I’m Disabled, Not Miserable

Issue Eight

Hello, I’m Priti Salian, an independent journalist, researcher and media trainer based out of Bengaluru, a city in South India. Welcome to the eighth edition of Reframing Disability, a fortnightly dispatch simplifying disability inclusion for content creators.

In this issue, find a commentary on a New Yorker documentary, videos by blind filmmakers, data on climate justice and tech, recent news from India, exciting new accessibility releases, and opportunities.

I devour films about smart, independent women. Add quirky and badass to the mix and they become almost inspirational for me. So, when I watched this New Yorker documentary about three blind friends, I couldn’t resist sharing it with you. It’s 13 minutes of pure fun; entertainment you wouldn’t regret spending time on. But wait. The reason I’m sharing it in Reframing Disability is because it’s the kind of storytelling on disability that can make a difference. Watch Judy, Rhonda and Sandy participate in the Milwaukee Beer Barrels Blind Bowling League in “Friday Night Blind” and then, read on.

A heads-up though. While the documentary comes with captions and a transcript, I couldn’t find a version with audio descriptions even on New Yorker’s website. Without audio descriptions, the documentary is inaccessible to blind and low-vision audiences. I apologise to all of you whom this documentary excludes. You will have to, yet again, get help from a sighted person if you decide to watch it.

Here’s my two cents on the storytelling through a disability lens:

I like how the documentary places greater emphasis on the three women's friendship and their ideas of fun as opposed to their challenges due to blindness. 

Struggles do exist and are real. They come through in the storytelling. Judy, one of the three main characters, admits to missing her past life when she had sight. She mentions that she keeps bumping into furniture in her house. "Trust me, I do walk into stuff sometimes," she says.

However, there are no details of the women’s medical diagnosis or how the impairment occurred. The storyteller doesn't ask the women any questions about it. Why? Because medical diagnosis is not relevant to every story on disability.

As a viewer, I get a sense that life is harder for someone who loses sight later in life versus a person born blind. 

Someone like Sandy, who is blind since birth, has travelled the world on her own. Her friends who experienced blindness later in life mention having learned a thing or two from her. 

When the filmmaker turns his lens on the women’s assistive devices, I appreciate how they get by independently. For instance, Rhonda’s colour identifier assists her in differentiating yarns, a bill reader helps Judy read her currency notes and Sandy relies on her Perkins Brailler to write.

Sandy says something very profound about blindness: “You may live life just like everyone else. You may have to do things in a different way. There's just no right way or wrong way. You just learn to do things in the way that works out for you.”

I was delighted that she chose “just like everyone else” instead of  “normal person” which I hear so often.

The documentary attempts to “normalise” disability. It demonstrates that the interview subjects lead full lives and are fairly independent. They are busy through the week with various engagements, and make time for enjoyment. Bowling is a weekly activity that the three of them do together and with little assistance.

“Whatever disability you got, don't let it get you down. ‘Cause I was stressed out a long time, but now I get my purse, my shoes and my coat, and I'm hitting that door whenever I get ready,” Judy says.

I love that the story is told through the three blind women and not their family or friends. Nowhere in the documentary do I find sympathy shown to them because of their disability. 

The documentary obviously hasn’t covered their entire lives. But what stands out to me is that these three women are not miserable because of their blindness. 

People have varying experiences and disability doesn’t make everyone miserable all the time. 

Stories focusing on pleasure, leisure, fun, and independence, at the intersections of disability and gender, always leave me pleasantly surprised because of their rarity.

A word of caution though. Everyone is not the same and disability is a huge spectrum. Just as all three women differ in their blindness, they differ in their level of privilege from other disabled people not featured in the story.

Jody Santos, a human rights filmmaker, associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University and the founder and executive director of the Disability Justice Project, reviews the cinematography of the documentary.

“I like how the film is often told through the subject’s perspective - blurred shapes. I also like the intimacy of the shots - a lot of close-ups and warm colours,” she said.

“Some of the shots are shaky or abrupt, but that adds to the intimate feeling. The documentary is real and not overly polished.”

I shared the documentary with my friend, Mahretta Maha, a blind filmmaker and disability rights activist in Jakarta, Indonesia. 

“What I like is that the documentary spreads the message that blind people can do many things. They can do bowling. They can also have fun,” Mahretta said. “Such perspectives are missing in mainstream Indonesian media.”

“But because audio descriptions were missing, I had to rely on my sighted friend to understand various things, such as, who was speaking, how they looked, or how their assistive devices worked,” Mahretta added. 

Mahretta’s own filmmaking for the Disability Justice Project is fully accessible. Watch her video on the struggle of blind massage therapists in Indonesia.

Until the New Yorker documentary adds audio descriptions, it is missing the opportunity to reach the very community it portrays.

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More filmmaking by blind producers

Since we’ve been discussing the diversity of blindness and blind filmmakers, I have two more videos to share with you, both with audio descriptions.

Filmmaker Adam Morse, who happens to be blind, uses Guided Frames, an accessibility feature on a Google Pixel phone that makes videography accessible to blind and visually impaired users. Adam has used Guided Frames to film a commercial on the feature with a visually impaired artist. 

Both the commercial and a behind-the-scenes video on the making of the commercial smash some stereotypes about visual impairment. As Laura Allen, head of strategy and programmes at Google Accessibility, notes in the film: “Disability itself is a tremendous spectrum. We are showing one person’s perspective and the way that one person views the world.”

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Data you can use

Climate Justice

Last month, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released an Advocacy Brief which is the go-to document for finding recent data on disability, displacement and disaster resilience.  The brief was developed after an extensive review of existing recent studies and literature related to displacement, disability, climate change and disasters, including the 2023 Global Survey on Persons with Disabilities and Disasters, which analyses responses from 1,304 displaced and stateless persons with disabilities, almost a quarter of its total respondents. 

Missing in tech

An eye-opening report for those who work on bridging the skills and employment gap in the UK.

The British Computer Society (BCS), the Chartered Institute for Information Technology in the UK, promotes wider social and economic progress through the advancement of information technology science and practice. In a recent study, BCS analysed that 88,000 people with hidden and visible disabilities' are 'missing' from the tech workforce.

Reason? People with disabilities comprise 16% of the UK workforce and account for 11% of the technology specialists. For equal representation in the workforce, 88,000 additional specialists with disabilities need to be employed.

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Recent news from India

I usually don’t share news, but there’s a lot that happened in the fortnight that went by. My two picks are below:

A big accessibility win for India

On 2nd February, the Department of Financial Services under the Ministry of Finance, released guidelines to make banking more accessible for persons with disabilities. This was followed by the Delhi High Court asking the Reserve Bank of India to submit a list of banks and financial institutions which are compliant with the digital accessibility norms under the Rights of Persons With Disabilities Act, 2016, within four weeks. Corporate lawyer Amar Jain who put up some of the suggestions, said, “It’s a good beginning, but a lot is yet to be done.”

Trapped for life

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation yet again reveals the abysmal state of persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in India’s government-run shelters. In its third report on the issue since 2014, and regular visits to Delhi’s government-run shelter, Asha Kiran, in the past decade, HRW found that the residents have been abandoned by their families with no choice but to remain institutionalised.

Disability rights director at Human Rights Watch, Shantha Rau Barriga, said that the residents are “subjected to indefinite detention simply for having a disability.” 

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Exciting new accessibility features

Apple Podcasts is getting transcripts

Apple is introducing automatically generated transcripts on Apple Podcasts this spring, available with iOS 17.4 for podcasts in English, French, German, and Spanish.

The website explains: “With transcripts, audiences can read the full text of an episode, search the episode for a specific word or phrase, and tap the text to play from that point in the episode. As an episode plays, each word is highlighted, making it easy to follow along.” 

Transcripts are a great accessibility tool for those with hearing loss (deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind). Benefits are not limited to them though. Persons with cognitive delays and those who would want to listen to or share certain parts of the episode use it as well. 

Wordpress Video Accessibility Widget 

Ford Foundation has created a widely available, open source video accessibility plugin available via Wordpress. Install the tool and play your videos with captions, accessible transcripts, and audio descriptions. There is no excuse anymore not to make your videos accessible.

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Opportunities

1. CADRRE International Filmlet Festival on Autism 2024 (CIFFA 2024) wants to award one to five-minute films on autism.

For: filmmakers across the globe

Registration fee: Rs 5000/USD 100

Deadline: 29th February

2. Disabled Hikers is looking for blog posts, social media posts, videos and audio on your unique perspective on disability and the outdoors.

For: priority will be given to US-based contributors (not necessarily writers)

Compensation: $100/blog, $25/social, with some flexibility.

3. Microsoft Disability Scholarship

The scholarship is for current high school seniors living with a disability as defined by WHO, planning to enrol in an undergraduate programme at an accredited 2 or 4-year University/College or Vocational/Technical School, in the United States, in the fall of the upcoming academic year. Read the website for more information.

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Share your wish list for election-related media coverage of disability issues

I shared this in the last issue, and some of you responded. Thank you, and keep them coming, please!

2024 is an election year for 64 countries including India, the US, the European Union, the UK, South Africa, Indonesia, Rwanda, Mexico, Solomon Islands, and many more. While we're waiting to see whether democracy lives on or dies, let's consider whether the elections in our countries are fully accessible for people with disabilities, if the disability community’s issues have a place in political parties’ manifestos and whether the community has any political representation at all.

What is your wish list for election-related media coverage of disability issues in your country? Which issues would you like to see in the news? What can the news media do to improve coverage? Send in your thoughts as a reply to this email or in this Google Form, and I shall include them in a future issue. Reframing Disability reaches many journalists and editors and has readers across 36 countries. Your ideas would help them be inclusive of disability rights in their election coverage.

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Thanks for reading this issue of Reframing Disability. Write in with your thoughts in the comments or as a reply to this email. What did you think of the documentary? What would you like to read more of? What should I include in future issues?

I write back.

If you have taken a step towards accessibility, share it as #AccessibilityBrag and #ReframingDisability on socials. Tag me on LinkedIn and Twitter, and I’ll amplify your post. 

Warmly,

Priti

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