Joshua Steinberg

I am a person with disabilities. Mine are nonvisible, and because of that, it is not immediately obvious to others that I have disabilities, but they are there. However, even though I have disabilities I want the same things as other people. I want a good job, a house, a nice car, a vacation, and I want to fall in love and get married. It has always been difficult to determine when the right time is to disclose that you have a disability when you are talking to someone new. [continue reading…]

An earlier version of this article appeared on the website Kol Birah, which has since gone out of business. It has been lightly updated and reposted with the permission of the author.

Ariella Barker

14 years ago, I appeared in front of the Rabbinical Council of America to gain their permission to officially convert to Judaism. The Rabbi asked me one pointed, unforgettable question: “As a [non-Jew], you are able to marry most anyone in the world. Why would you convert and limit yourself to less than 2 percent of the population?” For me, the answer was simple. I only wished to marry a Jewish man and to raise my children with Jewish values. If I remained a non-Jew, I would be unable to marry anyone. Alas, over a decade later, I am still unmarried.

Before joining the Jewish community, despite my disability, I rarely struggled to find a partner. But once I was Jewish, and I was dating with the purpose of marriage, my love life changed dramatically. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, April 29 – Four people. One ice cream truck. One historic drought. One oncoming storm. Set in 1993 North Carolina, Drought is a feature film that examines sibling dynamics, dealing with differences, learning to understand the people you love, and accepting yourself.

In the film, a younger sister, Sam takes on the parenting role of watching over her autistic brother, Carl. When their mom gets sent to jail, the siblings’ estranged older sister, Lillian, shows up at the house to help out. Spurred by Carl’s love of weather and storm chasing, Lillian and Sam take their dad’s ice cream truck to help Carl chase the impending tempest. The siblings are accompanied on the journey by Sam’s friend, Lewis. [continue reading…]

Audio Description Ensures Equal Access for Blind Viewers, While Closed Captioning Assists Viewers who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Hollywood, CA, April 25 – This year’s Oscars ceremony will be the most accessible for viewers yet. In a broadcast first, live audio description will be available for the live telecast nationwide. Google is sponsoring both this year’s closed-captioning and audio description. The addition of audio description, which is audio-narrated descriptions of a program’s key visual elements, ensures that viewers who are blind and low-vision will be able to take in all the action occurring on the screen and provide a much richer experience as they listen to the more traditional aspects of the show from the presenters, winners and performances. Per a press release from ABC, the closed captioning will be provided by VITAC, and the audio description will be provided by VITAC and Audio Eyes. [continue reading…]

Ian Cherutich

Ian Cherutich only joined RespectAbility’s Staff in October 2020. But in just a few months, he has already helped expand RespectAbility’s capacity to build partnerships with foundations and other nonprofits, enabling our national footprint to grow in size and scope.

“Although I have been with the organization for less than a year, it has already been a very educational experience,” said Cherutich. “RespectAbility’s development department tackles each opportunity for funding in a thoughtful way and includes different staff members’ perspectives to inform our approaches.  Having met with advocates of our work in the nonprofit and philanthropic spaces, I can see that the reputation we’ve built will continue to pay dividends as we push for the full inclusion of people with disabilities in all spheres of life.” [continue reading…]

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…]

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…]