Los Angeles, October 26 – The national disability advocacy nonprofit RespectAbility is excited to announce the lineup of entertainers for its 10^th Anniversary Celebration next week, featuring Platinum Sponsor Wells Fargo. The event will be hosted by actor, comedian, and RespectAbility Entertainment Lab alumna Nikki Bailey. Musician James Ian and dance troupe Straight Up Abilities will be the featured performers, and Sabeerah Najee will be the featured DJ. [continue reading…]

Trigger Warning: Suicide

A documentary produced by Bode Miller and Brett Rapkin, The Paradise Paradox is a very emotional and serious piece. The film explores the overwhelming number of cases of suicide due to the mental health crisis affecting the snowy mountain towns of the United States, in particular Eagle Valley, Colorado, Mammoth Mountain, California, and Winter Pack, Colorado. [continue reading…]

In celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), Delta Air Lines is featuring seven disability-inclusive films in a Top Picks collection on their seatback, in-flight entertainment. Six of these films were written and/or directed by Disabled filmmakers, and all include Disabled individuals in front of the camera. In addition, these films are available with captions and audio description, creating accessibility for viewers who are deaf and/or blind.

Learn more at the Delta Studio website.

“As both an executive producer of Being Michelle and Vice Chair of RespectAbility, which has worked on some of the projects included in the Delta Studio NDEAM Top Picks collection, I am excited for the world to experience entertainment with powerful disability perspectives told through a lens in which disabled persons had a direct hand in creating both behind and in front of the camera,” said RespectAbility Vice Chair Delbert Whetter, who is a deaf filmmaker based in Los Angeles. [continue reading…]

Around 8.7 million adults in the United States have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), with many relying on medication to be focused and productive. Many adults have been taking their ADHD medication since they were children, so it can be easy to take for granted the access they have had to common types of ADHD drugs. For much of the ADHD population, taking their daily dose of popular medications like Adderall, Ritalin, or Vyvance is as much a part of their morning routine as brushing their teeth. However, that routine is being forcibly altered for millions of people in the U.S. because of an ongoing shortage of ADHD medication. Many people are unable to find their medications, leaving them feeling frustrated and frazzled as they search for alternatives and solutions.

It has been almost a year since the FDA announced a nationwide shortage of Adderall. However, it is difficult to identify the cause because manufacturers are not required to tell the FDA about why there are interruptions in the production process. Some sources cite an increase in ADHD diagnoses as a potential cause. CDC data cited by Time shows that “8% more people in the U.S. filled a stimulant prescription in 2021 versus 2020.” Others think that government agencies and manufacturers are to blame. The Drug Enforcement Administration does not share the quotas it gives for medication production. Manufacturers do not have to share how much medication they make or what their capacities for production are. If they are underperforming, the public would not have a way to know that. People are left wondering when supply will meet demand and how much longer they will need to wait. [continue reading…]

Read the guide

Early on in my Fellowship with RespectAbility I kept hearing the phrase “disability is not a monolith.” The definition of a monolith is a group of people who are thought of as being all the same. On the surface, it makes sense. No two people living with the same disability are the same or have the same experiences. However, I wondered what specific differences were important for me to be aware of to be a better ally. Learning about the different language choices and preferences felt like a significant piece to the puzzle. Having some previous knowledge of this didn’t mean I needed to stop learning. Language is constantly evolving, and since our words matter, I wanted to make sure this was an area I focused on.

The National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ) has a comprehensive language style guide that breaks down different disability related terminology and diagnoses with background information and recommendations of inclusive, respectful language to use. Having access to a single source that covers a broad range of frequently discussed topics surrounding disability language etiquette has been an incredible asset in my learning journey.

It’s important to note that there is no universal rule on what language to use when describing someone with a disability. Only a person living with a disability can provide their preference, and those preferences will vary from person to person. You should always ask the person what language they prefer, but when you don’t have a direct source available, the NCDJ guide is a great tool to use. [continue reading…]

“Wherever you go there you are,” a phrase popularized by Mindfulness-Based-Stress-Reduction founder John Kabat Zin to describe how leaving a traumatic situation doesn’t mean the trauma has left you. For war refugees, despite leaving the physical site of destruction, the aftershocks seem to reverberate inside of them for years to come.

Netflix’s latest short documentary film Camp Courage shines a light on war refugees’ resilient capacity for connection and care in the face of those trauma aftershocks. Directed and produced by Max Lowe, Camp Courage tells the story of a pair of Ukrainian refugees at an outdoors-healing summer camp in the Austrian Alps. The film follows ten-year-old Milana, and her grandmother Olga on their individual and intertwining journeys through the challenges the camp presents to each of them. Milana is faced with scaling tall mountains, and Olga is confronted with parenting a preteen who lost her mom. Each of them must lean on the support of community and ultimately each other to reach their respective goals. [continue reading…]

With California wrapping up its legislative session on September 14 and North Carolina adjourning on October 13, state legislatures are going into recess just in time for autumn. Even the full-time representatives are largely done with their major efforts for 2023.

So, what now? Is everyone on vacation leaf-peeping and sipping their pumpkin spice lattes?

Not exactly. This is the key time when California state legislators and their staff members will be reviewing bills that the governor has signed or vetoed and planning their strategy for next year. Legislators with vetoed bills may want to reintroduce them next year, choose another technique for accomplishing their goal, or abandon the bills altogether. Others will be sorting through ideas, constituent suggestions, input from lobbyists, and building out their “bill package” for next session. [continue reading…]

RespectAbility’s federal policy work is often done in coalition with other organizations, ensuring input from a wide cross-section of the disability community. Check out our latest advocacy highlights from working in partnership with the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities (CCD), which is the largest coalition of national disability organizations that focus on policy, and the National Coalition on Accessible Voting (NCAV), which is a coalition of organizations dedicated to protecting, promoting, and expanding voting accessibility. [continue reading…]

Over the past month, two of RespectAbility’s major workforce initiatives, the Building Better Futures initiative (BBFI) and our Enabling Economic Independence to Work program (EIW), made great strides forward.

The BBFI program, which is made possible by the support of the James Irvine Foundation, is creating employment pipelines in the information technology and job coaching spaces for disabled people with multiple marginalized identities who don’t currently have college degrees. The program aims to establish partnerships between the disability community, educational institutions, industry, and government agencies in Southern California. Furthermore, the partners that RespectAbility has brought together are exploring the possibility of collaborating on larger statewide initiatives. We are excited about the program models that will emerge from these partnerships and hope they will be replicated throughout the country to bring about a meaningful and lasting change in disability employment nationwide. [continue reading…]