The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in partnership with Adobe Youth Voices seeks youth-produced media works on human rights issues for its second annual YOUTH PRODUCING CHANGE program to screen in our New York, London, Boston and San Francisco film festivals in 2009-10.
Armed with digital cameras, computers and their own boundless creativity –young people across the globe are bravely exposing human rights issues faced by themselves and their communities. Now in its second year, YOUTH PRODUCING CHANGE provides a platform for youth to share their perspectives with audiences worldwide.
We are currently seeking film, video and animated works on human rights issues created by youth ages 19 and younger.
Selected films will travel to:
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, New York : June 11-25, 2009
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, Boston: January 2010
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, London : March 2010
Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, San Francisco: March 2010
Selected films will be included in the 2009 Traveling Film Festival
Films will be added to the Adobe Youth Voices and Human Rights Watch websites
Films will be added to the teacher's lending library for the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival High School Program
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( 2.9 / 59 )Enjoy this hilarious new comedy
(featuring an ensemble of real, live comedic actors with disabilities, not wannabees)
during the show’s first two weeks and get a great deal –
$3 off each ticket, and for each ticket you buy,
a $3 donation will be made to Disabilities Network of New York City!
It's easy! Just buy your tickets online and use ticket code DNNY for performances November 1 – 10!
The Foolish Theatre Company
somewhat proudly presents
FUNNY AS A CRUTCH by Rich Orloff
directed by Jeffrey C. Wolf
starring
Mary Theresa Archbold Shannon DeVido
Stephen Jutras* Gregg Mozgala* Frank Senger*
November 1 – 23
Thu, Fri & Sat 8 pm, Sun 3 pm
bonus performances Mon Nov 3 & 10 at 7 pm
at The Dorothy Strelsin Theatre (in the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex)
312 W. 36th St., 1st floor (just west of 8th Avenue)
The theater is accessible, and so are the jokes.
Tickets $18** at www.smarttix. com or call (212) 868-4444
More about the show at www.foolishtheatre. org
**for those people WITHOUT a discount code *courtesy of Actors Equity (Equity approved showcase)
__._,_.___
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( 3 / 47 )I've never eaten in one but if pwd's want to then damnit let us in!!
ADAPT YOUTH CALL TO ACTION:
ADAPT CHAPTERS UNITE!!
Why? - On June 23rd, members of the 2008 ADAPT Youth Summit held an action at the Subway Restaurant on 1100 W. Taylor Street in Chicago to demand that a simple ramp be built, allowing access to ALL customers. After several hours, management entered into a signed agreement to build the ramp. However, they have since broken that agreement and cut off all communication! We are tired of being lied to, ignored and discriminated against!!
What Can My Chapter Do? - On Monday, October 13th (Columbus Day) visit your local Subway (especially if it is inaccessible) . Demand to speak to the manager and have that manager deliver a message to the Chicago Subway AND to Subway Development Corporation of Chicagoland (see contact info below) stating:
1. Ramp the Chicago Subway NOW!!
2. Include PWDs as a protected class in the Subway corporate diversity anti-discrimination statement
3. ADAPT will boycott Subway until these actions are taken!!
Subway at 1100 West Taylor Chicago, IL
Phone: 312-421-5074 Fax: 312-421-5074
Subway Development Corporation of Chicagoland
Phone: 773-380-3040 FAX: 773-380-9486
Where Can I Get More Information?
Contact Christine (Chicago) wilk7780@yahoo. com, 630-456-1450
or Zach(Philly) zeek1241@aol. com, 267-971-1214
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( 3 / 64 )Update: Captioning Song Lyrics
The Washington Post poll asking whether the Washington Redskins' Fed Ex Field should caption lyrics broadcast over the PA system has changed in the past 12 hours from 38% to 47% voting NO. Several NVRC news readers have written of their frustration that people who can hear "just don't get it." A few people have reported trouble with the link to the poll.
If you are one of them, try using this Tiny URL created by our friend Bob MacPherson:http://tinyurl com/429a48.
Below is the article by Marc Fisher at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/ 2008/10/but_ hearing_people_dont_get_th.html
which prompted this poll.
Redskins Ruling: But Hearing People Don't Get the Lyrics Either
Redskins fan Shane Feldman, who is hearing-impaired, loved going to football games but felt left out. Unable to hear the public address system, he couldn't understand the referee's calls, the announcer's description of plays during the game, or the stadium's emergency announcements.
Feldman and other deaf or hard of hearing fans complained and then sued the Redskins. The team agreed to post captions on the scoreboard, spelling out everything from the announcements naming the players involved in the last play to the penalty calls and even the ads read over the PA system.
But that wasn't enough for the hearing-impaired fans. Now, a federal court judge has ruled that the Redskins must go even further, posting on the scoreboard the lyrics to any songs played over the loudspeakers.
Exactly what is so magical or essential about song lyrics is not clear from Judge Alex Williams' strangely reasoned ruling in the case. Williams doesn't demand that the Redskins post descriptions of the musical style, beat or harmonies, just that the lyrics be spelled out. Apparently the fact that many, if not most, hearing fans cannot make out the lyrics either does not impress the judge.
It's only fair to post on the scoreboard the summary of each play that gets announced to the crowd--in fact, the scoreboard version is sometimes easier to understand than the announced version, even for hearing fans.
But the songs played during time-outs and halftime are hardly crucial to an understanding of the game. Indeed, many fans find the constant blasting of music distracting and annoying and may even envy the deaf for being able to focus more purely on the game.
The idea, pushed by the deaf fans in their suit, that the Redskins have "not made FedExField fully accessible to deaf and hard of hearing fans" because they don't post song lyrics is so picayune, so petty as to drive other fans to wonder whether the motive is really to enjoy the game or merely to harass the team's owner.
More important, however, the court's ruling threatens every public performance by a sports team, musical group, theatrical troupe or any other artistic endeavor. If, as the deaf fans argue, it is "discrimination" against them to stage a pro football game without putting the lyrics of every song up on the scoreboard, then the same reasoning would force concert halls to post lyrics as singers sing them. Would movie theaters have to erect a second screen on which to flash the lyrics of any song used in the background of a movie? Must stage companies now tear audiences' attention away from the actors by putting up screens spelling out the lyrics of incidental music, or of a song that a character might break into as part of the play?
Amazingly, Williams concluded that the deaf fans "suffered injuries because they did not have access to music captioning and because information allegedly was not being effectively communicated to them." The judge did concede that the Redskins made "reasonable efforts" to accommodate the fans who complained. But Williams says he can't be sure that the captioning the team now provides will continue indefinitely.
The Redskins's lawyers argue that "all information that is integral to the use of the stadium can be gathered solely from watching the game," Williams writes. But the judge says the Americans With Disabilities Act requires that all people be provided with "full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation. " And Williams interprets that to mean far more than just the football game, because the Redskins offer more than just a game: "They also provide public address announcements, advertisements, music, and other aural information to hearing fans.... Presumably Defendants provide this aural information to hearing fans for a reason."
So the judge orders the team to provide captions for song lyrics. He rejects the Redskins' "argument that bars and restaurants are not required to caption background music. While the Court expresses no opinion on the ADA requirements for bars and restaurants, the Court believes there is a significant difference between a stadium that seats 91,000 people, which currently captions audio content on large LED ribbon boards, and a bar or restaurant."
Williams never explains what that significant difference might be. In both cases, the music is a supplement to the main offering that customers are buying. In both cases, the primary service--football, or food and drink--could be offered without the music. In both cases, the odds that anyone really listens to the song lyrics are pretty slim. And in both cases, the chance that any appreciable number of people on hand can actually understand the lyrics is almost non-existent.
But most non-existent of all in this case is any common sense, any attempt to be reasonable. Handicapped people should expect to be able to gain access to public places and activities without undue hardship. And it's fair to ask a rich company like the Redskins to invest in some technology to make the game equally understandable to deaf fans--which the team has done for several years now.
But no matter what the law might say or how any narrowminded judge might rule, neither legal verbiage nor wishing it will make all people identical. In any public performance, some people will get more of what's going on and some will get less. Many blind people love going to baseball games; they wouldn't expect the team to have to hire a guide to sit with them and narrate the action to them. They get out of it what their special circumstance allows--and from what blind fans tell me, that is something quite rich and extraordinary, an appreciation for the sounds and smells of the game that goes deeper than many seeing fans will ever know. Similarly, deaf fans may see a level of detail that eludes many hearing fans.
In sports as in so many other areas of life, good people with admirable motives can usually work out problems just fine--it's when someone decides to get the lawyers involved that the whole enterprise goes off the rails.
Copyright 2008, The Washington Post
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( 3 / 51 )September 17, 2008
For Information Contact;
Randy Alexander (901) 359-4982
Marsha Katz (406) 544-9504
http://www.adapt.org
50 Arrested as ADAPT Takes Affordable, Accessible Housing Crisis to
Congress
Washington, D.C.--- ADAPT activists fanned out on the Hill today to hit
congressional leaders who can help solve the housing crisis for low
income people with disabilities. Visits to the offices of Rep. Barney
Frank (D, MA), a longtime leader on housing issues, and Senators Chris
Dodd (D, CT) and Richard Shelby (R, AL), the Chair and ranking Member of
the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs resulted in a
total of 50 arrests.
"Last year Rep. Barney Frank told us that he could get 500 housing
vouchers from HUD that would be targeted to free people with disabilities
who live in nursing homes and other institutions, " said Diane Coleman of
ADAPT in Rochester, New York. "He repeated that promise for months, and
then one day he suddenly says he can't help us. We were also working with
him to have funding that pays for segregated housing redirected to support
integrated housing. Sen. Frank arranged a hearing on this funding, and not
only did he not invite any people with disabilities to testify, he didn't
even notify us about the hearing. So, today, we decided to confront him on
his broken promises and bad faith."
Shortly after 13 ADAPT members entered Frank's office, he ordered staff to
have them arrested, refusing to even discuss the ADAPT concerns, or
strategies to address the housing crisis for low income people with
disabilities trapped in institutions for lack of affordable, accessible,
integrated housing.
ADAPT went to the offices of Dodd and Shelby because HUD and housing fall under the purview of their committee. Sen. Shelby told ADAPT, "I don't
help people who can't help themselves." There were 19 arrests made in
Shelby's office. An aide to Sen. Dodd spoke with ADAPT, then declined to
put her remarks on paper after indicating she might be willing to do so.
ADAPT continued to wait for the written statement, and eventually nearly
25 people were arrested.
"The TV is full of news about the bank crisis, and the mortgage crisis,
and the need for candidates to appeal to middle income people," said
Cassie James, Philadelphia ADAPT organizer. "Meanwhile, people who live
on disability benefits, and people who are trapped in nursing homes
because of no housing are being held hostage while the government bails
everyone else out. Rent has gone up so much, it's higher than many monthly
disability benefits. Not only do us younger people with disabilities need
affordable, accessible housing, older people need it, too. This is a
crisis, and we need help to solve it."
# # #
FOR MORE INFORMATION on ADAPT visit our website at http://www.adapt. org/
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( 3.2 / 47 )
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