People with disabilities in Michigan tell their stories on video

This story comes from The Lansing, Mich., State Journal, and you can see the videos discussed in it at the "Many Faces, One Voice" Web page or read more about their stories on their blog.

For Laura Hall, her video "Two Paths" has two meanings.

The Lansing resident could have boarded a bus last year to go to Jackson to see her dying father.But since the bus's wheelchair lift wasn't working, she couldn't. And she could have held her anger over that inside.

But she didn't.

Hall, 27, took part in a video advocacy program called "Many Faces, One Voice," which is geared toward helping people with disabilities tell their stories through videos.

A pilot group of 10 Lansing-area residents created videos last April and May, said Glenn Ashley, project coordinator for United Cerebral Palsy of Michigan, which is coordinating the program with the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition.

In her story, Hall, who was born with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, details how on March 24, 2007, she tried to take that bus trip from Lansing to see her cancer-stricken father in Jackson.

Her father died three days after she encountered those difficulties in trying to make that trip.

"It constantly haunts me to think about what might have happened if I'd made it that weekend," she says in her video. Creating the video story was "therapeutic," she said, allowing her to "use the story for advocacy purposes as well."

Which is just the point, Ashley said. The goal of the program is to get local and state lawmakers as well as community agencies to "see life through the eyes" of people with disabilities by watching the videos.

"The disability experience is quite frequently outside the scope of what policy makers know," he said.