New book first 'to create a wide-ranging chronological American history narrative told through the lives of people with disabilities'

Scott McLemee's review of Prof. Kim Nielsen's new book, A Disability History of the United States, in Insider Higher Ed:

There's a mean streak at the heart of a certain kind of American optimism -- a rugged, go-it-alone, dog-eat-dog strain of individualism that is callous at best, shading into the sociopathic. It values independence, or says it does, but only by regarding dependency as a totally abject condition. The reality that illness or old age threw even the hardiest pioneer into reliance on others hardly factors into this worldview; the notion that civilization implies interdependence is, for it, almost literally unthinkable.

As I say, this outlook can manifest itself as optimism (the future is one of unbounded possibility, etc.) not always distinct from wishful thinking or denial. And it’s just as likely to pour out in resentment that is keen, if not particularly consistent. “I am a victim,” the logic goes, “of all those people out there playing victim.” Absent a frontier, the frontier spirit starts wallowing in self-pity.

The absence of pity of any sort from Kim E. Nielsen’s new book A Disability History of the United States, published by Beacon Press, is hardly the most provocative thing about it. Nielsen, a professor of disability studies at the University of Toledo, indicates that it is the first book “to create a wide-ranging chronological American history narrative told through the lives of people with disabilities.” By displacing the able-bodied, self-subsisting individual citizen as the basic unit (and implied beneficiary) of the American experience, she compels the reader to reconsider how we understand personal dignity, public life, and the common good.

Take the “ugly laws,” for instance. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, major American cities made it illegal for (in the words of the San Francisco ordinance from 1867) “any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated, or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object” to appear in “streets, highways, thoroughfares, or public places.”

The laws were unequally enforced, with poor and indigent people with handicaps being the main targets. For one thing, the impact of the Civil War plus the incredible frequency of industrial accidents meant there were more unsightly beggars than ever. But while deformed and damaged bodies were being cleared from the streets, there was a pronounced public appetite for the exhibits at “freak” shows.

Now, the two phenomena in question have been studied in some depth over the years. A monograph on the ugly laws appeared not that long ago -- and while there have been more detailed studies of the world of “human oddities” than the late Leslie Fiedler’s cultural history Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self (1978), I doubt many have been nearly as thought-provoking. Nielsen’s historical narrative is presumably meant for undergraduates and the general public, so it’s natural to lose nuance in the treatment of either topic. But the breadth of the survey also means there is a gain in perspective.

No direct link exists between the policing of disabled bodies and their exploitation as entertainment, yet there is a connection even so. “In contestations over who was fit to be present in the civic world and who was not,” Nielsen says, “people with disabilities often found themselves increasingly regulated. Those not considered fit for public life were variably shut away, gawked at, [or] exoticized.”

It was a far cry from the norm of a century earlier. “The general lack of discussion and institutional acknowledgement of physical disabilities” in 17th- and 18th-century America “suggests that they simply were not noteworthy among communities of European colonists in the period before the Revolution,” Nielsen writes. “Indeed, it suggests that such bodily variations were relatively routine and expected – and accommodations were made, or simply didn’t have to be made, to integrate individuals into community labor patterns.”

Over time, in other words, disability became abnormal. Or at least it quit seeming “normal” in the way that it once did: a hard fact of life, to be sure, but just in the nature of things. Consider the way severely wounded veterans of the Revolutionary War reintegrated into the life of the new Republic. Citing recent historical work, Nielsen indicates that they “labored, married, had children, and had households typical in size and structures, at rates nearly identical to their nondisabled counterparts." They “worked at the same types of jobs, in roughly the same proportions” as well, and as a group they experienced poverty at the same rates as others of their background. The wounded returning from later wars had a much harder time of it.

Not all handicaps are created equal, of course. Nor is it self-evident that they should be lumped together (war wounds and birth defects, blindness and retardation, mental illness and dwarfism) under the common heading of “disability.” Nielsen sketches the changing ways political and medical authorities responded to the afflicted -- by trying to help them, or hide them, or both. In any case, the trend was to define them not by what they could do, but by their handicap. At the same time, attitudes towards the disabled were becoming tangled together with other prejudices. If certain people weren’t allowed to vote or otherwise exercise much power, it was only because their race, gender, or foreign origin left them physically or mentally unfit for it. Stigma and inequality fed off one another.

The very idea of being profoundly, inescapably limited in some way makes for anxiety when the cultural norm is the expectation “to create successful and powerful selves” that are ready to “stand on our own two feet” and “speak for ourselves.” Nielsen points out that the last two figures of speech are part of the problem. There are people who literally can’t “stand on their own two feet” or “speak for themselves.” While my exposure to the kinds of disability activists Nielsen writes about in the final pages of her history has been limited, they do seem to have an ironic and sarcastic (rather than po-facedly indignant) response to such "able-ist" imagery -- regarding it less as an insult than as evidence that the speaker is a bit thick. Which is usually true. The "unchallenged," as we might be called euphemistically, tend to be somewhat lacking in imagination and insight about their struggle for greater equality and autonomy.

And yet they have won some battles – by demanding help. By demanding a redistribution of resources on the basis of their intrinsic right, as human beings, to the dignity they could not enjoy otherwise. Someone in a wheelchair can zip around the neighborhood just fine, getting to her job at the pharmacy on time, provided the curbs are made accessible. And no, the person in the wheelchair is not responsible for paying for that, any more than her customers are responsible for mixing their own medications. Interdependence is not a failure of independence; it is the condition for enjoying the sort of independence that means anything at all.

Actor John Hawkes on Mark O'Brien, 'The Sessions' and maintaining an even keel

From Hitfix. You can watch the 1996 Oscar-winning documentary "Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien" free online.

NEW YORK -- The first time actor John Hawkes heard about Mark O'Brien, the polio-afflicted author, journalist and poet he portrays in the new film "The Sessions," it was due to the Oscars. Documentary filmmaker Jessica Yu had just won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short for 1996's "Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien." Hawkes read a quote from her in the newspaper basically noting that the dress loaned to her for the evening cost more than the budget for her film, and he enjoyed a chuckle over that.

Hawkes knows a little something about low-budget filmmaking, too. After working consistently for years as a character actor on screen and TV, he's become something of an indie darling. "The Sessions" in fact marked his third-straight trip to the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year (at which point the film was titled "The Surrogate"). And 16 years after the Oscars managed to put O'Brien on his radar, he looks entirely likely to pop up on Oscars' radar for his performance of the man.

But going back to "Breathing Lessons," it was a crucial tool for Hawkes when it came to inhabiting O'Brien. "I watched it probably 40 or 50 times," he says. "There was Mark in all his glory. There was his twisted body and his voice and his attitude and his poetry, all prevalent. There are a lot of things I could mime from that film. It afforded me a chance to capture some of the real sound and feeling and vibe of Mark himself."

But the performance needed to be about way more than mere physicality. O'Brien spent over four decades in an iron lung. But from that prison his spirit flew on the page. The wealth of writing available to Hawkes was equally beneficial, he says, and indicative of the undying light he most wanted to capture in his performance.

"I suppose a guy who lives 49 years and 43 of them in an iron lung and exceeds a lot of expectations, just by nature that person is going to be a battler," he says of his way into playing the part from within. "A character who's been dealt an unfortunate hand, I would want to avoid self-pity. You don't want to watch a character wallow in their grief, but rather try to solve their problem, and that seemed to be a good part of Mark's life. And humor was hugely important, to find humor wherever we could in the script. The situation is fraught from the outset."

And indeed, there are light touches throughout that keep the film not only balanced, but realistic as a result. The story told by "The Sessions" is a specific one, though, that of the time O'Brien spent with sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen Greene (played by Helen Hunt in the film). Knowing he was nearing the end of his rope and had never been with a woman intimately due to his affliction, O'Brien enlisted Greene's services for six sessions of sex therapy. But the bond depicted in the film crosses sterile therapist/patient boundaries and becomes something moving unto itself.

Adding a sense of realism to the dynamic is the fact that Hawkes and Hunt had never met prior to the film. So a lot of the spark of introductory awkwardness is alive in those scenes, Hawkes says, while the growth of the relationship was helped further by the fact that the sessions were filmed sequentially.

"You hear the word 'brave' thrown around about acting performances a little too freely, but I think in this case it actually applies," he says of his co-star's work. "It's a really courageous performance on a lot of levels. And you also hear 'the nudity was necessary' for the movie or the story or whatever and in this case it's not bullshit. It's such an integral part of the movie and her character needs to handle it in such a specific way, and she does it so beautifully."

Hawkes says the Sundance experience has been "phenomenal" and that he laments the fact that he won't be at the fest with another film in 2013, but three years in a row have meant a lot. And it seems they've all been leading to this moment, when he finally assumes leading man status in a vehicle of his own.

"For me it's been the first time I've seen each of those movies ['Winter's Bone,' 'Martha Marcy May Marlene' and 'The Sessions']," he says. "It's been a nervous thrill to watch those with a crowd and Sundance has been really great to me…It's kind of an overwhelming festival but I really admire Mr. Redford. I mean you think of all the people who've been inspired and given chances to work there, from the labs to the festival itself, and it's literally hundreds of filmmakers. That's an honorable and rare and wonderful thing."

The first of that string brought Hawkes his first-ever Oscar nomination, but he says that hasn't really changed his life all that much. "I think part of that is how I've approached it," he says. "Maybe I'll be in a summer blockbuster, sequel eight of some film along the way, but so far I've been able to avoid that. I don't need much money to live. I've saved money from the TV shows I've been on. I have a low overhead and I just prefer to do things that stir me. There are some really amazingly great, big movies out there, but I just haven't really been asked to be a part of them, so I prefer to do the little ones at this point. I'm made nervous by higher visibility on many levels. Since I don't have a mortgage, I don't have any children, it offers me freedom to kind of do what I want to do, which is low budget films that not that many people see, normally."

Nevertheless, his work in "The Sessions" will bring him to a whole other level. And "two-time Oscar nominee" starts to have a much different ring to it. He'll find himself in a race with formidable competitors like Daniel Day-Lewis, Anthony Hopkins and Denzel Washington -- actors who have been well-rewarded by the Academy, in other words. Might his affable portrayal spark a desire to award new blood at the Dolby Theatre? Perhaps. But Hawkes isn't likely to miss a beat if it does.

"There's no goal beyond the life I already have," he says.

Ben Lewin’s The Sessions (formerly The Surrogate) emerged as the undisputed hit of Sundance 2012, landing a $6 million sale with the unlikeliest of subjects: A paralyzed man’s quest to lose his virginity, based on the life and writings of Bay Area poet Mark O’Brien. Thanks to Lewin’s sensitive and honest script and an impressive turn by indie favorite John Hawkes -- who shines with wit and grace in a physically demanding performance as O’Brien, who has no use of his limbs due to polio but begins to explore his sexuality with the help of a hands-on sex therapist (Helen Hunt) – The Sessions earned consecutive standing ovations and got critics buzzing with the possibilities for next year’s Academy Awards. Movieline sat down with Hawkes after the film's Sundance debut to discuss the indie labor of love, why O’Brien’s story resonates so powerfully, and how opportunities have expanded for him since breaking out two years ago in Park City with his Oscar-nominated turn in Winter’s Bone.

Read More at: http://movieline.com/2012/10/19/john-hawkes-sessions-interview-mark-o-brien/#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral

Ben Lewin’s The Sessions (formerly The Surrogate) emerged as the undisputed hit of Sundance 2012, landing a $6 million sale with the unlikeliest of subjects: A paralyzed man’s quest to lose his virginity, based on the life and writings of Bay Area poet Mark O’Brien. Thanks to Lewin’s sensitive and honest script and an impressive turn by indie favorite John Hawkes -- who shines with wit and grace in a physically demanding performance as O’Brien, who has no use of his limbs due to polio but begins to explore his sexuality with the help of a hands-on sex therapist (Helen Hunt) – The Sessions earned consecutive standing ovations and got critics buzzing with the possibilities for next year’s Academy Awards. Movieline sat down with Hawkes after the film's Sundance debut to discuss the indie labor of love, why O’Brien’s story resonates so powerfully, and how opportunities have expanded for him since breaking out two years ago in Park City with his Oscar-nominated turn in Winter’s Bone. I grew up close to Berkeley and was a little familiar with Mark O’Brien before seeing the film, but it captured that sense of place for me – especially with little touches like Pink Man to set the atmosphere. Yes, of course! That’s good, because we shot in Los Angeles because we couldn’t afford to shoot up there. We had to make our own Pink Man and everything. [Laughs] Luckily there are a couple of Victorian streets in Los Angeles that we were able to utilize. How familiar were you with O’Brien’s story beforehand? I was minutely aware of Mark because I had heard of Jessica Yu’s amazing, Academy Award-winning short doc about Mark, called Breathing Lessons. I’d just vaguely kind of remembered that, and I may have seen an article about him at that time, but it was a new kind of story to me when I picked up the script and read it. I was pretty taken with the script itself, by Ben Lewin, and knowing he was going to direct the film which is often a wonderful thing – it’s the person who wrote the script, directing the movie. I just thought he was an extraordinarily interesting man, a polio survivor himself and very uniquely qualified to tell the story. When the project came to you – a very challenging role, to say the least - what made you decide you had to do it? My first question to Ben, as we sat down to meet before he’d offered the role and before I’d accepted the role, was ‘Why not a disabled actor?’ And he assured me that he had taken the last couple of years, he’d put out feelers to disabled groups, and had auditioned several people – a couple of them are in the film – and just felt like he hadn’t found his Mark. So with that huge question answered, I talked to Ben a lot about how he saw the film as a whole, how he saw the character of Mark; I had my ideas, we chatted and seemed to get along really well, so it was a good fit. We went forward from there. And this is a very small project. Ben raised the money by appealing to friends, basically, and so this tiny little script suddenly attracting William H. Macy, Helen Hunt, and a bunch of other wonderful actors – it’s vindicating to read something and think, ‘This is really good!’ And then you realize other people think so too. I’m not insane, it is a great script! How challenging was the shoot itself, physically? It was very challenging – again, a minute amount of the challenge that a disabled person faces, moment to moment, but certainly it was physically challenging. I helped invent a device that we used to curve Mark’s spine, basically a large piece of foam that we nicknamed ‘The Torture Ball’ because it would lay under the left side of my body and curve my spine for every shot in the movie. Sometimes I’d have to lay on that for an hour at a time, and it was hard – it apparently displaced my organs. [Laughs] My chiropractor told me that my organs were migrating and to hopefully finish the movie soon. I have minor health issues that may relate to laying on that thing, but nothing compared to what many people suffer daily, and it’s a small price to pay for what’s turned out to be a really beautiful film. To paraphrase Mark himself in the film, it may have hurt – but it was worth it? Yes! Definitely. It’s an interesting choice that Ben made to present Mark’s story here not as a straight biopic but with a focus on his relationship with his sex surrogate. What do you think that shifted angle brings, as opposed to a more conventional portrayal? Interesting. I think Ben originally had seen the movie as a biopic and then began to realize that the part of Mark’s life that interested him the most was his quest to learn his sexual possibilities as a disabled man. I think it’s a really wise choice; biopics are interesting, but I’d rather see a documentary of a person’s whole life, and I’d much rather see a narrative feature focused on a small piece of their life. And if you can focus on a small piece of someone’s life and tell it well enough, I think it informs the whole of their life. And there’s a real interesting story there – there’s a relationship that develops, certainly heightened in our film, but with the blessing of the real surrogate, Cheryl Cohen Green, to heighten and complicate their relationship a bit and to make it a love story of sorts. The subject matter, as you describe it, doesn’t have wide appeal but I think it has so much humor and so much truth, it’s a breath of fresh air. Mark’s voice really comes through – the same painfully honest, witty spirit you can see in his writings. It was important to me to fight self-pity at every turn, and for the film as a whole to fight sentiment as much as possible. He certainly never wanted people to feel sorry for him. No! The idea that he was a courageous person and stuff, he thought was bullshit. Like, how do you presume to know what I feel, what I go through? I think through his articles he was very interested in the political and social aspects of his disability. One thing that’s striking about Jessica Yu’s film, and I believe I also read something Mark wrote about it, is that to the taxpayer – to those of us who help support disabled people by paying taxes – it was half or maybe one-third of the cost of him being in an institution and live on his own, to pay rent, to hire attendance, way less of a strain on the taxpayer than keeping him an institution, where he was sadly stuck for a few years of his life when his parents were too old to take care of him. Luckily, the University of California, Berkeley in the ‘70s said, we’ll take care of any student who qualifies, who can pass our admission – it doesn’t matter what their disability. There’s an amazing photograph of his iron lung, 800 lbs. of it, hanging from a crane right outside his dorm room window as they’re trying to get it inside. So I know Mark always had a really felt beholden to Berkeley and felt a wonderful debt to that college and that town. They opened up his life, he was kind of reborn in his 30s in Berkeley. Sex and love are central to Mark’s journey in this film, and it’s such a fascinating terrain to explore – the relationship between disability and sexuality, and sexuality and manhood, and what they all might have meant to him. I can’t exactly speak in exact detail to his innermost thought, but he was quite effusive in his writings. In Jessica Yu’s film there is a brief mention of his surrogate time. Bill Macy’s made the point that he worked with a group, and disabled people, like able-bodied people, want to be independent as much as possible and live their lives that way, and they also want to love and be loved. Those are commonalities among people everywhere, and certainly disabled people are no exception. I think that Mark mainly was interested in sex because he was more largely interested in love and in a relationship with someone, and I think that he felt that if he ever met someone he could love, that he would want to have explored his possibilities, sexually. So that’s where the surrogate comes in. The minute that the first screening here ended, folks were buzzing about next year's Oscars. It’s a little early! [Laughs] It’s a lot early. I mean, there may be twenty more amazing films that come out in the next year. I hope so! So who knows? It’s way too early and it doesn’t exactly make me nervous, I just turn a deaf ear to it because low expectations have always been the key to happiness for me. I don’t want to expect things to happen as much as hope, and if those Oscar predictions come true, fantastic – because it will bring more people to this film. After the success of Winter’s Bone, perhaps, how much did things change for you? Has the way that you’ve chosen projects in the last few years evolved at all? No, though I’ve certainly been afforded the opportunity to choose what I might be a part of. It’s not like every director in every movie is seeking me out by any means, there are a lot of things I’m not suited for, a lot of things I’m not interested in, and a lot of things that directors wouldn’t be interested in me for. What are you interested in? I’m interested in amazing stories told by talented people, and to get to play a terrific role. The three things I try to find are story, parts, people. Has it gotten easier to find the great characters? You know, I think it maybe is. It’s certainly changed for me because when I first got to Los Angeles 20 years ago, I had worked a lot of my life and was still working regular jobs. Acting was more fun to me, and paid better when I could get the gigs, so in order to avoid any further carpentry and restaurant work and things I’d been doing for many years, I just took whatever came my way. I was happy to be able to pay rent and eat. Certainly I’m freer now; I don’t get to do everything I want to do, but I no longer have to do things I don’t want to do - so that’s good.

Read More at: http://movieline.com/2012/10/19/john-hawkes-sessions-interview-mark-o-brien/#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral

en Lewin’s The Sessions (formerly The Surrogate) emerged as the undisputed hit of Sundance 2012, landing a $6 million sale with the unlikeliest of subjects: A paralyzed man’s quest to lose his virginity, based on the life and writings of Bay Area poet Mark O’Brien. Thanks to Lewin’s sensitive and honest script and an impressive turn by indie favorite John Hawkes -- who shines with wit and grace in a physically demanding performance as O’Brien, who has no use of his limbs due to polio but begins to explore his sexuality with the help of a hands-on sex therapist (Helen Hunt) – The Sessions earned consecutive standing ovations and got critics buzzing with the possibilities for next year’s Academy Awards. Movieline sat down with Hawkes after the film's Sundance debut to discuss the indie labor of love, why O’Brien’s story resonates so powerfully, and how opportunities have expanded for him since breaking out two years ago in Park City with his Oscar-nominated turn in Winter’s Bone. I grew up close to Berkeley and was a little familiar with Mark O’Brien before seeing the film, but it captured that sense of place for me – especially with little touches like Pink Man to set the atmosphere. Yes, of course! That’s good, because we shot in Los Angeles because we couldn’t afford to shoot up there. We had to make our own Pink Man and everything. [Laughs] Luckily there are a couple of Victorian streets in Los Angeles that we were able to utilize. How familiar were you with O’Brien’s story beforehand? I was minutely aware of Mark because I had heard of Jessica Yu’s amazing, Academy Award-winning short doc about Mark, called Breathing Lessons. I’d just vaguely kind of remembered that, and I may have seen an article about him at that time, but it was a new kind of story to me when I picked up the script and read it. I was pretty taken with the script itself, by Ben Lewin, and knowing he was going to direct the film which is often a wonderful thing – it’s the person who wrote the script, directing the movie. I just thought he was an extraordinarily interesting man, a polio survivor himself and very uniquely qualified to tell the story. When the project came to you – a very challenging role, to say the least - what made you decide you had to do it? My first question to Ben, as we sat down to meet before he’d offered the role and before I’d accepted the role, was ‘Why not a disabled actor?’ And he assured me that he had taken the last couple of years, he’d put out feelers to disabled groups, and had auditioned several people – a couple of them are in the film – and just felt like he hadn’t found his Mark. So with that huge question answered, I talked to Ben a lot about how he saw the film as a whole, how he saw the character of Mark; I had my ideas, we chatted and seemed to get along really well, so it was a good fit. We went forward from there. And this is a very small project. Ben raised the money by appealing to friends, basically, and so this tiny little script suddenly attracting William H. Macy, Helen Hunt, and a bunch of other wonderful actors – it’s vindicating to read something and think, ‘This is really good!’ And then you realize other people think so too. I’m not insane, it is a great script! How challenging was the shoot itself, physically? It was very challenging – again, a minute amount of the challenge that a disabled person faces, moment to moment, but certainly it was physically challenging. I helped invent a device that we used to curve Mark’s spine, basically a large piece of foam that we nicknamed ‘The Torture Ball’ because it would lay under the left side of my body and curve my spine for every shot in the movie. Sometimes I’d have to lay on that for an hour at a time, and it was hard – it apparently displaced my organs. [Laughs] My chiropractor told me that my organs were migrating and to hopefully finish the movie soon. I have minor health issues that may relate to laying on that thing, but nothing compared to what many people suffer daily, and it’s a small price to pay for what’s turned out to be a really beautiful film. To paraphrase Mark himself in the film, it may have hurt – but it was worth it? Yes! Definitely. It’s an interesting choice that Ben made to present Mark’s story here not as a straight biopic but with a focus on his relationship with his sex surrogate. What do you think that shifted angle brings, as opposed to a more conventional portrayal? Interesting. I think Ben originally had seen the movie as a biopic and then began to realize that the part of Mark’s life that interested him the most was his quest to learn his sexual possibilities as a disabled man. I think it’s a really wise choice; biopics are interesting, but I’d rather see a documentary of a person’s whole life, and I’d much rather see a narrative feature focused on a small piece of their life. And if you can focus on a small piece of someone’s life and tell it well enough, I think it informs the whole of their life. And there’s a real interesting story there – there’s a relationship that develops, certainly heightened in our film, but with the blessing of the real surrogate, Cheryl Cohen Green, to heighten and complicate their relationship a bit and to make it a love story of sorts. The subject matter, as you describe it, doesn’t have wide appeal but I think it has so much humor and so much truth, it’s a breath of fresh air. Mark’s voice really comes through – the same painfully honest, witty spirit you can see in his writings. It was important to me to fight self-pity at every turn, and for the film as a whole to fight sentiment as much as possible. He certainly never wanted people to feel sorry for him. No! The idea that he was a courageous person and stuff, he thought was bullshit. Like, how do you presume to know what I feel, what I go through? I think through his articles he was very interested in the political and social aspects of his disability. One thing that’s striking about Jessica Yu’s film, and I believe I also read something Mark wrote about it, is that to the taxpayer – to those of us who help support disabled people by paying taxes – it was half or maybe one-third of the cost of him being in an institution and live on his own, to pay rent, to hire attendance, way less of a strain on the taxpayer than keeping him an institution, where he was sadly stuck for a few years of his life when his parents were too old to take care of him. Luckily, the University of California, Berkeley in the ‘70s said, we’ll take care of any student who qualifies, who can pass our admission – it doesn’t matter what their disability. There’s an amazing photograph of his iron lung, 800 lbs. of it, hanging from a crane right outside his dorm room window as they’re trying to get it inside. So I know Mark always had a really felt beholden to Berkeley and felt a wonderful debt to that college and that town. They opened up his life, he was kind of reborn in his 30s in Berkeley. Sex and love are central to Mark’s journey in this film, and it’s such a fascinating terrain to explore – the relationship between disability and sexuality, and sexuality and manhood, and what they all might have meant to him. I can’t exactly speak in exact detail to his innermost thought, but he was quite effusive in his writings. In Jessica Yu’s film there is a brief mention of his surrogate time. Bill Macy’s made the point that he worked with a group, and disabled people, like able-bodied people, want to be independent as much as possible and live their lives that way, and they also want to love and be loved. Those are commonalities among people everywhere, and certainly disabled people are no exception. I think that Mark mainly was interested in sex because he was more largely interested in love and in a relationship with someone, and I think that he felt that if he ever met someone he could love, that he would want to have explored his possibilities, sexually. So that’s where the surrogate comes in. The minute that the first screening here ended, folks were buzzing about next year's Oscars. It’s a little early! [Laughs] It’s a lot early. I mean, there may be twenty more amazing films that come out in the next year. I hope so! So who knows? It’s way too early and it doesn’t exactly make me nervous, I just turn a deaf ear to it because low expectations have always been the key to happiness for me. I don’t want to expect things to happen as much as hope, and if those Oscar predictions come true, fantastic – because it will bring more people to this film. After the success of Winter’s Bone, perhaps, how much did things change for you? Has the way that you’ve chosen projects in the last few years evolved at all? No, though I’ve certainly been afforded the opportunity to choose what I might be a part of. It’s not like every director in every movie is seeking me out by any means, there are a lot of things I’m not suited for, a lot of things I’m not interested in, and a lot of things that directors wouldn’t be interested in me for. What are you interested in? I’m interested in amazing stories told by talented people, and to get to play a terrific role. The three things I try to find are story, parts, people. Has it gotten easier to find the great characters? You know, I think it maybe is. It’s certainly changed for me because when I first got to Los Angeles 20 years ago, I had worked a lot of my life and was still working regular jobs. Acting was more fun to me, and paid better when I could get the gigs, so in order to avoid any further carpentry and restaurant work and things I’d been doing for many years, I just took whatever came my way. I was happy to be able to pay rent and eat. Certainly I’m freer now; I don’t get to do everything I want to do, but I no longer have to do things I don’t want to do - so that’s good.

Read More at: http://movieline.com/2012/10/19/john-hawkes-sessions-interview-mark-o-brien/#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral

en Lewin’s The Sessions (formerly The Surrogate) emerged as the undisputed hit of Sundance 2012, landing a $6 million sale with the unlikeliest of subjects: A paralyzed man’s quest to lose his virginity, based on the life and writings of Bay Area poet Mark O’Brien. Thanks to Lewin’s sensitive and honest script and an impressive turn by indie favorite John Hawkes -- who shines with wit and grace in a physically demanding performance as O’Brien, who has no use of his limbs due to polio but begins to explore his sexuality with the help of a hands-on sex therapist (Helen Hunt) – The Sessions earned consecutive standing ovations and got critics buzzing with the possibilities for next year’s Academy Awards. Movieline sat down with Hawkes after the film's Sundance debut to discuss the indie labor of love, why O’Brien’s story resonates so powerfully, and how opportunities have expanded for him since breaking out two years ago in Park City with his Oscar-nominated turn in Winter’s Bone. I grew up close to Berkeley and was a little familiar with Mark O’Brien before seeing the film, but it captured that sense of place for me – especially with little touches like Pink Man to set the atmosphere. Yes, of course! That’s good, because we shot in Los Angeles because we couldn’t afford to shoot up there. We had to make our own Pink Man and everything. [Laughs] Luckily there are a couple of Victorian streets in Los Angeles that we were able to utilize. How familiar were you with O’Brien’s story beforehand? I was minutely aware of Mark because I had heard of Jessica Yu’s amazing, Academy Award-winning short doc about Mark, called Breathing Lessons. I’d just vaguely kind of remembered that, and I may have seen an article about him at that time, but it was a new kind of story to me when I picked up the script and read it. I was pretty taken with the script itself, by Ben Lewin, and knowing he was going to direct the film which is often a wonderful thing – it’s the person who wrote the script, directing the movie. I just thought he was an extraordinarily interesting man, a polio survivor himself and very uniquely qualified to tell the story. When the project came to you – a very challenging role, to say the least - what made you decide you had to do it? My first question to Ben, as we sat down to meet before he’d offered the role and before I’d accepted the role, was ‘Why not a disabled actor?’ And he assured me that he had taken the last couple of years, he’d put out feelers to disabled groups, and had auditioned several people – a couple of them are in the film – and just felt like he hadn’t found his Mark. So with that huge question answered, I talked to Ben a lot about how he saw the film as a whole, how he saw the character of Mark; I had my ideas, we chatted and seemed to get along really well, so it was a good fit. We went forward from there. And this is a very small project. Ben raised the money by appealing to friends, basically, and so this tiny little script suddenly attracting William H. Macy, Helen Hunt, and a bunch of other wonderful actors – it’s vindicating to read something and think, ‘This is really good!’ And then you realize other people think so too. I’m not insane, it is a great script! How challenging was the shoot itself, physically? It was very challenging – again, a minute amount of the challenge that a disabled person faces, moment to moment, but certainly it was physically challenging. I helped invent a device that we used to curve Mark’s spine, basically a large piece of foam that we nicknamed ‘The Torture Ball’ because it would lay under the left side of my body and curve my spine for every shot in the movie. Sometimes I’d have to lay on that for an hour at a time, and it was hard – it apparently displaced my organs. [Laughs] My chiropractor told me that my organs were migrating and to hopefully finish the movie soon. I have minor health issues that may relate to laying on that thing, but nothing compared to what many people suffer daily, and it’s a small price to pay for what’s turned out to be a really beautiful film. To paraphrase Mark himself in the film, it may have hurt – but it was worth it? Yes! Definitely. It’s an interesting choice that Ben made to present Mark’s story here not as a straight biopic but with a focus on his relationship with his sex surrogate. What do you think that shifted angle brings, as opposed to a more conventional portrayal? Interesting. I think Ben originally had seen the movie as a biopic and then began to realize that the part of Mark’s life that interested him the most was his quest to learn his sexual possibilities as a disabled man. I think it’s a really wise choice; biopics are interesting, but I’d rather see a documentary of a person’s whole life, and I’d much rather see a narrative feature focused on a small piece of their life. And if you can focus on a small piece of someone’s life and tell it well enough, I think it informs the whole of their life. And there’s a real interesting story there – there’s a relationship that develops, certainly heightened in our film, but with the blessing of the real surrogate, Cheryl Cohen Green, to heighten and complicate their relationship a bit and to make it a love story of sorts. The subject matter, as you describe it, doesn’t have wide appeal but I think it has so much humor and so much truth, it’s a breath of fresh air. Mark’s voice really comes through – the same painfully honest, witty spirit you can see in his writings. It was important to me to fight self-pity at every turn, and for the film as a whole to fight sentiment as much as possible. He certainly never wanted people to feel sorry for him. No! The idea that he was a courageous person and stuff, he thought was bullshit. Like, how do you presume to know what I feel, what I go through? I think through his articles he was very interested in the political and social aspects of his disability. One thing that’s striking about Jessica Yu’s film, and I believe I also read something Mark wrote about it, is that to the taxpayer – to those of us who help support disabled people by paying taxes – it was half or maybe one-third of the cost of him being in an institution and live on his own, to pay rent, to hire attendance, way less of a strain on the taxpayer than keeping him an institution, where he was sadly stuck for a few years of his life when his parents were too old to take care of him. Luckily, the University of California, Berkeley in the ‘70s said, we’ll take care of any student who qualifies, who can pass our admission – it doesn’t matter what their disability. There’s an amazing photograph of his iron lung, 800 lbs. of it, hanging from a crane right outside his dorm room window as they’re trying to get it inside. So I know Mark always had a really felt beholden to Berkeley and felt a wonderful debt to that college and that town. They opened up his life, he was kind of reborn in his 30s in Berkeley. Sex and love are central to Mark’s journey in this film, and it’s such a fascinating terrain to explore – the relationship between disability and sexuality, and sexuality and manhood, and what they all might have meant to him. I can’t exactly speak in exact detail to his innermost thought, but he was quite effusive in his writings. In Jessica Yu’s film there is a brief mention of his surrogate time. Bill Macy’s made the point that he worked with a group, and disabled people, like able-bodied people, want to be independent as much as possible and live their lives that way, and they also want to love and be loved. Those are commonalities among people everywhere, and certainly disabled people are no exception. I think that Mark mainly was interested in sex because he was more largely interested in love and in a relationship with someone, and I think that he felt that if he ever met someone he could love, that he would want to have explored his possibilities, sexually. So that’s where the surrogate comes in. The minute that the first screening here ended, folks were buzzing about next year's Oscars. It’s a little early! [Laughs] It’s a lot early. I mean, there may be twenty more amazing films that come out in the next year. I hope so! So who knows? It’s way too early and it doesn’t exactly make me nervous, I just turn a deaf ear to it because low expectations have always been the key to happiness for me. I don’t want to expect things to happen as much as hope, and if those Oscar predictions come true, fantastic – because it will bring more people to this film. After the success of Winter’s Bone, perhaps, how much did things change for you? Has the way that you’ve chosen projects in the last few years evolved at all? No, though I’ve certainly been afforded the opportunity to choose what I might be a part of. It’s not like every director in every movie is seeking me out by any means, there are a lot of things I’m not suited for, a lot of things I’m not interested in, and a lot of things that directors wouldn’t be interested in me for. What are you interested in? I’m interested in amazing stories told by talented people, and to get to play a terrific role. The three things I try to find are story, parts, people. Has it gotten easier to find the great characters? You know, I think it maybe is. It’s certainly changed for me because when I first got to Los Angeles 20 years ago, I had worked a lot of my life and was still working regular jobs. Acting was more fun to me, and paid better when I could get the gigs, so in order to avoid any further carpentry and restaurant work and things I’d been doing for many years, I just took whatever came my way. I was happy to be able to pay rent and eat. Certainly I’m freer now; I don’t get to do everything I want to do, but I no longer have to do things I don’t want to do - so that’s good.

Read More at: http://movieline.com/2012/10/19/john-hawkes-sessions-interview-mark-o-brien/#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral

Florida autistic teen uses social media to fight for right to attend his local school

From NPR's State Impact in Florida:

Sometimes a picture can be worth a thousand followers too.

That’s what happened to Henry Frost after he posted a photo to Facebook.

The photo shows 13-year-old Frost sitting on the steps outside a downtown Tampa building with his service dog Denzel. Not shown are the thousands of Republicans who had gathered nearby for the week-long Republican National Convention.

Frost holds a sign. It reads: “The Civil Rights Act of 1964 granted equal rights to all people. I am a person. I want these rights.”

Frost has autism and a list of related physical problems which have so far eluded a tidy diagnosis. He communicates using an iPad app that speaks what he types.

The right Frost is seeking is the ability to attend Wilson Middle School in his South Tampa neighborhood. The Hillsborough County school district has told Frost they believe he is better off at a specialized program at Coleman Middle School, his family says.

Frost’s photo – and his cause – has gone viral since the photo was posted at the end of August. Thousands have given it an electronic thumbs-up on his I Stand WITH Henry Facebook page. And more than 2,100 have signed an online petition asking Hillsborough schools to let Frost attend Wilson Middle.

Disabilities and special education experts say it’s a common dispute: A family and a school district disagree about what school is best for the student.

School officials say they work hard to give thousands of students with disabilities and their parents what they want. But sometimes parents don’t get the final decision and school officials do.


While he tries to win admission to Wilson, Frost is taking courses at home online. His family worries he is falling behind his classmates. Frost says he just wants to prove himself in a general education classroom.

“Please see me as a person like you,” he types, triggering the mechanical voice of his iPad. “I would like the chance to try.”

Just over a year ago the idea of Frost leading a protest was unthinkable, his mother, Lauri Hunt, and stepfather Russ Hunt said.

Frost was attending a charter school which specializes in special education. His family took educators at their word that Frost was getting everything he needed in school.

He was interested in cars and asked his parents for a ride in a red Camaro for his birthday.

And then Frost saw a documentary called “Wretches and Jabberers” last spring.

The movie follows autism activists Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher as they travel the globe talking to reporters and others about autism. Often, they answer reporter questions by typing answers into a device which speaks the words.

It was the first time Frost had seen people with autism describing life with the disorder in their own words.
Something clicked in Henry, his family said.

“It knocked him off his path,” Russ Hunt said of the movie’s effect on Frost wanting to switch schools. “From that point on that was how it built.”

Bissonnette and Thresher visited Tampa and met with Henry soon after.

Communicating through an iPad is both painstaking and efficient.

Frost often gets stuck trying to answer questions, constantly referring to friends or past events.

That’s when the movie serves as a reference point in Frost’s life.

Frost uses an 18-second piece of the movie’s soundtrack to focus himself when his mind gets caught in one of the repetitive loops typical of autism. He uses the soundtrack as a shorthand way to describe what he’s thinking or feeling.

When Frost gets overwhelmed by a reporter’s interview questions, he regroups in another room – just as a character does in “Wretches and Jabberers.”

Lauri Hunt has to remind Frost to return to his “thinking spot” if she sees him start to hover while typing. She might put her hand on his elbow or shoulder to help him focus. Sometimes he brushes her away.

But Frost can also quickly sift through hundreds of saved phrases and find what he needs. That includes the ability to quickly explain his medical history to paramedics or doctors.

Lauri Hunt said the way Frost views himself has changed after seeing the movie. For the first time Frost started telling people what he wanted.

“In the last year he’s like ‘I,’ ‘I,’ ‘I,’” Lauri Hunt said.

And that means seeking rights for the disabled, including protesting in downtown Tampa during the RNC.
“He started with ‘I would like these rights,” Lauri Hunt said. “Then it was ‘I want these rights.’ And now it’s ‘I have these rights.’”

Despite what Frost and his family want, special education experts say parents don’t always get to choose. That’s because when a labyrinth of federal and state laws meet local practice, sometimes the two sides can’t agree.

Federal law says that students with disabilities have a right to a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment. Experts say that puts a preference on educating students with disabilities in general education classrooms.

Florida law has a similar preference, stating students can only be put into special classrooms if a school cannot accommodate the disability with aids and services in a general classroom.

But sometimes educators and parents disagree about what should be in a student’s education plan and where he or she should attend school.

Privacy laws forbid school districts from discussing individual student cases. Hillsborough County schools said they follow the law and declined to speak about Frost’s request.

Speaking generally, school board chairman Candy Olson said disagreements between the district and parents are rare.

Last year the district designed special education plans for 25,000 students, she said. The parents of just seven students took their dispute to a judge.

Olson said it’s difficult to tell a parent they can’t send their child to the school of their choice, but the district only does so when they believe the student would be better-served or safer at a different school.

“It’s heartbreaking and it makes you angry,” she said. “But there are laws and they’re meant to protect everybody.”

Disabilities advocates say Florida school districts have different views on including students with disabilities in general education classrooms.

Ann Siegel is an attorney with Disability Rights Florida. The group handles about 300 special education disputes each year, including Frost’s.

A Florida Department of Education memo says it’s up to a school district to prove why a student shouldn’t attend a general education classroom.

But Siegel says districts often require that parents prove their child can handle the work. School districts know the process and the law better. Parents can find it difficult to oppose their team of experts.

Parents find it hard to accept the decision isn’t always theirs, Siegel said. They don’t always like the results when they win and their child is placed in a general education classroom.

“There’s very little that I find is black and white in special education,” she said. “Even when you win, you’ve lost time. And you’ve tainted a relationship with the school district.”

Hillsborough County school board member Olson said she understand how it looks when a school district says no to mom. But she says they have to follow the law and the student’s education plan.

School districts can’t afford to hire specialists for every school – it just isn’t an efficient use of tax money, she said. But the school district provides for every student.

“We see miracles with children with special needs,” Olson said. “It’s not for lack of trying; it’s not for lack of caring. But sometimes it’s just a disagreement.”

But while the school district disagrees, Frost is taking classes at home. Lauri Hunt believes he is falling further behind while the family tries to prove he can handle life and work at Wilson.

She worries how other will react to Frost’s public protest.

“You do spend your whole life trying to protect your kids from everyone knowing so much about them,” she said. But the family said the reaction has been mostly positive.

Neighbors have rallied to support his cause. So have strangers on the Internet.

Frost finds some inspiration in the movie “Hairspray,” about Baltimore students who fight to integrate a 60’s television dance show.

“It’s killingly hard to say how I feel,” Frost said – another reference to a line in “Wretches and Jabberers.”
But does he feel like he inspires others, just as Bissonnette and Thresher did for him?

“I think yes,” he said. “I am kind and treat people with respect. That is a role model.”

Disabled voters face Election Day challenges

From CNN Money:

NEW YORK -- On Nov. 6, there's a very real possibility that many Americans with disabilities will not be able to vote because their local polling places will be inaccessible.

Advocates for the disabled are worried that local governments aren't doing enough to prepare -- as are some of the small businesses that outfit polling sites with ramps.

"We've gotten quite a few inquiries from major municipalities, but they're not following through to actual sales," said Dave Henderson, sales manager at EZ-Access in Algona, Wash. 

The family-owned business makes portable wheelchair ramps. Prices range from $500 for a four-foot ramp with handrails to as much as $4,000 for a 30-foot modular model.

In 2008, as many as 1,000 polling centers were retrofitted with the company's ramps, Henderson said. "For us, the election can be a big revenue generator."

This year, Henderson says he has gotten about 600 to 800 orders, and he's uncertain how the next few weeks will go.

Julian Gordon has similar concerns.

Gordon is the founder of Amramp, a Boston-based ramp-rental company that has locations in 46 cities. More than 100 polling places will be using its services this year, he said.

"Compared to last election, we could be doing about the same in business," he said. "What our franchisees are hearing is that in many places, money isn't being spent on buying or renting ramps for the polling sites."

EZ-Access and Amramp are at the forefront of what the disability rights community says has become a persistent problem.

According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, only 27.3% of polling places were fully accessible on Election Day 2008.


The problems included a lack of steel ramps or curb cuts in the parking area, unpaved surfaces and 1/2- inch-high bumps in doorways. The main focus of the report was people who use wheelchairs, although it also chronicled some obstacles for visually-impaired voters.

Federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, requires polling places to be accessible to eligible voters for federal elections. And through the 2002 Help America Vote Act, states can get federal funds to improve polling center accessibility.

Still, disability rights advocates say problems remain.

Recent reports from the field are troubling, said Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, which gets federal funding to conduct a national sampling of polling centers ahead of general elections.

One example: "I've heard from our folks that some polling centers in Detroit are clearly inaccessible," Decker said.

Mark Cody, legal director at NDRN's Michigan division, said his office recently found several Detroit polling facilities that "didn't even pass the eyeball" test of accessibility. The vast majority of 67 polling stations evaluated were found to be inaccessible during the Michigan primary in August; the test covered about a third of Detroit's polling centers.

Janice Winfrey, city clerk for Detroit, said she and an election official visited all of the sites evaluated by Cody's office and determined that all met the minimum requirement by law to be accessible to voters with disabilities.


"Do they have the best [wheelchair] ramps? No. But they are there. The elevator in one site may not be in the best location, but it's there," Winfrey said.

Advocates for the disabled in New York are also concerned.

"For the past nine years, random samplings of New York City polling places have found many with a 70% to 80% barrier to access for individuals with disabilities," said Julia Pinover, an attorney with nonprofit group Disability Rights Advocates.

The New York City Board of Elections told CNNMoney that it has determined that 57 of its 1,255 polling sites do not meet ADA standards. Among other things, it is mailing letters to offer voters at those 57 sites the option of transferring their registration to nearby sites that are accessible.

Advocates, as well as the small business people working in the field, say officials often cite a lack of funding as the reason more polling stations aren't accessible.

According to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Congress gave states about $3.25 billion from 2003 until 2010 to improve the voting process, the vast amount of which was for purchasing fully accessible voting equipment and computerized statewide voter registration lists. But a very small piece of that funding was made available to make polling centers themselves accessible.

Doug Lewis, executive director of the National Association of Election Officials, said polling center accessibility is better today than in the past. 

"But are we fully compliant with the law all over the country? No," he said. "There is a money crunch right now. When that happens, progress stops."

New book about photography, history and disability out Oct. 15

From the publisher, Syracuse University Press:

"The stunning archive of images that Bogdan and his co-authors have amassed is a major contribution to the growing body of analysis of disability representation in photography. This book brings incisive, expert historical perspective to more familiar terrain and at the same time opens up important new avenues of exploration."—Susan Schweik, University of California at Berkeley "This book makes a substantial contribution to the history of the visual representation of disability in the United States. It should become an important resource to those who seek to understand the varieties of contexts and purposes in which people with disabilities were portrayed by others, and—equally important—portrayed themselves."—Philip Ferguson, Chapman University

Robert Bogdan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Social Science and Education at Syracuse University. He is the author of several books including Freak Show: Presenting Human Oddities for Amusement and Profit and Beauty and the Beast: Human-Animal Relations as Revealed in Real Photo Postcards, 1905–1935. Photo: Charles Tripp, " The Armless Wonder," 1885. Photograph by Eisenmann. Cabinet card, Bogdan Collection.

Midget, feeble-minded, crippled, lame, and insane: these terms and the historical photographs that accompany them may seem shocking to present-day audiences. A young woman with no arms wears a sequined tutu and smiles for the camera as she smokes a cigarette with her toes; a man holds up two prosthetic legs while his own legs are bared to the knees to show his missing feet. The photos were used as promotional material for circus sideshows, charity drives, and art galleries. They were found on begging cards and in family albums. In Picturing Disability, Bogdan and his collaborators gather over 200 historical photographs showing how people with disabilities have been presented and exploring the contexts in which they were photographed.

Rather than focus on the subjects, Bogdan turns his gaze on the people behind the camera. He examines the historic and cultural environment of the photographs to decipher the relationship between the images and the perspectives of the picture makers. In analyzing the visual rhetoric of these photographs, Bogdan identifies the wide variety of genres, from sideshow souvenirs to clinical photographs. Ranging from the 1860s, when photographs first became readily available, to the 1970s, when the disability rights movement became a force for significant change, Bogdan chronicles the evolution of disability image creation. Picturing Disability takes the reader beyond judging images as positive or slanderous to reveal how particular contexts generate specific emotions and lasting depictions.

As part of settlement in Massachusetts case, Netflix pledges to caption all content by 2014

From The AP:

BOSTON — Netflix will offer closed captions on all TV and movie content by September 2014 as part of a settlement with a deaf Massachusetts viewer who sued the company.

The on-demand Internet streaming service agreed to the settlement Oct. 9 in U.S. District Court in Springfield.

Closed captions are currently available on 90 percent of Netflix's content, as measured by hours watched.

"Netflix has always been the leader in this, but it's a tall order to offer high quality captioning on such a broad range of devices," spokesman Jonathan Friedland said.

In the meantime, the company will display a list of available close-captioned content.

Captions can be displayed on a majority of the more than 1,000 devices, from computers to video game consoles, on which Netflix is available. But many devices and operating systems, such as Google's Android, did not exist when the company gained traction in the early 2000s.

Massachusetts resident Lee Nettles, along with national and regional associations for the deaf and hearing impaired, sued Netflix in 2010 under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.

Other online streaming providers, including Hulu and Amazon, also have been trying to increase their captioned programming.

"Sesame Street" episode launches new service dog Muppet

From Canine Companions for Independence:

Don't miss Sesame Street Episode 43, featuring Canine Companions dog Hercules. Hercules helps new Muppet character Brandeis (pictured) find his calling as an assistance dog. The episode airs October 12, November 12 and November 30.

Here's the episode summary:

Brandeis, a yellow Labrador retriever, is looking for a job on Sesame Street. First, Leela hires him to fold laundry in the Laundromat, but Brandeis has a lot of trouble folding the clothing with his paws. Next, Chris hires him to sweep the floor, but he has trouble holding the broom.

Brandeis is sad, but just then, Elmo notices that Gina is working with a dog. She explains that she is training Hercules to be a service dog. A service dog works with people who need special kinds of help. Gina says that it takes a lot of intelligence and training for this career, and Brandeis is up for the challenge! He begins training right away, learning how to do things like opening drawers, turning on lights and picking up and bringing things.

After many weeks of training, Brandeis officially becomes a service dog! He is very excited and nervous about meeting the person he will be helping. Liliana, who is in a wheelchair, is nervous about meeting Brandeis, too. Liliana’s book bag slides off her lap, and Brandeis quickly fetches it for her. She laughs happily and thanks Brandeis. She then asks for a glass of milk, and Brandeis motions her to follow him into Hooper’s store and opens the door for her. Liliana praises him for his hard work. Gina and Elmo agree that that Brandeis found the perfect job!

Canine Companions enjoyed working with the Sesame Street team on creating an episode to increase awareness of assistance dogs helping people with disabilities. Looking forward to the broadcast!

New FCC rules on closed captioning fall short, deaf people say

From The Washington Times in D.C.:

Many deaf activists say they are disappointed with the shortcomings of a new law that requires television producers to add captions to popular shows like “CSI” or “The Office” when they are viewed online.

The Federal Communications Commission recently issued a set of rules to implement the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, known as CVAA. Deaf advocates are calling the new rules, which started to take effect Sept. 30, a step forward, but they also complain of too many loopholes in the law and the FCC’s rules.

Critics point out that the new law only applies to full-length shows that air on regular television, so shows that air only online on websites such as Netflix and Hulu do not have to comply.

“That’s a big issue, because there are more and more Internet-only shows and content,” said Christian Vogler, director of the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University, a prominent school for deaf students in Washington.

To make matters worse, news organizations will largely be exempt because the law doesn’t apply to short clips.

“The Internet was a big barrier,” Mr. Vogler said in an email interview. “This law does much to break it down, but it’s not 100 percent successful at doing so.”

In Congress, Sen. Mark Pryor, Arkansas Democrat, and Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, pushed the legislation to require more captioning, and President Obama signed it into law in October 2010.

The FCC began implementing the rule last week. Now, unedited, full-length programs shown on TV with captions must also be captioned when they are made available online. More updates will be phased in at later dates.

Advocates for the deaf acknowledge the CVAA law is progress for them — a deaf viewer who missed his favorite television shows can catch up online, while previously a show that aired with captioning available didn’t have to be posted online that way.

“More and more of us are not watching so much TV, and more of us are relying on our programs on the Internet instead,” Claude Stout, executive director of Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, said in a phone call through a translator. “What’s wonderful, if you miss a program on TV, you can go online and catch a program on TV that’s already been recorded.”

But the problem is there are too many loopholes in the new law, deaf advocates say, so many shows will not have to comply.

Andrew Phillips, policy lawyer at the National Association of the Deaf, said in an emailed statement that his organization is “appreciative of the efforts” to add captions to online shows, but added that the loopholes are “problematic.”

“Unfortunately, the CVAA does not cover all video-programming content on the Internet,” he said.
News organizations are also exempt from adding captions to video clips, although they would have to comply on content that they stream live or other full-length newscasts.

So when, for example, CNN puts on its website a segment about the tensions in the Middle East or ESPN posts the highlights of last night’s game, the stations won’t be required to include captions.

Learn sign language with Oscar-winning Deaf actress Marlee Matlin in new app, Marlee Signs

From Aldrin Calimlim at drippler: (The app was released Oct. 9, 2012.)

Already, we have quite an impressive collection of apps for the deaf and hearing-impaired, as evidenced by our AppList titled, well, “Apps for the Deaf and Hearing-Impaired.” But I reckon that AppList will have to be updated soon to include a recently released app called Marlee Signs.

Marlee Signs is a new sign language app that features, as you might have already guessed from the name, Marlee Matlin.

Marlee is, of course, a well-known actress who is herself deaf. In fact, she is the only deaf performer to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. (She won in 1986 for the film “Children of a Lesser God.”)

As it happens, Marlee is also a member of the National Association for the Deaf and the spokeswoman for the National Captioning Institute. And, interestingly, she once starred in a TV commercial for Apple’s Macintosh.

Indeed, Marlee is the perfect person to headline an app that aims to make learning the fundamentals of American Sign Language easier.

Marlee Signs uses high-quality demo videos starring Marlee herself. Among its special features are a “Slow Motion” setting for watching any video in greater detail and a “Spell” section for spelling any word in signs.

Designed for iPhone and duly optimized for iPhone 5, Marlee Signs is available now in the App Store for free.

The app includes a number of lesson packs, each of which is available via a $3.99 in-app purchase. Except for your first lesson pack, that is, which is available for free.

As someone who “speaks” sign language, I highly recommend giving Marlee Signs a spin.

Spacial debuts accessible radio broadcasting software to let blind, visually impaired people create Internet radio stations

Press release from Spacial:

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. - Spacial, an award-winning maker of radio automation software, launched SAM Vibe, a powerful Internet radio broadcasting application that's fully accessible to users who are blind or visually impaired.

SAM Vibe lets broadcasters produce their own cloud Internet radio programs, whether it's news, sports, talk, or various genres of music. The software gives users the ability to upload and manage large music libraries, control scheduling and automate many aspects of program production.

Spacial created SAM Vibe to especially appeal to broadcasters who are blind or visually impaired. The software is fully compatible with text-to-speech screen readers, and can be operated using a computer keyboard instead of mouse. Additionally, the color scheme is color-blind friendly and optimized for contrast, with large fonts to make reading text easier.

"Lots of people want to be DJs but most radio broadcasting software is too complex for the average user and not designed to be accessible for people who are blind or visually impaired," says Pascal Laflamme, Managing Director of Spacial. "SAM Vibe has an easy and fully accessible interface to allow broadcasters with or without vision to create their own commercial-quality radio stations right from their PCs."

"As a media professional who is blind, I have expertise with many types of radio broadcasting software and believe SAM Vibe is a great solution for those new to Internet broadcasting," says Erin Edgar, who co-founded the Tech Access Weekly podcast covering accessible technology for the blind and visually impaired with her husband, Rodney. Tech Access Weekly created an audio review of SAM Vibe's features for low-vision and screen reader users, which can be found on the Spacial website.

SAM Vibe also makes it easy for kids to explore the craft of radio programming, and it's in use at the broadcast studio operated by SLB Radio Productions, Inc. at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. "With SAM Vibe, we now have an easy and intuitive way to teach kids to create and control their own broadcasts, whether for fun or career discovery," says Larry Berger, founder and executive director of SLB Radio.

SLB Radio is also evaluating SAM Vibe to manage iQ Kids Radio, its new 24/7 service launching with WQED in Pittsburgh in 2013. "Eight years ago we chose SAM Broadcaster for our studios and it has exceeded our high expectations. We're confident that SAM Vibe will also play an important role as we develop new forms of youth-based programming," Berger adds.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/09/4894168/spacial-debuts-accessible-radio.html#storylink=cpy

Resources needed for wave of autistic adults who are entering world not ready for them

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Guido Abenes (pictured) appreciates their concern, but he'd really like his parents to stop worrying about him.

He's 25, he says, and he's doing fine. But he's also autistic, part of the generation of young adults who were born during the first big wave of autism cases in the United States two decades ago and are now struggling to strike out on their own.

"I tell them sometimes, 'Stop it, I'm doing things, I'm resourceful,' " said Abenes, who is a student at Cal State East Bay. "They're getting the message, I think. But they still worry."

Abenes, who wants to be a therapist someday and travel the world, is fortunate. He joined the College Internship Program in Berkeley, which provides him with a two-bedroom apartment he shares with a roommate, along with intensive, daily academic and developmental support to help him continue to thrive into adulthood.

But Abenes' situation is unusual, say autism advocates and experts, who are bracing for a flood of adults with autism who lack the support they had as children, and are entering a world that isn't ready for them.

It was in the late 1980s and early '90s that rates of autism started skyrocketing in the United States. A condition that once was considered rare, with fewer than 2 cases per 1,000 births in the United States, is now thought to afflict 1 in 88 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's unclear exactly what has caused the increase, but factors could include greater awareness and better diagnosing of the condition, as well as an actual rise in cases, perhaps related to environmental factors.
For those born in that first wave and now entering adulthood, it's a tough, uncertain future. Some, like Abenes, will go to college or find jobs and eventually move out on their own.

But most will not, studies show. Most will continue to live at home and will, at best, find part-time, minimum-wage work - or no work at all. Many will suffer setbacks in their condition. Two recent studies found that only about a third of autistic young adults had jobs or went to school.

"A majority of our adults are underserved or not served at all. They can't access the same services as adults that they had as children," said Jim Ball, board chairman of the Autism Society, a national advocacy group. "We are doing a lot for our kids, but these kids are going to live to 80 or 90 years old - they're going to live the majority of their lives as adults. What are we doing for them in that realm?"

Twenty-two years old is an important turning point for many young people with autism. That's when they officially age out of the public school system that offered them educational and other supportive services.

Kids with intellectual disabilities - most notably, an IQ under 70 - often have post-high school opportunities for continued improvement and some measure of independent living. Most of them will continue to get supportive care daily for the rest of their adult lives from state and federal programs.

And the young people at the opposite end of the spectrum - the ones identified as having Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, who may have above-average IQs or skills that will aid them in college and careers - often manage adult life just fine.

It's the ones in the middle who suffer the most, autism experts said. They don't have enough of a disability to get major supportive care, but they're clearly disabled enough that they have a hard time finding, and keeping, jobs or attending college classes.

"These are kids who seem like they could do things and be successful, and they just end up staying at home because there are very few resources for them," said Dr. Carl Feinstein, director of the Stanford Autism Center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

"Their parents are frustrated because they don't know how to help and they aren't so happy with their kids living in their home," he said. "Meanwhile, these kids grew up thinking they would have a driver's license and an apartment of their own, and they'd get married and have all these things that aren't happening."

That's where something like Berkeley's College Internship Program comes in. The program was started in the 1980s on the East Coast by a man who was diagnosed with Asperger's in his 50s. It serves young adults ages 18 to 26 who have autism or other types of learning disabilities, many of whom fall in that middle range of needing support.

The goal of the program is to provide the support services these young people may need to be successful in school and start a career, as well as teaching life skills to help them become independent adults.

The students live in housing provided by the program in downtown Berkeley, and they usually attend classes at nearby community colleges. At the program center, students get lessons in cooking and banking and other basic living skills. They learn how to budget their time, how to apply for jobs and how to get along with co-workers and bosses.

But it's expensive: The program costs $30,000 to $70,000 a year, not including housing or tuition at other academic institutions. Scholarships are available and insurance may cover some or all of the expenses.
For those who can afford it, or whose parents have the time and energy to seek the help, there are other, similar programs. Many college campuses, including Cal State East Bay, offer extra services for autistic students.

Some businesses are starting special programs for hiring autistic employees, especially if those employees possess skills like focus and an attention to detail that can come hand-in-hand with autism. One company, Palo Alto-based Semperical, is based entirely around a model of hiring high-functioning autistic employees as test engineers.

But those jobs and support programs aren't large and there aren't many of them. Meanwhile, the group of autistic adults needing these services is only going to grow. The first generation is entering its 20s - but they'll be hitting middle age soon enough, and there are even larger generations on their heels.

It's not just a problem for the autistic children and adults, but for their families - especially for the parents, many of whom worry they won't be able to care for their adult children much longer.

"I hear from parents in the Baby Boomer generation who have kids in their 30s now," said Kurt Ohifs, executive director of Pacific Autism Center for Education in Santa Clara. "They come to me and say, 'I'm afraid to die, because who's going to care for my son or daughter?'

Roloffs return to reality TV November 13 with "Little People Big World: Wedding Farm"

From Reality TV World:

TLC has announced it will premiere Little People Big World: Wedding Farm -- a new weekly series that will follow the Roloff family as they operate a new wedding venue on their recently expanded Oregon farm -- on Tuesday, November 13 at 9PM ET/PT.

In addition to chronicling Matt and Amy Roloff's attempt to refurbish a historic barn and launch the new wedding business, Little People Big World: Wedding Farm will also show viewers the day-to-day lives of the couple and their four children -- including Molly preparing to leave for college.

Little People Big World ended its original six-season run on TLC in 2010, however the family has continued to star in a series of occasional specials for the network since then.

According to TLC, the network will also continue to produce additional specials despite Little People Big World: Wedding Farm, which will initially consist of six one-hour episodes.

Little People Big World: Wedding Farm is being produced by Gay Rosenthal Productions -- the same production company that produced Little People Big World -- and executive produced by Gay Rosenthal, Joe Freed, Sven Nilsson, Amy Roloff, and Matt Roloff.

Britain's Channel 4 plans bid for broadcasting rights for 2016 Rio Paralympics

From The Guardian in the UK:

The Channel 4 chief executive, David Abraham, is preparing a bid for the TV rights to the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Paralympics, but could be derailed by a BBC plan to snatch back the rights.

Abraham said he is hopeful of retaining Clare Balding – who was highly praised for her presenting work during the London Olympic and Paralympic Games – as anchor if Channel 4 can win the upcoming bid for the UK TV rights to the Rio event.

"Clare is the face of our racing, so you know she is going to be working for us [at that time]," he said. "Everything is in place but we are four years out, no one gets a contract for that long. I am very positive about re-assembling the team, there was a lot of good chemistry."

Channel 4's coverage of the London Paralympics attracted record viewing figures, with the International Paralympic Committee hailing the event as exceeding its "wildest dreams".

The success has spurred Channel 4 to bid for the UK TV rights to the Rio Paralympics.

"International TV rights are managed by the IPC and we obviously have a very good relationship with them," Abraham said. "We are talking to them about how we plan Rio, and how we go about doing that."

However, the BBC is thought to be planning to snatch back the TV rights to the Paralympics, which it lost when Channel 4 tabled a record bid in 2010.

"We are not getting distracted by that," said Abraham. "We are very confident we have great ideas and a great relationship [with the IPC]. We have great presenters, everything is in place."

The viewing boost of a home Paralympics means it is unlikely that Rio will deliver more record-breaking audiences.

However, Abraham said that Paralympics GB athletes such as sprinter Jonnie Peacock, wheelchair athlete David Weir and swimmer Ellie Simmonds are now household names and likely to be a big draw in 2016.
"Rio is an amazing brand and the time difference is not as challenging as Beijing [in 2008]," he said.

He added that Channel 4 is not letting its commitment slip after the glow of the London event dies down, recently announcing a further £250,000 investment to search for more disabled talent to host programmes and subjects to cover beyond the world of sport.

In each Olympic/Paralympic cycle, the local organising committee for the event has the power to decide how it wants to sell the domestic TV rights.

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games took the unprecedented step of asking other UK public service broadcasters – Channel 4, ITV and Channel 5 – to submit tenders to host Paralympic coverage as well as the BBC.

The BBC's bid is thought to have been well short of the £8m to £9m tabled by Channel 4.

"We demonstrated quite well in this instance the degree to which two separate organisations [Channel 4 and the BBC] can focus resources to deliver two great events," said Abraham.