services were held upstairs in the Hillel building. However, since I cannot walk up stairs and use leg braces, I was unable to participate in those services. As a result, Hillel moved them downstairs to the living room area. It was pretty clear to the group why services had been changed – I walked into the building in these big, bulky leg braces, and services were moved downstairs. Some people weren’t happy about the change. Sometimes, people get stuck in traditions that they know and love, while forgetting that we can still make changes to be more inclusive.

During my senior year of undergrad, I received an email from Jake Stimell, who works at RespectAbility and runs the Speaker’s Bureau. Jake had gone to the same college as me, and graduated a year prior, so it was wonderful to hear from him about the Apprenticeship opportunity! While I had known about RespectAbility’s work for quite some time, I wasn’t aware of the incredible opportunity that is the National Leadership Program. When I found out about it, I knew it would be a perfect opportunity to make a difference addressing issues like I experienced at Hillel. [continue reading…]

Hi! It’s been a while since I have had the opportunity to write an article, but I know you’ve been seeing my name and email address a lot as we talk about opportunities to celebrate Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month (JDAIM) with events featuring RespectAbility’s Disability Training & Speakers Bureau (DTSB). Recently, we have been telling you about JDAIM and our past efforts. We have talked about the history and the procedure for booking a speaker, and even showcased our accessibility program options after the horrific treatment of Israeli Energy Minster, Karine Elharrar at the United Nations.

These are important things to share, but we have not yet shared with you our great success in our launch during JDAIM 2021. This was right at the beginning of my time with RespectAbility, and it was a real highlight, as it showcased both the strength of the Jewish inclusion movement, and the amazing breadth and capacity of our speakers. [continue reading…]

Celebrating Veterans’ Day 2021

A veteran with a prosthetic leg walks past a statue with only on leg in front of an American flagWashington, D.C., November 11 – Today marks the annual observation of Veterans’ Day, an annual celebration of the service of all brave people who have served in the United States Armed Forces. First observed in 1919, this American holiday was initially conceived to celebrate those who fought and died in the First World War but later grew to become an occasion celebrating all veterans after the Second World War.

According to the Disability Statistics Compendium, released by Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, there are more than 17 million veterans. Among America’s veterans, more than 1.6 million veterans have a military service-connected disability. There are more than 2 million African American veterans, among whom more than 566,000 have a disability. Of the 1.2 million Hispanic/Latinx veterans, 321,000 have disabilities. Lastly, there are approximately 302,000 Asian American/Pacific Islander veterans and approximately 64,000 have disabilities.

Just as the workforce has changed in recent decades to include more equal opportunities, women have been serving their country in increasing numbers, especially in the post-9/11 era. Out of the 1.6 million female veterans in America today, over 357,000 have disabilities. [continue reading…]

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Respect Ability - Fighting Stigmas. Advancing Opportunities.

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