ROSIES, which stands for Removing Obstacles, Supporting Initiative, Encouraging Solutionaries, was started by Chief Encouragement Officer Lee Chernotsky and founding board chair Jeffrey Sobrato. It is an organization that works to create opportunities for people with disabilities to engage and work. Focusing on people with disabilities who are passionate about encouraging themselves and others, highlighting their individual strengths, and providing a platform for learning, growth, and working together, ROSIES’ impact is made by the people it serves through accessible employment, disability advocacy, and learning opportunities in two core programs. [continue reading…]

We often save this space for other voices, but in addition to being the editor of this newsletter, I am also a Jew with a disability, and today I want to share with you my perspective on the power of togetherness. RespectAbility is proud to be a member of the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies (The Network). The Network is a national nonprofit that was established following the 2017 merger of the Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies (AJFCA) and the International Association of Jewish Vocational Services. With an active membership of just under 150 community-based Jewish human service agencies throughout the US, Canada and Israel, the Network has established the following as its mission: The Network advances the Jewish human service sector through advocacy, best practices, innovation and partnerships. [continue reading…]

Site showcases RespectAbility’s expanding network of consultants, as their work in the space of disability representation in film and TV also continues to grow

Los Angeles, April 22 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit focused on fighting stigmas of people with disabilities in media and advocating for more authentic representation, is proud to announce the launch of their Entertainment Media Consulting Team website. The site currently features 27 consultants, although the number continues to expand as the consultation requests to RespectAbility from studios, production companies and independent filmmakers continue to roll in. [continue reading…]

RespectAbility’s Entertainment Media Consulting Team

Alexandra Dean Grossi

Alexandra Dean Grossi is a writer, designer and disability activist. Her work incorporates a multi-dimensional approach to inclusivity and accessibility, which utilizes storytelling, emphasizes user empowerment and seeks real-world solutions through Inclusive Design. Grossi began her writing career under the tutelage of television NYPD Blue creator David Milch on HBO’s Deadwood and John From Cincinnati. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, April 22 – Being original is never easy. Whether it’s trying to find new life in the seven original stories or creating another hero with 1000 faces, finding something new and interesting in storytelling is the challenge every writer faces on a daily basis. As writers, we hope to subvert expectations and give our audiences new experiences with familiar undertones.

It’s even harder to find something new in genre work that defines itself by its tropes. And if there’s one genre everyone knows well, it is zombie horror films. They vary from piece to piece, but overall, when you sit down to watch a zombie movie, there are things you expect to see. It is hard to break free from those expectations and create something original.

What makes the short film Dead End Drive – directed by Alexander Yellen and written by Tobias Forrest – so impressive is its originality. As a person with a spinal cord injury, Forestt thought to himself, “How can I take the zombie apocalypse, disability, Hansel and Gretel, and a really bad joke and put them all together?” Thus born, Dead End Drive, a film that walks the line of familiar while providing a new perspective on the zombie genre. [continue reading…]

RespectAbility’s Entertainment Media Consulting Team

Lachi. Courtesy of Lachi Music LLC

Lachi is a multi-award-winning artist, Grammys Board DEI Ambassador and Founder and President of RAMPD. Born legally blind, Lachi has dedicated her platform and craft to amplifying Disability Culture, promoting inclusion and advocating for accessibility in the Music Industry. Named a “dedicated foot soldier for disability pride” by Forbes, Lachi has held talks with the White House, the UN, and the Kennedy Center, and has been featured in Essence, Billboard, and the New York Times for celebrating intersectionality through art and for her upbeat and unapologetic brand of disability pride. She has performed keynote concerts in front of thousands for Disability:IN, Amazon, TDBank, and other Fortune500 firms.

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RespectAbility’s Entertainment Media Consulting Team

Shireen Alihaji

Shireen Alihaji is a First Gen, Ecuadorian-Iranian, Muslim and Disabled filmmaker. Her intersections inspire her to create space through film technologies. Given how we remember is pivotal to healing, her films use memory as a central gaze to de-internalize surveillance, uncensor the imagination and mirror our infinite reflections. She Co-Authored Flipping the Gaze Restorative Filmmaking Techniques and served as Artist Support for the Islamic Scholarship Fund where she co-created Muslim-Centered film programming; an evolving framework that supports Muslim filmmakers to restore, center and define their narratives. Today, Shireen is a student of UCLA Arts Healing and is prototyping a creative lab for caregivers.

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RespectAbility’s Entertainment Media Consulting Team

Lauren Appelbaum

Lauren Appelbaum (she/her) is the Senior Vice President, Entertainment & News Media, of RespectAbility, a diverse, disability-led nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities, and that advances policies and practices that empower disabled people to have a better future. As an individual with an acquired nonvisible disability – Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy – she works at the intersection of disability, employment, Hollywood, and politics. She regularly conducts trainings on the why and how to be more inclusive and accessible for entertainment executives throughout the industry.

Appelbaum partners with studios, production companies, writers’ rooms, and news organizations to create equitable and accessible opportunities to increase the number of people with lived disability experience throughout the overall story-telling process. These initiatives increase diverse and authentic representation of disabled people on screen, leading to systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities. She has consulted on more than 100 TV episodes and films with 9Story Media Group, A&E, Bunim-Murray Productions, DreamWorks Animation, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Nickelodeon, ViacomCBS, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros. Discovery, among others. She represents RespectAbility on the CAA Full Story Initiative Advisory Council, Disney+ Content Advisory Council, MTV Entertainment Group Culture Code and Sundance Institute’s Allied Organization Initiative.

Appelbaum also increases hiring initiatives of people with disabilities behind the camera and enriches the pool of disabled talent in Hollywood by connecting them to those who can assist with their careers, both on the creative and business sides of the industry. She is the author of The Hollywood Disability Inclusion Toolkit and the creator of an innovative Lab Program for entertainment professionals with disabilities working in development, production and post-production. She is a recipient of the 2020 Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award for this Lab.

Appelbaum is a sought-after expert and has been quoted by many national publications including Associated Press, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, The Los Angeles Jewish Journal, The New York Times, RealScreen, Reuters, Tablet, USA Today, Variety, and The Washington Post. She has spoken on panels at the Association of Health Care Journalists Conference, ComNet, RealScreen Summit, Sundance Film Festival and SXSW, among others.

Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Appelbaum has a master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Syracuse University; she also has undergraduate degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. She serves on several national and local nonprofit boards. Appelbaum currently lives in Maryland with her husband, daughter and dog. She travels nationally, often to the Los Angeles area.

Examples of Lauren’s Work

• SCRIPTED EPISODIC CONTENT: NBC’s New Amsterdam overwhelmingly has been an example of best practices through the hiring of actors with disabilities, working with consultants to ensure accurate storylines and including conversations about diverse topics within the disability community. An important episode in season 2 featured Gigi Cunningham, a young Black actress with Down syndrome. RespectAbility’s Lauren Appelbaum and Tatiana Lee consulted on the episode’s script, which touched on so many hot-button topics, from abortion to conservatorship, conservative Christianity to inadequate health care in rural areas, and so much more.
• CHILDREN’S CONTENT: In April 2021, PBS KIDS added a new character to Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Max, who offered an authentic representation of Autism for children and adult audiences alike. Rachel Kalban, Vice President of Research and Curriculum at 9 Story Media Group, credited a conversation with RespectAbility’s Lauren Appelbaum leading to the team focusing on the intersection of race and disability, ultimately making Max a Black autistic child instead of a white child, noting the systemic barriers and prejudice that lead to children of color being less likely to be diagnosed than their white peers. Since the launch of this character, 9 Story Media Group has engaged RespectAbility in several additional upcoming shows.
• VIDEO GAMES: In May 2021, PlayStation launched the video game Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. RespectAbility’s Lauren Appelbaum and Tatiana Lee served as accessibility consultants. This game not only included a central character with a prosthetic but also is an industry leader in terms of its accessibility for consumers. “The RespectAbility consultants helped us identify areas of the story where the characters’ disabilities could be perceived negatively and they suggested opportunities to show them as being resourceful, multi-faceted, and heroic,” said Insomniac Games’ Director of Experience Brian Allgeier. “It’s been amazing to see the outpouring of love for these characters, especially from the disabled community. We’re excited about continuing to create worlds that represent characters from a wide range of backgrounds, and we hope it continues to resonate with our fans.”
• FAMILY CONTENT: RespectAbility’s Lauren Appelbaum and Tatiana Lee consulted on Netflix’s family show The Healing Powers of Dude (premiered January 2020) on the role of Amara (Sophie Kim), a middle schooler succeeding in both her academic and theatrical career. Kim is an actress with muscular dystrophy who uses a power wheelchair, authentically portraying a character who uses a wheelchair. We became partners with the writers’ room, providing consultants with muscular dystrophy and other disabilities, sharing our own experiences and anecdotes that ended up being included in the scripts. In one episode, the lead character’s parents build a ramp so Amara can get in, becoming a good “teaching moment” for audience viewers since most houses would not be accessible for wheelchair users. We worked closely with the production team as they found accessible housing for the actress, built sets with universal design in mind and ensured the character of Sophie was fully included. We also worked with the marketing team, being fully involved from the development stage through promotion.
• UNSCRIPTED: In September 2021, Born For Business launched on Peacock. Created by our board member Jonathan Murray, RespectAbility’s Lauren Appelbaum worked with the casting team and others to ensure authentic representation and accessibility for the four disabled cast members who have lupus, Down syndrome, spinal muscular atrophy, and anxiety. This powerful new docuseries shined the spotlight on 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. Prior, from 2015-2019, A&E’s Born This Way (Bunim-Murray Productions), an internationally syndicated TV series, chronicled the lives of seven men and women with Down syndrome who are defying society’s expectations by striking out on their own and pursuing dreams including jobs, housing, health and marriage. The widely popular show has earned 3 Emmy Awards and a Critics’ Choice Award. In addition to providing consulting advice, RespectAbility’s Lauren Appelbaum also organized a Hollywood-style premiere on Capitol Hill, showing the pilot episode with members of Congress, cast members and an A&E executive speaking. We galvanized national disability organizations and created social media campaigns to motivate their members to watch and share. Most impressively, the show’s audience grew to one-million viewers in the first season, with 40 percent of those viewers being new to the A&E Network, showing that including disability is profitable. 

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RespectAbility’s Entertainment Media Consulting Team

Harold Foxx

Harold Eugene Catron Jr, better known by his stage name Harold Foxx, is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and actor who happens to be Deaf. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Harold went on to play football for Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. while also earning his B.A. degree. He resides in Los Angeles, California, and created “The Harold Foxx Show,” an online series of comedic video sketches currently available on various social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.

Best known for his stand-up comedy, Harold has performed at iconic venues such as the Crow Comedy, the Laugh Factory and Flappers Comedy Club, as well as in major cities across the nation including Washington D.C., Albuquerque, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Jamaica. Most notably, Harold has performed at Busboys & Poets, the National Black Deaf Advocates Conference, Theatre of Note (Hollywood), and the National Association of the Deaf. Harold also recently performed in the Palm Springs International Virtual Comedy Festival 2020.

Harold has been involved in numerous film, television, and stage productions including “The Actor Whisperer,” “For My Woman,” “Audism Unveiled,” Deaf West Theatre and Pasadena Playhouse “Our Town,” Playwrights Horizons’ “I Was Alive With You” (NYC Off-Broadway Production), National Theatre of the Deaf 2020 Online Playwrights Convening. He also wrote, produced, directed, and acted in “Smell the Nature” for 2021 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge.

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