Los Angeles, May 15 – This Mental Health Awareness Month, the new film Paper Spiders spares us feel good moments for the sake of providing us with an honest look at paranoia. The film juggles comedy and drama, but never at the expense of properly showing the life-changing severity of its respective disability. It is highly recommended if you are looking for a realistic drama anchored by great performances.

Paper Spiders’ pathos lies in its raw and often unrestrained examination of parent and child relationships. A recent film comparison which effectively explores similar themes would be Greta Grewig’s Lady Bird. However, unlike Lady Bird, Paper Spiders demonstrates the challenges of coming of age while bound by unforeseen obligations at home.

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I was privileged to deliver the following in a “sermon slam” for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot a few years ago. The holiday of Shavuot, literally translated as weeks, is celebrated 7 weeks after Passover, to celebrate the Revelation at Mount Sinai. Tradition teaches that every Jew, past, present, and future, stood together at Sinai at that moment.  It’s depicted as a scary, loud moment with the mountain suspended over our heads. It is a foundational narrative of the Jewish people. As such, we slammers were asked to remark on the idea of “Standing at Sinai.” I chose to explore the experience of pervasive standing metaphors for the non-ambulatory, the unsatisfying resolutions by some, and my own empowering understanding. [continue reading…]

Short film series explores the intersection of disability and prayer in the Jewish community

Los Angeles, May 13, 2021 – Justin Borses, a journalist with cerebral palsy who works at Moorpark University, stars in his own segment of “What Do You Pray For?” The film was made by Ben Rosloff, a talented emerging filmmaker on the Autism spectrum who serves as a Jewish Inclusion Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program. [continue reading…]

Short film series explores the intersection of disability and prayer in the Jewish community

Los Angeles, May 13, 2021 – Ariella Barker, an attorney, policy advisor, and communication specialist who was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, stars in her own segment of “What Do You Pray For?” The film was made by Ben Rosloff, a talented emerging filmmaker on the Autism spectrum who serves as a Jewish Inclusion Fellow in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program. [continue reading…]

Nelly Nieblas is the Manager of Policy, Advocacy and Engagement at RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community.

Nieblas is a first-generation college graduate from the University of Southern California and a proud Latina with a physical disability. She also holds an MPA from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. [continue reading…]

This perspective is a little different than what we usually publish. One of our talented speakers, Aaron Seglin, has an amazing story to tell, but spoken word and music, more than the written word, are his chosen media. In order to share his story with you, he set down with one of our Fellows, Ben Rosloff, to talk about his life and his passion. Ben, along with Samantha Haas, another Jewish inclusion Fellow, wrote this article to share his perspective. Enjoy!

Aaron Seglin

Aaron Seglin is a blind Jewish musician, Growing up in West Orange, New Jersey, his story is not only one of overcoming stigma and barriers, but of a tremendous level of musical accomplishment, talent and skill.

Growing up, Seglin had parents who supported his interest of music. His father was an instrumentalist who had a big part in his talent. He provided instruments for Seglin to try out. However, he passed away when Seglin was young. Seglin’s mother taught fine art which helped expose Seglin to those art skills. Once his father passed away, his grandmother and brother played music with Seglin. His mother was amazed when she noticed that her son could harmonize while playing the piano at the same time. He also could take what he heard on the radio and play it on his own without knowing the notes. Seglin became familiar with three or four families of instruments but felt so passionate about the harmonica that he now teaches it to young people. [continue reading…]

Read the Report

Los Angeles, CA, May 6 – A new report from Think Tank for Inclusion & Equity (TTIE), Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Women in Film shows that more writers rooms are including BIPOC and women writers, but other communities, including the disability community, still are being left out. The report, titled “Behind The Scenes: The State of Inclusion and Equity in TV Writing,” covers the results of an online survey with 1,226 participants, plus results from two focus groups.

According to the report, “93.0% of writers said their most recent writers room had no Disabled or Deaf writers.” Upper-level Disabled or Deaf writers are even more scarce, with only 2.6% of writers reporting that their most recent writers room had at least one upper level Disabled or Deaf writer.

In rooms with Disabled and Deaf representation, 91.7% of Disabled writers said they were the only staffed writers from their underrepresented communities in their most recent writers room. [continue reading…]

“The fundamental DNA among all those of good will remains the same: meaningful inclusion and true empowerment.”

Los Angeles, May 2 – Having worked in inclusive public policy since the 1990s, Ollie Cantos is a firm believer in getting comfortable with being uncomfortable in order to create change in the world. Currently serving as Special Assistant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) as well as Vice Chair of RespectAbility’s Board of Advisors, Cantos assures that the frank conversations birthed from uncomfortable questions have the very real and attainable potential to transform negative vehicles of law, policy, and practice into empowered ones. The courage toward honest discourse of convulsive topics has diversified America’s governing power as years progress. [continue reading…]

Vanni Le

Vanni Le is RespectAbility’s first-ever Entertainment Outreach Program Manager. She brought brand strategy and program management experience from both the entertainment and nonprofit fields, having previously worked at the Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, March of Dimes and most recently A+E Networks.

“Vanni Le has only been on our team since November of last year, but she already has made a massive difference,” said Lauren Appelbaum, Vice President of Communications at RespectAbility. “As our work in the entertainment industry continues to rapidly expand, we are so lucky to have her on our team.” [continue reading…]