Final Report of the International Experts Meeting on Mass Media and Disability
Moscow, Russia, September 26-29, 2002:

summary of the event and its impact and outcomes

By Barbara Duncan, Event Coordinator

Introduction

In late 2002, approximately 20 invited specialists in media and disability from ten countries gathered in Moscow for four days of workshops to:

compare and contrast their experiences in using media to raise the public and professional dialogue about disability issues;
collaborate with Russian educators, disability groups and media professionals in assessing their progress in integrating disability issues and disabled persons within society; and
lend international support to Russia's first international disability film festival, sponsored by both governmental and non-governmental Russian and Moscow entities.

Parallel to the 2002 festival, additional side events were organized to extend the impact of the main event: the U.S. Embassy in Moscow showed outstanding disability films every day for a week at the American Center and arranged professional lectures for some of the U.S. participants, and the Russian Federation of the Deaf organized several activities to welcome the three U.S. participants from the deaf community.

Impact in Russia

In addition, Perspektiva was successful in convincing many Russian embassies of the countries represented to materially support the expenses of participants and translation and subtitling of films; obtaining a support grant from the Soros Foundation, enabling participation of 30 young Russian journalists from throughout the country to participate in the festival and workshops as training in how to improve their skills in reporting on social issues in a democracy; and in finding post-event funds to take the 12 winning films "on the road" to six distant Russian cities, where mini-film festivals were held during 2003 and 2004.

Follow-up activities in Russia, 2003-2004

In Moscow, more than 500 children and adults representing the government, the disability community, film schools and the professional media participated in the 2002 event; during 2003 it is estimated that an additional 1000-1500 Russians participated in the mini-festivals held in outlying cities. As Perspektiva Director Denise Roza has commented, "the use of film as a tool to engage public and governmental and civil society interest in disability issues has proved to be a magnet of unanticipated magnitude." Consequently, Perspektiva is now in the midst of planning its second international film festival, to take place in Moscow, November 11-14, 2004. A mobile version of the 2004 festival will be presented in five Russian regions and in Armenia, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan during 2005.

First Russian Public Service Announcements about Disability

The professional Russian media was singularly responsive, providing more in-depth coverage to this event on television and radio, and in the press than any previous disability issue. This coverage was extended both during the event and afterwards, providing Perspektiva with many opportunities in 2003 and 2004 to experiment with new disability messages in a landmark public education campaign (see story).

Integrated Education takes a Giant Leap Forward

The session which had the most marked influence on the Russian educators and government officials was the comprehensive presentation on the various approaches to integrating pupils and students with disabilities into the public school system. Films from several countries documenting successful approaches were subtitled in Russian and quite well received. Russian officials commented that this was both a time- and cost-saving as well as accessible technique, enabling study of different methodologies and cultural adaptations within a few very focused hours. This was compared to the much longer time span required to select and translate research reports and books into Russian, which could be afforded by very few schools and local governments in the current economy.

The value was also noted of illustrating several "low cost-high impact" approaches, such as "importing" disabled role models into schools to introduce integration and inclusion concepts to both teachers and students, and utilizing "child-friendly" puppets and cartoon figures to introduce sometimes difficult topics about disability.

In particular, the multi-faceted U.S. team was able to deliver positive messages about the value of inclusive schools from a variety of bases of expertise: two researchers active in the first U.S. disability studies program awarding doctoral degrees, a disability historian, an early childhood education specialist, a blind graduate of mainstreamed education and three leading professionals in the creation of media for deaf schoolchildren.

Outcomes of the Workshops: Lessons Learned

In general, the workshops focused equally on discussions of the evolution of social change movements as presented through the mass media and on reports of what is happening now in the countries represented. The experiences of the countries in using the mass media to advance social and community integration were exceptionally varied, but in an effort to summarize the essential differences and similarities:
Differences

Germany has the longest and most widely tested program of utilizing schools-based presentation of disability media with the dual aims of awareness raising, and preparing both students and teachers for an increase in integrating disabled children and adolescents. They have had the clearest results in Bavaria, where a state-supported program couples disabled role models with teacher-selected media for classroom presentation;
The UK has the longest experience and, perhaps, the clearest achievements in the sphere of television, having recently gained agreements from both governmental and private broadcasters to significantly improve disability portrayals and representation of disabled characters in both educational and entertainment programming. In addition, in signing the "Disability Manifesto," British broadcasters also agree to start or expand training programs for disabled people in broadcasting careers, acknowledging that they are currently underrepresented in this field;
The U.S. was clearly in the leading role in the area of children's programming, having begun in the late 1970s to include disabled children and adult role models on Sesame Street and now Blues Clues, Zoom, and many other popular shows that implement the diversity model widely. It was also noted that the U.S. disability community has been in the forefront of efforts to take advantage of reduced costs of video technology and has produced scores of award-winning disability videos in the last 20 years documenting its approaches to community integration and independent living.
The Canadian model has evolved over the last several years, with a primary focus on three complementary activities: a disability issues television program supported by the main broadcasting network, CBC; an annual disability film festival supported by non-governmental disability groups; and support for some disability-issue films is being provided by the Canadian National Film Board.
The disability events in Russia benefited from its long history of high level professional cinema, beginning in the early 1900s, from a long tradition of film clubs and academic study of film, and from the recent introduction of a free press, which has led in turn to a spate of human rights film festivals. The timing was right to introduce an international disability film festival in Moscow, evinced by the ready support of the Putin government and Mayor of Moscow and the unprecedented turnout for the event. Russian representatives also emphasized that due to their inaccessible transport and housing, they could not as readily join society as some other countries and they needed visibility in the media to build their movement for social change and community integration.

Similarities
The main similarities among approaches in the countries represented were:

A recognition of the importance of utilizing the mass media to introduce disabled "role models" as a signal or message to the public and to disabled individuals that disability is an acceptable and ordinary variation across the human condition;
An emphasis on working simultaneously to increase both the quantity of disability representation and portrayal in the media and to improve and modernize the messages conveyed to reflect the growing acceptance of disability as a human rights and social change movement;
The importance of getting "the message" of acceptance and community integration out to children-to those with disabilities so they learn early on to see themselves as valued and to those without disabilities, to encourage their tolerance for difference;
A rapid growth in the use of film festivals as a way to raise both disability aware- ness and the professional level of disability-themed productions. Festivals are now held regularly in Britain, Canada, Finland, Germany, Poland, the U.S. and Russia, and have been organized recently for the first time in France, Greece and Australia;
Acknowledgement that there is a need to research and evaluate this phenomenon on a much wider basis than is now undertaken. There have been several British studies of disability portrayal on television and specifically in advertising; and in the U.S. the annual Annenberg review of portrayal of minorities on television has begun to include disability, but in general, researched-based reviews have been sporadic and minimal; and
The development of disability studies courses and programs at universities was acknowledged to be in its infancy with the U.S., U.K. and Canada taking the lead. Summer institutes introducing disability studies were launched in Germany in 2003 and are being considered by universities in the Netherlands, a disability studies society was begun in Japan in early 2004, but so far, this seems to be largely an "Anglo phenomenon," with potential to encourage the expansion of research into the impact of the new disability media.

YELLOW LEAVES WERE SWIRLING through Moscow as one of Russia's few accessible tour buses bumped its way across the cobblestones of Red Square. The jabbering in German, Dutch, Afrikaans, English, French and Russian lowered to a murmur so we could hear the tour guide condense centuries of the city's history to fit into 15-minute rides between reasonably accessible tourist sites. The city tour was impromptu, arranged by those who had arrived early for Russia's first Disability Film Festival. Every few blocks we could catch sight of one of the multitude of colorful posters hailing the festival, "Cinema without Barriers."

Participants

Approximately 20 invited speakers had flown from Africa, Europe and North America to take part in this Festival, organized by a Russian disability rights group, Perspektiva, in collaboration with Rehabilitation International and the U.S. National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

We were a very mixed group: film and television producers, presenters and directors, a poet, an actor, an actress, disability journalists, film festival organizers, communications specialists working in childhood development in some of the world's poorest countries, and disability advocates from Canada, South Africa, France, USA, Hungary, the Netherlands, Israel, the U.K., Germany and India. In addition more than 80 of our Russian colleagues, some advocates, some in training as journalists, were making their way towards Moscow from around the country, some on arduous train trips of up to 18 hours. By September 26, another 125 disability advocates, government workers and film aficionados from the greater Moscow metropolitan area had arrived. In addition, during the week approximately 200 primary and secondary students and their teachers participated in half-day sessions of children's films and videos.

During the intensive four-day schedule of 65 film screenings and briefings for journalists, seven workshops on disability issues and the mass media were held. Several film and television producers and directors were present so every effort was made to screen their films prior to discussions pertaining to their productions. By the end of the week, more than 500 children and adults had participated in the festival, held about half an hour outside Moscow at the National Academy of Sciences, and in the awards ceremony at the Moscow Marriott Grande.

Press Conference and Coverage

An indication of the importance of Russia's first exposure to international trends in disability films was the roomful of professional media representatives who showed up for the hour-long press conference on September 25 about the event. Approximately 60 reporters from television, radio, magazines and newspapers, including disability periodicals, attended and asked a lot of questions about the significance of the films and the opportunities for Russia's disability leadership to exchange ideas with the disability media specialists from abroad. In the last 10 years, social issue film festivals, such as those dealing with human rights, have been held more frequently in Russia and the reporters' questions showed their awareness of this approach to introducing and developing a new idea throughout civil society. The resulting press reports in Moscow were impressive with television coverage the first and final days and articles appearing throughout the week in Russian and English language periodicals. For example, The Moscow Times, a weekly, stressed that: "at least 10% of the Russian population, or 15 million people, have disabilities, yet are isolated from the rest of society and are given little coverage in the media". Most coverage emphasized that the contemporary documentaries would illustrate some much needed new approaches to the problems confronting disabled Russians as well as disability service delivery.

Workshops

Following an opening ceremony with city and state officials, the following workshops were held over four days, interspersed between numerous screenings:

Using the Mass Media to Advance Social Change: some historical perspectives;
Confronting Prejudice and Discrimination through the Media;
National Overviews of Disability Issue Programs on Television;
Surviving the Stares and Glare of the Spotlight-the experience of being a media spokesperson on disability;
From Isolation to Inclusion-using media to support the acceptance of disabled children in regular schools;
ublic Education Campaigns about Disability Issues; and
Using Film Festivals and Schools-based Programs to Raise Disability Awareness

Intense Participation

Each 90-120 minute workshop featured four to six presenters from various countries, a majority of whom were media or public education professionals. The workshops, with simultaneous translation in English and Russian, were followed by discussion sessions with lively participation. The interventions and questions were especially intense from the Russian participants, who took every opportunity not only to reference their country's rich film heritage, but to challenge the attending governmental officials about inaccessible public facilities, lax interpretation of disability laws and broken promises to the disability community. This volume contains selected papers presented to the workshops, so this summary will only touch upon the highlights of each.

Historical Perspectives on Social Change

Author and disability advocate Hugh Gallagher is perhaps best known for his books about the U.S. President who governed from his wheelchair, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR: the Magnificent Deception) and a more recent volume documenting the killing of disabled children and adults as a training ground for the Holocaust. Gallagher set the stage for the week with his opening comments: "I had polio in 1952 and have used a wheelchair for exactly 50 years. Over these five decades I have seen a dramatic shift in how Americans view people with disabilities and how disabled people view themselves.

"Fifty years ago, disabled people were perceived within a medical model. They were sick people who never got well. They were objects of pity, locked away out of sight. Today people with disabilities are generally perceived as Americans who have been denied their just civil and constitutional rights.

"This great change has come about largely because of the work of disabled people themselves. Over the last 25 years or so, paraplegics and quadriplegics, the blind, those with cerebral palsy, the deaf, disabled people of all stripes have come to realize that if they worked together they would have the power to change society for the better.

"They did and they have. I believe that people with disabilities in Russia can do the same thing...President Roosevelt would be proud...and pleased that Russians and Americans with disabilities are working together to end discrimination and bigotry."

Five Stages of Social Movements

Barbara Duncan, Director of Communications for Rehabilitation International, gave an informal history of disability media from the late 1960s to the present, using the five stages of the development of a social movement, as articulated by Jonathan Young in his paper, "The Genealogy of a Social Movement: Disability Rights in Comparative Perspective." Duncan highlighted media events and films, referencing the five stages: stigmatization, self-determination, development of a group identity, social critique of oppression and legal and political activism.

She suggested that the next stage or at least a visible proliferation of the movement may be disability culture, now taking root in many countries not just through mass media, but also through theater, poetry, art, literature, story telling, weblogs, "stand-up" comedy and performance art. Duncan also pointed out that Young's paper had been written in part in response to U.S. critiques that the disability rights movement did not have the same heft or "gravitas" as the black civil rights, women's or gay rights movements, and more documenting of these parallels and disability history was needed.

Perspective on Russian Disability Movement

Lev Indolev, one of Russia's senior disability advocates, gave a history of the Russian disability movement and its coverage of disability issues on television. He traced the growth of disability groups over the past 30 years, recalling how the movement had sprung up in different localities throughout the former Soviet Union, the difficulties the far-flung groups had in maintaining contacts with each other and recent achievements, such as new national disability rights law, against recent setbacks resulting from a weak economy.

Indolev reminded the Russian audience that they had managed to achieve a disability issues television program for a few years but it had slipped away as the broadcasting industry had undergone rapid changes. Many of the participants resolved to renew efforts to recapture this opportunity, noting that it would provide a visible forum for exchange of news and collaboration around the country. Many of the Russian participants throughout the week pointed out that inaccessible transport and infrastructures across the vastness of the country limited opportunities of local or regional groups to meet with each other, and at the same time, inaccessible homes, sidewalks and buses greatly restrict the number of disabled persons who can attend local meetings. Therefore, more regular exposure of disability news and related discussions in the mass media could greatly expand the reach of the movement.

Confronting Prejudice and Discrimination through the Media

In the next session, filmmakers from France and the USA gave presentations about their recent productions that indict various social and legal manifestations of prejudice and discrimination against people with disabilities. Diane Maroger, originally from Greece and living most of her life in France, studied four years at the French National Film Institute before becoming a film editor, then on to making documentaries. Her first film, Maternite Interdite, (Forbidden Motherhood) follows the life of a married couple after the wife, Nathalie, discovers that her parents had her sterilized as a young girl. The film tracks not only the societal prejudice and discrimination that led the parents and medical authorities to join forces to prevent a young girl with cerebral palsy from having children but how Nathalie herself first accepted this limited view of her life. Maroger described how she came to choose her profession:

Increasing Isolation through Bad Camera Work

"Throughout my childhood, I was struck by how disabled persons were filmed in French television programs: the camera work was done in such a way that the body part that was impaired or the technical aid (white cane or wheelchair) were always visible. People with unusual eye levels (or heights) were often shot with exaggerated and unbecoming low or high angle "points of view" that increased their physical isolation and caricatured how they stood out from the norm. Hence, TV programs made by non-disabled individuals emphasized "what was wrong with" disabled people, i.e., a purely medical point of view. The worst thing to me was that the disabled people being filmed seemed to agree with that and this made them very boring! I longed to see disabled people filmed primarily as individuals doing all kinds of things (like myself), i.e., for who they were, not for their physical differences."

Shooting your own History

David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder are faculty members of the only U.S. Ph.D. program in disability studies, based at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In addition to editing several texts covering various aspects of the humanities and disability studies, they have recently co-produced two documentaries challenging the status quo of viewing disability and people with disabilities. The first, Vital Signs: Crip Culture Talks Back, is an award-winning video that captures a landmark conference on disability culture through performances and interviews by prominent disability artists and writers. A World without Bodies, given its European premiere in Moscow, takes viewers on a fact-finding mission about the Holocaust that includes a visit to the Bernberg facility used to warehouse and kill disabled Germans.

Professors Mitchell and Snyder explained that their technique of using hand-held video cameras, developing their own scripts and providing their own voice-overs brings the cost of video making within the range of most disability advocacy groups. They challenged the Russian disability advocates to get involved not only in the making of their own history, but in documenting and recording it for use in peer education and posterity. They also reported on how they use disability film and culture to support and expand their disability studies classes at UIC.

Surviving the Stares and Glares of the Spotlight: Challenges of Acting as a Spokesperson on Disability Issues

This workshop provided a forum for media professionals with disabilities to discuss the problems and rewards of acting as public spokespersons on disability concerns. Presenters Shelley Barry of South Africa, JoAnne Smith of Canada, Bernard Bragg and Kathy Martinez of the USA, together with session chairman Hugh Gallagher, compared experiences.

Shelley Barry, media officer for the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons in South Africa, described the origin of her low expectations for her own life: "I grew up under apartheid, categorized in a racial group that identified me as coloured, neither black nor white, more privileged than my fellow black citizens and less privileged than the white citizens. Click here to read Shelley Barry's address.

Based in Toronto, JoAnne Smith has worked seven years with CBC's magazine program, "Moving On," as well as other shows. Smith, a wheelchair user, recalls working in the early 1980s in radio, where the disability messages and language were still fairly negative, centered on heroics or charity. She described a recent epiphany, where her TV team traveled to Sydney for the 2000 Paralympics, prepared to shoot two one-hour specials. When they arrived, they were overwhelmed to learn that the Australian mainstream media were doing daily primetime coverage, just as they had covered the Olympics. JoAnne commented that this was a huge leap forward in terms of mainstream media perception of disability and if it could happen in sports, it could happen in any sphere.

Critiqued for Supporting the "cure industry"

Concerning the duality of roles demanded, Smith described a program segment covering a new exercise machine that claimed to replicate "walking" for paralyzed people and to "reteach" the necessary muscles how to walk. Intrigued, she agreed to try out the machine on-air, knowing this would require her to simultaneously represent the neutrality and skepticism of her journalist profession and her disabled viewers, especially those with paralysis. This program received more response than any other "Moving On" has done, including disability advocates who critiqued her for supporting the "cure industry."

Challenges of Representing the Disability Spectrum

Kathy Martinez of the World Institute on Disability, based in California, noted that since she had been blind since birth, her experiences varied from the others on the panel who had become disabled as adults. After starring at age 10 in one of the most popular U.S. television programs of all time, Lassie, Martinez was called upon throughout her adolescence by the media to represent disabled "achievers," as well as representing disabled youths at numerous public events. As an adult, Kathy sometimes finds herself at a large disability or women's or Latino conference where she is to be the sole representative of the spectrum of experiences of being a woman, blind and Latina. Martinez believes, however, that the early experience in dealing with a variety of television, radio and press representatives, combined with later training in communications, prepared her well for her work representing the World Institute on Disability on an international level. In her spare time, she visits public schools where she can participate in demystifying blindness for children in general and to encourage blind children to "think big."

National Overviews of Television Programs on Disability Issues

This session featured presenters from Germany, the U.K. and Canada, the three countries with long-running TV magazine programs from the disability point of view; and reports from Hungary and the Russian deaf community on their media outreach projects.

Doug Caldwell is the executive producer of "Moving On," a half-hour magazine format show on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) for the last five years. He described building an audience base for the show by introducing a greater variety of topics and beat reporters in consultation with the organized disability movement in Canada. Some examples of programs that attracted wide-ranging interest included an older woman reporter who took on local bureaucracies with persistence and humor, off-beat stories about disability artists and performers, and consumer reports on new rehabilitation therapies or equipment. The show's main presenter, JoAnne Smith, uses a wheelchair and works closely with Caldwell in story development.

Karl-Heinz Gruber of Germany outlined the extensive television program administered by the Association for Media and Disability (ABM), founded in 1983. Gruber's paper provides a fascinating state of the art on media and disability projects in Germany.

"Media Manifesto" Signed by British broadcasters

Next, Simon Minty of the UK Broadcasters' Disability Network (BDN), gave an overview of a multitude of disability media and arts developments. The news that got the audience's full attention was the launching in 2002 of BDN's "Media Manifesto," a signed commitment of Britain's major broadcasters to increase the presence of disabled people on screen and working within the industry. Details on the development of the manifesto and more information on disability and the arts in the UK can be found in Minty's paper.

Supporting Public School Integration of Children with Disabilities

Barbara Kolucki, children's media specialist, who coordinated this half-day workshop on behalf of Rehabilitation International, has written a separate report on this topic, as well as summarizing the Children's Film Festival held within the larger event.

Because Russia is just starting down the road to integrated public schools, and educators and government officials are being called on to support this initiative, this workshop was one of the most important of the week. It also received the most response from the audience, many of whom were disabled Russians who have had little opportunity for integrated or advanced education. In addition to Kolucki, the panel was composed of Russian government representative V.M. Voevodin; Julia Ciminova, Julia Cherova and Ina Margolis, disabled Russian graduates of Moscow schools who are now involved in the disability movement; Rina Gill, Senior Program Officer of UNICEF-South Africa; and Kathy Martinez, an early graduate of mainstreamed public schools in California.

Public Education Campaigns about Disability Issues

This workshop was opened by Marina Suslova of the Russian Committee of Interregional Ties, and coordinator of governmental support for NGOs, summarized her agency's work to quicken the pace of the development of civil society. She stressed the importance of building up the disability community so that it could become truly a self-directed constituency. Many participants from Russia closely questioned Ms. Suslova about long- promised attention to accessibility measures, particularly in the cities such as Moscow, where high curbs can make moving around in a wheelchair dangerous.

A team of three from the Netherlands, Ronald Besemer, Jan Franssen and Artjan ter Haar, gave a presentation summarizing their recent multi-media public education campaign about people with disabilities, supplemented with research and evaluation components.

Using Film Festivals & Schools-based Projects to Raise Disability Awareness

This final workshop featured the team of Liz Tannebaum and Joshua Flanders, organizers of the first International Deaf Film Festival, held March 2002 in Chicago; and a report by Karl Gruber, organizer of the International Disability Festivals of Short Films, held in Munich every three years, and leader of "Objectiv," a Bavarian project using videos and disabled presenters to promote disability awareness in public schools.

Arts & Culture in Britain

Simon Minty, chair of the session, opened with a few words about what is going on in Britain with regard to disability media and culture: "Sometimes our non-disabled friends don't understand what it is that disabled people have in common. One of our most powerful joint experiences is the growth of disability culture; in Britain this is still in its infancy. For about a decade we have been having significant disability arts events, including a wide variety of theater and five annual film festivals, but still need to mature."

Minty also noted some upcoming concurrent exhibitions, such as one tracing the history of disability from charity to rights-based actions, coordinated with exhibits at the Imperial War Museum documenting treatment of disabled persons during the Holocaust. He emphasized that the goal was to attract attendance from a wide audience of disabled and nondisabled people who may not have been exposed to disability culture.

First International Deaf Film Festival: "We want our own Cannes or Sundance"

Joshua Flanders is Executive Director of the Chicago Institute for the Moving Image (CIMI), the organizing body for the deaf film festivals that are now an annual event, and editor of the forthcoming volume of essays, Cinema and the Deaf. He described the 2002 international deaf film festival that attracted 80 entries from a dozen countries, most made by deaf directors or producers. The jury selected the best entries and CIMI presented four sold-out shows of 20 short films. Producers, directors and specialists in media for the deaf flew in from England, Scotland, Israel, Amsterdam and throughout the U.S. for the four-day festival.

Since the March 2002 festival, four other deaf film festivals have been organized by participants in the CIMI event.

Additionally, Flanders talked about the impact some of the associated events had on deaf children, many of whom were seeing their first captioned films in theaters, and deaf adolescents who had the opportunity to produce their own music video under the guidance of a Hollywood animator. Joshua concluded: "Our goal is to develop a deaf version of the Cannes or Sundance festivals, a space dedicated to support of cinematic talent in the deaf community; and our dream is to have a Chicago movie house showing only captioned films."

"Why should deaf children be so far behind?"

Next was a presentation by Liz Tannebaum, Festival Director and an Emmy award-winning actress who works in the Chicago deaf community, especially to encourage deaf children to pursue careers in film and on stage. Now embarking on a stand-up comedy career, Tannebaum told the Moscow audience about her introduction to the performing arts: " Since I was born deaf, I had no idea about the world of theater, film, performance, etc., but at age nine a friend invited me to go with her to the theater and I was hooked!" A sizeable number of Moscow's deaf community had turned up for the CIMI presentation and they were enthralled to hear Liz tell the story of working with Mel Gibson in his latest Hollywood hit, What Women Want.

Tannebaum said the producers didn't want to provide her with a sign language interpreter but she went up to Gibson and made it clear she was not going to act until one appeared. Eighteen hours later a signer appeared and she began her performance.

Liz explained her goals: "I know there are so many deaf children out there hungry to understand movies and theater, just as I was. My job right now is flying around the world and dragging deaf filmmakers out of the closet... Forget Hollywood, it's time for us to demand captioned releases at the same time as the professional release of films.

"It is extremely important for deaf children and adults to receive and produce culture. Why should deaf children be so far behind? Often, their parents don't understand what it is that their deaf children are missing. So, it's time for those of us who do understand to work together to open all of these doors. "And to deaf filmmakers, my message is: Enough of all these sad, deaf stories, we need some humor!"

Short Film Festival: "The Way We Live"

The late Karl Gruber of the German Association for Media and Disability (ABM), gave greetings and apologies for absence from its President, Peter Radtke, well known throughout Europe for his theatrical and film career, and leadership in disability arts ventures. Begun in 1995, the festival of short disability films called "The Way We Live" has been held very two or three years at the acclaimed and accessible Munich Film Museum.

Disability Awareness Project in German Schools

Gruber also described an ABM project that has been operating for five years in Bavarian schools, combining disability films with subsequent classroom discussions led by a moderator with a disability. See Karl Gruber's paper on Disability Media in Germany.

Final Report of the International Experts Meeting on Mass Media and Disability Moscow, Russia, September 26-29, 2002: