Blog [with]tv

The Norwich Free Academy R-Word Campaign: Watch the Video - Spread the Word!

As we write, the word against use of the 'R-Word' is building momentum, one school at a time, around the U.S. and into the global community!

Take a moment now to watch Connecticut's Norwich Free Academy R-Word Campaign video  

Directed, edited, and produced by talented 16-year-old Patrick Kudej with the help of Alyssa Beit, Katie Beit, and many others, this video was uploaded by NFArword to YouTube on February 16th and is going viral.

Help circulate this message around the world: A single word has the power to wound and discourage the acceptance of people with disabilities!

Support Patrick's video; contact him at [email protected], or on YouTube.

For a collection of campaign videos, visit http://www.r-word.org/r-word-videos.aspx.

Advocate – Empower – Entertain

Submitted by: Howard Renensland, CEO & President, [with]tv 

This is my take on Tropic Thunder and its own little self-engendered thunderstorm. It all starts with a word. Here the word happened to be “retard” the noun, not the verb. The storm is passing and The Dark Knight is making room, but will not be passed as a bigger Box Office Bonanza. Makes you realize how sentient the creators of Life Goes On really were. Life does go on for each of those with and without a disability. 

I understand the sorrow this word can cause when used as an epithet with an obvious intent to inflict harm on the one it is used against. My daughter had the good fortune to grow up in a wonderful community full of opportunity for most but still had “Retard” spray painted across a class project, balloons popped with a pin in her face (knowing she was terrified of this noise) and other indignities too numerous to mention. Life goes on. No, the “R word” is not as crippling as “the N word”. Nor is it as seemingly harmless as Nerd, Geek, Slacker or Jock. It hurts the one called, the one doing the calling and most important to many of us, the one meant to be characterized by the word 

In contemplating this recent public outcry I have thought long and hard. I feel it is about such basic and long lasting issues impacting our community of pwd and truly the larger community of pwod that will be with us long after anyone capable of reading this today will be dead and buried/cremated. I come back to the power of words. What we want to have happen will never happen if we continue to go about attempting to make it happen the way we currently are. I mean, my God isn’t your head beginning to hurt, because that brick wall is sure getting bloodier and bloodier. Tropic Thunder is making money hand over fist, the backlash against our well meaning but impotent protest is much greater, and Spielberg and friends are out creating another entity to make more money in mainstream media and popular culture. Get a sense of where I am going? Here we go.

 

Inclusive Media Channel [with]tv: Vision for Authentic Window into Community of People with Disabilities

Pam Vetter

July 21, 2008

"My inspiration for [with]tv came from lifetime experiences of raising my daughter, Victoria, who was born with developmental disabilities," said Howard Renensland, CEO & Founder of [with]tv. "The moment we are broadcasting, we will overnight change the lives of people with disabilities by providing an authentic window into the community."

While [with]tv is still in the start-up stage, Renensland has received support from around the world.

Continue reading Pam Vetter's article here: Inclusive Media Channel [with]tv

Photo: Howard Renensland with his daughter, Victoria.

Let's Consider a Creative Solution to All the Outrage

Submitted by Howard Renensland, CEO & Founder, [with]tv

There is a lot of outrage in our sizable global community of people with disabilities lately. You can read it in a variety of disability blogs, including our own, and see it in various letters to the editors of major newspapers like the New York Times and others.

But that is about it sorry to say. Our feelings, issues, complaints, etc. do not make up much of the content in mainstream media today, nor will they ever, ever, ever. There are a multitude of reasons for this. It is a simple fact. I encourage you to continue to advocate for a bigger piece, better coverage, or a different perspective.

Please believe me when I say I understand all this emotion. I have been a parent of a person with a disability for 24 years and a friend of many others for even longer. If “it” can happen to a person with a disability then I have either experienced “it” through my daughter, seen it, read about it, or heard about it, many, many, many times and expect to do so many, many, many more times before I die. One aspect of the human experience that we share with all our fellow humans is “#*%$ happens.”

Now this does not diminish at all the well articulated and deeply felt responses to the way we are referred to in the New York Times or the way we are ostracized in Florida kindergarten classes, or any of the other public and private degradations that do not make it into the consciousness of mainstream media but to which we and our fellows are subjected every second of every hour of every day of every week, of every month, of every year from before time was measured or history recorded.

Disability and Language: a NY Times Article Review

This comment was left on a post by William Peace on his blog, Bad Cripple.   Therextras wrote " Thank you for an excellent expose of a typical media dissemination of language and attitudes we would like not only to reform but squelch. I hope you sent some response directly to the newspaper." 

Team [with]tv would like to second that remark.

Here is an excerpt from William's post. 

Monday, May 12, 2008

Disability and Language

Yesterday a long article appeared in the New York Times entitled "Taking a Chance on a Second Child". The article was written by Michael Winerip, a Pulitzer Prize wining writer. Mr. Winerip is a seasoned reporter, graduate of Harvard University and a gifted writer. Yet a day later I remain stunned and outraged by the language Winerip used. The article in question is about Jordana Holovach, her son Jacob who is severely disabled, and her decision to have a second "healthy" child.

The tone of Winerip's article is shocking. Each and every mention of disability is overwhelmingly negative. The language is antiquated, insulting, and devalues the life of a child and by extension all disabled children and adults. Among the snippets I found particularly appalling include the following:

In referring to Ms. Holovach's son: "And as much as she loves that boy and as hard as she's worked to make him whole...she felt snake bit"

Ms. Holovach's son is "confined to a wheelchair".

Ms. Holovach's son was responsible for her divorce: "Her first marriage ended in divorce under the strain" and "Jacob was a big reason".

Before Ms. Holovach's son was born "they were successful people" (note tense).

Oh don't stop here.  Keep reading, there is more....

Then stop by Patricia E Bauer's blog for this additional link.

 

Parents of Children with Disabilities Want Us to Know...

Ruth, of The Wheelie Catholic has placed a link to a short YouTube video by Javier Prato "where parents of children with disabilities talk about their concerns and also their joys."

A Memorial Day Memory

Submitted by Howard Renensland, CEO & Founder, [with]tv

Yesterday was Memorial Day and like any good American family we celebrated it in our own way ending early this morning. Here it is. I find it pretty unique and interesting in the grand scheme of things. Here’s hoping you do as well. It’s just “A Different Perspective.”

We stayed at home and attended no Memorial Day Parade or organized activity of any kind. Now before you toss me in the basket with all the other anti-American folks allow me to add that I do have a lapel pin, several actually; a US flag, Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, one commemorating a year of perfect attendance in First Methodist Sunday School – 7th Grade, which was due largely to my desire to be closer to a cute little girl rather than God.

The reason for this seemingly anti-glorification of war sentiment is really pretty lame but true nonetheless. My daughter Victoria, who, if any of you know anything about [with]tv, know is my motivation in this endeavor has a true paranoiac fear of any and all loud noises. This includes all guns, balloons, thunder, etc. This makes for anything but an uneventful life and was particularly amusing during her pre k-12 school years when manually filled balloons are as mandatory as a label of “gifted” for a successful school event.

It is particularly exacerbated at present due to Victoria’s recent surgeries and extended hospitalization. I guess sort of a post-traumatic stress syndrome reaction. Anyway, we avoid any and all celebrations on Memorial Day. On the 4th of July, forget about it. We simply leave the country for spots that for some odd reason choose not to celebrate America’s Independence; at least not with firework displays and the odd string of firecrackers set off in the middle of the day in the middle of the street.

Civil Rights & Media Justice

This post below ("Media is a civil rights issue") was originally published on the freepress blog under Media Issues.  Without a doubt, "people with disabilities" is one of the "other" disenfranchised communities mentioned in the article, and a very significant one at that.  This is a very relevant topic to [with]tv. Check out this link for the National Conference on Media Reform  (June 2008) for additional information.

The National Conference for Media Reform (NCMR) is the largest and highest-profile gathering of media reform advocates in the nation.

The NCMR brings together thousands of activists, media makers, educators, journalists, scholars, policymakers and engaged citizens to meet, tell their stories, share tactics, listen to great speakers and build the movement for better media in America.

Media is a civil rights issue.

People of color, women, youth, and other disenfranchised communities have long been shut out of our country’s media.

They own few of our television and radio stations, newspapers and major Internet sites. They produce little of what’s seen and heard in mainstream media. They're not represented and often don't see coverage of their issues on the public airwaves. What’s more, how the media portrays communities of color can have harmful and punitive consequences.

The denial of media justice is unacceptable in our democracy, where women comprise 51 percent of the population and “minorities” are fast becoming a majority of the population.

At Free Press, we believe that if we want better media, we need to change the media policies that shape the system.

We’re working to foster public policies that promote media diversity, strengthen laws and regulations to support minority ownership, eliminate institutional biases in media content, and ensure fair and accurate representation for all communities.

Achieving media justice means making media more inclusive and accountable, not just to media conglomerates and shareholders, but to all Americans. It means taking back our public airwaves and transforming our media from a closed market owned and run by the few into a public resource that benefits everyone.

Free Press believes the fights for social justice and media reform are closely intertwined. If we hope to have a more diverse and inclusive society and a vibrant democracy, we must include the state of the media among the most pressing civil rights issues of our time.

(Description of graphic above: a color "cartoon" of an audience of people of all shapes, sizes, color and gender, all sitting with their backs to us. They are viewing four video screens, two stacked on top of the other two.  Each of the screens depicts a white male, each wearing a business suit, delivering the "news".  Clearly the audience is very diverse.  The journalists are anything but.)

Disability Blog Carnival. Here. Tomorrow

The subject of “Disability and The Media” is a wonderful choice for a theme! It will, I hope, engender a myriad of conversations on a complete gamut of aspects of this topic.

I am convinced everyone in the community of people with disabilities – those with disabilities, those who are friends, relatives, and lovers of a person with a disability, those who provide a service or a product to a person with a disability – has an opinion on the subject. The topic has been around so long, however, and remains such a sore spot in our history that many may feel it is purposeless to voice an opinion. That would be a mistake.

I am equally convinced that many who have no relation to the community would have an interesting perspective to offer as well. Very little separates people with and people without a disability – just the word “with”. That little word, “with” and the implications, perceptions, and actuality it brings with it, however, speaks volumes. That is the crux of the matter.

Here briefly is my take, developed by my life long experience as a person and my 24 years as a parent of a person with a disability.

Disability is a commodity to “the media”, just like any other “topic” – the economy, sex, death, crime, race, war, love, poverty, family, sports, etc. If it sells it has a place. The interests of “powers that be” in media stop right there. 

The film and television industry is not interested in the issues and causes deemed important by the community of people with disabilities any more than any other industry is. We in the community may feel it should be, given the perception changing power of popular culture and mainstream media, but such is not the case. It is in business to make money, not advance social causes.

Now certain individuals and entities in the industry might and do wish to use their place in the media to bring about change and raise awareness, but clearly not in any large number nor with any great effect, their welcomed efforts not withstanding. There is remarkable potential though, and I hope to harness it.

The community seems to feel that it has no place and no voice in the media. I certainly feel this way. I also feel it never will until “we” create our own voice. That is why I am engaged in starting [with]tv.

[with]tv as I intend it is not a separate or segregated entity. We are attempting to create a mainstream media voice offering our perspective on all issues of interest to the viewing public. We are not hiring solely people with disabilities, but rest assured we will leave no stone unturned in finding, training and hiring talented people with disabilities in all areas and at all levels of the creative process. We will also hire anyone else that wants to work in an open, accepting and accessible environment and workforce.

We will go toe-to-toe and head to head with other providers of content in seeking as large and diverse an audience as possible. We will differ in that we will be inclusive, not exclusive and accessible and of interest to all. We will attempt to build a media home known to everyone in the world – with and without a disability.

Viewers know where to go for sports, news, music, comedy, and drama, even for re-runs, game shows and kids shows. Soon we will all know where to go for anything concerning the lifestyles of people with disabilities presented in a news and entertainment format that is accessible to all.

Then we will no longer have to ask, plead, beg, advocate for coverage of our community, or a more “accurate” and authentic portrayal of our community, or for a chance to be employed in the industry and opportunity to participate in the creative process or for content and advertising that is accessible to all our peers. We will have our voice.

That is some of my thinking on Disability and The Media. Let me know if you would like to work with those of us volunteering in this effort. We welcome and need you.

Howard Renensland, CEO & Founder, [with}tv

Who Should Be Representing Us?

Blog [with]tv will be hosting the next Disability Blog Carnival on January 10, 2008.  The theme that will be presented is "Disability in the Media: Tell us of your experiences and/or your impressions."  What better way to announce this theme than with Valerie Brew-Parrish's post below.

The question for all people with disabilities to ponder is this: Who should be representing us? Actors and actresses, politicians, or how about community leaders? Is it morally and ethically right for others to simulate a disability even when the issue is about access?

It sends the WRONG message. Look closely at this advertisement supposedly touting access. None of the older white men pictured have a disability. Furthermore, the photo op never indicates that non-disabled people can some day become a person with a disability. This is the message that many people with disabilities erroneously assumed. That  misperception is simply not the thrust of the ad. A white cane, wheelchair, walker, and a TTY are aids. Can any of you honestly recall at least 10 actors & actresses with real disabilities? Hollywood and the public prefer to see non-disabled people. Perhaps, if they observed us living "normal" lives the fear of us would vanish.

Michael Landon seemingly broke new ground when he featured James Troesch as Scotty. I personally would like to turn on my TV or open my newspaper and see people with disabilities living their lives and promoting access. [with]tv has thankfully recognized this problem and is working diligently to have people with disabilities directing their own shows, and writing scripts that accurately represent our lives.

I am offended when someone pretends to have a disability and I have written extensively on the great harm that disability simulations do to people with disabilities. Although the politicians and community leaders in this ad probably thought they were promoting the Accessible Cities Alliance, their insensitivity speaks volumes. These same men would never agree to appear in black face like the white actors who once upon a time portrayed Amos and Andy. Schools often choose puppets with disabilities to sensitize children about disabilities. I don't agree with the use of puppets and I abhor disability simulations.

One last point about the ad: No where does the ad address the fact that access is the law. State laws in Illinois pertaining to access have been on the books since 1978. The ADA is 17 years old. The time has come for people with disabilities to shout from the roof tops if necessary that simulations are destructive and should be abolished. We need to dissolve the mantle of shame about our disabilities.

Disabled and proud! We are real people and we must unite and make the public accept us for who we are!

Valerie Brew-Parrish, M.S.
Disability Columnist

Links:

The Wrong Message - Still.  An article by Valerie Brew-Parrish for A Ragged Edge Online
The International Day of Disabled Persons needs to be recognized and celebrated.