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The intersection of spirituality and disability has given rise to a variety of initiatives and programs across faith traditions. All of these elevate the importance of faith in the lives of many disabled people and those who love them. Shelly Christensen, Rev. Ben Bond, Rev. Bill Gaventa, and Hannah Roussel discussed why sacred communities need to raise awareness to create a culture of belonging. The presenters talked about their experiences creating grassroots faith and disability initiatives, offered tools and resources, and provided wisdom from different sacred traditions and communities. [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…]

Victoria White

Have you ever been at a staff meeting to plan an event, class, service, or project, and one voice spoke clearly at just the right moment: “Have we thought about how this will affect [insert name of particular individual or group you are thinking about]?” Perhaps you have been that voice. In seeking to include students with varied abilities in Christian schools, WITH Ministries has pioneered inclusive education for forty years, and inclusive worship in congregations for ten years. There are many great ideas from the world of educational inclusion that can be used to welcome, include, and support full participation of people of all abilities in the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is not complete without each piece. At WITH Ministries, we quote 1 Corinthians 12, verse 18 (“God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted them to be.”) and verse 27 (“You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”) We even use a call-to-worship from Romans 15:7 (“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God,”) urging each one to “make Heaven a noisier place” by bringing praise to God through the acceptance of His children. All of His children, of all abilities. That means thinking about how worship and teaching practices will impact persons with varied abilities. It means thinking for neurodiverse people, people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health disabilities, and sensory disabilities. [continue reading…]

RespectAbility Entertainment Professionals Lab, Summer 2023

Dani Craig

Dani Craig hails from Pittsburgh, PA and received her B.A. in Communication from Cornell University. She is a writer and producer of Black female-led dramas and comedies for TV and film. She took a leap of faith and decided to leave her career as a Business Banker to start the Master of Entertainment Industry Management program at Carnegie Mellon University. That decision led her to pack up and move cross-country to Los Angeles. During the pandemic, she dove into her creativity, starting to write and paint. Taking full advantage of industry resources, she wrote her first script, a comedy pilot. Most importantly, she created The Black Writers Collective and has co-written a 10-episode genre-hopping Afro-futurist TV series, Stone Fate. Never one to shy away from adventure and travel, she has explored over 33 states, 29 countries, 5 continents counting, many solo. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her two 20-something children.

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The indie short For the Safety of Theo had its world premiere at the world-famous TCL Chinese Theater as part of Dances with Films Festival, and it’s not hard to see why it was selected.

For the Safety of Theo follows a young man with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who must purge himself of the consequences of a casual hook-up from the night before in order to regain his sense of stability. It takes an unflinching look on his meticulous routine as well as what happens when someone disrupts it.  

The story is largely inspired by writer/director Christopher Macken’s own lived experience with OCD. Said Macken, “It’s a constant disappointment how OCD is portrayed in film and TV; Often stereotyped as ‘being organized’ or ‘keeping things tidy,’ when in fact, that barely scratches the surface. Most people don’t realize how painful living with OCD can be, not only for the person overrun by their compulsions, but for the people around them—specifically in their sexual and romantic relationships.” [continue reading…]

As the program manager of the Minneapolis Jewish Community Inclusion Program for People with Disabilities for 13 years, I was invited to speak about the program at numerous Jewish community events. I spoke about changing attitudes and fighting stigma to advance inclusion. Following many presentations, someone from the audience waited to speak to me, waiting in the back of the line. Their question was always the same. “Do you include people with mental illnesses in the inclusion program?”

I saw hope in their eyes. But the inclusion program focused solely on disabilities. I gently explained that mental health wasn’t part of the program’s purview. The hope of finding acceptance and spiritual support faded as they turned away, rejected by the Jewish community. Even the inclusion program excluded them.

The program excluded me, too. I am neurodivergent. I was diagnosed with ADHD, depression, and anxiety disorder in my early 40s. These conditions have been a part of me my whole life. Once I began the process of understanding the diagnoses and working with mental health providers, I leaned into spirituality and my community, and found support and comfort there. [continue reading…]

On May 9, 2023, I had the privilege to interview my dear friend and colleague, Dennis Tran. I worked with Dennis on the Fox Family Foundation’s Inaugural Vision Fair in October 2022, and we were both Fellows in RespectAbility’s National Leadership Program.

As May is Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, we are spotlighting our partners doing fantastic work in the intersection of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and disability identities. As the Director of Partnerships at the Asian Americans with Disabilities Initiative (AADI), Dennis spoke with me about AADI’s critical work and how his lived experience as an Asian American with a disability creates space for others to share their story.

Learn more about AADI on their website.

Q: How has your AAPI heritage and disability identity influenced your career goals and aspirations?

A: My career goals were shaped by thinking about advocating for myself and the multiple communities I identify with. To bring forth the injustice in the world and tie in my neurodiversity to uplift others in the community to speak up and find their place in society. [continue reading…]

Elizabeth Kim

If you knew your baby had a disability, would you still keep it?

Two students from my church fellowship debated this question, as I sat quietly between them. My body tensed up, preparing for their answers.

No… I don’t think I would. I would want my child to be healthy and happy.

Well, if God made all of us in His image… shouldn’t we keep the baby?

They turned towards me with sheepish smiles, as if they just remembered I was one of those babies. My eyes widened, and I hastily raised my hands.

No, no, don’t worry! I won’t get offended, please don’t let me stop you from talking about this. I understand where you’re both coming from.

Part of that was a lie.

I was offended, but too numb to register the emotion because I heard variations of this conversation growing up. The responses were similar. No, we want them to be healthy. With genetic engineering, we could remove the defective gene! No, I don’t want my child to have so much suffering in her life. Well, I don’t know… What do you think? I leaned towards “no,” too, until I learned about ableism years later.

I was born deaf to hearing immigrant parents and received bilateral cochlear implants, my first one at thirteen months old, my second at ten years old. As a triple minority, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to show up as you are in different spaces. No matter where I go, I’m a woman in a man’s world. I’d feel excluded not only from the AAPI community because of my disability, but also from the disability community because I’m a person of color, which affected my mental health. Over time, the lights in my mind dimmed. Once dark, beasts of all kinds emerged.

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After an extensive search and interview process, 20 individuals were invited to participate in the Los Angeles Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2023 Entertainment Lab taking place May 1 – June 9, 2023, and 20 individuals were invited to participate in the Virtual Cohort of RespectAbility’s 2023 Entertainment Lab taking place August 14 – September 21, 2023. The 6-week Lab aims to develop and elevate the talent pipeline of disabled entertainment professional working behind-the-scenes in television, film, and streaming, while connecting them with industry professionals and creatives. Participants include people with physical, cognitive, sensory, mental health, and other disabilities ranging in age the 20’s through the 50’s. The Lab is a recipient of The Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award.

Screenwriting software Final Draft, which forged a multi-year partnership in 2020 with RespectAbility, provided free licenses of Final Draft 12 for all Lab Fellows, as well as other educational resources.