Access in Media


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I’m delighted to report that I’m talking to more and more filmmakers and podcasters interested in adding access to their work because it seems exciting, engaging, and equitable, not just to be compliant with federal laws. Even cooler, there’s more content available created by disabled people. This work demonstrates their ideas about what makes great accessibility even if access isn’t the topic.

My podcasting mentor and hero Thomas Reid recently had me on his fantastic show, Reid My Mind Radio, to chat about culture, access, and Audio Description in particular. If you’re not already subscribed to this podcast–which is transcribed–it’s never too late to join the party. Our conversation is called “The Art of Access,” which is a title that makes me endlessly happy. Be on alert for an epic mic drop in the episode.

I had the great fortune of writing an article for New Day Films, “Audio Description As a Tool for Equity,” basically a shorter, less goofy, written-only version of what I talked about with Thomas. Short and easy to share, I encourage people to use this to spread the word about access and equity.

And Lawrence Carter-Long from the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) penned a bold, saucy manifesto for Film Quarterly on disability in film: more disabled actors, more accurate and interesting representation of disabled experiences, more disabled creators, and more access. A mini-manifesto on access that I wrote is in his manifesto.

And while I’ve got you here, please subscribe to the transcribed and audio Disability Visibility Podcast by the remarkable Alice Wong and support her work on Patreon. Like Reid My Mind Radio, the DVP is independently-produced work by a disabled person of color. DVP centers disability experiences, politics, and culture, with primarily guests who are also disabled people of color. We still have a lot of white-run disability organizations and individuals who get to the mic first and get quoted and cited first when disability does make it to mainstream media. It’s not a complete picture of the richness and wisdom of the community. Keep track of creators like Thomas and Alice, what they’re making, and who they’re interviewing. You’ll be glad.


2 responses to “Access in Media”

  1. Hi, I commented months ago about my films featuring disabled actors. On the subject of audio description YouTube has a new service for audio description called “You Describe” which I used to audio describe my films here http://cripvideoproductions.com/astrokeofendurance.php “You Describe” is free and does the editing for you. You just record a voice doing the audio description and input the times you want the descriptions to appear at. I also use iMovie to open caption.

    • Thanks for the tips on open source Audio Description and how you do captions. I love to know about options out there!

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