Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability - Uncategorized

Meet Our New Advisory Council Members!

Visitor — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 22:15:09 +0000

We are excited to welcome three new members to our Advisory Council, joining Eugene Chelberg (Chair), Anne Finger (Vice Chair), Milton Reynolds, Anita Silvers, Steve Harris, and Trevor Getz!

Eric Talbert

Eric Talbert has over a dozen years of communications, volunteer management and fundraising experience. He has raised millions of dollars by working with thoughtful people to give joyful gifts to make our world a better place. As Western Regional Director, Eric leads fundraising efforts for the humanitarian organization MedShare by creating and fostering partnerships to improve global health. He is also a founding Advisory Council member of the Bay Area Society for Art & Activism.

Alex Locust

Alex Locust is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and proud biracial, glamputee spreading the word about disability justice one workshop at a time. Whether on the runway or in a counseling session, Alex aspires to embody the tenets of social justice and fiercely advocates for equity in all community spaces. He graduated from San Francisco State University with an M.S. in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling and earned the Peggy H. Smith Graduate Student Distinguished Achievement Award as well as Graduate Student of the Year from the National Council on Rehabilitation Education. Armed with bombastic charm, humor, and a sharp wit, Alex synthesizes his professional insight with his lived experience to create engaging workshops grounded in cultural humility, intersectionality, and fostering empathetic, holistic views of marginalized communities.

Sara Kenkare-Mitra

Sara Kenkare-Mitra PhD is currently Senior Vice President of Development Sciences, a translational sciences organization that spans R&D at Genentech. In this role she has responsibility for ensuring the successful translation of promising molecule-discoveries from Research into Development. Sara has had a significant impact on the development of a number of biologics and small molecules leading to Genentech's key product approvals including Avastin, Tarceva, Lucentis, Xolair, Erivedge, Perjetta and Kadcyla. In addition, more than 50 Investigational New Drug applications with potential to treat a multitude of diseases in particular cancer, have been filed by her organization with US and ex-US regulatory agencies. At Genentech she is a key member of the technical and portfolio decision making committees. Sara also holds adjunct faculty positions at UCSF in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences and the University of the Pacific in Stockton. She has a passion for developing therapies to meet significant unmet medical needs with a strong scientific basis and an emphasis on personalized medicine. Sara was elected to the Institute of Medicine, National Academy in 2014. Selected as one of the 150 Most Influential Business women by San Francisco Business times in 2011, one of the 150 top alumni of UCSF in 2015, she has also won awards and recognition at Genentech not only for her excellence in leadership and mentorship, but also for her passionate commitment to the healthcare industry as a whole. Sara serves on the board of directors of the Genentech Foundation, a US based private charitable foundation. She also sits on the board of directors for AWIS, the Association of Women in Science.

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And finally, a big thank you to Alice Sheppard and Bryan Bashin, Emeritus Council Members, for all their hard work and years of service!

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Superfest 2017: The Complex World of Access

Visitor — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 21:24:39 +0000

Art by Anne Slater

By Catherine Kudlick

At Superfest International Disability Film Festival, we pride ourselves on modeling the complexity, messiness, and joy that comes when you know the price of admission doesn’t automatically include pity and shame. It’s a rare opportunity for people with disabilities to gather and bond as we celebrate being amongst friends who “get it” and we share this exuberance with newcomers. This year we have fifteen edgy, thought-provoking films that portray the disability experience from nine different countries.

We’ve come a long way and -- true to any enterprise with lofty aspirations -– there’s more we want to do. When the Longmore Institute and LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired took over Superfest five years ago, we decided to make access part of the experience for everyone. Our dream was to create a space where anyone could arrive knowing that they wouldn’t have to ask for “special” treatment. No need to request ASL interpreters in advance. No worry about showing up in a posse of wheelchair riders because you could expect to get in the door AND sit with your friends. And no worries if you couldn’t see everything that was happening on screen; there would be audio description.

Until AD came along in the 1970s (actually a product of San Francisco State), my visually-impaired comrades and I sat clueless during that key turning point in a film when a hand-written letter makes the audience gasp or the dog eating off the wedding banquet table had everyone around us in stitches. The accommodation has taken longer than captions to reach the mainstream in part because it’s subjective. Someone must make choices about what’s most important visually on screen and wedge just the right words into brief scene changes and pauses. Does it matter that a woman’s dress is yellow? Frilly? Torn? And what of her age, race, body type? Describing some details implies value judgments and makes the implicit explicit, which can make some people uncomfortable.

The truth is, after years of being largely unnoticed and unchanged, audio description is in a period of productive chaos. For decades, a tiny number of self-regulated professionals (most of them sighted people) worked hard to impart a sense of objectivity, inserting minimal information as unobtrusively as possible. Technology and crowd-sourcing have challenged this approach, leading to innovations such as the blind tech innovator Joshua Miele’s YouDescribe, a website where anyone can upload descriptions of YouTube videos. This crowd-sourcing is both more playful and more amateur — think Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Somewhere in-between are those who want to explore ways that AD can bring creative elements to blind and sighted people alike in the form of poetry or humor. At UC Berkeley, Georgina Kleege divides her students into groups, with each one describing one aspect of a film: objective, emotional, sociological. Imagine being able to re-watch a film from each perspective or choosing one that suits you best. Such complexity suggests that audio description could offer a new way to experience film, not unlike the introduction of “talkies” back in the 1920s that added new forms of creative expression.

In recent years, some film companies like Pixar and Disney have started to experiment with apps for mobile phones. Yet AD is still rare. Few people with vision impairments realize it exists, fewer employees in mainstream theaters know about the devices and how they work (assuming they work), and still fewer filmmakers think to incorporate description into their films.

At Superfest, we are excited about pioneering this little-known form of access. Rather than provide special headsets for blind and low-vision attendees, we decided early on to broadcast AD as part of the audiotrack for everyone. Until there’s the incentive of an Oscar for Best Audio Description, we’ll continue to do whatever we can to educate filmmakers. We already require them to provide an AD version in order to be shown at Superfest and we offer funds for those who don’t have the resources to pay for it. In a dream universe, we’d reach filmmakers at the beginning of their process when elements of AD can be more seamlessly built into script, timing, and other pre-production elements.

Several directors have risen to the challenge, using AD to show how they’re approaching future films. In one case, the director even said he would only show the described version from now on because it enriched the film. Some audience members have reported similar experiences; they noticed things they might have otherwise missed. And of course, blind and visually impaired people have been delighted to feel included in ways they never imagined possible.

At the same time, an accommodation that meets the needs of one public can create barriers for another. Audio description can be overwhelming, especially for anyone who needs to limit stimuli in order to effectively process information. At its worst, it can ruin the experience for everyone, breaking the spell by turning something ephemeral and lovely into something that can be jarringly literal.

As we explore how best to incorporate description, we have considered everything from parallel screenings to headphones for everyone to introducing a Superfest app that would set a new industry standard. (Smile.) Each has its promise and pitfalls.

This year for the first time, we’ll offer the option of watching some of the films without AD in a nearby room (by reservation), and after the showings, everyone will reconvene in the larger theater to mingle and join the panel discussions. This initial attempt is far from ideal: separate is never equal. While nobody has a good solution for a truly inclusive film experience, we can make real progress in this area through our collective ingenuity. By bringing together interested community members, filmmakers and technology innovators, this upcoming year we will explore these questions in hopes of bringing an even more groundbreaking film experience. After all, disabled people are the world’s best problem-solvers, and Superfest is a wonderful sandbox to test out new ideas.

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Generational Caregiving

Visitor — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 16:24:35 +0000

The following piece originally aired on KQED Perspectives.

Listen to the audio here.

By: Emily Beitiks

Sometimes the end of life resembles its beginning, but in either case we need others to help us through the basics of every day. Emily Beitiks has this Perspective.

Upstairs: Brush teeth, put on pjs, pull over neck carefully so it doesn’t get stuck on ears, remind them to go to the bathroom, into bed, covers just the way they like for a good night’s sleep.

Downstairs: Brush teeth, put on pjs, pull over neck carefully so it doesn’t get stuck on ears, into bed, change diaper, covers just the way she likes for a good night’s sleep.

Upstairs: Good night, love you kiddos.

Downstairs: Good night, I love you mom.

My mother - who has had a disability since before I was born - recently moved in with me and my family. Well, to be fair, she’s moving into her home. After a bad fall broke her hip seven years ago and left her permanently in a wheelchair, the house was too inaccessible and she moved out, so we moved in. Now, with two pressure sore ulcers that refuse to heal, she’s no longer allowed to stay in her assisted living home, so my husband and I assumed her care needs.

And doing so has been intense.

Having two young kids at home under the age of 5 makes it especially challenging.

But also, it makes it easier.

As each caregiving task I do for my kids mirrors those I’m doing for my mom, I’m reminded that my mom once did all this for me...in this same house. She bathed me, changed my diapers, took me to countless doctor’s visits.

I worry: is it infantilizing for my mother to draw this connection to my children? But then I think that this is the problem. We try to hide away from the reality that all bodies need care at different moments, and we draw lines that stigmatize that care when it’s done for adults versus children. In many cultures, senior care is more commonly handled in the home and my conclusions are obvious, but as I’ve shared my life update with friends and colleagues, I’ve been reminded how much rarer it is in the US.

I have to be honest - it’s still hard. So I remind myself that it’s bigger than my mom and me. By caring for the generation past, we’re investing in a better future for us all, one where disability happens.

With a Perspective, I'm Emily Beitiks.

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Celebrating Disability Culture: Interview with #Superfest2017 Judges

Visitor — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 22:39:49 +0000

The following blog was originally posted on the Disability Visibility Project. Thank you Alice Wong for helping share our jurors' perspectives!

Superfest International Disability Film Festival is the longest running disability film festival in the world. Co-hosted by San Francisco’s Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired and the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State will take place this year from November 4-5, 2017. Tickets available now!

It takes a lot of work to organize a festival. I interviewed Karen Nakamura and Sara Acevedo, jurors for this year’s festival and asked about the process of selecting films from their perspectives. You can also check out my interview with Superfest judges from 2016. Please note: responses have been condensed and edited.

Is this your first year of judging? Tell me about your experiences judging this year.

Sara: This was my first year judging and I loved the experience! It was so wonderful to be in community and get to meet so many engaged activists and scholars collaborating on this year’s panel. I always enjoy and seek opportunities to share experiences, perspectives, and interests with various disability community leaders and advocates. I am interested in knowing about what other people are up to in their work and I am often looking for ways to collaborate and expand my perspectives! What never ceases to amaze me is that regardless of our individual interests and specific projects, the majority of the people I share in community with seem to be working toward collective social, cultural, and political goals around disability. One of the highlights this year was to meet the team at the LightHouse for the Blind and to work closely with and learn from seasoned disability advocates and scholars of different ages, backgrounds, identities, interests, and so on.

Karen: This was my first time judging for Superfest. I’ve judged for other film festivals before, but being in a disability festival festival with a jury of my disabled peers was exciting and new. Usually, I have to hide some of my disability politics, but not at Superfest! It was great when we were all on the same wavelength (especially cringeworthy, ‘inspirational’ pieces) but also really great when we got into great conversations about what we wanted to see in the festival.

What is the most fun aspect of judging films for a film festival?

Sara: Sooo many fun aspects! I think that if I have to choose one, it would be the chance to hear from and integrate so many different voices on issues that remain contested. I am always interested in what others think about things that I am passionate about and I believe it essential to allow room for self-reflection and expansion in my thinking and in my work. We all engage disability history and advocacy in so many different and creative ways and I think this is partially informed by the fact that our gatherings often welcome so many different generations of activists and scholars; people from all walks of life, really –We are not a unified whole, we are diverse, we don’t all know each other, and we don’t all think alike or agree on every issue. This is, in my view, what makes our disability communities so rich and layered.

What is the most challenging aspect of judging films for a film festival?

Karen: The funnest bit is also the most challenging: there are too many great films out there and it’s hard to choose which ones to select for the festival. So we have to narrow it down so that it’s not only “films we like” but try to curate the festival so that we can see some themes start to emerge, or because we want to prompt some conversations within the community.

Sara: I think that there are films that still play with so many stereotypes and, sure, sometimes there is room for humor, and I also recognize that it can be exhausting to constantly face harmful tropes and negative perceptions about disabled embodiment and identity.

During your retreat this year with other judges, what were the discussions like about the films you viewed? What else did you learn during the retreat?

Sara: The discussions were so rich! I was delighted to be in a room with people with so much knowledge and passion for disability justice issues. I truly value the role of ancestors and elderly mentors in our movement as well as their experiences and guidance, which have and continue to pave the way for the younger generations of advocates and activists interested in the celebration of disability culture and the arts. I think that it is our responsibility to honor these historical and cultural legacies and to continue building paths toward collective liberation.

Karen: Hahaha, I think what happens in the screening room should stay in the screening room. We had great conversations about disability politics and identity, but I think those are best left internal.

Do you have a particular favorite or standout film that you feel strongly about? If there’s one film someone should see at Superfest this year, what’s your personal recommendation?

Karen: I have many favorites, but the one film that I think everyone should see and will sponsor the most conversation is Deej.

Sara: Deej and In Crystal Skin were certainly my favorite. I must confess that aside from the inherent quality of both films, they truly resonated with me in two ways: 1) I am autistic and I love the way the film portrays one of the many forms of autistic embodiment and resiliency, and 2) I was born and raised in Colombia, where In Crystal Skin is filmed.

Why are film festivals like Superfest so important? What does it mean to you to have a festival focused on the lived experience of disability?

Sara: Festivals like Superfest help to bring not only awareness but also acceptance of the global disability experience. It feels extremely relevant to me to watch a film that portrays disability in Colombia, the country where I was born and raised, for instance. There are other festivals that center disability and the everyday lives of of disabled people in specific areas of the world and those are fantastic. What I love about Superfest, however, is that it brings together a multiplicity of bodymind experiences from everywhere, and those lend further depth and richness to shared experiences of oppression and resiliency.

Karen: Films that are ‘about’ disability often appear in other film festivals, but often they are simply meant as inspirational or alternately, simply horrible — in order to emphasize the horridness of the disability category in some other place. As disabled people, we know the complexity of our lives, bodies, and politics and that our situations cannot be simply reduced to homilies. That’s why it’s important to have a film festival that is curated by disabled people, for disabled people.

What are your thoughts on the lack of representation by disabled people in filmmaking (behind and in front of camera)?

Sara: It is simply ahistorical and unrealistic to exclude an entire group of people from representation in film and the arts overall. This isn’t an isolated phenomenon, however; this lack of representation speaks to the overall exclusion of disability and disabled people from full participation in western modern societies.

Karen: There are so few disabled people who are filmmakers or talent — and this situation hasn’t changed significantly in the past several decades. We need to find ways to support a community of filmmakers as well as talented actors and actresses.

Why is disability an important issue to emphasize with Hollywood and mainstream media?

Karen: Because we exist.

Sara: Hollywood’s trend of casting non-disabled actors to play disabled roles continues to baffle me. Our various disability communities have been rather vocal about this form of invisibilization, yet very few high executives, producers and filmmakers care to address it. It is also true that many other socially oppressed communities have endured this kind of erasure. Regretfully, I have observed that although other contested identities have been increasingly centered in social justice debates, disability remains largely absent from these conversations.

Outside of films featured at Superfest, name one film you’ve seen that you think does a pretty decent job at disability representation.

Sara: Porfirio is a Colombian film that I definitely loved! The combination of magical realism and cinematic poetics as well as the relevance of the content in both cultural and political terms was stunning!

Karen: _Speechless_ isn’t a film but a TV series but I think it has potential. Certainly the directors and actors are trying to get things right, even as they know they have to modify some things for a television audience. Let’s hope more films and television shows emerge that have complex disabled characters.

Pictured is a Mestiza woman with big brown eyes and pale skin color. She is positioned at a side angle with respect to the camera and is wearing a green t-shirt that reads “My other disability is a bad attitude”.Sara M. Acevedo is a neurodivergent mestiza, activist scholar, educator, and disability justice advocate born and raised in Colombia, South America. Sara is a doctoral candidate in the Anthropology and Social Change Program and is currently writing her dissertation. Her pedagogy and scholarship as well as her grassroots work invite a re-figuration of disability as a vibrant political and cultural experience while simultaneously challenging the medicalization of disabled people’s identities, especially those living at the intersections of race, class, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and citizenship.

Image description: photo showing Karen Nakamura, an Asian woman holding a small grey beagle puppy — her service dog, Momo, who is now fully grown.

Karen Nakamura is a cultural and visual anthropologist at the University of California Berkeley. Her first book was titled Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity (2006). Her next project resulted in two ethnographic films and a monograph titled, A Disability of the Soul: An Ethnography of Schizophrenia and Mental Illness in Contemporary Japan (2014). She is currently working on the intersections of transsexuality and disability politics in postwar Japan.

Meet the Longmore Institute Student Fellows for Fall 2017

Visitor — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:34:52 +0000

Thanks to our many supporters, we can once again offer paid professional development opportunities for students with disabilities to work at the Longmore Institute! After receiving many applications, we are pleased to introduce Burak, Martha, and Victoria

Burak Arcan

Bachelor of Arts, Florida State University, 2006
Master of Arts, Bilkent University, 2012
My archaeological endeavors started on the playground of my kindergarten. I have received my formal education in archeology at Florida State University and Bilkent University. Although my intention was to dig in dirt under the hot sun, my interest grew in digging in social theory. My specialty in graduate school was Early Bronze Age, the birth of civilization. Based on my research, there is evidence that building of sociocultural identities through media played a great role in the creation of functional economic systems. From that point on I also came to the realization that without social injustice or social identities, economical systems in large scales do not exist. Intentionality of such systems is questionable, yet justifications of economical systems are imbedded in our fundamental stories we call myth. While pondering on such issues, I had my introduction to disabilities by an accident. Two and a half years ago, I was run over by a car while riding my motorcycle to teach the last class of the semester. Before this event, just as many members of our society, I did not have a passing thought about disability awareness. I relocated to the Bay Area as I needed daily assistance in my recovery, beginning with simple everyday tasks. After I was able to walk without the assistance of a walker and crutches, I started to volunteer with Bay Area Outdoors and Recreation (BORP). I really appreciated the volunteers who assisted me to get outdoors while I was in the rehab hospital. Therefore, my initial intention was to give back to the community. My experiences with BORP eventually led me volunteering with Enchanted Hills Camp for the Blind. I really enjoyed the social interactions within the community of visual impairments, and I made the decision to enroll in the Orientation and Mobility master program at San Francisco State University. At the Longmore Institute, I am looking forward to greatly expanding my understanding of social construction of disabilities and disability activism.

Martha Jimenez

My name is Martha Jimenez and I’m a third year transfer to San Francisco State University. I’m from Walnut Creek, a small town in the East Bay. I’m a first generation college student and very excited to see what’s in store for me here at State. I’m a psychology major and hoping to work with young kids in the near future. I’m very excited for the opportunity to work with the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability. I was diagnosed with both a learning disability and Scoliosis at a young age. I felt like I easily stood out with having an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and needing a back brace. Looking back, I realize how much these experiences have made a strong impact on who I am today. I gained a different experience than many my age but by no means was it a lesser one. Throughout my experiences, I’ve realized it’s hard for some people to understand and except those with disabilities. This is why I’m so excited to become a working member of the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, where they strive to inform the community and change social views on disabilities.

Victoria Lynn Fremont

I am a fifth year history major at State, graduating in December. I am hoping to come back to State for the Fall 2018 school year to get my teaching credential. My goal is to teach junior year US history. I also work jobs as a nanny, a barista, and on occasion a security guard for the SF Giants. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, rock climbing, and exploring the city. My interest in working at the Longmore Institute stems from my love for history and the information I have learned from studying disability history in one of my major courses.

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Labor Day and People with Disabilities Post Jerry Lewis

Visitor — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 13:07:14 +0000

By: Catherine Kudlick

Paul Longmore would have had a lot to say today, the first Labor Day without telethons and without Jerry Lewis. His deeply-researched book, Telethons: Spectacle, Disability and the Business of Charity suggests that he’d be thinking big picture.

Most obituaries praised Lewis as an entertainer and philanthropist. But surprisingly few touched on the fact that the comedian did more than any other single person to influence the lives of 1 in 5 Americans, people with disabilities. History will show that Lewis’s personal and philanthropic success came at an enormous price.

In their heyday, everyone knew of the telethons that dominated American television each Labor Day weekend. Combining “television” and “marathon,” the programs began in the 1950s, primarily to raise money for disability-related charities until the last American one aired in 2015. The variety shows featured cheesy comedy, magic acts, gospel choirs, big name entertainers, and CEOs from corporations with household names who joshed with emcees like Jerry as they celebrated rising donation numbers on giant glistening tote boards.

To be sure, thanks to Lewis’s tireless efforts over a half century, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), his weekend-long extravaganzas raised over $2 billion dollars to fight the neuromuscular disease. The money has funded research and provided badly-needed equipment such as wheelchairs and hosted life-changing summer camps. Above all, the programs introduced disabled people into mass media culture for the first time in history.

But this fundraising came at the expense of people with disabilities.

In a world with only a few television channels and no Internet, Jerry Lewis and his telethon essentially had a monopoly over public perceptions of disability and disabled people. And because they were praised as feelgood moments or dismissed as kitsch, few have appreciated their ongoing damaging impact.

In sharp contrast to the schmaltzy entertainment, the programs trotted out the most dreary images of helplessness and tragedy associated with disability to raise money. They borrowed heavily from Victorian sentimental literature (think “Tiny Tim” in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol) where sad-looking children hobbling on crutches received wild applause as they struggled awkwardly across a huge stage.

These “poster children” rarely had a chance to speak except to confirm carefully-scripted messages. Parents cried as they spoke of how miserable their child’s disability had made everyone’s lives. Then Lewis would implore viewers to give to help find a cure to ensure that something like this never happened to you.

Maybe because viewers understood these as touching moments, they missed the outrageousness of people living in the world’s wealthiest nation having to break down in front of millions on national television to get basic healthcare and medical equipment.

And maybe these weepy moments prevented spectators from understanding that they were participating in a humiliating ritual that stripped people with disabilities onscreen and off of their dignity.

Imagine hearing yourself being spoken about in such a disparaging way in front of millions, with your parents right there as part of the show. Imagine watching from home, with these yearly programs being the only time anyone ever talked about people like you. And imagine carrying these ideas of being a burden inside as you grew into adulthood.

Certainly the stories that inspired donors to give money to help “the less fortunate” were not ones that would lead them to hire, date, or discover the unique perspective of a person with a disability. By rarely showing adults, the programs ignored the reality that many disabled people grew up to lead rewarding lives.

The fact is, to live a life as someone with a disability requires resourcefulness and perseverance. Whether it is crossing a street, communicating with someone, figuring out a bureaucracy, using technology, or cooking a meal, disabled people have had to find work-arounds that offer value. Curb cuts on sidewalks, captioning on television, text-to-speech, dictation, all originally intended for people with disabilities have ended up offering benefits for nondisabled too. And where there’s a quirky question or original answer, disability is never far away.

What if everyone believed that the world is better because of disabled people?

To be sure, disability can bring great pain and hardship that will benefit from the research so celebrated on telethons. But equally beneficial is putting resources into basic healthcare for all Americans, programs that support people with disabilities to remain in their own homes, get a quality education, make our physical and electronic environments more accessible, and undo the afflictions visited upon millions of disabled people and our families by fifty years of telethon propaganda.

Put another way, let’s expand the idea of a “cure” to reach beyond an individual person’s medical condition to ask what needs to be fixed and who decides.

With Jerry’s passing, let’s acknowledge that while some believe he helped people with it is time to move on. With the telethons off the air, there’s more time and many more options to find a cure for shame, prejudice, and stigma.

Check out this previous blog on Telethons:

Pushing Limits: Disability as an Unexpected Gift

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Seeking Independent Contractor: Help Superfest International Disability Film Festival Reach New Audiences through Superfest Showcase Initiative

Visitor — Thu, 27 Jul 2017 22:21:31 +0000

For 30 years, Superfest International Disability Film Festival, the longest running disability film festival in the world, has showcased disability as a creative force in cinema and culture. We have recently launched an initiative to bring Superfest to new constituents via “Superfest Showcases.” These are free public screenings of the previous years’ selected films for middle/high schools, colleges, libraries, and community centers. Each screening is accompanied by an open, facilitated conversation about the lessons these films teach us all.

We are seeking to work with an independent contractor who will expand the festival’s reach in the greater Bay Area, Sacramento, and Los Angeles and provide outreach and logistics coordination to make 10 new Showcases possible. The Showcase coordinator will work with both the LightHouse for the Blind and the Longmore Institute on Disability but the position will be directly supervised by the Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University.

Compensation: ~ $22/hr, 550 hours spread out over 10-month span, commensurate with experience.

Qualifications:

Experience organizing accessible events.
Confidence with public speaking.
Basic understanding of disability representations in media.
Strong writing and editing skills to develop promotional materials.
Organized, detail-oriented, and self-driven.
Hours are flexible but must provide some availability 9 to 5 M-F for planning calls.
Availability to travel to possible Showcase sites (travel outside the Bay Area will be reimbursed).
Located in Greater Bay Area.

Preferred Qualifications:

Personal experience with disability.
Background in disability studies and/or film studies.
Graphic design skills.

To learn more about the festival, visit: superfestfilm.com

To learn more about the Longmore Institute on Disability, visit: longmoreinstitute.sfsu.edu

The Longmore Institute values people from diverse backgrounds and welcomes the opportunity to think through any accommodations that would be necessary for a person with a disability to fill this contract.

To apply: Please send cover letter and resume or CV to Emily Beitiks, beitiks@sfsu.edu.

Applications will be received until the contract is filled with a goal to start on this project as soon as possible. This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Neda Nobari Foundation.

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Beyond Disability 101: Ian Smith’s Hopes for Tech

Visitor — Tue, 25 Jul 2017 23:40:50 +0000

By Ellie Gordon, Students for Access Grad Assistant

Ian Smith understands that disability inclusion doesn’t mean much if you can’t get in the door. As a wheelchair user and Deaf software engineer, Ian has had to ask for physical access into his workplaces, companies that, while aware of ADA requirements, had never put them into practice or considered what may be needed beyond the basics.

Whereas in academia there is typically some kind of structure in place for students and faculty to ask for accommodations, the private sector can be wildly structure-less says Ian, an MIT grad, who majored in linguistics. Many companies have simply never faced accessibility requests before. In addition to their day jobs, people with disabilities are often tasked with the uncompensated labor of providing HR advice to get their workplaces up to code, and as a minority, serve as a representative of all disabled folks.

As a software engineer for PlanGrid in San Francisco, an architectural construction software platform of about 200 employees, Ian is one of two outwardly disabled-identified people at his job site. “There’s this trend in the industry of diversity and tech conversations either leaving out disability altogether or mentioning it as a bullet point but nobody knows yet what to do or where to go,” Ian says. “How do you do outreach to communities that aren’t typically reached?” Diversity hiring practices can fall flat for two reasons. “On the one hand, if you say this is a grant program for a specific group of people…you miss limiting yourself. On the other hand, if you just say ‘people from underrepresented groups,’ how do you make sure people know ‘oh does this mean me?”

On top of tech’s fast-paced productivity standards, working with HR to take charge of one’s access needs can be draining. Ian has overseen workplace requests of door openers and accessible entrances - projects that can drag on for months. Getting compliance needs fulfilled is especially hard if you’re brand new at a company and you don’t have any social capital, Ian says. In tech’s near future, Ian would like to see basic access information disclosed on employers websites, a topic on which Ian has done some advocacy. While many offices buildings claim they are ADA compliant, many co-worker meetups happen inside other office spaces that are not covered.

At PlanGrid, Ian is happy with his role as an engineer as well as with the ability he has to manage his own time. With a flexible work schedule, Ian can avoid rush hour at BART, (very useful as a wheelchair user) as well as go to medical appointments. In the office, Ian says that it had been challenging to have coworkers become accustomed to his deafness, from how group meetings are conducted to how they simply grab his attention. He uses spoken English and lip reading in smaller work meetings groups and uses a language interpreter in large groups and presentations he chooses himself through an interpreter hiring bidding system. Do his disabilities serve as strength to his software creation team? Not really, says Ian, who believes that people with disabilities are too often treated as tokenized figures of inspiration. Ian doesn’t believe his identity as a Deaf, wheelchair user on a team that creates construction software matters, but having a workforce that comes from a variety of backgrounds and experiences is beneficial to overall production and idea making.

Ian was a “nerdy kid from a young age.” His father was a software engineer and Ian grew up playing around on a gigantic desktop computer which led to computer science classes in middle school and eventually schooling at MIT. Along his journey into tech, Ian has found that structural frameworks, more than cultural perceptions have posed the biggest accessibility barriers. It begins with a first phone call, when he asks if the office has a wheelchair accessible ramp or a back entry. “And that shuts down a lot of conversations fast. I’ve never seen ‘you can’t do the work so we won’t make you an offer,” but I’ve often wondered ‘Hey, I thought that interview went pretty well, but I didn’t get an offer. I wonder what happened.”

Employment, Ian says, is stuck with a chicken and egg problem. People with disabilities are not represented in tech “because we’re not part of the conversation, but we’re not part of that because we’re not in the industry.” Ian’s current employer now discusses disability on the same page as where they talk about gender neutral bathrooms. “It puts it within this context of not just ‘here’s this standoff one thing, but here’s an office that is more welcoming…there is more that people want to know than just salary, but is this a place that is going to be safe and comfortable?”

Along with his position at PlanGrid, Ian is also a co-founder for Project Alloy, a new, three-person-headed nonprofit that tackles tech inclusivity through sponsoring underrepresented techies early in their careers, including those with disabilities, to attend conferences. Conferences are important profession building hubs and networking sites, but they are often expensive, says Ian. Through grants, people who have less access to these spaces will be able to have their voice and ideas at the table.

Ian regularly speaks at conferences, including a “Deaf in Tech” panel at the Ability and Tech Summit hosted at the Ed Roberts Campus last May. The panel discussed how to bring people with hearing impairments into tech culture. Ian says that similarly to women in tech who are commonly pigeon holed as only being able to talk about gender and tech, disabled people are often called on as public figures only to discuss disability advocacy. “I value doing these [talks], they have a lot of value on the educational side, but I’d like to do more on the technical side…, moving beyond the disability 101 in tech conversation to [how] current changes in the economic structure affect the social structure and the changes we put out.”

We at Students for Access very much agree with Ian’s hope for the tech industry to move beyond “Disability 101.” For more stimulating conversations, check out our other featured profiles of disabled people working and thriving in tech, coming to the blog in the coming weeks! Additionally, on Tuesday, August 22nd, from 2-3:30 pm PST the Students for Access will be hosting a free webinar "Beyond Diversity 101: Learning from the Perspectives of People with Disabilities in Tech." To join us, please RSVP. Captioning will be provided.

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Seeking Your Stories: People with Disabilities Working in Tech

Visitor — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 23:19:14 +0000

This summer at the Longmore Institute, the Students for Access Project aims to change tech industry conversations about hiring people with disabilities from the topic of compliance to a strength based approach that provokes a culture of true disability inclusion. In the past decade, the push to diversify tech has been a hot topic. While major companies now tout employment stats on gender and race, much less talk and even less action is being done to invest in and hire people with disabilities. We hope to heat up the discussion.

With the help of three student interns affiliated with the disability community, we aim to gather 10-15 diverse stories and perspectives of people with disabilities successfully working in tech. We are looking for people who have any kind of disability as the project aims to represent a wide array of stories and intersectional identities. These narratives, published through the institute blog, will also take the form of a booklet/webinar we hope to share as a hiring initiative to interested companies along with resources for both prospective employees and employers.

If you or anyone you know would be interested in sharing their story, please contact the institute's graduate student assistant Ellie Gordon, ellie.ava.gordon@gmail.com.

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Event Recap: The Launch of Patient No More at the Main Library! (Includes Video & Pictures)

Visitor — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 23:34:49 +0000

We are so happy with the launch of our exhibit, "Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights", last Saturday, June 10th at the San Francisco Main Public Library. The kick-off marked an incredible celebration of and homage to the Section 504 sit-in disability activists, who occupied just across the street 40 years ago. Thank you so much to everyone that attended!

If you missed the opening or want to experience it again, check out the captioned video here:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ1gld-TA7M]

Thanks to our stellar panel that included Catherine Kudlick, Director of the Longmore Institute on Disability; Judith Heumann, 504 lead organizer and Special Advisor of Disability Rights for the US State Department under President Barack Obama; Dennis Billups, 504 protester; and Corbett Joan O'Toole, 504 protester and author.

Make sure you catch this important part of our history! "Patient No More" will be open until September 3rd during regular library hours with more exciting programming coming your way!

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