Los Angeles, August 16 – Hailing from Boston, Collette Divitto owns a successful business called Collettey’s Cookies. She was born with Down syndrome, and, like for all business owners, it took a lot of hard work and determination to make her business what it is today. Collette and her company are featured on Peacock and CRAVE’s upcoming unscripted show Born For Business.

Collette has loved baking since the age of four but became incredibly passionate about it during freshman year of high school while taking a baking class. After attending Clemson University, she moved to Boston and said one of the hardest parts was finding a job.

“I spent hours trying to find jobs,” said Collette. “I got emails saying I wasn’t a good fit.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, CA, August 13 – Physical Production, often overlooked as a less glamourous part of filmmaking, is a cornerstone of creating in film and TV. Based on feedback by alumni of prior cohorts, a new one-of-a-kind session was held as a part of RespectAbility’s third annual Lab for Entertainment Professionals with Disabilities this summer. Barriers abound for disabled creatives craving a career in production, so opportunities to speak about how to form and break into production crews is a special treat.

Lisa Peters

Participants first welcomed Lisa Peters, a Physical Production Executive for Documentary Features, Shorts, and Limited Series at Netflix. Peters previously has managed projects for BET, TLC, Discovery, BBC, and Oxygen and is on the advisory board of Hue You Know, a community for BIPOC people in media. Starting her journey to television through news at World News Tonight with Peter Jennings as a desk assistant, Peters spoke about her evolution in the world of production after realizing, “news isn’t really it for me in terms of no one looked like me that was telling the stories. No one cared to hear about the stories that I wanted to tell.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, August 13 – When looking at who is working on a Hollywood set, there continues to be a lack of diversity, including the inclusion of disabled crew members. A group of seasoned industry professionals are aiming to change that. Jens Bishop from Remedy Health Media, Nicole Go from Staff Me Up, and Jonna McLaughlin and Stacey Kleiger of The Documentary Group recently spoke about the importance of hiring historically-excluded minorities like those with disabilities. [continue reading…]

“Keshet is a one-of-a-kind organization that brings classroom experience, camps, sports, social and vocational activities, and residential opportunities. One of a few organizations in the country where a child can start programs and the age of 3 and continue throughout adulthood. Keshet grows alongside your child and family. Keshet is a national leader in inclusive summer camp. We pioneered the model of a disability service organization partnering with established camps to ensure that camp is available to kids of all abilities can be part of fully inclusive camp programs.”

Read the Toolkit

Los Angeles, California, August 13 – The disability nonprofit RespectAbility is pleased to announce the release of a new toolkit to help congregations ensure their High Holiday services and related events are accessible – “Opening All Gates: Making High Holiday Celebrations Accessible to All, In Person and Online.”

The rise of the Delta variant and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic will cause many synagogues and communities of worship to move their services online. Some communities will aim to have a hybrid experience with an in-person component. Even as the Jewish world continues to determine how to create a meaningful, spiritual experience in each format, the experience must be accessible to all.

Recognizing this, RespectAbility has created a revised edition of the “Opening Your Virtual Gates” toolkit that we created last year with the help of Rabbis Lauren Tuchman and Darby Leigh. The toolkit provided resources to help congregations ensure that virtual services included the one in five Jews with disabilities. Leigh, who is Deaf, and Tuchman, who is blind, brought both their deep knowledge as rabbis and critical lived experiences. “Opening All Gates” updates this content, while adding in content for in-person and hybrid services. [continue reading…]

Pictured: the Chernotsky Family: Nechama, Lee, Lyla, Avichai, and Marlea

Lee and Nechama Chernotsky live in Los Angeles, California with their three kids. A homeschooling family for over 6 years now, Lee and Nechama worked hard for their kids to start their education at a Jewish Montessori, in which they are still active.

Nechama, Lee’s wife and partner in purpose (soon to formally join the Speakers Bureau), laughingly describes Lee as “hallucinogenically optimistic, a renaissance man, an incredible father and listener who gives more than he takes.” Needless to say, Lee is selfless, and his passion manifests in his work with his foundation, ROSIES, a 501C3 nonprofit, to which Lee has found a chosen family with visionary philanthropic support from the Jeffrey and Leann Sobrato Charitable Fund. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, August 12 – Manon de Reeper is a screenwriter, filmmaker and the CEO and founder of independent film magazine, Film Inquiry. The online magazine is a manifestation of de Reeper’s love for film and design. De Reeper also is heavily involved in Women of Color Unite, where she aims to give a platform for women of color to tell their stories. De Reeper recently joined the RespectAbility Summer Lab participants from a sailboat in the Caribbean. The participants were given a hefty rundown of pitch decks and how they are an essential tool for selling your story.

“Pitch decks are basically the first visualization of your script or your idea if you’re still at the idea stage,” began de Reeper. “You can do them for feature films, you can do them for movies, for tv, for graphic novels, even books if that’s what you’re working on.” Pitch decks are made to carry the heart of the story so that agents, producers, directors, etc., have a feel of the script without actually having to sit down and read hundreds of pages. [continue reading…]

Docuseries from the Emmy Award-winning creators of “Born This Way,” Bunim/Murray Productions, as well as Shopify Studios, begins streaming on Peacock and CRAVE on August 23

Los Angeles, August 11 – A powerful docuseries that spotlights the untold stories of four entrepreneurs with disabilities, Born For Business gives viewers an insider’s look at what it takes to launch and run a thriving small business. Just as each entrepreneur is on the brink of success, they must navigate the complications that the COVID-19 pandemic presents.

Chris Triebes of The Congregation Presents is a single father with spinal muscular atrophy (type III) who is making waves in the music industry with his concert production company, two venues, and music festival ticket service. He said he was interested in appearing on Born For Business due to the lack of representation of people with disabilities “who have a disproportionately low voice” in media, especially when it comes to portraying stories of proactive business owners making their own opportunities and succeeding. He laments the often-repeated tropes of pitied people with disabilities who are painted as helpless or unresourceful. “I want to help normalize disability,” he said in a conversation with the disability advocacy nonprofit RespectAbility. “I think I can be someone who’s good for that.”

The show also features: Qiana Allen of Culture’s Closet, a fashionista with lupus who opened a plus-sized boutique, which quickly became one of America’s top plus-size clothing stores; Collette Divitto of Collettey’s Cookies, a baker with Down syndrome who owns a successful cookie brand that employs people with disabilities; and Lexi Zanghi of Always Reason, a millennial entrepreneur with anxiety who runs a three-year-old fashion brand that will soon expand to its first physical location.

“For too long, people with disabilities have been shut out of the workplace,” said Jonathan Murray, Bunim/Murray Productions. “With Born For Business, we are showing how people with disabilities have long been using entrepreneurship to create an economic livelihood for themselves.” [continue reading…]

Read the full report

Washington, D.C., August 11 – The logistics company Tortoise and the Valuable 500 Disability Business Initiative recently partnered up to present the first-ever Disability 100 Report. This report looked at Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 (FTSE 100) companies and their willingness to report inclusion measures regarding disability issues. The report covered accommodations, disability disclosures and public statements from company boards concerning disability inclusion. This is a concern because disability issues impact people across all other populations, and methods of inclusion are not typically shared publicly. To ensure more inclusion, there first must be transparency.

The report’s findings showed how much further corporations have to go to achieve disability inclusion. When it comes to managerial positions at FTSE 100 companies, according to this report, none of the executives or senior leaders have disclosed a disability. Only 20 of the 100 companies gave all employees the opportunity to disclose, and 8 of those 20 do not make that information public. One could argue that by not making this information public, FTSE companies are adding to stigmatization of workplace disclosure of disabilities.

Only 71 of the 100 companies meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, ensuring that their websites are accessible for people with various disabilities. The other 29 companies are arguably breaking the law by leaving out people with disabilities. Only 37 of the 100 companies have established disability resource groups. And as of 2020, only five FTSE company boards have released inclusive statements as part of their leadership agenda. [continue reading…]